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The Vince Canning/Tooties’ Story

Located in Delray Beach, FL, Vince Canning Shoes opened in 1952 and has been passed down three generations. Mark Denkler and his wife, LaRonda, bought the store from his uncle and have now been working in the shoe business for over 20 years! Previously, Mark was a banker and his wife was a buyer at a department store, so they put their skills together to manage the family business. While it wasn’t obvious to them at first, they eventually learned the importance of having a POS and inventory management system. Vince Canning Shoes switched to RICS after their current system went out of business. They were looking for a solution that could save them time. “Time was the main focus- we needed an efficient solution to get business done,” says Mark. Mark and LaRonda bought Tootsies Shoes, across the street from Vince Canning Shoes, in February 2015. The store did not have any kind of retail management system in place and they functioned seven months before implementing RICS. It wasn’t until a vendor came to them, excited about how well their brand was doing, that Mark realized they didn’t have true insight into how products were performing. They had previously thought that that specific brand wasn’t selling well until the vendor told them otherwise.

How the RICS Solution Fit Their Needs

Before using RICS, Mark explained that, “you don’t know what’s selling; you have your daily recaps and look at the inventory wall.” That wasn’t enough to know how the business was really doing, but with an inventory management system in place, they had the opportunity to see turns, profits, ROI, etc. Additionally, when it came to buying, they weren’t able to fully analyze the state of the business as it was without technology to track and report on their inventory. With RICS, they now see trends right away. Mark recognizes RICS has greatly improved their business by stating how it, “allows us to do our buying better. We had no idea we were missing sales. Now, we know we have the information to make a sale.” As Tootsies is approaching their one-year anniversary with RICS, Mark is excited to have the data in the system to see YOY performance and grow their business having that additional insight. “Information is money. If you have information, then you can use it to improve your business and increase profit.” Day-to-day, Mark and LaRonda spend the mornings looking at reports while their staff prepares the store for customers. Because Mark does the financials, he spends time analyzing the monthly and yearly reports. LaRonda focuses on the day-to-day selling report. “RICS creates the excitement of knowing your business and you get the instant gratification that you’re selling by having access to real-time data to run reports.” Mark and LaRonda found a solution that has improved business in both stores. They saw first-hand that they were missing out on opportunities to sell. “RICS is informative and efficient. I wanted a system that gets the information out in the most efficient way.” With this data, they have full insight into how their inventory is performing, so they can better forecast demand and make educated buying decisions. See how our other clients have improved their businesses with RICS!