Getting Snappy With Order Automation

By Mark Hook

“We were thrilled at the speed of the implementation. Where Microsoft Nav took six months just to upgrade, Brightpearl was set up in a matter of weeks. We now save 60 hours per week on order entry alone thanks to its automation component.” — Nick Ernst, Co-Founder, Snap Supply

Making it Snappy

Founded by two brothers in 2017, Snap Supply was born from 40 years of experience within the appliance repair parts industry. Nick and Shawn Ernst are appliance repair professionals who have utilized their hands-on experience and extensive expertise to launch an appliance parts business that really knows how to take care of the customer.

What initially began with Nick selling parts on Amazon.com and eBay during his lunch break, quickly grew to become one of the most highly respected suppliers of appliance parts in the American Midwest.

However, with any great success story, there are speed bumps, and like many other quickly scaling businesses, manual data entry became a time-consuming process for Snap Supply that needed to be addressed.

“With our existing ERP, Microsoft Navision, everything was too manual,” says Nick Ernst, co-founder, Snap Supply. “As we grew, we got to a point where processing 400-500 orders per day by hand just wasn’t feasible. We wanted a one-stop shop for operational commerce that would automate data entry and allow us to focus on growing our sales.”

Snap Supply opted for Brightpearl’s retail-focused digital operations platform due to its extensibility, with a host of out-of-the-box integrations, including to 3PL softwares such as Shipstation, as well as Brightpearl’s ability to easily handle fluctuations in sales volume.

“Brightpearl was the only option as an all-in-one solution that could handle the volume that we were doing and was easily extendable with the other third-party apps and services we use to run our business,” Nick Ernst notes.

Saving Time and Scaling Up

As the only digital operations platform capable of automating the entire e-commerce workstream, on average Brightpearl customers save two months a year as a direct result of automation. After a lightning-quick deployment time of less than three months, the Snap Supply team saw these unique benefits kick in almost immediately.

"We were thrilled at the speed of the implementation,” says Nick Ernst. “Where Microsoft Nav took six months to upgrade, Brightpearl was set up in a matter of weeks. We now save an incredible 60 hours per week — 240 hours each month — on order entry alone thanks to its automation component.”

Without the need for masses of manual data entry, Snap Supply was able to diversify its team, promoting staff internally and shifting the focus of the business to supercharge its sales growth.

“We used to have two full-time employees whose remit was just data entry. Brightpearl has saved us so much time on inventory, invoicing and reporting that we’ve been able to pivot our workforce to become both more customer focused and sales driven. We're now 3x more profitable as a direct result of how the software allows us to balance our employees.”

Brightpearl’s demand planning capabilities and holistic approach to data has been integral to boosting the margins of Illinois-based Snap Supply, providing it with vital data to implement new sales strategies.

Speaking to Brightpearl’s impact on its bottom line, Nick Ernst says “Overall we can track everything more closely, whether that’s inventory, cash, and where our product is going. One of the hardest things was tracking sales in Navision. With Brightpearl, being able to segment sales channels and see what’s performing really highlights where we can improve and helps us to keep an eye on our margins.”

A Rapid E-Commerce Expansion

Since deploying Brightpearl, Snap Supply has gone from strength to strength, developing new sales programs, expanding its catalog, and striking the perfect balance between exceptional customer service and increasing profitability.

“Before Brightpearl, due to our lack of automation capabilities, we were behind on shipping times and overselling on Amazon," recalls Nick Ernst. "We resolved that pretty quickly, and I’m happy to say that since implementation we’ve been growing at a rate of between 5 percent and 10 percent every month, and have tripled our net profits over the last five [months].”

Due to its rapid expansion, Snap Supply has just registered with Canada as a business and has big plans to extend its reach across the U.S. over the next 18 months.

“Without Brightpearl it wouldn’t be possible to be growing at the rate we are," Nick Ernst says. "It's helped improve our margins, given us the capability to work remotely, and will be an integral part of our expansion as we look to open new locations on the West Coast by 2022.”