Customer Story

Trading Card Company Trades In Lost Revenue From Unused Merchandise for Valuable Business Intelligence and Growth

Company Overview

MJ Holding (formerly known as Beckett Associates) is the largest North American distributor of trading cards (gaming, sports, and entertainment) and related trading card supplies. Its expansion has seen the acquisition of five companies since 2000, and partnerships with the strongest retail stores and biggest brands in the game. The company provides services to more than 7,000 retail store locations across the U.S. and Canada.

Problem

MJ Holding is a trend-based company that aims to consistently offer products that are relevant to current culture. Partners rely on MJ Holding to increase sales results from year to year by constantly innovating, while also identifying new properties to distribute and maximize sales performance of evergreen brands.

For a significant period, MJ Holding ran its business without the use of dedicated reporting or analytical tools. The company was pulling disparate data from numerous sources, resulting in multiple reporting silos. Additionally, the reports were pulled together in Excel, an extremely inflexible and static tool. End users were becoming increasingly dependent on IT to maintain the reports, which often slowed down the business. MJ Holding’s limited business intelligence (BI) capabilities, coupled with the need to be trend-based, resulted in its inability to effectively manage inventory. For example, the company frequently over purchased products resulting in several manufactured goods sitting in the warehouse for too long and becoming unused inventory. This led to lost revenue for the company.

Solution

Analytics8 knew MJ Holding had multiple data sources and was growing. The company needed a BI platform that would be accepted by its end-user community and capable of growing with the business. QlikView was the most effective solution for the company.

Analytics8 built a QlikView solution for MJ Holding’s high level executives in less than four weeks that handles over 15 million rows of data from multiple sources. Within 90 days, Analytics8 built QlikView applications that provided executives with financial information, gave the sales force reliable forecasting information, and offered line operators supply chain analysis. Other applications were also built, such as inventory analysis and store analysis, ideal for the industry in which the company operates.

MJ Holding’s business intelligence capabilities have grown tremendously. The company has a better business process for reporting and data analysis, along with realizing increased revenue. With QlikView, the company gained prompt visibility into what products were being sold in retail, what was being returned, and what products could and could not be used. It’s now faster and easier for MJ Holding to compile data, manage inventory, prevent merchandise from going unused, and take action on products that need attention.

When Analytics8 first engaged with MJ Holding, it had two major competitors. Within six months, MJ Holding acquired its two competitors and experienced substantial financial growth.

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