Iowa’s largest furniture store purchases GERS Customer1- Store Operations & POS and GERS Analytics to cut costs, improve operational efficiencies, and increase customer satisfaction
SAN DIEGO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–July 27, 2013–GERS Retail Systems, a leading provider of enterprise software solutions, today announced that Homemakers Furniture has purchased GERS solutions that will cut costs, improve operational efficiencies, and increase customer satisfaction. The solutions include GERS Customer1-Store Operations & POS, GERS Analytics, and GERS WebLink. Homemakers will also be upgrading to GERS Merchandising and Inventory Version 11.1, and migrating to an IBM pSeries model 55A server. Six Kiosk ShowPro devices from GERS’ business partner Showroom Technology, Inc. were also part of this new contract. Homemakers, Iowa’s largest furniture store, is a division of Nebraska Furniture Mart and part of the Berkshire Hathaway Furniture Group.
“There are several inherent problems with our current POS system, including the high cost of training new sales associates, and the fact that customers now have to get separate sales tickets for purchases in the different departments within our store,” said Rick Greth, Homemakers’ Director of IT. “The GERS Customer1 solution is easy to understand and use, which solves the training problem. It also processes complex sales orders and connects customers, orders, and inventory to POS transaction management applications in real time, so every purchase made by a customer can be appended to a single sales ticket which means faster service, less hassle, and a happier customer.”
“We run our business according to key performance indicators and hold our people accountable for that performance,” added Roger Merschman, CIO/COO for Homemakers Furniture. “The GERS Analytics solution replaces cumbersome, redundant, error-prone spreadsheets with a simple to use, yet sophisticated business intelligence system that gives us quick, accurate graphical presentations of vendor and store performance which we can easily transmit up and down the decision chain.”
Homemakers currently maintains a website for informational purposes only. With the addition of GERS WebLink, they will be able to offer consumers the option of purchasing online. WebLink tightly integrates sales and product information, including pricing and availability, to the retailer’s backend operations.
Putting kiosks on their showroom floor is another way that GERS, together with partner Showroom Technology, Inc., is helping Homemakers improve the level of customer satisfaction. Customers will now be able to apply for credit and receive immediate authorizations without assistance from sales associates. The kiosks also give Homemakers the potential to market to their customers with special promotions and coupons.
“Our experience with other home furnishings retailers is that the use of kiosks has a measurably beneficial impact on sales and customer satisfaction,” said David Weyher, Chief Executive Officer of Showroom Technology.
“Homemakers Furniture is an excellent example of a GERS retailer that has taken advantage of our advances in retail enterprise technologies to upgrade their performance to create even greater shopping experiences for their customers,” said Phil Kenney, Vice President Marketing and Product Management.
About GERS Retail Systems
GERS Retail Systems is a leading supplier of software solutions for consumer-centric retailing. By facilitating the real-time flow of transactions and information across the entire retail organization, our solutions enable retailers to consistently anticipate, understand, and fulfill their customers’ expectations for products that are priced, located, and timed to provide the optimal shopping experience. GERS solutions manage the merchandising life cycle, multi-channel selling, planning, business intelligence, and supply chain synchronization to create a great customer experience. For more information, please visit www.gers.com.
