You may have heard of the British Film Institute (BFI) as a supporter of British film industry and perhaps perceive it as involved with the more esoteric aspects of film. So, it may seem odd to hear that the BFI has an active retail arm on which it relies for a significant portion of its income.
Advanced Retail have been working with the BFI to make sure that this important service to loyal customers and members is fit for purpose and efficient.
The BFI is a charity with Royal charter status. It was formed to preserve, shape and promote the British film industry. Now with two London based cinemas, an online offering, an active membership and loyal wider following – the notion of a retail operation might make more sense to you.
Selling Blu-ray, DVDs, books, memberships and BFI branded merchandise online and in-store means the BFI face the same challenges any ‘clicks and mortar’ retailer face. For instance, aligning stock from one source with online and in-store sales; and integration with an existing ecommerce system.
The BFI were struggling with stock control, having to manually enter online sales into a secondary stock system. Aside from being time consuming, this resulted in the potential of product appearing for sale online when, in reality, it was out of stock. With a resultant risk to reputation, customers let down and further time expended in resolving these shortcomings.
Advanced Retail have been able to quickly and cost effectively install a system that virtually eliminates any time-delay between sales and stock updates online. It removes the need for manual entry and puts paid to the risk of reputational damage.
Full integration with the existing Magento ecommerce system is in the throes of completion. Adding new products has moved from being a time-consuming compilation to an intuitive task completed in minutes.
The flexibility and adaptability of the Advanced Retail system has been further exemplified with the successful operation of a pop-up shop during the recent BFI London Film Festival at The Oxo Tower.
Mark Emmerson, of the BFI, was keen to extol the virtues of the new system. “I managed the pop-up store at The Oxo Tower myself and was delighted to report back to the board that not only was the system proving a dream in-store and online, but also remotely too. It’s going to add great value and scope to our future initiatives.”
David Billingham, Managing Director of Advanced Retail, said “We love working with organisations in culture and heritage, they always present us with exciting new retail challenges to address. Which are a joy to see when they are up and running, fully functioning and contributing to our client’s operation.”
