Why Would I Need Help?: Three Ways Boon Can Take Your Business to the Next Level
Why Would I Need Help?: Three Ways Boon Can Take Your Business to the Next Level
With the new year comes a lot of reflection on where your business has been and where you’re hoping it's headed. For all of us at Boon, we’re thinking about the amazing businesses we’ve helped grow since 2017 and which future clients are set for explosive growth next. From helping businesses launch their product in national chains to supporting teams through internal change, we’ve seen it all when it comes to inventory and sales planning. Is 2024 the year we help you take things to the next level?
If you’re curious about the ways we can benefit your business, here are the three most common ways clients find success with Boon:
Expanding Sales Channels
You’ve received an offer to sell your product through a national retailer (congratulations, by the way!)—but despite running a successful online business, this is something you’ve never done before (and you definitely don’t want to screw it up!).
Cue our team of experts and their decades of knowledge working with the country’s largest retailers. One of the biggest challenges you’ll face as a retailer is predicting sales and inventory
impact when moving from a singular sales channel to two. A national brand retail engagement holds special pressure, because you can’t risk being out of stock for that retailer, but you don’t have any sales history with the national chain to go off of to predict trends and needs.
This is where working with Boon is hugely advantageous. While the national retailer can provide guidance, they are also managing hundreds of relationships of suppliers and can’t focus on your team’s needs the same way Boon can. Plus, we’ve helped numerous brands do this successfully!
For one mission-based CPG (consumer packaged goods) client:
This client was awarded business at a major retailer and needed support in identifying what initial order to place with the manufacturer. They had an agency that provided insight on the retailer, but didn’t have a fully vetted inventory plan.
We stepped in and built a tool that used various inputs (such as store counts and minimums), as well as historical data from similar brands, that helped to estimate sales volume by store for their launch. We also built a dynamic reorder tool to help them react to sales results as they started rolling in, empowering them to customize their forecast based on sales trends and react quickly to sudden change or opportunity.
Another maternity brand client:
This client hired Boon after securing an Amazon contract, looking for support with planning initial sales and inventory planning for launch. This was especially challenging as their own eCommerce business was often sold out of product.
The small team had done a stellar job launching the brand, but with little background in demand planning and inventory forecasting, they were often left scrambling due to a lack of visibility into production and lead times. This client needed a way to see how much raw material was required to produce their product, and the time it took for raw material and product manufacture time, compared to their sales needs. It’s one thing to create a demand plan once you have the finished product in hand, but when your sales begin to vary (as they almost inevitably do), not knowing how long it will take to ‘catch up’ with finished goods, can put your business in real risk.
Ultimately, the tools and models we built for this client gave them visibility into their production timelines that they were able to 2.5x their sales, save 14 hours a week, and get product back in stock 50% faster than before!
2. Temporary Coverage
Your sales planner just put in their two weeks…and you know the hiring process to find their replacement might take awhile. Or maybe your merchandiser has to go on leave and the rest of the team doesn’t have the bandwidth to take on the extra workload during their time away. These are situations the Boon team is able to step into immediately. With experience across most POS (point of sale) and inventory management systems, our team takes virtually no time to onboard, so we can get started right away.
As is the case for many start-ups, you may realize that you had a relatively inexperienced person in the position, and now need to reassess the skills needed for the role you’re backfilling. In this case, we can help fill that gap and help you figure out the required skills needed in your new hire.
In the case of one subscription-based client:
This client identified a need for merchandise planning expertise, but weren’t ready to hire a full-time team member. Boon stepped in to kick off this role to support the team of merchants and build out initial templates and processes to ensure accurate inventory management. Over the course of two years, Boon created a robust set of best practices, refining and revamping them as the business expanded.
When finally, they were ready to hire a full-time planner, Boon provided seamless support throughout the hiring and onboarding process, building a case study that could be used to understand a candidate’s skill set, participating in interviews, and even supporting the newly placed planner in larger projects and process improvements. Over the two years we’ve worked with this client, our relationship continues to evolve based on their business’ evolution.
While that client relationship started small and grew, we also have clients with much simpler scopes.
In the case of a personal care brand client:
This client hired Boon to step in when a team member went on familial leave. Since we were filling in for an already existing role, we stepped in to execute tasks already in progress. Our onboarding process took merely two weeks (an impossibility for a newcomer taking on the role!)—and once the parent returned to work, we were able to hand back responsibilities without skipping a beat.
3. Team Stretched Too Thin to Diagnose the Problem
As a business owner, every day is a sprint to keep up with your ever-evolving storefront—and you don’t have the expertise or bandwidth to figure out the latest drama with your inventory situation.
We often hear from clients who are dealing with an emergency inventory situation where stock levels are causing them to lose sales or they’re being charged exorbitant storage fees due to overage. They know there’s a problem, but they can’t take time to truly analyze and address the
problem. If you’re too busy managing the symptoms that you can’t diagnose the disease, let us help! The benefits of support are huge.
In the case of one high-growth sportswear company
Boon was hired by this client for just this reason. The client’s team of merchandise planners was quite experienced and each managed their own specific category—but no one was looking at the total! Their processes and bandwidth didn’t allow them to aggregate the vast amount of data being collected or manage their demand planning, and inventory forecasting processes cohesively.
By hiring Boon, our team was able to aggregate the data across product categories and create processes to help them understand their product’s full lifecycle—from sourcing raw materials, to finished goods, to being enjoyed by customers worldwide.
Let Us Fill In the Gaps
Don’t continue pushing that project down the road—let 2024 be the year you resolve all your businesses’ forecasting issues! Whether it’s implementing a sales recapping process or solving the mystery of the missing inventory, Boon is ready to lend our support. Reach out to us today!
