Unifying Howards Storage World's Franchise Inventory with a Tailored LS Central and BigCommerce Integration

Howards Storage World (HSW) operates a large, franchise-based retail network with stock distributed across multiple store locations. As the business grew, accurately managing inventory across this complex location structure, while also helping customers find products in-store, became increasingly challenging.

HSW relied on LS Central as their core POS and inventory platform, alongside BigCommerce for their online storefront. However, retrieving reliable, real-time inventory levels across franchise locations was difficult due to the way locations were structured within LS Central. This made it challenging to confidently manage replenishment, transfers, and low-stock alerts across stores.

At the same time, customers shopping online had limited visibility into in-store availability. Without a clear way to see where products were stocked locally, HSW risked lost sales, reduced in-store traffic, and missed opportunities to connect their physical and digital channels.

To support continued growth, HSW required a scalable, integrated approach that would streamline inventory management behind the scenes while enhancing the customer experience across BigCommerce and physical stores.

To address these challenges, our team delivered a robust, multi-layered integration combining LS Central, the Multi-Location Inventory (MIL) app.

On the inventory side, we completed a tailored LS Central integration for the MIL app, purpose-built to support HSW’s franchise-based location structure. We worked closely with the client to refine database queries, ensuring accurate inventory levels could be fetched across all locations. This provided a true, real-time view of stock availability at each store.

To provide greater operational flexibility, we introduced new functionality allowing low-stock thresholds to be set per location, in addition to default and per-item thresholds. This enabled individual stores to manage inventory levels based on their unique sales patterns and space constraints.

This integration provides HSW with a scalable, future-proof foundation that supports both operational efficiency and an improved omnichannel shopping experience.

The transformation delivered immediate value across both operations and customer experience. Inventory data that was once difficult to reconcile is now accurately synced across all Howard Storage World locations, giving teams confidence in stock availability and re-stock decisions.

Large inventory updates now run smoothly without manual intervention, significantly improving system reliability. Store managers benefit from precise, location-specific low-stock alerts, helping prevent missed sales and overstocking.

With improved performance, reduced operational costs, and a scalable omnichannel foundation in place, Howard Storage World is well positioned to continue expanding its franchise network while delivering a seamless, modern retail experience.