Stylecraft

Introduction

From Blind Spots to Business Insight: How Stylecraft Transformed Its Inventory Operations

Every year, Stylecraft buys half a million dollars worth of furniture samples. Yet when a client called asking for a specific chair, the sales team had no idea if they even had it, or where to find it.

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The 70-year-old furniture retailer operates six showrooms across Australia. Their high-end clients—architects, designers, and luxury homeowners—need to see and touch products before buying. But samples constantly moved between locations, went out to client sites, and disappeared into the inventory black hole.


When a designer called asking for a specific piece, the scramble began: frantic messages across Microsoft Teams, hours of searching, and still no guarantee of success. Meanwhile, that same item might be sitting unused in another city, collecting dust and tying up capital.

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The daily battle with invisible inventory

Stylecraft’s business model revolves around experience. In their world, clients don’t just see furniture, they interact with it before making a decision. So the company maintains thousands of high-end furniture pieces across six showrooms and two warehouses throughout Australia.


The challenge went far beyond basic tracking. Samples constantly moved: from warehouse to showroom for new displays, between showrooms for "roadshows" of new ranges, out to architect studios for project approvals, to client homes for final decisions. Each movement represented both an opportunity to close a sale and a risk that the sample might vanish.


Sales consultants wasted hours on the phone asking colleagues: "Do you have this chair? No? What about you?" while clients waited. Showroom managers arrived Monday morning to find half their display furniture gone: someone had taken it for a client presentation without asking, leaving the showroom looking sparse and incomplete.


Meanwhile, management had no visibility into which samples actually drove business. Which had been collecting dust for two years? Which sales team members actively used samples versus those who rarely engaged clients? Nobody knew.


The financial impact was staggering. With $500,000 in samples purchased annually and no real accountability, expensive furniture simply disappeared during transfers. The paper trail went cold, and there was no way to trace what happened.Anthony and his team knew they needed a system that could answer one simple question: where is everything, right now?

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The vision: a live inventory system

When Stylecraft approached LowCode Agency, they had a clear goal: create a live inventory system that could track every sample across all locations in real time. They needed to know not just what they owned, but where each item was at any given moment, and who had it.


The vision was simple but ambitious: to have a platform that could track each item’s journey, manage transfers, and generate meaningful insights.


Together, we mapped out the goals:

• Track every item with unique identifiers
• Manage approvals for sample transfers
• Automate loan reminders and returns
• Generate reports on value, aging, and utilization
• Provide role-based access and accountability

This fundamental shift unlocked three capabilities that transformed how Stylecraft operates:

1. Instant answers replaced hours of searching

Sales consultants can now answer clients while still on the phone. Search for any item and immediately see exactly where it is—which showroom, warehouse, or client site—when it's available, and its complete movement history.

The system doesn't just search product codes; it searches everything: descriptions, materials, colors, dimensions. Type "black leather armchair" and find every match across all locations.

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2. Smart approval workflows gave managers control

The system automatically knows the rules: warehouse items are freely available, so anyone can create a loan instantly. But showroom items require approval from the showroom manager before they can move.

This simple distinction solved the problem of display furniture vanishing overnight.

Now when a sales team in Brisbane wants a chair from the Melbourne showroom, the request automatically routes to Melbourne's manager. She can approve it, deny it, or offer an alternative: "Not this week because we have clients coming in, but you can have it next Tuesday."

The system tracks these conditional approvals and automatically notifies the requester when the item becomes available.

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3. Performance dashboards revealed what was actually working

For the first time, management could see which samples clients requested most frequently, which had been sitting unused for 12+ months, which sales team members actively drove business through samples, and the total inventory value by location.



Every movement is tracked with digital signatures, creating a complete audit trail that eliminated the "where did it go?" problem forever.

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The Results

Within six weeks of launch, Stylecraft completely transformed their visibility.The impact was immediate:


• 45% reduction in time spent locating samples
• 70% increase in project management capacity
• Zero lost samples thanks to digital tracking and approvals
• $500K+ in annual inventory now visible and measurable

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The system eliminated the daily frustration of searching for samples and gave management the data they needed to make smarter inventory decisions. Most importantly, it turned their $500K annual sample investment from a cost center into a visible, trackable asset that drives revenue.

From Blind Spots to Business Insight

Stylecraft’s story shows that transformation doesn’t have to start with disruption. Sometimes it’s about enlightening your own ops. Every growing company eventually outgrows manual tracking, and the key is not waiting until inefficiency becomes invisible loss.


At LowCode Agency, we operate as your product team; analyzing, designing, and creating systems that turn operational complexity into scalable growth. Our approach combines strategic consulting with fast, practical execution, so every solution aligns with your real business goals and delivers measurable ROI. Let’s talk, map out how your operations work, and make your business evolve.

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