POS Software Company's Product Helps Tame A Wilderness Store's Inventory

Jamie Dunlap, Dana LaChance and Emily Whelchel share a love for the outdoors. That pioneering spirit prompted LaChance and Dunlap to open Appalachian Outfitters in 1996. Whelchel, who manages the company's QuickSell system and wears many other hats, came on board almost immediately.

The three combined their retail experience from larger stores, computer knowledge, and understanding of outdoor camping and hiking needs. They found a store location - a restored 1858 pre-Civil War warehouse - cautiously ordered their inventory, and bought QuickSell 2000.

Wide Variety Of Inventory Stocked
Applachian Outfitters carries everything from rappelling ropes to tents to T-shirts. The store also carries clothing, hats, sunglasses, compasses, shoes, boots, water sandals, magazines, books and backpacks. Other accessories the store sells include: sleeping bags, cookware, knives, climbing gear, jewelry, gifts, toys, and blankets. Appalachian Outfitters is now starting to run climbing and kayaking clinics and expects that facet to grow. Soon, it will be handled in QuickSell as a service.

Encountering Technology Problems
But the trio's hiking path was sometimes rocky. "Retail systems are complicated," said Whelchel, referring to the scanners, label printers, cash registers, and credit card readers that QuickSell integrates.

"Early hardware problems corrupted our data and made it necessary to re-enter all the inventory into QuickSell. The day we were due 'online', our hard drive crashed due to earlier power outages and we were back to square one - right before the Christmas season," Whelchel explains.

Vendor Provides Assistance
"QuickSell customer service helped us devise a way to track sales without tracking inventory so we had records of holiday sales. After the holiday rush, we installed a backup power supply, a tape backup and went full speed ahead re-entering our inventory. By mid-April we were finally online," she recalls. "Throughout this, QuickSell customer service was ready with answers to our questions."

Label Printing Problem Solved
Whelchel relied on QuickSell's customer support for help in many areas. "We had problems with label printing until QuickSell support suggested Avery 5160 labels with a 128-A bar code and a laser printer," she says. Now five full-time and three part-time staff at Applachian Outfitters use QuickSell and advise customers about the company's array of outdoor products. QuickSell is networked to one register downstairs and a server upstairs.

Technology Lessons Of A Start-Up
What suggestions would the three offer aspiring retailers? "Make sure you start with a system that can grow as you grow and get more organized and detailed as you do. I began with very general inventory names just to get us through the holidays. Then I created detailed inventory names with the second database," explains Whelchel.

"Now we're ready to implement purchase orders and back orders. We already use the mailing list because keeping track of our customers is really useful in many ways. We also use the 'item cost (value) list' for inventories. That helps me find any stock mistakes and keeps inventories accurate and expedient! QuickSell also supports our services, management reports and stock replenishments," she concludes.