Real-time inventory information transformed Bauman’s sales process — on and offline.
Bauman Rare Books sells unique books, photographs, and documents internationally, both in their retail locations and online. Known for their extraordinary customer service, they’ve earned a reputation worldwide as a leading rare book dealer.
For Bauman, the ultimate mark of success revolves around working with customers to build their collections over many years. This requires an intimate knowledge of both the customer’s existing collection and the inventory on-hand. With inventory spanning specific interest areas, being able to identify a piece for a particular collector simplifies the sales process.
Bauman’s challenge was creating a collaborative inventory and customer management system for managing internal processes for buying and cataloguing. They also needed it to manage the customer-facing processes of advertising and eventually selling these books.
Using technology to collaboratively manage, publish, and sell rare books.
Before working with Brio, Bauman had a desktop application with inventory and customer information dating back decades. They wanted to modernize their retail operations, but needed to retain their full backlog of historical information. Building a collaborative app would help meet their digital modernization goals.
We jump-started an extensive discovery phase, interviewing Bauman employees to learn in-depth the processes used for operations. Once we had the full technical vision, we began building small functionality pieces for the future inventory and CRM system.
A web app that’s completely tailored to this unique process.
BSpace, a custom app built by Brio, became Bauman’s one-stop-shop for their back office needs in 2013. Everything from inventory, sales, and reporting to website management and catalog production is included. In addition, features and user roles help tailor the experience to unique functions and roles that exist within the company.
Online sales: a (lucrative) new frontier.
When Bauman was ready to sell their inventory online, they reached out to Brio again, this time to further utilize their BSpace data. They wanted to drive website content,and they needed technical consultants, project management, and graphic designs. An eCommerce system replaced email ordering, and a fresh, responsive new look took their website to the next-level.
Working with another development company, we created an online sales gallery for Bauman that represents the rich look and feel of their stores, and their one-to-one sales approach. Their decision to undergo digital modernization paid off. The new online experience worked: within 1 year, online sales doubled.