Retail • Multi-branch • UK

Replacing a £12k/mo SaaS stack with one retail platform across 18 stores.

A UK multi-branch retailer (18 stores, 140 staff) was running three separate SaaS tools for EPOS, inventory and loyalty — all talking over batch CSVs, none reporting the same stock level twice. We replaced the lot with one custom platform.

Client(name withheld — reference available)
IndustryRetail & Wholesale
ServiceBespoke Software
Timeline18 weeks
Team3 senior engineers + 1 designer

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The problem

Three systems, one source of confusion.

Stock in the EPOS didn't match stock on Shopify. Customer loyalty points lived in a third tool no one on the floor had access to. Month-end reports were assembled by hand. Every Black Friday, something would break. The business had grown past what an off-the-shelf stack could hold together.

The approach

One-week audit, four-phase replacement.

We ran a paid one-week discovery to map every data flow and every manual workaround. The recommendation: don't replace everything at once. Phase 1: build a central inventory service and wire both the EPOS and the online store to it. Phase 2: bring loyalty in-house. Phase 3: replace the EPOS on Android till hardware. Phase 4: omnichannel dashboards for head office.

Each phase shipped independently, so the business was getting value from week four, not week eighteen.

What we built

A single platform, four surfaces.

Outcomes

Measured in the first 90 days.

40%
Faster checkout time at till
£12k/mo
SaaS subscriptions retired
18
Stores running the new platform
0
Stock discrepancies in month 1

Client quote

"The honest discovery call sold us. Every other quote we got was a number pulled from the air. Eighteen weeks later we're running the whole chain off one platform and the staff actually enjoy using the till."
Operations DirectorUK multi-branch retailer (reference available on request)

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Tech stack

What we used.

Next.jsNode.jsTypeScriptPostgreSQLRedisAWS LondonStripe TerminalSage 200 APIAndroid tablets (Sunmi)

Related

Services behind this project.

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