The Story of a 35-Year Business Relationship
National Sports (Canadian Tire)
For 35 years, from 1987 through 2021, PRS provided the technological infrastructure that supported the expansion of National Sports from a chain of a few locations to a chain of 19 locations with almost half a million square feet of retail space, multiple warehouses, and distribution centres, a highly successful e-commerce presence, and $80 million in annual sales.
- Client: National Sports
- Solution:Inventory & POS
- Date:1986-2021
- Sector:Retail Solutions
About National Sports
National Sports created a unique retail experience that seamlessly met the needs of the sports communities in which it served. The National Sports story started when Norm Clements created National Gym Clothing Limited, in 1968. Although he started out selling sports equipment from the trunk of his car, his passion couldn't be contained, and the company expanded to include multiple retail stores in Southern Ontario. Acquired by FGL Sports Ltd. in 2005 and then by Canadian retail icon Canadian Tire Corporation in 2011, National Sports continued to provide outstanding selection, pricing, and service to its loyal customers across Ontario until 2021 when Canadian Tire made the decision to close the business to reduce overlap in the company's sporting goods assortment after an internal evaluation.
The Challenge
To grow its business, National Sports needed to move from paper-based manual systems to computerized accounting, inventory management, and point-of-sale solutions. Buyers needed to get insight into inventory levels and what was selling and what was not. Better and more timely reconciliation of cash register sales was critical to helping manage cash flow and minimizing losses due to mistakes and fraud. Accurate and timely financial reports were required by banks and vendors as expansion required the establishment of credit with both.
As retail sales grew, special events such as the very well-known “Big 60” and “Spring 45” became cornerstones of the marketing plan where stores would be open for 60 or 45 consecutive hours with special promotions and offers at various times throughout the campaign. Hundreds of loyal customers would line up waiting for doors to open and even throughout the night just to get phenomenal deals that were offered. The point-of-sale system needed to handle huge volumes of transactions through multiple lanes at every location. The inventory management system needed to provide accurate and actionable data that would enable the merchandising team to manage inventory levels and demands, especially on key door crashers and promotional items. Upper-level management looked for regular updates from all store managers on sales volumes.
As retail sales grew, special events such as the very well-known “Big 60” and “Spring 45” became cornerstones of the marketing plan where stores would be open for 60 or 45 consecutive hours with special promotions and offers at various times throughout the campaign. Hundreds of loyal customers would line up waiting for doors to open and even throughout the night just to get phenomenal deals that were offered. The point-of-sale system needed to handle huge volumes of transactions through multiple lanes at every location. The inventory management system needed to provide accurate and actionable data that would enable the merchandising team to manage inventory levels and demands, especially on key door crashers and promotional items. Upper-level management looked for regular updates from all store managers on sales volumes.
The Solution
In 1986, PRS implemented its accounting and inventory management solution and brought National Sports into the age of computerization. Shortly after that, the first installation of PRS’s point-of-sale solution, then MS-DOS-based, was installed at the new National Sports location in Oakville, Ontario, and, over the next couple of years, rolled out to all locations.
Over the course of the next 35 years, PRS continued to provide inventory management and point-of-sale solutions that helped National Sports not only successfully navigate multiple systems architectures and operating systems but also continue to grow the size of the business and expand capability. It was able to implement things like gift cards, CRM, integrated debit/credit, and even e-commerce, all of which became key requirements for any successful retail operation.
Over the course of the next 35 years, PRS continued to provide inventory management and point-of-sale solutions that helped National Sports not only successfully navigate multiple systems architectures and operating systems but also continue to grow the size of the business and expand capability. It was able to implement things like gift cards, CRM, integrated debit/credit, and even e-commerce, all of which became key requirements for any successful retail operation.
The Results
Over the years (decades literally), PRS had a quiet and unassuming commitment to providing consistent value, and exceptional support.
PRS provided an end-to-end solution that was implemented for almost 35 years to handle and support day-to-day activities at National Sports - from managing products, inventory, pricing, to analyzing the data, monitoring, and taking necessary actions on a timely manner based on Key Performance Indicators for almost twenty stores, brick-and-mortar and online.
