Special Order Guide

Technology To Take Special Order To The Next Level

Special Order Solutions to Help Customers Create Their Own Unique Style

Special Order is a key merchandising tactic that differentiates the home furnishings industry from retail at large. Home furnishings retailers can build custom furniture pieces specific to an individual’s style preferences. While the ability to customize products is often celebrated by customers, historically, processing Special Orders within a retailer’s Point of Sale and Inventory Management System was a challenge. Special Order SKUs can bog down an inventory, complicate pricing, and challenge purchasing. With an Enhanced Special Order technology solution designed for home furnishings retailers, that all changes.

Enhanced Special Order technology empowers the furniture retailer to take their Special Order program to the level their business requires. This technology can be built upon over time, allowing retailers to dive into the nuances of Special Order Processing as they see fit. Not every Special Order product is created equal. Customizable vendors, categories, groups, and even individual SKUs may require different denoted attributes. Utilize an Enhanced Special Order software program to build out a Special Order program that matches your merchandise assortment and enables a high level of control. Here we dive into how Special Order is done via technology and why it matters to your business.

Elevate the Customer Shopping Experience with Streamlined Special Order Templates

Enhanced Special Order helps retailers to sell products outside of their on-hand assortment while maintaining inventory organization through Generic SKU Logic. This enables retailers to maintain a single SKU for a Special Order frame and make alterations during Sales Order Entry that flow through to the Purchase Order. Generic SKU Logic doesn’t bog down a retailer’s database because it does not create a unique product every time a frame is sold with customization. It also makes reporting on how products are performing a simpler task for retailers.

Streamline the way sales associates enter information during Sales Order Entry with Special Order templates. These templates designate easy-to-use screen prompts based on the frame chosen. The ability to create templates for the appropriate situation allows your sales associates to capture accurate product attributes needed for the Special Order Purchase Order. Enable associates to close sales faster while providing exceptional customer service.

Utilize a solution that includes Special Order technology to create templates for:

Exceed Customer Expectations with Expanded Flexibility

With Enhanced Special Order, retailers can have an unlimited number of product attributes per template such as:

Even within the same vendor’s catalog, they may require different Enhanced Special Order templates for upholstery and case goods or even at the individual product SKU level. Choose a flexible solution that addresses both simple or complex Special Order as needed.

Enhanced technology enables the customization of product attribute fields to best fit your business model. Field types can either be open text fields or use pre-built selection menus. Pre-built options allow for greater control and ensure valid options are being selected for the product, such as if a vendor limits the fabrics that can be used for a product. This reduces the risk of disappointing a customer by accidentally designating an unavailable configuration. Pre-built options are ideal for efficient Sales Order entry on touch-enabled devices. Templates can apply a combination of attribute field types as needed. Ensure your software offers the ability to designate which attributes are required if they are mandatory for a manufacturer or product.

Accurately Price Customized Products

Benefit from choosing to set up Pre-defined Pricing to automatically calculate a total price based on the upcharges selected. This gives the customer a correct final price right at the POS. Pre-defined Pricing ensures sales associates are providing accurate information for exceptional customer experience. It also helps customers stick to a specified budget if they have one. Some software solutions offer a Pricing Scratchpad as an alternate to Pre-Defined Pricing, which determines the upcharge amount per product.

Create Purchase Orders with Product Attributes Automatically

When a sales associate completes a Special Order through the Point of Sale, a Purchase Order will be automatically generated that links to the sale. Special Order products need to be customized by the vendor; therefore a Purchase Order is necessary. Enhanced Special Order software collects all information that is needed for vendors to customize orders properly. The correct execution of a Special Order product ultimately ensures customer satisfaction and can earn repeat customers.

With the use of an integrated Forms Designer, your sales associate can print a customer’s receipt with the same requests on the Purchase Order and have them sign off to ensure expectations by all parties are met.

Report on the Performance and Trends of Special Order Products

Finally, through Enhanced Special Order technology, reporting empowers retailers to monitor the performance of your Special Order program to ensure revenue, margin control, and profitability all exceed your business’ goals. Through enhanced software, reporting on popular Special Order SKUs or trends for customizations will help develop a merchandising strategy for in-store and online.

Technology for Special Order Success

Enhanced Special Order is part of the core STORIS Solution. STORIS’ Special Order enables retailers to meet the specific needs of a wider range of customers. When customizing a Special Order product through your STORIS Point of Sale, you can facilitate a real-time, streamlined design process that will be appreciated by both your customers and sales team.

Request a demo of STORIS’ new Enhanced Special Order Solution to learn more today!