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Vintage clothing app
The trade in second-hand clothing sometimes seems very disorganized, but these companies also have administrative obligations. Outline Solutions was asked to build a custom app for these companies as existing packages did not fit their work processes.
From 'trash' to 'trendy'
Vintage and second hand clothing are booming business. This sector has grown from a small niche to a serious market consisting of a broad collection of suppliers and shops. Items that have been previously thrown away are being fully recycled and will start a new life in one of many trendy shops.
The suppliers for these clothing stores are very diverse and include wholesalers, private individuals, Marktplaats (Dutch online market place) and other trading companies. Depending on the supplier, an item such as a dress follows a different administrative process, often with its own VAT and tax rules. Many shops also do consignment sales. This means that clothing from private suppliers is sold on their behalf and that the turnover on these items is split between the shop and supplier. Unfortunately, existing administrative systems do not offer a suitable solution for these processes and are often too expensive.
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The assignment for Outline Solutions was therefore to develop a new application that perfectly matches the administrative processes of vintage and second-hand clothing stores.
Realtime daily insight
The financial buffers of small shops are often very limited. An incorrect assessment of a tax debt or expense can therefore quickly get them into trouble. We therefore analysed which administrative processes are currently done and how they could be optimized. During this process we kept a sharp eye on how the administrative burden for shop staff could be kept as small as possible.
The quarterly VAT-declaration always turned out to be an annoying administrative task which was prone to mistakes. In addition, monitoring consignment items also turned out to be very important so that customers got more timely information and transparency.
Administration under control
The application developed in this project was an immediate relief for the employees in the stores. No more complex Excel sheets or separate cash books with notes. The app also made it possible to answer customer questions directly. Thanks to this application there is always realtime insight into the company's financial position and the financial reserves that should be kept.