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| Key
features & functionality used
by Photo Craft: |
Running
web store
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Real-time integration
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with back-end |
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accounting and
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business operations |
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Shopping cart save
for |
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a later visit |
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A-Z listing |
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| Accounting |
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General ledger |
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Accounts receivable |
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Accounts payable |
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| Point
of sale |
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Cash register |
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| Sales |
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Sales order/back
order |
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Multiple shipping/
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contact addresses |
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orders |
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| Inventory
control |
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Serial number tracking |
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Graph inventory
levels |
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Bar code printing |
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Item images |
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| Shipping
&receiving |
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Address labels |
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| Selling
products online |
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Storing of item
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descriptions in
HTML |
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| Taking
orders online |
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Real-time order
status |
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Company
Background |
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In focus
In business since 1978, Photo Craft
is a full-service, family-owned-and-operated
photographic retailer with two stores
in the Washington, DC metropolitan area.
In addition to film sales and processing,
the stores sell an extensive line of
cameras and photographic equipment including
lenses, bags/cases, and accessories,
as well as related items such as cell
phones and framing materials. Photo
Craft runs on Everest ERP Software.
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The
Challenge |
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Over the last twenty-five
years, Photo Craft's endeavor has been
to provide the best prices with outstanding
customer service.
With two locations, Photo Craft needed
an integrated solution that would help
them run smarter and more efficiently.
They needed a business management system
that would allow control and manage
inventory across both locations. According
to Saam Tariverdi, managing E-Commerce
Operations at Photo Craft, "Prior
to Everest, we managed inventory by
hand which was a tedious job. We did
not have any item codes or any kind
of accounting, we just used a cash register.
"With no full-fledged web store
in place, Photo Craft would showcase
and sell hot items and new stock on
eBay that worked as a minor, temporary
e-commerce outlet for the business.
It was their only source of online sales,
and was very laborious to continuously
monitor and maintain each individual
item up for bid. It would take a lot
of time to create and publish each item
and after it was sold, requiring the
whole process to be manually repeated
each time. Photo Craft couldn't count
on eBay for the |
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| company's revenue growth or a long-term
web strategy. They never felt the need to
drive traffic to the website but with the
digital camera market boom, they identified
the need to have a streamlined process for
customers to place orders online. |
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The
Solution |
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Photo Craft had been using
Everest to run its back office operations
since 1994. But the first 16 years were a
harder challenge for the business. "It
really felt like a big leap from the stone
age to the modern age with Everest. Without
Everest we would not have been as big as we
are today, "said Tariverdi. Now they
can check inventory levels and sales activities
at either store at any time. Photo Craft recently
upgraded Everest Standard to Everest E-Commerce
Edition. "Building a web store without
Everest would have taken me 9 months, which
was a big factor and a huge process. "With
some previous experience in developing web
sites, but never a web store, Tariverdi worked
with Everest's
templates–incorporating navigation, images,
descriptions, pricing and organizing categories
to feature 600 items. Photo Craft's e-store
went live in two weeks. E-retailing has driven
increased sales for Photo Craft, growing their
total annual revenue by 25% and annual online
revenue by 30% since they launched the web
store. Now Photo Craft writes detailed item
descriptions and stores them in Everest one
time, making it easy to add and remove products,
which saves them a lot of time.
"Running
on Everest makes our jobs easy. We don't have
to spend hours on a customer phone call, selling
just one camera. Everest E-Commerce simplifies
our customers' research and purchase cycles.
We don't have to spend time and money trying
to convince the customer to buy the product."
They now automate processes to contact customers
through email; they handle package tracking,
and understand and keep track of back orders.
Photo Craft now also ships on a regular basis
to all parts of the U.S. and overseas, extending
their market radius from several miles to
several countries. With same day shipments,
between 12 to 24 hours, Everest has also helped
improve order fulfillment.
Photo Craft extensively uses the instant profit
analysis reports to help steer hot items to
the home page. Everest integrates the web
store with sales orders, inventory and accounting,
making things a lot easier for Photo Craft.
"We were in deep trouble with inventory
since we had to hand-count cases. We also
had to manually capture data from one system
and then transfer to another. Now we are able
to handle inventory with care and have much
higher accuracy with our data." Everest
has helped the business of Photo Craft run
much more smoothly. They get all the data
they need in real-time, quickly and easily
keeping track of items and prices. Photo Craft
has easy access to real-time data on the cash
register, bar-coded items and serialized items.
Since they implemented Everest E-Commerce,
Tariverdi's time has been freed-up for online
business development and exploring of new
partnerships amongst other things. |
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The
Result |
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Extended online sales, increasing
their total annual revenue by 25% and
annual online revenue |
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by 30% |
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Highest sales in 25 years, despite
a decrease in film processing and falling
camera prices, due to |
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running the web store on Everest E-Commerce |
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Enhanced order fulfillment with shipments
going out within 12 to 24 hours |
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Saved hours of time weekly by publishing
its own web store |
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Enabled integration between
the sales orders, inventory and accounting |
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