How Marie-Stella-Maris maintains control over growth

Marie-Stella-Maris is growing rapidly. But a growing store network and increasing sales also bring challenges that are not visible to consumers—or at least should not be. Jan-Willem Boerhout, CIO of Marie-Stella-Maris, talks about the challenges “behind the scenes” of a growing retailer.

What are the main technical challenges for a growing retailer?

"I often compare the IT environment of a start-up to a teenager's bedroom. It's often a mess, but the teenager feels comfortable in it. There is no structure or order, and only those who have been there from the beginning understand how the processes work. It feels familiar and everyone is happy with it.

However, when you start to grow, things become more complicated. You move into your own place and have to take care of various things yourself. You have to build an entire IT platform and make everything communicate with each other. You start to build an entire infrastructure, think about security, and move into adulthood. Of course, that costs money, but if you don't start early and do it right, you may run into problems later on.

You start small, have to make clear choices, and tidy things up. At Marie-Stella-Maris, I have the luxury of having a good product and well-organized stores, but in order to grow at the front end, the back end has to be in good shape. The engine room is very important."

Can you give a few examples of that?

"It may sound logical, but first of all, make sure your business is stable and secure. So make sure your systems are well protected and that they continue to run smoothly. And that there are people who can fix things if something goes wrong.

In addition, as a smaller retailer, once you have the basics in place, you need to start purchasing real IT. Our department is not called the ‘IT department’. We call ourselves Business Technology. Large companies such as Ahold (where I also had the opportunity to work) are big enough to have a really large IT department and organize things in-house and on-premise, but as a small, fast-growing retailer, you shouldn't want that.

And then, of course, there's inventory management. That's crucial for a retailer because it literally involves capital. So you have to organize that very well."

Let's zoom in on inventory management. How did you approach that during the growth phase?

"My father, himself a retailer, always said: ‘Retail is simple. You have to sell your stuff that doesn't come back to customers who do.’ That sums up the essence of why inventory is important.

With two or three stores, inventory management is straightforward. You know what's in the store, what you're selling, and where you're sending it. You have one truck, a limited basic inventory, and everything is easy to keep track of.

Marie-Stella-Maris now has 18 stores across the Netherlands and Belgium and plans for international growth, so you have to organize things differently. Because Marie-Stella-Maris is a purpose-driven brand, our systems must not only be scalable, but also help prevent waste and enable conscious choices.

We are fully omnichannel, and the stores are also our inventory. So if we order a certain number of scented candles, online sales, all stores, and our retailers must draw from that inventory.

That's why we look at what's being sold on a daily basis. This is much more accurate than taking stock once a year. In Colleqtive, we have found a partner that suits us well, with a solution that automates the entire stock movement in our stores. We deliberately chose a partner that suits us and thinks along with us. Colleqtive knows retail processes like no other and is specifically built for the retail business.

For example, with large ERP systems, counting store inventory is often a ‘side issue’ and they assign a standard inventory location to a store. But a store has more than one ‘place’ where the same product can be stored. So you don't count inventory by ‘location’ in the store, but by products you encounter. This is often difficult in a standard ERP system, but it's a piece of cake for them."

Based on your experience in the field, what is your ultimate tip for retailers when it comes to inventory management?

The most important thing is to have your master data in order. Not just for your products, but also for your store locations, staff, suppliers, etc. Master data is the key to a successful data-driven tech infrastructure. Know what an item is and where it is, and make sure the right barcode is linked to the right items. That sounds very logical, but it's not always the case.

I learned this during my time at Rituals, where I experienced the growth from a few dozen stores in a couple of countries to over 800 stores across dozens of countries. I gained the trust of the founders and was given almost carte blanche to set up the tech infrastructure. There, I saw how important it is to have a good POS system and online system, and above all, to have them connected to each other. But above all, I saw how important the correct identification of products and stores (the master data) was for creating the right customer experience. Make sure that all groups of items are well organized and that there are hierarchies, so that you can make the right cross-sections in different systems. Master data are the nouns in the language of transactions.

So that is really key to growth. Make sure your master data is in order. That is now the case at Marie-Stella-Maris. Marie-Stella-Maris is growing rapidly.

Read the entire article at: https://retailtrends.nl/news/77958/de-achterkant-van-marie-stella-maris-de-machinekamer-van-een-retailer-is-heel-belangrijk