Building materials showroom: software and workflow

Anyone looking for software for a building materials store soon finds that the work splits in two: the till, where goods in the hall are sold from stock, and the showroom, where the customer chooses from samples and the goods come from a warehouse. The second case has requirements of its own, and the four product groups below, tiles, sanitary ware, lighting and furniture, illustrate it well. For a wider view by industry, see the page on who the solution is for.

What they share

Whatever the product, a showroom for building and finishing goods rests on the same three things:

• Samples are on the shelf, the actual goods are in a warehouse
• Stock is spread over several warehouses, and the customer wants an answer on the spot
• Payment happens at the till with a code, not from a hand-written list

So the order is the same everywhere: the consultant scans a sample, sees the price and stock, picks the customer, creates the order, and at the till the code turns into a receipt. The steps are described in selling by samples.

Where the groups differ

A tiles showroom and a furniture showroom differ mainly in the unit the goods are counted in and in how the customer chooses. This is what lighting showroom software has to handle too.

The terminal lets staff enter the quantity in the right unit (m², pieces, packs), so the consultant does not do sums in the margin of a quote. The table above is only an example of a split; during implementation you decide which units each group in your range uses. If your products have particulars of their own, such as several shades of the same item, clarify them in the demo rather than assume.

The order path

Stock by warehouse: what the customer notices first

A customer choosing a light fitting or a quantity of tiles wants to hear "we have it" or "we don't" at once. The consultant sees what is in the showroom, in the central warehouse and in other warehouses, so can also say where the goods are. More in stock by warehouse and on the warehouse page.

Pickup at the till

After assembly the order code appears on the showroom screen, and at the till it turns into a fiscal receipt: the cashier scans or types the code, payment is by cash, card or from an advance, and the payment status returns to the ERP. A code printed on the spot replaces papers that would otherwise be carried from office to office; see the pickup code and checkout and payment.

An order across several groups: an example

A customer is fitting out a bathroom and, in one visit, picks wall tiles, a basin and a light fitting. For the consultant it is a single order, with the tiles entered in square metres or packs and the other two items in pieces. Stock by warehouse is visible for every sample, and the customer leaves with one code. The example is illustrative and only shows how units combine in one order.

Questions for a vendor

• Which units of measure can be used in an order, and how are they chosen on the terminal?
• How is stock shown when the same item sits in several warehouses?
• What happens to the order if the ERP system is temporarily unavailable?
• How is a document or a code reprinted, and does it leave a trace in the log?

What equipment you need

A showroom like this needs terminals for consultants, a printer for the pickup code, a scanner at the till, and a TV with a PC for the board. Recommended models are on the recommended equipment page.

Read next

• Who it is for: distributors and stores with a showroom
• A checklist for choosing showroom software
• An order without double entry into the ERP
• Request a demo