The need: pain points
With the fast-moving economy and evolving retail landscape as well as the shift in their target market's lifestyle, Lorraine Lee identified they were at a crossroad. Their traditional business model though previously served them well was becoming less relevant and starting a downturn trend. Today's customer is empowered and demand so much more than just exceeding personal service but a complete seamless experience. To really penetrate the market, Lorraine Lea knew they needed to renew the thinking within their organization and externally in how they engage with their independent stylists and customers. As the company searched to continually grow, they understood how crucial it was to continue attracting new independent stylists. Supporting their Stylists with the flexibility and control over the hours they work, and the income they can earn was key.
In order to remain relevant, we needed to transform our business model, the world was changing and we needed to change with it. The project was driven through the need to blend digitisation with the physical world. This included modernising what the flexible work from home opportunity looked like, to provide our people, and the next generation the ability to take control of their lives, to balance family, and a small business. The business objective was how do we blend traditional in-home party model with the modern technology of digital and e-commerce to expand our presence as an omni-channel retailer,” explained Anne Petracca, CEO of Lorraine Lea.
Lorraine Lea saw the opportunity to gain the competitive advantage was by digitally transforming their business model. The company’s ageing systems were very manual and paper-based. A previous attempt to implement digital solutions in some areas of the business had left them with standalone systems that did not talk to one another or share data. This resulted in a lot of double-handling of data that drained valuable time and resources.
Our Woven team understood that a key requirement was to streamline Lorraine Lea’s business processes across all areas of its operations. From inventory management, invoicing and ordering, all the way through to the 1,600 stylists on the frontline who need to be able to easily find information about product availability, promotional offers and confirm orders.
Up to this point, the company and their independent stylists had been using up to five different applications including:
- A brochure website to browse all current products
- A app for stylists to log-in and manage their appointments and customer data
- A portal for resources such as training, pricing updates, campaigns and so on
- A website to submit customer order forms
- An Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system
Lorraine Lea’s former ERP solution had a lot of heavy customisation incorporated to meet the company's needs and the search to replace this system was difficult. However, the company were not just seeking a system that maintained the same support and functionality — they were looking for a solution that transformed the way they were currently doing business.
We were searching for a solution that not only addressed our party planning needs, but actually enabled us to expand our business model and open up new sales channels. Without that technology, we were really restricted in what we could achieve,” stated Anne Petracca.
Consistency, both in terms of the technology used and methods of engaging with customers and stylists, was an important factor when Lorraine Lea was considering which solution partner was an ideal fit. The company identified early that Pronto Software’s ERP and ecommerce web platform, both designed with one single source of truth, was exactly what they were looking for. Given Woven's team is based in Australia, having the ability to reach out for local support as needed was another big plus.