Bungalow Trading Co provides a seamless omnichannel experience with Vend.
Home & Gifts
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Single-store
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AU
Australia
Bungalow Trading Co specialises in fashion, gifts and homewares. First established in May 2013 by local resident Anna Chisholm, the store was initially based in Caulfield South, but later relocated to Brighton, Melbourne.
Bungalow Trading Co is a single store retailer that runs both a brick and mortar location in conjunction with their online store. They’ve been trading for over 8 years.
bungalowtradingco.com.au/At a Glance
Bungalow Trading Co provides a seamless omnichannel experience with Vend.
With Vend, Bungalow Trading Co can now:
The Challenge
When founder Anna Chisholm discovered a gap in the market for a boutique gift store, she decided to combine her finance and buying skills with her love of interior design by opening a fashion and gift store that’s local to her area.
When Bungalow Trading Co. first opened in 2013, all processes in store were manual. There was no point of sale system in place; just an old school cash register. In addition, price tags were handwritten and all inventory levels were manually reviewed and adjusted where required.
As years went on, Anna decided to relocate the store to Brighton. Since she was making a major change in her business, she decided that it was also the perfect time to launch a cloud-based system that would streamline her processes in-store.
The move gave her the opportunity to integrate her ecommerce platform (Shopify) and accounting software (Xero) with her POS and retail management system (Vend).
“When we moved stores, we knew it would be the perfect time to implement Vend.”
Anna Chisholm, Owner - Bungalow Trading Co.
The Solution
Anna routinely attended the Life In Style trade show each year and had often noticed Vend at one of the booths. She knew it was a system that she needed to explore further.
Around the time that Anna attended the Life in Style event, she was also working with a third party who assisted her with the development of her online store. When the website was about to go live, it was recommended that she integrate it with Vend, so that the two platforms could work together seamlessly.
“I loved the idea that they talked to each other. I didn’t want to be downloading data from one place and then uploading it into another,” says Anna.
She worked closely with a Vend Expert Partner to get the software set up and running in-store. “They taught me how to upload products and showed me how to do reporting through a couple of sessions. They trained me on how to best use the product.”
Anna is a long-time Vend customer, and she’s been using the platform for more than four years. Throughout that time, she’s been pleased to see Vend continually evolving and adding new features regularly.
In fact, since transitioning to Vend, the team at Bungalow Trading Co have seen a number of benefits, particularly with their stock management. “Being able to answer questions about stock and where it is and what we've got available has definitely been such a change in our business from what it was when we were completely manual. There's been much less staff error”.
“I loved the idea that the platforms talked to each other. I didn’t want to be downloading data from one place and then uploading it into another.”
Anna Chisholm, Owner - Bungalow Trading Co.
Bungalow Trading Co brings their solution together with the best in retail
The Results
Running a store through the COVID-19 pandemic in Melbourne has been a challenge for Bungalow Trading Co, but having the right technology solutions in place — well before the pandemic hit— has been monumental for them.
Bungalow Trading Co are able to operate from an iPad when in the store, and they access the back office using a laptop so they can explore the reporting features in more detail.
They also access Vend via the Vend Reporter app for smartphones and complete stock takes on the Vend Scanner app. “Completing a stocktake is much easier now that we have the scanning function”.
A feature that the team love is the ability to access Vend remotely from the cloud. “The fact you can be working from anywhere in this climate is fantastic,” says Anna. “You don't have to actually be in the store to be working on your products and uploading new stock. That's been amazing”.
The fact that Anna and her team were already used to working in the cloud before the pandemic gave them a competitive advantage. It allowed them to quickly adapt to the rapid changes brought about by COVID-19. “I felt pretty grateful that we had invested in setting that up when we did, because we were well versed in how it worked. When the pandemic hit, I saw a lot of other businesses scrambling to set themselves up to be able to sell during COVID”.
“I felt pretty grateful that we had invested in setting that up for me when we did, because we were well versed in how it worked.”
Anna Chisholm, Owner - Bungalow Trading Co.
