The company offers home delivery services to more than 30 locations throughout the country, in addition to managing three food brands - Rodea, Bulgare, and Our Butcher Shop/Nashta tranzhorna. BulMag also runs a café, which serves as a hub for buying locally sourced fruits and vegetables.
Business case
BulMag’s previous system did not provide the modern tools it needed to assess business performance and maintain a competitive edge. It was particularly challenging for the grocery chain to monitor sales information and make profitable decisions.
The company understood that in order to improve overall operations and keep customers happy, it needed a solution that could give a clear overview of critical business information and real-time data for each store. Due to the wide range of products they offer, BulMag also needed a platform that would help efficiently manage warehouse inventory and optimize replenishment and distribution.
Solution
BulMag started looking for a new POS and ERP solution that would be easy to use, quick to implement, and tailored to the company's business needs. After carefully examining the solutions available, they determined Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and LS Central as the best fit to meet current and future requirements. LS Central extends Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central ERP and provides a single, consistent environment for financials, POS, inventory, , store operations, eCommerce, customer loyalty, and more.
BulMag trusted NavTech Group, a top Microsoft partner and Platinum partner of LS Retail in Bulgaria, to implement the system and carry out integrations with the:
- eCommerce platform
- loyalty program
- PocketNAV mobile application for warehouse management
- Hanshow electronic shelf labels
The biggest hurdle during the implementation was the customization of the company’s loyalty program, which included changes in loyalty levels and payment with points. Thanks to BulMag and NavTech Group's joint efforts, all issues were fixed, and BulMag can now easily manage customers and loyalty at the POS. “The NavTech Group team tailored the solution to our specific needs and implemented the necessary developments that we requested to ensure the highest degree of work efficiency,” says Borislav Tranchev, General Manager of BulMag, “The training process went seamlessly, and our team is now proficient with the updated system."
Benefits
LS Central gave BulMag a 360-degree view of the whole grocery chain and consolidated its business operations from top to bottom. The new solution reduced manual work and IT costs while creating a single, consistent work environment. Employees now have all the information needed to complete their tasks quickly and easily, while customers enjoy the same seamless shopping experience across all channels.
These are a few of the features BulMag finds most interesting:
- Selling 24/7 – LS Central POS can be run on all sorts of devices: computer, tablet, or mobile device. BulMag doesn't have to worry about any disruptions because the POS operates even when it's offline.
- Delivering a convenient and quick service – Customers can select between self-checkout terminals and traditional checkout tills.
- Sourcing out-of-stock products – The staff can quickly locate out-of-stock products at the POS, at the warehouse, or at another store. Customers can choose to have their purchases delivered to their homes by Econt couriers or by BulMag's own delivery services, or they can pick them up at any store.
- No empty shelves – The Replenishment for LS Central module calculates the stock needed for the store or the central warehouse. It provides information on what items should be ordered to keep the right supply on hand and prevent out-of-stock situations.
- Retaining customers with an effective loyalty program – Depending on the level attained in the loyalty program, Bulmag customers see discounts added to their account. They can earn bonuses of up to 5% for each purchase they make, which encourages them to stick around and save money on every purchase. BulMag adds a personal touch to the customer experience by rewarding family members and providing extra savings on their birthdays. Through their regular promo offers, card discounts, monthly raffles, and survey prizes, the supermarket chain witnesses a remarkable ROI and increase in loyal customers.
Beyond the replenishment module's standard features, NavTech Group further enhanced BulMag's workflow efficiency, with:
- Detailed journals of purchase and transfer proposals. These journals include all the system’s calculated proposals of the day, providing an overview and streamlining the tracking and analysis process.
- Rounding the system’s suggested quantity to cross-dock. This added feature ensures accuracy and effectiveness in the calculation of transfer quantities while simplifying the cross-docking procedure.
- Coloring of expired, current, and future discounts. The color scheme makes it simpler to distinguish between the different types of discounts, facilitating decision-making related to inventory.
- Optimizing replenishment for upcoming promotions. The replenishment module uses sales generated by promotions of the same type to suggest the optimum order quantity.
- Process automation. Order creation and replenishment processes have been automated greatly, reducing the risk of human error, boosting productivity, and ensuring accuracy and reliability.
BulMag also uses LS Central’s integration with Microsoft Power BI to track customers’ preferences, identify frequently bought items, and offer promo packages, discounts, and prizes, which build a lasting customer base. “Power BI was a crucial part of the solution because we know how important it is to make data-based decisions in a dynamic business world,” says Tranchev. “Every choice we make plays a defining role in our profitability and success, such real-time analytics keep us close to our customers, so we can offer them exactly what they want."
With the support of Navtech Group and LS Retail, BulMag managed to streamline business performance, create a personalized customer approach, and improve data accuracy.
