Old-Time Values Blend With New Technology

Competing with big-box retailers has become par for the course for SMBs. One sports retailer is using a retail management system to remain true to its customers and increase sales.

Retail trails behind only cable as the industry with the largest proportion of customers who will stop doing business with a company that has poor customer service. In fact, in 2017, 54 percent of consumers stopped doing business with a company due to bad service, significantly up from 49 percent in 2016.¹

For Omega Sports, a family-run retailer with 14 stores across North Carolina, commitment to community and customers has been at the heart of the company since opening in 1978. Craig Carlock, CEO of Omega Sports, says that retailers must maintain good customer service and find ways to participate in the evolution taking place in the retail sector. Maintaining this balance requires retailers like Omega to remain fluid and find new ways to successfully compete.

Employing 240 full- and part-time associates, Omega’s purpose is to fit customers with the right gear, from running shoes to baseball bats. Essential to operating the stores, which range in size from 5,000 to 8,000 square feet, is good inventory control. But the legacy retail management system (RMS) Omega relied upon did not offer insight to help store managers know which items were selling well, which should be reduced for sale, and which should not be brought into the store at all. “So from a planning perspective, Omega could not effectively compete in today’s marketplace,” says Carlock.