The White Orchid saves hours on ordering with Lightspeed and NuORDER

The White Orchid carries designers and lines curated specially by Diane, found through her regular trips to markets to network with suppliers. However, maintaining profitability has become more of a challenge as suppliers increase prices, which impacted The White Orchid’s ability to achieve necessary margins. Connecting with and ordering from vendors at markets was time consuming, without much visibility on her overall budget.

“I would have to sit there and handwrite an order, and then I wouldn’t know how much I spent. I would have to come home and then do more work to calculate how much I was spending,” says Diane.

Keeping up with changing customer needs was a struggle as well. For years, there had been a noticeable shift in consumer preferences towards sustainable practices and modern payment systems. “They want to be able to pay with their phone, with their watch and every way that suits them. They’re surprised if they have to pay through an old fashioned method.”

But Diane was feeling held back by her old systems, making adjusting plans, budgeting and streamlining difficult. “I had been working with QuickBooks point of sale,” she says, and she was feeling boxed in without cloud connectivity or live inventory.

Diane made the switch to Lightspeed, unlocking live inventory, flexible payments and the ability to work flexibly thanks to the cloud. Now, she could be anywhere–home, at markets, at the store–and have access to The White Orchid’s point of sale. That was step one in fixing up her business’ efficiency.

Employees got on board quickly as well. The intuitive design and easy chat support made getting a diverse age range of staff, from their 50s to those in their 70s, up and running. “I was like, if you can withdraw money on an ATM, you can do it,” says Diane. “Lightspeed is really user friendly.”

With her newfound freedom and her employees up and running, Diane could turn her attention to improving The White Orchid’s operational efficiency by selecting the best tools and integrations for her business. One integration in particular stood out: NuORDER by Lightspeed, a B2B commerce platform that makes it easier to order and use product information from suppliers.

Being able to browse and order from multiple suppliers in one place with NuORDER, then import orders, product data and images into her new Lightspeed POS was the level up she’d been searching for.

“Now I’m seeking out vendors who will offer NuORDER as part of their package when I’m working with them.”

Using the two tools together streamlines the buying process at markets. This helps Diane monitor budgets, adjust prices and optimize The White Orchid’s inventory–and, crucially, allows her to focus on suppliers when at markets, not on data entry. “Instead of me having to take pictures of everything and having to make notes, Lightspeed and NuORDER allow me to have immediate access and edit my order based on budget after the fact,” says Diane.

Being freed up from that extra busy work means Diane can make the most of her time. “I can move on to other vendor tables to keep writing orders, keep looking at new items.” Because it’s so easy to connect, budget and order with NuORDER, she’s now carrying lines she had previously been interested in but passed on.

And once she’s home from the markets, managing inventory is a breeze. She can set up her orders and place them on NuORDER, then quickly export them, along with data and images, to Lightspeed. Diane can get through the once time consuming takes of creating new inventory in less than 30 minutes.