Activant Eagle Provides Tools to Grow for Acton Ace
Acton Ace Hardware of Acton, Massachusetts has been an Activant Eagle™ customer since the 1980s. They plan to stay with Eagle into the 21st century as they expand into multiple locations, citing Eagle's ability to grow with their needs. Activant's partnership with Ace Hardware Co-op makes the long-term partnership between Acton Ace Hardware and Activant even more meaningful for their business.
Other Locations are Running Well—It's Time to Grow
Senneth Berrier, president of Acton Ace Hardware, can't imagine opening a third location without the help of Eagle for Windows. "With multiple store locations, it's such an asset, because you can analyze each store individually or as a group of stores. It's exciting to see our other two stores running so well that we feel confident to expand."
From Buying Power to Buying Trends
With multiple locations, Acton Ace tries to take advantage of bulk buying discounts whenever possible. And through their Eagle merchandise transfer applications, they make sure the inventory is where it needs to be-and moving. "When, demographically, one store shows a different buying trend, we can transfer merchandise between the stores and continue to track quantities and sales."
One of the Acton Ace locations has additional warehousing capacity, giving Senneth the flexibility to transfer merchandise to the warehouse and keep track of what's on hand at both locations.
Eagle Helps Acton Streamline Customer Service
Senneth strives to serve customers quickly and efficiently without hassles. "I always put myself in a customer's shoes, to think about how I would feel if I were shopping," says Senneth. "What would I want?" Her goal is to keep it simple. Above all, it's important that Acton Ace employees are comfortable at point-of-sale. "We have no problem with the high-school-age kids learning the system. They probably know more tricks than we do when they're through with the training." For others who might not be as nimble at the register, Acton uses training modules and a team approach. They also use the latest bar code scanning equipment. "We scan everything from a nut to very large items. It's really easy and quick—that's important to us."
Keeping an Eagle eye on Gross Profit Margin
Maintaining proper inventory levels and gross profit margin have become Acton's big focus points. By using Eagle Inventory, they are able to maintain accurate counts and better margins. "Every single day I go through the queued reports, scanning to see how we're doing across a range of products, either by department or product type. I review data by day, mid-month, weekly, etc. to make sure everything checks and balances."
Senneth uses the Viewers every day to keep a close watch on inventory, accounts payable and accounts receivable. "We have nearly 350 active accounts receivable accounts. I like to keep them current within a 90-day period. We're really active in trying to keep in touch with our customers. With Eagle, I can code some of my accounts, pull them up and keep an eye on them."
Years of Data Tell the Story
"I've been tracking sales and inventory since 1997," says Senneth. "I run comparatives with all the other years. From these figures, I can see problems arising. Is one of the stores lacking products or people? You can see it all happening with Eagle. It's the best tool we have available to us."
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