Online retailer FurnitureBox boosts revenue by 20% with Inventory Planner by Sage technology

In a turbulent retail landscape where trends can (literally) change overnight, merchants have to make fast, informed decisions about which inventory to order, when to order it and what quantities to choose.

Real-time, reliable forecasting data is critical – but it can’t be gleaned from a spreadsheet (even if you’re an Excel wizard). It’s a realisation that online furniture retailer, FurnitureBox, came to as the Wiltshire-based business grew rapidly.

“If your forecasting is done using a spreadsheet that’s updated once a day or twice a week, you’re constantly going to be behind the times and on the back foot,” says James Ewens, the brand’s Head of E-Commerce.

“One of the reasons we got Inventory Planner was for its ability to constantly update your data and to constantly learn from your sales history, with one eye on emerging trends.

“But it doesn’t just give you all the data and then you have to decide what to do with it. It goes the extra mile to analyse the data and give you sales forecasting and buying recommendations for every variant that you can actually trust. It’s incredible.”

Pivot!

FurnitureBox began in 2015 when its founders Monty and Dan, both just 17 years old at the time, dropped their plans for university to set up a business built on their belief that the furniture industry hadn’t adapted to the online retail space.

Their focus was on delivering great value, modern furniture in rapid time, with over 95% of items arriving within 24 hours of ordering. Fast forward to today, the startup has transformed into a multi-million pound brand with a 40-strong team, multiple offices and sales in Europe and the USA, alongside the UK.

The business added Inventory Planner to its tech stack to stay one step ahead of sales demand and eliminate the risk of tying up its cash in overstock.

James says: “Thanks to Inventory Planner, we won’t make the same mistake as others who overbought and then paid the price for it.

“We only invest in inventory that we are confident will sell. Inventory Planner’s reporting means we can see when sales of an item are slowing down or picking up, and our buying recommendations are adjusted accordingly.

“We are able to stay ahead of trends and spot when a spike in demand is temporary, such as when an influencer has posted about a particular product. Without Inventory Planner, you might spot that uptick in sales and keep buying stock at the inflated rate, which means you end up with overstock that ultimately has to be discounted.

“With Inventory Planner, we always have the right inventory at hand – we don’t face the constant threat of overstock or running out of stock.”

Thinking outside of the box

As a top rated inventory planning app on Shopify, Inventory Planner is packed with features and functionality that help merchants save time, boost revenue and adapt to market changes.

Its buying reports are based on an accurate calculation of how much you will sell, factoring in supplier timescales, seasonality and promotions alongside historical sales data.

As a result, FurnitureBox now holds a leaner inventory, which has boosted cash flow and given the business a buffer to fall back on as consumer demand remains unpredictable and an economic downturn takes hold. However, the advanced insights have also enabled the business to stock up the smart way, in order to save money.

Ewens says: “From an ROI perspective, we’re able to be much leaner with the stock we hold while still being able to quickly respond to trends. Occasionally, the forecasting and reporting helps us save money by buying more stock than we usually would.

“For instance, we deliberately overbought in summer 2022 to benefit from a particularly low freight rate. We knew we’d sell the stock and we knew exactly how long it would last. And we were able to make a bigger profit on it.”

“Our overall stock holding has increased, but it's a much more efficient stock holding. It’s saved us around £200K. And, to be honest, if shipping markets had been less turbulent, that saving would probably have been £500-700K.”

“Our investment in Inventory Planner has paid for itself thousands of times over.”

Inventory Planner’s detailed insights across various KPIs – including variant, vendor, warehouse and product category – are highly customizable, so brands can glean the data that matters most to their business, and use it to their advantage.

“We can adjust our buying period multiple times a day if we want to, to adapt to the market. That's something that no other platform can do,” Ewensadds.

“I’m certain we wouldn’t have had the sales and growth we have without Inventory Planner’s accuracy and flexibility. The forecasting is next-level – and we have the data to prove that it’s always been right.”

The team has seen sales growth of 95% over the last three years, soaring to £17 million.

Ewens adds: “Our sales revenue has jumped by around 20% as a direct result of using Inventory Planner, which is a huge sum of money.”

Moving on up

With Inventory Planner at the heart of its operations, FurnitureBox now has plans to grow its market share in the UK as well as expanding across Europe. They are now making annual profits of £2.4 million which are being reinvested so they can rival Dunelm, Habitat and Ikea as one of the UK’s leading furniture brands.

Ewenssays: “Our goal has always been to become the largest online furniture retailer in the UK and we’re making great strides towards that. The UK is our most important market, but we’ve also got our sights set on Germany and France.

“We’re fortunate that, thanks to Inventory Planner, our cash flow is in good shape and expansion is a realistic prospect for us. The world is our oyster.”

Want to see how Inventory Planner can boost your business? Book a demo now.