Precise Inventory Management, Purchasing, and Business Intelligence Catapults Expansion
What started out as a small-town general farm store in northeast Ohio in 1947 today stands as the largest independently owned hardware store in America. Ask Jade Liechty, IT Director with Hartville Hardware, about the retail operation’s success and his enthusiasm shines through. “We are far from your average hardware store. Our 305,000 square foot flagship store serves as a destination shopping experience with a little something for everyone, including a full-service design center, a 1,845 square foot Idea House, a three-lane drive through lumber yard, and a 3,000 square foot Grill Zone,” he explains.
Hartville Hardware is part of HRM Enterprises, a family-owned company that encompasses multiple businesses, including the Hartville Kitchen and the Hartville MarketPlace & Flea Market. Collectively, HRM Enterprises employs over 900 team members across its various operations. The company’s footprint of Epicor Eagle has expanded in lock-step, helping the retailer provide a customer experience like no other.
Hartville Hardware’s use of Eagle dates back more than four decades, with the retail management platform an integral part of the business for as long as Liechty can remember. “We’ve added new stores and acquired companies, and Epicor has been a staple throughout,” he says. “Our use of Eagle just keeps growing with our business, and we continue to increase eCommerce capabilities, server capacity, and our deployment to help delivering the best service to customers.”
Hartville Hardware has transformed retail management organization-wide, bringing ease and mobility to inventory management. With the platform’s Inventory Planner, back-office personnel track usage rates and calculate advanced order points to maintain desired inventory levels. Plus, with the inventory import tools, the business has eliminated tedious manual input and is able to quickly load new items, such as Carhartt clothing and accessories, into the system.
With Eagle mobile handhelds, users scan empty peg hooks within the store, alerting employees which items need to be purchased. From there, Merchandise Managers run order points at the beginning of the week, dropping orders into the purchase order (PO) viewer to accurately receive items against the PO. And when items are received for the first time, updates are automatically sent to managers to allow them to make room on the store floor.
“We have widespread product visibility to inform purchasing decisions and as a result, have reduced excessive inventory stock levels,” Liechty explains.
Hartville Hardware has been a member of Do It Best since 2002, a member-owned hardware, lumber, and building materials buyer cooperative. With Epicor EDI, the organization helps to ensure tight integration between Do It Best and Eagle. Sales orders and purchase orders are submitted to Do It Best via electronic file transfer, and Do It Best, in turn, pushes down receiving notifications, which are also captured in Eagle.
In addition, the company continues to boost eCommerce capabilities to give customers a broader range of purchasing options. All sales transactions flow through Eagle, including third-party transactions, such as orders from Amazon.com, and tie back to the company’s general ledger—delivering increased financial visibility and control.
The information captured in Eagle provides actionable insights, with Hartville Hardware automating the delivery of more than 100 reports per day. Liechty explains the value of using real-time analytics to support business agility.
“Epicor Compass delivers the business intelligence we need to improve sales. For example, if we sell something with a negative gross margin, Eagle instantly generates a report, with data updated every 15 minutes, giving department managers fast access to product performance.”
Eagle has opened up opportunities to do more dynamic promotions based on actual inventory levels. We can easily roll out punch cards and special offers, giving us new ways to motivate customers to keep coming back.
Outside sales reps, many of whom are kitchen designers, also lean on Eagle, receiving daily sales reports to stay on top of commissions and quotas. And various departments, such as clothing and tools, are alerted to the previous day’s sales to know exactly what to restock.
Hartville Hardware delivers lumber and appliances out of two locations, using Eagle Dispatch Delivery, helping to ensure the right materials are delivered at the right time to the right location. With centralized delivery and routing information readily available at employees’ fingertips, the organization has fine-tuned its scheduling and increased the frequency of on-time deliveries.
Eagle makes it easy to add new in-store promos, too, creating new ways to attract customers.
An Epicor customer since the mid-1980s, Liechty says Eagle runs as expected but knows Epicor Support is easily accessible if needed. “Epicor has been a terrific partner, making sure our needs are always met,” he shares. “We know the Support team is at-the-ready, whether just for a quick chat or more hands-on guidance during platform conversions.”
Epicor has been a terrific partner, making sure our needs are always met. We know the Support team is at-the-ready, whether just for a quick chat or for hands-on guidance during platform conversions.
The company also leveraged Epicor Training on Demand to create a comprehensive training curriculum, hiring an internal Training Coordinator to spearhead training on Eagle POS and inventory management as part of the employee onboarding process.
“We are on a growth path and any newly acquired stores will be merged directly into Eagle, expanding the platform’s footprint,” ends Liechty. “Eagle does exactly what we need it to do, right out of the gate, giving us a complete retail management solution without extensive customization.”
