Case History: Business Analysis & Retail Promotion
Experiential Retail & Craft Store:
Memory Lane
Specialty retailers, particularly experiential, benefit from ensuring there are an effective mix and turnover of inventory as part of the experience.
Situation
Situated in Quakertown, PA, a borough north of Philadelphia, is a craft and scrap-booking store serving the Delaware and Lehigh Valley metropolitan areas. Individually owned by a newspaper reporter turned entrepreneur who purchased the business, the store not only offered up-to-date merchandise, but also experiential classes in design, creative development, and incorporation into a scrap-booking routine. After several years of struggling in a declining industry, the owner was mentally ready to close the business but feared ramifications from an inflexible landlord and a year remaining on the lease. Dedicated to staying and trying to save the business, the owner decided to bring in help to not only promote the business, but also cultivate strong retailing and operational skills, and marketing techniques to exhaust all options to take the business to the next level.
Objective
Fortis Business Advisors was engaged to develop a comprehensive sales promotion to build awareness of the business and generate cash flow to pay down vendor debt. During the promotion, utilizing Fortis ForeSight™ a financial and operational analysis included comparative quarterly income statement trends, monthly master budgeting, cost of goods budgeting, break-even efficiency, ratio health, inventory turnover and controls, future marketing campaign development, and annual forecast modeling. In order to maintain control of the operation after the completion of the promotional event, the requisite tools were developed in order to assist ownership.
Results
Promotional sales generated were 3.8x normal sales
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Fortis captured and updated customer lists to be used by the business in future marketing campaigns
Fortis developed a comprehensive 5-year forecast plan defining a direction for the business with master budgeting to control costs
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Fortis developed an inventory control system to monitor turnover efficiency
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Fortis assisted in developing Policies and Procedures
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