In 2000, Jane Meredith and Dietmar Gorlich co-founded the Secrets Shhh fashion jewelry brand, in Noosa, one of Australia's most popular beachside destinations. Secrets Shhh is well-known for its high-quality jewelry created entirely of conflict-free, sustainably produced, lab-grown diamond and gemstone simulants.
The company’s commitment also includes promoting fair labor standards and safe working conditions for the artisans who create these precious stones. In 2023, Secrets Shhh received the Climate Active certification, which is given to companies that have fully achieved carbon neutrality per the Climate Active Carbon Neutral Standard.
Business case
Secrets Shhh previously used a variety of technologies to manage its wholesale and retail operations, including MYOB Retail Manager, QuickBooks, and Adobe Business Catalyst. In 2020, Adobe announced that the Catalyst solution would be phased out, leaving Secrets Shh with a short deadline to find a flexible, cost-effective successor capable of running its full operation.
At this point, the company decided to look for a new business management software that would:
- be built on a modern technological stack
- offer comprehensive POS and member management features
- enhance the efficiency of fulfilling customer orders
- be deployed in the cloud and available as a Software as a Service (SaaS)
Solution
The Secrets Shhh management and operational staff looked over several local and global solutions before deciding on LS Central SaaS and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central.
LS Central business management software covers all key business processes, including financials , sales, inventory, special orders, customers, appointments, and more. The software is also modular, so businesses can easily add functionality when they need it. “Having a solution with the retail capabilities required to support our globally expanding business, in addition to comprehensive financial ERP and warehouse operations, was a major differentiator in the decision to go with LS Central,” says Adrian Murphy, Chief Operating Officer at Secrets Shhh. LS Central’s member management functionality was also an attractive feature for the company.
After the last functional tests and demonstrations, Secrets Shhh had only four months to set up and roll out LS Central across all its stores as well as its head office financial, merchandising, and warehouse operations. Thankfully, they could rely on the professionalism and commitment of local LS Retail partner Canary IT to finish the implementation on schedule and without any problems. Due to the tight timeline for deployment, the company prioritized the essential features first, added more features after going live, and then implemented the solution in its Canadian stores.
Secrets Shhh chose to run LS Central in the cloud, with a 4G Failover option set up for its online POS systems so that devices never lose connectivity, even if the Wi-Fi goes out. “We chose LS Central SaaS to avoid any large upfront costs and to ensure that moving forward there would be no requirement to manage hardware, environments, security, or ongoing upgrades,” says Adrian Murphy.
Benefits
By switching to LS Central from multiple customized and disjointed systems, Secrets Shhh now has a single source of truth for tracking profitability and business performance in real time. “With LS Central’s Microsoft lineage, we can leverage Microsoft Power BI and Analytics for LS Central to gain insights that were previously not possible,” says Murphy.
Secrets Shhh can now process all customer orders at the POS, and track the fulfillment process in real time, from receiving to delivery and returns processing. This enables them to sell items that aren’t in stock at the store, but are in the warehouse, as well as track work orders for adjustments like jewelry repairs, resizing, or polishing. “The ability to create and manage customer orders in the LS Central POS that seamlessly connect to the warehouse operations has been a significant improvement for all teams,” says Murphy. Customers are also more satisfied because they have complete visibility over the status of their orders and can easily return or exchange items.
Secrets Shhh knows that satisfied, returning customers are one of their business’s biggest assets. Thanks to the loyalty module and member management functionality, Secrets Shhh can identify customer preferences, promote products that are relevant to them, and provide personalized rewards that make them feel valued and appreciated. “Having upsell and member management features directly in the POS has driven customer satisfaction and incremental revenue,” says Murphy.
The company is currently working on redesigning its eCommerce experience, using the eCommerce for LS Central add-on and integration between LS Central and Shopify, which will enable them to deliver a consistent shopping experience online and offline.
The company is also confident that Canary IT and LS Central will facilitate further growth in Australia and Canada. “We are now able to quickly react to market changes and easily deploy new stores to meet growth targets, which includes becoming global,“ says Murphy.
