When even the walls are made from recycled timber, old skateboards, and reclaimed antique fireplaces, you know that a shop is committed to environmental sustainability. So when Andrew Howson, owner of Sitka New Zealand, found he could even do away with his receipt printer, and use Vend to email receipts to customers instead, he did just that.
Cut out the paper trail.
“We had a receipt printer from a previous system,” explains Andrew, “but now it’s just another piece of hardware sitting in the back office, gathering dust.”
So what do the customers think?
“My first impression was, ‘Wow, this is just what we need!’ As we grew, and saw how powerful it really was, it was even more of a dream come true.”
Andrew Howson Owner, Sitka New Zealand
“We just ask if they’re happy to receive a receipt by email, and not one customer has said no,“ says Andrew, “And by adding a link to our Facebook page on the email receipt, we get new fans who bought something in our store every day.”
With Vend, Andrew can run most of his business without paper. All sales, customers and purchases sync seamlessly with Xero online accounting. Stock orders are generated by walking around the store with an iPad, adding items to a consignment, that is then emailed to suppliers.
Painless point of sale.
It wasn’t always this easy. That old receipt printer was part of an expensive investment in hardware and software for a previous point of sale system.
“When that system turned up I just laughed and said, ‘this is so antiquated!’ It wasn’t going to allow us any growth, it kept crashing... it was a nightmare!”
So Andrew searched for a better solution, found Vend, and took the no-risk, 30-day free trial.
“My first impression was, ‘Wow, this is just what we need!’ Then as we grew, and saw how powerful it really was, it was even more of a dream come true.”
The owners of Sitka Canada were so impressed, that in October, 2011 they launched Vend across all of their North American stores.
Company Snapshot
Sitka was established in Canada in 2002 by Andrew Paine and Rene Gauthier. Originally a surfboard shaping business, Sitka has grown into a clothing brand, skateboard line and a full quiver of surfboards designed to stand up to the hardy conditions of the Canadian west coast.
The New Zealand branch was opened by Andrew Howson in 2011.
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