Henry Bear’s Park Prepares for Growth

Toy Store Chain Refines Fulfillment, Finance and Ecommerce With NetSuite, Driving Efficiency and Preparing for Growth

Henry Bear’s Park is your neighborhood toy store with an online twist. The business comprises eight stores in the Greater Boston area, as well as a growing ecommerce operation, where expertly-curated offerings range from animal puppets for preschoolers to 1,000-piece puzzles for adults. The Henry Bear team chooses each unique item for its quality, as they have for more than 45 years.

COMPANY

Five Elements, dba Henry Bear’s Park

LOCATION

Arlington, Mass.

INDUSTRY

Retail

Revenue

$2M-$5M

EMPLOYEES

50 to 99

NETSUITE PRODUCTs Implemented

NetSuite ERP
NetSuite SuiteCommerce
NetSuite SuiteCommerce InStore

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“When the NetSuite team showed us that we could assign orders automatically based on available inventory, we were giving each other high fives.” Kas Sharma, President, Henry Bear’s Park

Omnichannel Fulfillment, Automation Deliver Free Time

Small business, big product assortment: Over the past eight years, Henry Bear grew from two stores to eight and launched its ecommerce site. Its buyers work with some 500 vendors to stock 5,000 SKUs, and the ecommerce site sees about 100 orders per day—many more at holidays—which the stores fulfill.

Purchase orders and order allocation by hand: For years, writing a purchase order often took hours because the team analysed sales and inventory reports line by line to figure out which stores needed which items. The ecommerce site didn’t drive many orders, partially due to its outdated look. When online orders did come in, employees manually assigned them to the appropriate store, making customers wait for shipping confirmations.

Automation accommodates more demand: Henry Bear now uses NetSuite ERP. NetSuite’s Advanced Order Management automatically assigns orders from Henry Bear’s sleek new SuiteCommerce site to a store based on the customer’s location and the stores’ available inventory. This workflow proved critical when online orders leapt from three to 400 per day in the Spring of 2020. NetSuite also automates replenishment, allowing Henry Bear to operate with just one-third of the buyers it would’ve needed under its old system.

Building out all growth channels: After a challenging couple of years in which many toy stores shuttered permanently, Henry Bear is back on its growth path. Leadership plans to continue opening one or two stores per year, add a warehouse and boost marketing around the web store, using its refined processes that span finance, orders and ecommerce on a single system to keep pace.