We have daily reports that give us up-to-the-minute information about what is in the inventory. We can track things and bring in new inventory if it's selling well. Just as important, if a product line is proving a dud, the store can skip it and move on to something else.
We would do physical inventory once a year and we would have to close our store for a week. Since it was all handwritten, we had to get our hands on every piece in the store. Since we've converted to The Edge®, it takes us four hours to do what used to take us a week.
We gather as much information from our clients as they will allow. We ask for birthdays, anniversaries, e-mail addresses and things of that import. Then we use The Edge® postcard program to send mailers to clients wishing them a happy birthday or anniversary, and asking them to bring the card in to receive a discount. We also send customers thank you cards for trusting us with their jewelry and allowing us to repair it.
I had a lot of older employees who did not like change, but once they saw what The Edge® was doing for the store they turned around. The Edge is very user friendly. At the time we installed it three employees had never used a computer in their lives. It was just one or two weeks before they felt comfortable using it.
If I had a head for tech, The Edge® is exactly what I would have created to make my job easier and increase profits for my store. But I’m not a software designer; I’m a jeweler. Luckily, the makers of The Edge are both. What they’ve perfected is the kind of tool every independent retail jeweler needs to build his business.
We have always had the Geller book, but since we uploaded it into The Edge system, and began using The Edge for repair intake, the process has become so much easier. Before, it was like a guessing game. Now, we use the SKU to input repairs, and the amount is already calculated. I and my employees have been very pleased. Best of all, my profit for repairs has increased drastically.
We use The Edge® for many different operations. We use it to track custom work within our repair department. We use it to track what kind of volume and sales we’re doing in our repair department. We use it for our appraisal services. On the financial side, The Edge integrates so well with QuickBooks it’s as if the system has a built-in accounting module.
The great support we receive will make The Edge® the last system we will ever need.
Daily reports give us up-to-date information about what’s in our inventory. If something is selling well, we can order more so we’re never out. No more disappointed customers and lost sales. More importantly, if a product isn’t moving, we can skip reordering it and move on to something else.
We have a lot of experience with other jeweler software, and The Edge® is by far the best I have seen. The Point-of-Sale module is very easy to use, from the touch screens to customer Wish Lists. My staff had no problems mastering its operation in just one day. And the information we gathered in just one year's time is exceptional. We now have information at our fingertips to take our business to the next level.
