Inventory Management System Wins Big In Vegas - Celerant

The Wranglers National Finals Rodeo (NFR), held annually in Las Vegas, is one of the world’s biggest rodeo events. Not only do people come from all over the world to watch bull riding, calf roping, and barrel racing, they come prepared to shop. Many tourists come to town without rodeo tickets, planning to watch NFR events on hotel big screens and shop for unique western wear, memorabilia, art, and even furniture.

In 2011, this kind of event posed a huge marketing opportunity for Texas-based retailer, National Roper’s Supply/ David’s Western Store (NRS). NRS has three brick-and-mortar retail stores as well as a large catalogue and online business selling western apparel, home furnishings, tack, saddles and custom leather goods. At the flagship location in Decatur, NRS has its own training facility, which hosts roping clinics and competitions.

For years, NRS has set up booths at rodeo events and local competitions. However, for the National Finals Rodeo, NRS partnered with the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino to set up a 90,000 square foot temporary store. The goal was to create an interactive shopping experience by bringing in a saddle shop, giving roping seminars, and stocking up on merchandise.

To ensure the shopping experience went smoothly for customers, NRS contracted with Celerant Technology to roll out Command Retail, a real-time software which integrates point of sale, inventory management, warehouse, e-commerce, and advanced reporting.

Jeff Jones, CFO at NRS, had been looking for a system to tie together the retailer’s cross channel efforts: brick-and-mortar, Web, warehouse, and call center. When the NRS executive team unanimously selected Celerant, the companies decided there was no better time to test the system than the NFR event at the MGM Grand.

Celerant’s Command Retail software had the critical features to ensure a successful NFR event. First of all, a flexible approach allowed NRS to enter styles easily into inventory that weren’t normally carried in stores. Second, extensive reporting options enabled NRS to compile data and send inventory reports to vendors who had allocated stock specifically to the NFR event. Third, and most significantly, Celerant’s POS system was able to process a high transaction volume.

For the store at the MGM Grand, NRS set up fifteen registers: ten check-out lanes at the front of the store, four remote check-out registers at vendor booths, and one customer service/ returns register. The Celerant test-run went off without a hitch. The store averaged1250 transactions per day, and over the course of the week, the transaction volume at the NRS temporary store equaled one year’s worth of sales at its smallest brick-and-mortar store.

With the success of the NFR event, NRS is now rolling out Celerant’s Command Retail system in their three Texas stores, warehouse, and call center. Compared to the size of the MGM temporary store, this implementation is small: four registers and six invoicing stations at the Decatur flagship location. Now that Celerant’s system has proven itself, NRS has the luxury of implementing the new system methodically, clearing out old inventory data and starting with a clean slate.

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