“Our focus constantly needs to be in marketing and innovation and understanding what’s not working for us. Analytics helps us quickly understand what stock is getting dusty, which vendors aren’t pulling their weight and what our turnover is. This information helps us make tough decisions — faster, so that we can invest into something that works better.”
As their online presence grows, they plan to open pop ups in shopping centres and trade shows. Something made relatively simple since Lightspeed’s system goes on the road with them wherever they go to meet new customers and share their tech. “You can use it anywhere. Whenever I want to set up an event, I can bring the till with me since it’s an iPad. All I need is a scanner and a cash register and I can take cash sales. If I want to go to a remote location and only take cards for our more expensive products, I can bring my card reader. If I want to expand my shop and open a store elsewhere, all I need to do is add another register, get another iPad. It just makes everything very simple to do.”
Another aspect of the Lightspeed system that was critically important for The Drone Factory was the amount of time they spent managing their store. Working with cutting-edge technology every day, the owners spend a significant part of their days on continuous product learning to stay informed about the latest tech developments and maintain their position as leaders in their field. “You have to stay one step ahead. Learn about every product before it comes out, learn about the functionality and ins and outs of every product.”
They needed a solution that would simplify the day-to-day running of their business and help them access actionable insights quickly. With the omnichannel system, they could speed up their entire ordering process, “we’re able to react to customer requests quicker, we can do the product ordering quicker and get the product shipped out to the customer. We’re able to turn orders around three days quicker than before. Literally with a click, you can see the reports [you need]; how much stock is in the store, what’s its value, how much was turnover was made the week before. We’re able to get that info in a matter of minutes.”
