Yue Hwa Chinese Products Pte. Ltd.

Yue Hwa Chinese Products offer a wide selection of goods from fashion and accessories to traditional Chinese medicine, to house and personal care products. They also stock a large variety of food items and delicacies. The brand runs five popular stores in Singapore, including a large flagship store in the heart of Singapore’s Chinatown.

Selecting new retail management software

Before implementing the retail management software from LS Retail, Yue Hwa used disparate IT applications to run its stores. All the software solutions worked in silos, forcing the company to waste a lot of time in duplicate and manual work.

When all the POS crashed, Yue Hwa was forced to carry out all transactions manually. The process was lengthy, and reconciliation was challenging. The company decided that it was time to move onto a more modern software solution.

The best fit: LS Retail and Microsoft software

Yue Hwa looked at few alternatives on the market. The LS Retail software solution, built on Microsoft Dynamics ERP, emerged as the best fit for their needs, for several reasons:

• The retail system could easily be integrated with the company’s e-commerce platform, Sana. This integration simplifies the tasks of updating inventory and item prices.
• LS Retail software offers both online and offline capabilities, so the business can always be operational, even where there is no network connectivity.
• The highly evolved Microsoft partner ecosystem means that there are multiple options when it comes to support.

The LS Retail software solution was implemented by IBIZ Consulting Services, a local LS Retail partner. Yue Hwa decided to host the system in the Azure cloud. Cloud hosting brings several benefits to the company, the main one being that they don’t have to worry about software upgrades, as these are managed by the software provider.

The implementation took around a year, with part of the time being used to prepare and clean the data for the new system.

A solution that supports a successful omni-channel business

Today, Yue Hwa is reaping the benefits of the new IT solution.

Deep data insight leads to profitable action

In the old IT system Yue Hwa’s business data was siloed, hard to access and manage. Today, the company has clear data visibility. These insights are used to take actions that benefit the business and its customers. For example, the company used store foot-falls analysis, paired with transactional data, to understand what items are selling fast, and what products should be moved where in order to improve product availability.

The company also performed a demographic analysis to identify where their store locations should be in Singapore. The result of this data-based study was a profitable business decision: the company is now seeing high sales volume.

Unified commerce for an omni-channel business

Yue Hwa is satisfied with how comprehensive the new software solution is, and how it covers both online and offline sales. “The LS Retail software solution covers the full business cycle, across the channels,” Mr. Hemant Khandelwal at Yue Hwa says, explaining how having a unified commerce system with automations has simplified work across the business. “A customer places an order on the eCommerce. The order goes to the system, we pick the items and pack them. When the order is ready to deliver, the delivery status is updated in the system, and the customer receives an update via SMS that their order is ready to ship. After delivery, the system automatically sends a survey via email to the customer for feedback.”

Promotions and customer loyalty

Today, Yue Hwa can seamlessly manage online and offline sales and loyalty thanks to the integration between the Sana eCommerce platform and the LS Retail system.

The company can now design complex omni-channel promotions based on inventory availability and seasonal sales. Complete visibility into customer habits across the channels has also enabled Yue Hwa to create targeted campaigns, which are more profitable for the business and, at the same time, help consumers find the items they need at a good price. If, for example, the company notices that medicinal herbs are popular, they can create a campaign with these herbs and target a specific customer group. The targeted customers will receive an email with the offer. The company can then measure the results of the campaign, and decide if it’s worth extending it, or if some changes are required.

Yue Hwa can also now offer loyalty rebates online, something they could not do with their previous system.

High employee satisfaction

After implementing the LS Retail software, Yue Hwa surveyed both internal and external stakeholders to check satisfaction levels with the new IT solution. The survey showed a high level of employee satisfaction. Staff was especially happy about the reduced friction and the fewer instances of cash shortages.

Looking at the future

The retail industry is continuously reshaped by technology. Yue Hwa puts great importance on innovation, and believes that adopting latest tech - from virtual and mixed reality, to the Holo Lens – is a way to stay ahead of the competition.

In the future, Yue Hwa will continue to innovate and look at the future. “We are keen to explore new ways technology can help shoppers find and buy the products they desire quickly and easily,” Mr. Jacob Yu, Managing Director at Yue Hwa says. “For example, we have been looking into apps that use cloud technology, along with user information, to help consumers find the perfect product for their needs.” The company is also investigating technology to optimize inventory availability and decrease returns, to ensure that the stock at hand is always a good fit with what consumers desire.