Sostrene Grene

Despite the incredible growth, the company is still family-owned. The brand uses storytelling to build a universe that offers customers a wonderful world filled with creativity, inspiration, and DIY-projects, all revolving around world-travelling, crafty sisters Anna and Clara. 

Søstrene Grene had been experiencing great success in Denmark: customers were loyal and growing in number, and sales were skyrocketing. At the time, Søstrene Grene ran its stores using a combination of software systems, including a Danish accounting solution, Excel files, and a Point of Sale software. The systems were not integrated, which made daily management of the business complex and time-consuming.

Søstrene Grene was planning to expand to eCommerce sales, but with their software solution they couldn't offer a true omni-channel experience.

The company realized that to sustain their growth across the channels and remain cost-efficient, they needed a new, powerful software system for their chain. They started looking for a software solution that would reduce duplicate tasks, offer insights into business data, and cover their business from front to back and across the channels, enabling full visibility of sales and inventory at all times.

An IT solution to support ambitious expansion plans

When the management at Søstrene Grene came across LS Retail , they realized their solutions ticked most of the boxes. LS Central, which unites Point of Sale and ERP in a unified platform, covers the whole enterprise, enabling management to keep control over their international business from head office in real time. Some of the main benefits the company saw in LS Central included insights into the value chain, support for expansion, and ability to manage warehouses based on barcodes.

Despite seeing the benefits the solution would bring to the business, the team had some initial doubts. LS Central is built on ERP Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central; Søstrene Grene feared the ERP would be too complex to use for their needs and requirements. In-depth analyses and test-driving of the solution managed to dispel the team’s doubts.

Full visibility

Today, Søstrene Grene uses LS Retail software solution in all its European stores, which represent the majority of the brand’s business. Using the same software system in all store locations, and throughout the whole enterprise from accounting to purchasing to sales, has enabled the retailer to improve its visibility and control. Søstrene Grene can now easily gather data from stores located in different countries, link it, and use the information to make better inventory and purchasing decisions. For example, in the purchasing department, employees can order products looking at demand in each store, based on data collected at the POS.

A foundation for growth

The company is still growing rapidly – in some periods, there are multiple new Søstrene Grene store openings in the same week. This brings specific challenges: every new implementation must be completed in the established timeline, to ensure that the next openings can take place as planned. In these times of quick expansion, the team has benefited from the adoption of the new system. “LS Central is the right system for us,” Bent Ditlevsen, CIO at Søstrene Grene, told us in an interview at conneXion, LS Retail’s yearly conference and expo. LS Retail software solution, he says, makes it easier for the company to open new locations. The setup, databases, POS images (and more) are already set in the system for every country. This makes the process of opening a new location much simpler and trouble-free, even in the case of franchisee stores, which have special requirements.

With access to real-time data and clear insights into the business, LS Central enables Søstrene Grene to stay cost-efficient as the brand continues to expand.

Looking at a bright future

Søstrene Grene puts customer experience at the core of its business. For this reason, the company selected a system that can help them deliver great experiences, now and in the future. “It is important that our IT supplier keeps up with the latest technology, and incorporates it into the system,” says Ditlevsen. The ability to leverage new technologies through their retail management software solution will help Søstrene Grene deliver high-quality experiences, and stay competitive. The company was also very satisfied with the services, knowledge and experience of RelateIT. “We are certain that RelateIT can help us with the developments we want, now and in the long run,” concludes Ditlevsen.