District Camera - Case Study

Background and Objectives: District Camera 

District Camera is a long-standing camera retailer based in Washington, D.C. With over 40 years of experience, they offer a wide range of cameras, lenses, accessories, and equipment from renowned brands.

Their professional staff helps clients select the best accessories for their projects. In terms of verticals, they have physical stores across 3 locations as well as sell online via platforms like Amazon and eBay. 

In addition, they offer photography classes and workshops that cater to photographers across all skill levels. As a result, District Camera's locations and resources have become a trusted destination for photographers, providing quality products and exceptional customer service.

Key Objectives, Challenges, and Kensium's Curated Solutions:

Mobile issues were among the primary challenges faced by District Camera. Since their ERP platform was desktop-based, it limited the company's ability to operate efficiently in a fast-paced business environment. In addition, it was not fully supportive of modern ecommerce and marketplace requirements.

To address these challenges, the company's main goals were to modernize their platform and transition to a more agile and mobile-friendly solution. They also wanted to improve their customer experience by making information and product data more accessible.   

Pre-Implementation

Pain points & limitations of District Camera's previous system

District Camera experienced challenges managing orders effectively, offering real-time inventory updates, and creating a seamless online shopping experience.
 
These issues stemmed from their outdated platform and technology limitations around integrations.

Solution Options and Decision-Making

While District Camera was fully aware of the challenges from their outdated platform, they remained on it for so long due to their inability to find a cost-effective, single solution that met all their needs. 

The integration between Acumatica(back-end) and Magento (front-end) was a crucial component of the solution. Magento is a widely used e-commerce platform which is known for its extensive features, flexibility, and scalability. By integrating Magento with Acumatica, Kensium enabled District Camera to synchronize their product catalog, inventory, and customer data in real-time. 

Another solution that District Camera wanted to integrate fully is Rithum (formerly ChannelAdvisor), their marketplace aggregation solution. This was a critical requirement to support their sales on Amazon and eBay.

After looking at several systems over the years, District Camera finalized Acumatica with built-in connections to Magento and Rithum (formerly ChannelAdvisor) as their system of choice.

Implementation Process

How Kensium helped their organization?

Kensium has integrated Acumatica ERP with Magento, a popular e-commerce platform. This integration enhanced the online shopping experience leveraging its advanced features. Moreover, Kensium has expanded the integration to include tools for managing omnichannel experiences, connectivity with external systems via APIs, point of sale capabilities, optimizing customer service, order management, pricing, and fulfillment processes.  

Solution Integration

Were there any customizations or modifications performed to tailor the solution to their organization's needs?

Kensium has made customizations to the integrated solution to meet the unique requirements of District Camera. These customizations have empowered District Camera with a comprehensive and tailored solution to effectively manage their business operations and provide an enhanced shopping experience for their customers.

Key customizations and integrations include:

• Integrated Acumatica ERP with Magento, a popular e-commerce platform, enabling District Camera to leverage its robust features for online sales and customer interactions.

• Enabled integration between Acumatica and Rithum (formerly ChannelAdvisor) to market their products on over 40+ ecommerce websites.

• Deployed Kensium CommercePro, a solution tailored for commerce and retail customers, enhancing Acumatica's capabilities for customer service, order management, inventory management, pricing, and fulfillment processes.

• Setup the Product Configuration tool to enhance Acumatica ERP, enabling complex product configurations, such as cameras with various options, accessories, and customizations. This helps them to manage their Rental and Repair services offerings to customers.  

• Implemented Acumatica Point-of-Sale (POS), integrating the ERP system with a point-of-sale solution to streamline in-store transactions, inventory management, and data synchronization between physical stores and the ERP system.

• A fully customized solution was also developed and deployed to support their ability to purchase and sell pre-owned, Open Box and Refurbished products. This customization was implemented not only in Acumatica but also extended to support this in Magento and Rithum (formerly ChannelAdvisor) side also.  Features included product management, inventory management, orders and shipment management.

• A dedicated and customized section was also developed to support the ability for selling products on eBay. This allowed the District Camera team to not having to create products in Acumatica and manage them for the reflections to be possible. The products were managed virtually and created dynamically on the fly when an order was actually received from the Marketplace.  

• Additional customizations and enhancements were introduced to improve the usability and access to data for the staff of District Camera. These included multiple screens/reporting abilities inside of Acumatica.  

Results and Benefits

The impact in terms of cost savings, efficiency gains, customer satisfaction 

1.    Cost Savings

By implementing the integrated solutions provided by Kensium, District Camera has potentially achieved cost savings in several areas:

• Automated processes such as order management, inventory updates, and fulfillment resulted in significant time and labor savings.

• Real-time inventory updates and accurate stock tracking helped minimize stockouts and overstocking, reducing carrying costs and potential losses. 

2.    Efficiency Gains

• The seamless flow of information between the e-commerce platform, ERP system, and order management tools would eliminate the need for manual data transfers and reduce the risk of errors or delays.

• Real-time data synchronization across various systems ensured accurate and up-to-date information for inventory, orders, and customer details. This enabled faster decision-making, quicker order processing, and improved inventory management.

3.    Customer Satisfaction

• The implementation of a modern e-commerce platform with streamlined navigation and intuitive features has resulted in a seamless online shopping experience. This enhanced user experience has significantly increased customer satisfaction, reduced cart abandonment rates, and fostered customer loyalty.

• Real-time inventory updates improved customer satisfaction and trust in District Camera's services by ensuring accurate product availability information, avoiding out-of-stock orders and inventory-related delays.

• Timely deliveries, prompt order updates, and effective customer support have enhanced overall satisfaction and loyalty.