The London Guitar Studio
Music Retailer Case Study
Connect by Intelligent Retail is a multichannel system that can help music retailers selling online and in store. Read our case study for London Guitar Studio to find out how our software has allowed them to stay on top of stock control across all channels, how it's helped with customer orders and deposits and much more.
The London Guitar Studio, based in central London, just 30 seconds from Oxford Street, was established over 40 years ago, and today is known as one of the worlds leading guitar shops, specialising in classical and flamenco guitars.
The business dates back to 1970 when it was located on the Fulham Road trading as ‘The Spanish Shop’. After finding success, London Guitar Studio became the sole supplier of Spanish Vicente Sanchis guitars to the Inner London Education Authority (ILEA). The size of the orders forced the business to import directly from Spain and subsequently this activity was extended throughout the UK.
The store is now situated in Duke Street over two floors, one for classical and acoustic guitars, music and recordings, and the lower floor for "El Mundo Flamenco", devoted entirely to flamenco instruments and clothing.
London Guitar Studio is renowned for the quality and vast selection of the guitars available as well as exceptional customer care. With experts available 7 days a week instore and online, London Guitar Studio deal directly with makers across the world and take great pride in personally checking each instrument themselves.
They specialise in classical and flamenco guitars, strings, sheet music and guitar accessories and serve a large number of guitarists from compete beginners to concert playing professionals, they also supply schools and are highly recommended by guitar teachers.
London Guitar Studio have two websites designed and built by Intelligent Retail, londonguitarstudio.com and elmundoflamenco.co.uk.
Meet Stephanie
Stephanie is one of the directors and manages the day to day running of the shop. Stephanie was offered a Saturday job at the shop when buying her very first concert classical guitar for studying at The Royal College of Music and has worked at the Studio ever since.
Stephanie, Director, The London Guitar Studio
The need to save time, have less paperwork and a way to compete with online retailers.
London Guitar Studio have had a well-established business for many years, and often struggled with the paperwork that came with complex inventory management. They have different instruments, models with colour and size variations, which mean doing a stock take was very time consuming and paperwork heavy – especially when sometimes they have multiple deliveries per day.
As their business grew, they saw the need to have an online presence so that they could reach new customers and compete stay competitive with online only retailers. They used to rely on word of mouth and the longevity of the store location within the guitar community to drive new business.
This then lead to issues with stock being sold both instore and online – they were at risk of overselling and damaging their reputation as would then need to refund a customer if they had also sold the stock in the store.
London Guitar Studio recognised the need for a sophisticated retail solution that could save them time, attract more customers and handle any stock across their physical store and online.
Introducing Connect
London Guitar Studio implemented Connect by Intelligent Retail in 2010, this resolved their stock taking headache, and can now handle multiple deliveries per day with ease. Connect has all of the products and their variations within the stock tree making it simple to both receipt a Purchase Order or complete a full stock take.
Shortly after connect was implemented, Intelligent Retail designed a fully integrated website with London Guitar Studio. The seamless integration to connect meant that if an item was sold in the shop, the website would be updated, and reduced the risk of overselling.
In order to grow the website presence, London Guitar Studio have also engaged with Intelligent Retail’s in-house marketing services who helps put the shop at the top of the search engine, helps with their reviews, reputation and encourages more customers both online and instore.
Trusted Partnership with knowledge and support
The team at Intelligent Retail are knowledgeable in both Retail and eCommerce. Having a regular communication with their marketing consultant means that they can put up to date information on the website, it doesn’t remain static, so it keeps new and existing customers engaged.
Stephanie, Director, The London Guitar Studio
A Final Word
Stephanie, Director, The London Guitar Studio
Looking for a retail system?
Are you an independent outdoor retailer struggling to sync your stock across multiple stores in various locations, marketplace channels or online?
Get ready to discover Connect, our multichannel EPoS system designed to help retailers like yourself to manage all your stock from one place, giving you back the time to focus on what matters the most - like growing your business.
Contact us to find out more and book a free personalised no-obligation demo to explore what our software can do for you.
Or simply call us for a chat and to answer any questions you might have.
Book a demo 0845 6800 126*Feature highlights for music retailers
Folderised stock tree inventory
Integrated Website
Stock Take
Purchase Order Management
Built-in Reviews
Marketing Services
Simple Refund & Exchange process
T11 Margin Scheme
