Faherty Brand Drives Efficiency and Scalability in Retail Operations
How Faherty Brand improves budget management, streamlines new store openings, and centralizes vendor management with Order.co.
Faherty Brand at a glance
Hrs saved on new store openings
Vendors managed on 1 platform
Employees’ spending now managed efficiently
Weekly orders paid with 1 consolidated invoice
In this interview, Kyler Nichols, Retail Operations Manager at Faherty Brand, offers an in-depth exploration of his experience with Order.co. He discusses the benefits of consolidating all vendors into one platform, accessing budgets in real time, transforming new store openings, and much more.
The Challenge
Decentralized procurement: Internal confusion about where to place orders
Inefficient vendor management: Headaches when buying supplies
Time-consuming openings: Prolonged purchasing processes for new store openings
Before working with Order.co, purchasing at Faherty Brand was “a free for all” according to the Manager of Retail Operations, Kyler Nichols. Lacking a dedicated hub to purchase supplies, employees placed orders that went straight to fulfillment. No approval processes existed, so avoiding rogue spend and setting budgets for each store was virtually impossible.
Faherty Brands was managing their payments and order tracking across multiple vendors manually. Kyler noted that the team needed to remember which platform they ordered each product from, and then place several orders from their respective vendors. This was particularly challenging considering the team had to purchase a wide variety of items from cleaning supplies to sustainable shopping bags to software for the team – while also managing their other daily tasks. “We really needed a one-stop shop,” Kyler stated. “We found that our teams were confused about where to shop for certain items.”
Kyler’s goal was to ensure that each store had what they needed every day to open and stay operational. This became more challenging over the years as Faherty Brand was rapidly growing with no signs of slowing down. Expanding from 15 stores to over 60 in a span of just three years, Kyler spent a significant amount of his time preparing for new store openings.
“We started preparing 8 weeks in advance,” Kyler shared, “It would take anywhere from two to three days to place orders.” Once orders were placed, tracking each item’s whereabouts in relation to their 60+ stores to ensure timely delivery and maintain inventory across all locations was no easy task.
The solution: No more chasing down orders and vendors
With numerous vendors, no centralized hub to track orders, and hours of troubleshooting required when items didn’t arrive as expected, Faherty Brand needed a new procurement process. They sought a one-stop-shop solution to consolidate all their ordering needs with the ability to control approved product lists to eliminate rogue spend, set approval workflows for increased purchasing control, and manage orders across multiple locations.
“The problem with other ordering platforms is that we purchased a third of what we needed on the platform, and then went elsewhere for the rest — so spending outside of the platform wasn’t captured and accounted for in the budget,” Kyler explained. Luckily, The VP of Retail at Faherty Brand previously used the Order.co platform in his previous role at Suitsupply. After witnessing the procurement challenges his team faced firsthand, he eventually said, “You have to reach out to Order.co.”
Once they implemented the platform, they immediately started taking advantage of its time-saving features, including:
- Bringing all vendors into one place, creating one consolidated bill per month
- Setting budgets per location with real-time spending updates
- Building multi-step approval processes
- Standardizing product and category names across stores
Kyler noted that it’s rare that he has to reach out to Order.co for assistance since the platform is “very straightforward and easy to self-manage.” The intuitive interface allows the Faherty Brand team to make updates to their budgets, locations, approvals, and anything else they need. Considering how quickly their team has moved with opening new stores, having a user-friendly procurement hub is critical for productivity.
The outcome
Enhanced retail purchasing processes
After partnering with Order.co, Faherty Brand built custom catalogs stocked with items they typically purchase when opening a new store. “What used to take us days now takes five minutes,” Kyler shared. “It’s just one click of the button and then it’s all in your cart and you’re good to go.”
As an added bonus, Faherty Brand can now easily find and reorder eco-friendly products that align with their brand ethos. Order.co allows their team to build curated centralized, controlled, customizable catalogs loaded with sustainable products for streamlined purchasing. “I really like that Order.co gives you full customization and we can use internal language that makes sense to our retail employees,” Kyler said.
Streamlined budgeting and approvals
After implementing Order.co, Faherty Brand can now understand spend thresholds, build multi-step approval workflows, and establish spend by location. These controls allow the company to better control expenditures as employees using the platform can see how much of their allocated budget is left at the time of purchase.
When building out their 2024 budget based on 2023 spending, Faherty Brand understood which months had higher operational tasks or more events. Order.co’s granular spending reports outlining spend by location, vendor, and more helped them identify trends and forecast more accurately for the year ahead.
Maximized value with platform enhancements
Even after enjoying these benefits immediately following their partnership with Order.co, Kyler expressed that he’s gaining even more value for his money over time due to the platform’s continuous upgrades. “I’ve been impressed with the amount of feature enhancements in the last year,” Kyler remarked. “Something important for retail ops managers to consider is a software solution’s roadmap and understanding what they are working on.” This adaptability and focus on ongoing innovation gives Faherty Brand the resources and confidence to grow their business while staying ahead of operational challenges.