Case study: TBCo wraps up streamlined operations with Brightpearl

Key facts

• Fast-growing homeware and fashion brand and certified B-Corp, founded in 2014, operating across a Shopify webstore, physical store and wholesale
• Live on Brightpearl in just three months, in time for Black Friday peak
• 82 workflows automated – saving time, boosting efficiency and allowing teams to focus on growth-critical activities

“The automation power that Brightpearl has given us has been truly game-changing.”– Alice Davidson, Lead Operations Specialist, TBCo

Most retailers use a number of best-in-class or cutting-edge tools to do specific jobs across their business – and it’s undoubtedly a smart approach.

However, without a centralised hub and a way for all the tools to ‘talk’ to each other, operations can quickly become messy, confusing and stressful.

That’s what happened at TBCo (formally The Tartan Blanket Co.), an Edinburgh-based, B Corp-certified retail brand on a mission to create statement pieces that add the finishing touch to your outfit and home.

“We had lots of systems that were great, but they didn’t talk to each other which made tasks such as analysing data time-consuming since they had to be done manually. We couldn’t really move to the next step in our growth journey until we had a proper integrated operating system in place. When I joined TBCo, the company was on a steep growth trajectory, it had become a priority to implement a centralised hub – everything feeds into it, everything feeds out of it.I’d previously used Brightpearl when I worked for Finlay London.

“We experienced a crazy spike in sales one day after Megan Markle wore a pair of Finlay sunglasses to the Invictus Games. Brightpearl helped us handle that spike and manage the sudden surge in inventory, order processing and customer service that came with it.So I knew Brightpearl was the best scalable, flexible operating system to support the rapid growth of TBCo. Plus, I knew it had the capability to bring together all our apps and tools in one centralised place.”

Stitching together progress

As a leading retail operating system, Brightpearl is packed with built-for-retail features including market-leading inventory planning, a game-changing Automation Engine and a library of Plug & Play integrations which offers native, ‘out of the box’ connections to leading apps and tools, including to TBCo’s Shopify webstore – which was a major draw for Alice and her team.

Thanks to a unique expert-led implementation strategy that includes full training and support, TBCo went live on Brightpearl in just three months, just in time for its peak trading period in the run up to Christmas. As Alice puts it, “the Brightpearl team were incredible and absolutely smashed it.”

With Brightpearl’s powerful Automation Engine at its disposal, TBCo was quickly able to overhaul its operations – automating around 82 manual workflows in order to save huge amounts of time, streamline processes and boost profits.

“The automation power that Brightpearl has given us has been truly game-changing,” says Alice. “We have become fully reliant on Brightpearl automation. For instance, we now use automation to read the delivery country and sales channel on all orders and assign it a custom field. It means our merchandisers can create reports almost instantly with the exact data they need to make faster decisions.

 “We also use it to let our warehouse team know what level of customisation an order has – we offer gift notes, gift boxing and embroidery as customisation options. We have a rule set up that reads the customisation fields on Shopify and translates it into a pick list or task for our warehouse team. We’ve set another rule to help with pre-orders – so it detects certain SKUs and doesn’t push those orders to the warehouse until a certain time before the shipping date. That’s super helpful. Now all orders are automatically updated as shipped and the tracking numbers are automatically uploaded so they are there when we need them.”

A pattern of profitability

The power to automate workflows in minutes – without any complicated coding – has also enabled TBCo, who offer beautiful homeware and fashion accessories, to streamline and simplify its growing wholesale business.

Alice adds: “For wholesale orders, we’ve got another rule that updates the status and emails the team when they are paid so we don’t have to constantly keep checking for payment all the time. We now automatically invoice wholesale customers as soon as an order is marked as shipped – this was a previously very time-consuming task.

“Individually, it’s lots of small wins but it adds up to a really significant time-saving. It also means our teams can focus their time on outreach and sales and developing new products, which all contributes to our growth and profitability.”

Brightpearl’s easy-to-understand dashboards and customisable reports are utilised at TBCo to provide quick insights into activities and performance, helping teams across the business visualise data and track progress effectively.

With unlimited seats, everyone across the business can now access the reports they need at the click of a button. Metrics such as ‘profit at a glance’ have proved particularly useful, helping everyone make profit-driven decisions at every stage.

The solution’s market-leading inventory planning tool has been instrumental in ensuring optimal inventory levels, preventing overstocking or understocking – which is notorious for tying up cash and hampering growth – by providing reliable buying recommendations based on accurate forecasts. 

This has also supported the certified B-Corp’s commitment to sustainability by helping avoid waste.

Sustainable success

Alice says: “TBCo was built from the ground up as a business committed to sustainability – which means we’re not on the back foot now as the consumer demand for sustainable brands soars.We’re extremely proud to be a certified B-Corp, and use only natural and recycled materials in our products, because it reflects our commitment to doing good for the planet as well as everyone who works for us and shops with us.

 “We have a positive impact pledge known as 1% for people, 1% for the planet, in which we donate 2% of our revenue to two different charities (one that impacts our planet and one that impacts people) every month.
We’re particularly passionate about avoiding waste, which is where Brightpearl’s inventory planning tool is really helpful for us.”

She adds: “For instance, we created a whole range of tableware, which has been really popular, because we had leftover fabric from making pyjamas. And we use leftover wool from our blankets to make stockings at Christmas.Being able to accurately predict our sales with Brightpearl will help us cut waste even further, and that’s so important.The software will also help us work out the best new products to invest in throughout the year so we can flatten the curve of demand peaking for blankets in the run up to Christmas and help us boost profits across the whole year.” 

Brightpearl is now absolutely essential for helping us achieve our goals.”– Alice Davidson, Lead Operations Specialist, TBCo

 

As well as growing brand awareness, empowering style confidence and growing its sustainable impact, TBCo’s other priorities include becoming more efficient, productive and streamlined in their day to day tasking.

“Brightpearl is now absolutely essential for helping us achieve our goals,” says Alice. One of the best things about Brightpearl for us is it has allowed the team to be more efficient in executing each step of the customer’s journey across the business and allows them to really focus on the things that will help us grow and stay true to our value of being a sustainable ‘business for good’ – from developing new product lines to improving customer service to winning new wholesale customers. TBCo’s Positive Impact Pledge ensures that 2% of every order is dedicated to supporting the planet and those in need.

As Brightpearl aids in their growth, the positive impact on a better tomorrow will only expand. We’re really excited about the future.”

Find out how Brightpearl can help your business grow fearlessly with a free demo.