Vinnies is one of Australia’s best-known charity retail networks and a long-term Qdos client. What began as a rapid point of sale rollout across Victorian Vinnies shops later expanded to more than 450 Vinnies stores nationally, and Qdos has supported Vinnies retail operations across more than one state network, from volunteer-friendly POS to inventory, back office and Head Office reporting.
Vinnies shops across metropolitan Melbourne and regional Victoria provide furniture, clothing and household goods to families and people in need, and are a valuable resource for people on low incomes. The shops were using a dated point of sale system and needed a more capable solution that matched their retail strategy, while staying simple enough for a volunteer workforce with widely varied experience.
A major requirement was an extremely simple, intuitive interface to suit Vinnies shop volunteers, including part-time, retired and first-time volunteers. Qdos and Vinnies worked together to co-develop a simplified interface for Qdos POS, trialled it in a handful of shops to gather volunteer feedback, and refined it before rollout. New volunteers can be trained within minutes.
After the trial, Qdos POS was deployed to 100 Vinnies sites across Victoria in just 2.5 weeks. Volunteers moved to faster checkout with multiple payment methods including split tender, the ability to hold transactions to avoid queues, barcode scanning, quicker sales and returns, and a simple end-of-day process.
The initial Victorian rollout later expanded to more than 450 Vinnies stores nationally. Qdos also works with St Vincent de Paul Society NSW, where Qdos POS, the Qdos Reporting Suite, Inventory Management and Back Office are in use, with 249 point-of-sale registers implemented in stores in less than six months. Read the Vinnies NSW case study.
Head Office has real-time sales visibility across the network, along with stock levels and pricing for every shop. Reports cover daily and weekly budget versus actual sales, sales and bank reconciliation, top-performing categories, and backfill to guide floor replenishment. Head Office can also introduce new barcoded products into shops, ready for sale, within minutes. See Qdos reporting and analytics.
Vinnies shows how Qdos works in large, volunteer-based charity retail networks: simple at the counter, with the stock, back-office and reporting capability Head Office needs. The same platform supports growing charity retailers with a handful of stores, so organisations can start with what they need and grow without changing systems. See how Qdos supports charity retail.