Case Study: The Gift Of Giving - Increased Sales, Better Relationships

By Janam

For 20 years, privately owned Elby Gifts has kept a focused eye on the giftware market, often spotting and purchasing what will become the season's hottest trend before anyone else. There are thousands of potential items to choose from—wedding favors, anniversary and special occasion gifts, tableware, décor, wine accessories and frames. Two different giftware lines are distributed through the Elby Gifts and Direct Gift Imports (DGI) brands, each with its own ordering and billing processes.

Elby Gifts' sales representatives must keep abreast of all the product changes and preferences for anywhere from 300 to 900 customers each, depending on their territory. In total, 18 sales representatives serve more than 15,000 customers currently listed in the company database, and they use handheld mobile devices to take orders, add new customers, print orders and update inventory daily. However, Elby Gifts needed more advanced devices and features that their legacy systems did not have, so they turned to SL Datakatch, located in Gananoque in the heart of the Thousand Islands, Canada, to find a mobile solution that would provide the necessary capabilities.