This saw PRS continue to support National Sports through tough years in the mid-1990s when they entered CCAA court protection. A strong inventory management system enabled processes and reporting requirements determined by auditors and enabled them to enter into an agreement with an (inventory) asset-based lender and successfully restructure the business and exit CCAA stronger than ever.
PRS’s solutions helped National Sports develop processes for regular physical inventory counts, multi-store/multi-lane cash drawer settlements, and sales audit. Near-real-time sales reporting and dashboards with near-real-time inventory levels and chain-wide visibility enabled head office teams to make timely and accurate merchandising decisions and store staff to process sales and meet customer demands accurately and efficiently. For big promotional events like the “Big 60” management had access to near-real-time dashboards that reported information like sales, customer traffic, and closing ratios, a huge improvement over the early days when getting information required phone calls to store managers to get this information.
In 2017, National Sports launched its e-commerce operation using Shopify. PRS’s solution provided National Sports with a complete integration with Shopify (and eventually ShipHero as well) which enabled it to manage inventory levels for its highly successful online operation as well as keep pricing, including promotional pricing, in alignment with pricing offered in the brick-and-mortar locations.
PRS provided an end-to-end solution that was implemented for almost 35 years to handle and support day-to-day activities at National Sports - from managing products, inventory, pricing, to analyzing the data, monitoring, and taking necessary actions on a timely manner based on Key Performance Indicators for almost twenty stores, brick-and-mortar and online.
This saw PRS continue to support National Sports through tough years in the mid-1990s when they entered CCAA court protection. A strong inventory management system enabled processes and reporting requirements determined by auditors and enabled them to enter into an agreement with an (inventory) asset-based lender and successfully restructure the business and exit CCAA stronger than ever.
PRS’s solutions helped National Sports develop processes for regular physical inventory counts, multi-store/multi-lane cash drawer settlements, and sales audit. Near-real-time sales reporting and dashboards with near-real-time inventory levels and chain-wide visibility enabled head office teams to make timely and accurate merchandising decisions and store staff to process sales and meet customer demands accurately and efficiently. For big promotional events like the “Big 60” management had access to near-real-time dashboards that reported information like sales, customer traffic, and closing ratios, a huge improvement over the early days when getting information required phone calls to store managers to get this information.
In 2017, National Sports launched its e-commerce operation using Shopify. PRS’s solution provided National Sports with a complete integration with Shopify (and eventually ShipHero as well) which enabled it to manage inventory levels for its highly successful online operation as well as keep pricing, including promotional pricing, in alignment with pricing offered in the brick-and-mortar locations.
Testimonial
Nada Copti, Senior Project Lead, FGL Sports/National Sports
I had the privilege to work directly with Pulse Retail Systems over the past 7 years for National Sports on numerous successful projects, both large and small, from infrastructure changes to specific integrations and application enhancements. Pulse Retail is the software provider of an end-to-end solution that was implemented for almost 35 years to handle and support day-to-day activities at National Sports - from managing products, inventory, pricing, to analyzing the data, monitoring and taking necessary actions on a timely manner based on Key Performance Indicators for 20 stores, Brick & Mortar and Online.
The big challenges consisted of achieving the following on Pulse Retail application in a very short period of time: a) migrating to a newer version and infrastructure, b) integrating with Shopify and ShipHero e-com platforms, and c) improving the pricing management module. National Sports knew that they could count on Pulse Retail all these years and they were in good hands for growing their business. Pulse Retail is an exceptional knowledgeable vendor because they consistently delivered quality work on-time and provided outstanding support. Their commitment, transparency and good communication helped to work easily with different parties, externally with other vendors, and internally with clients across all business units (i.e. Purchasing, Logistic, Store Ops, Finance and Planning).
The clients were always happy and satisfied post-launch due to the fact that they experienced smooth transitions and in case of issues, they were addressed promptly by Pulse Retail in a professional way!
