Preserving tradition, embracing new technology: Aveny’s journey of modernization and excellence!

Committed to preserving its rich 60-year business tradition while embracing the future of retail, Aveny decided to embark on a thorough journey of modernization and digital transformation of its business operations. By integrating NaviPartner’s four innovative solutions – NP Retail, NP WMS, NP Ecommerce and NP Power BI for Retail – they aim to streamline retail operations, further improve customer experience, and consolidate data into a single system, all to further enhance customer satisfaction and ensure continued success for years to come.

As one of Greater Copenhagen’s renowned jewelry and watch retail chains, Aveny is committed to a singular mission: providing customers with enduring quality in jewelry and watches, offering a seamless omnichannel experience from physical store visits to modern Webshop transactions. To realize this vision, Aveny has embarked on a bold digital transformation initiative, leveraging Microsoft technology, NaviPartner’s innovative retail solutions, and a new Magento 2 e-commerce solution.

Given the complexity of Aveny’s operations, encompassing sales of jewelry and watches through both physical and online channels, as well as the process of buying back old gold and refining it into fine gold, the need for a unified platform was paramount. This platform would centralize all business operations and data, facilitating easy access for all stakeholders anytime, anywhere. Previously, Aveny relied on an old ERP system that lacked comprehensive insight into overall business performance. Complementing this system, Aveny utilized a PIM solution for product information management and a Magento solution for its Webshop.

A significant challenge arose from the lack of integration between the finance management system and the Webshop, hindering seamless coordination across different aspects of the business with numerous manual processes, limited data management, lack of inventory – and cost control. Recognizing these limitations, Aveny acknowledged that its current setup was insufficient to support future sales growth across both physical and digital channels. The solution lies in the establishing of a completely new platform, thus harmonizing all business operations into a cohesive system.

Transitioning to a modern cloud-based ERP system such as Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, and integrating it with NaviPartner’s cloud-based POS solution (NP Retail) and a newly redesigned e-commerce solution like Magento 2, ensures seamless integration of all systems. This integration opens up opportunities to develop tailored functionalities, preventing workflow congestion. What is important to highlight when transitioning to an omnichannel business model is the clear definition of individual rights within the system, as any changes impact all facets of the business.

When dealing with high-value items that often require personalized assistance from salespersons such as those at Aveny, ensuring undivided attention to each customer during the purchasing process is essential. To facilitate this, Aveny has opted to implement our mPOS solution in conjunction with SoftPay, enabling seamless contactless payments. This cutting-edge payment method revolutionizes the traditional card machine setup by transforming a smartphone into a versatile card reader, facilitating transactions directly on the shop floor with just one mobile device.

Utilizing a single mobile device empowers salespeople to dedicate ample time to providing personalized assistance to customers wherever they are, thus eliminating the necessity to relocate to a fixed counter. Consequently, this flexibility allows customers to explore and shop freely throughout the store, avoiding queues and ensuring a smoother shopping experience. Moreover, by issuing digital receipts via email after each purchase, Aveny ensures added convenience for customers, who can now effortlessly manage their purchase records digitally, without the need for paper receipts.

Regarding Aveny’s high-value items, it was imperative to establish an inventory management solution enabling users to access real-time information on stock quantity, value, and location for each item across all stores, as well as facilitating inter-store transfers. To meet these requirements, Aveny opted for our NP WMS solution. All transfers between locations are carefully managed and reserved within the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central solution. To facilitate this process, a transit warehouse has been established to prevent goods from immediately reflecting in the new location’s inventory.

Here’s how it works: When a store experiences a shortage of a particular item, employees create a transfer order (request) in the ERP system. Once approved, the item is earmarked for transfer and reserved. This initiates the transit process, ensuring the item is not visible at both locations simultaneously. Upon reaching the new location, the item is added to the inventory and becomes available for sale. This approach maximizes the utilization of current resources and removes unnecessary costs.

As previously mentioned, Aveny engages in a unique aspect of business by purchasing old gold from individuals, which is subsequently refined into fine gold. To facilitate this process seamlessly, it was necessary to incorporate two new options into the system to facilitate the purchase of gold in both 8 and 14 karats. This enhancement enables store employees to accurately record the purchase of old gold, effectively managing this crucial aspect of the company’s operations.

Since Aveny operates through seven retail stores in the area of Greater Copenhagen and an online platform, instances arise where customers seek to return items to a different location than the one of purchase. Leveraging our tracking and barcode technology, we’ve enabled this capability, ensuring smooth returns management. When an item is returned, meticulous attention is paid to its store location, ensuring it is properly accounted for in the inventory of the returning store.

Furthermore, Aveny has opted to integrate our gift card management module into its operations. These gift cards offer flexibility, as they can be utilized for purchases both in-store and online, utilizing the barcode feature for seamless transactions.

Regarding the delivery of items ordered through the Webshop, we have successfully connected our solutions with nShift, a global leader in parcel delivery management systems and multi-carrier shipping software. This integration streamlines the delivery process, enhancing customer satisfaction and efficiency in online transactions.

Considering that Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central is an ERP application designed for recording business data, it lacks the capability to aggregate business data for specific time periods or item categories. To gain comprehensive insights into its operations, Aveny has chosen to implement our NP Power BI for Retail solution. This will enable an effortless generating of high-quality sales, purchase and inventory reports with just a few clicks.

Through our application, Aveny efficiently tracks sales across various categories, including items, customers, suppliers, salespersons, stores, overall company sales, sales of specific items by individual stores, sales for specific periods, and the company’s profit. Furthermore, our Power BI application empowers Aveny to monitor inventory levels for each item in every store and at the company level. This capability provides opportunities to optimize existing resources and eliminate unnecessary costs that may result from overordering from suppliers.

These sales and inventory movement insights are essential, as they assist Aveny’s management in making informed business decisions. With Aveny’s portfolio consisting of highly valuable products like diamond and gold items, it’s imperative to have detailed information on each item, including its sales history and turnover ratio. Our Power BI report facilitates tracking which products were sold in specific years, enabling Aveny to maintain comprehensive records of sales for each item over time. Moreover, our Power BI application has significantly enhanced efficiency in stock management by facilitating increased purchases from vendors whose products demonstrate faster turnover ratios and vice versa, while also enabling the tracking of employee performance. Essentially, the Power BI application offered a 360-degree view of Aveny’s business operations, streamlining processes and enhancing decision-making capabilities.

With all company employees investing significant time, effort, and energy in implementing the aforementioned solutions over the past two years, the primary objective now is to focus on stabilizing the utilization of the updated system across HQ and all stores. This necessitates the employees’ adaptation to the utilization of new systems, both at the company headquarter and in retail stores, while also fostering acceptance of changes and new business practices.

Currently, the operational focus is not centered on implementing significant changes. However, in the future, plans include the implementation of our loyalty program, as well as RFID technology, which will allow Aveny employees to improve the efficiency of daily activities such as counting incoming orders.