How TeSelskabet Simplified its Inventory Management and Lifted Sales by 25%

TeSelskabet is not your average neighborhood tea shop. Nestled in the Danish neighborhood of Gentofte, TeSelskabet is a traditional tea shop with a modern twist. Its store has become a community space for locals, where customers can explore an impressive range of exclusive tea blends, flavors, coffees, and aromas. 

This direct-to-consumer brand began selling online with Shopify. On the tailwinds of its ecommerce success, TeSelskabet chose Shopify POS to power its expansion into physical retail. Since unifying online and in-person sales with Shopify, TeSelskabet has enjoyed: 

• Less time spent manually categorizing and managing inventory 
• Simpler financial reporting with Shopify Payments
• A 25% increase in sales

Challenge: complex inventory needs and time-consuming processes

Inventory is the foundation of any retail business. To achieve its goal of reaching customers across Denmark and expanding into new markets, TeSelskabet first needed to fix its stock management process. Having tried several different tools, the team was still resorting to time-consuming and manual processes to manage its stock. 

With each tea blend using a different mix of ingredients, TeSelskabet’s inventory needs were complex. The brand needed an inventory management tool that would allow them to track which ingredients were in each blend, create categories, and keep their online and physical store’s product catalog organized. 

Tracking which ingredients were in each tea blend was challenging to manage for both an online and physical store without resorting to manual entries. We had tried different tools, but nothing was working.

Solution: automating inventory management for more efficient operations 

Ever since TeSelskabet started its online store with Shopify 8 years ago, the team appreciated being able to create product categories, add tags, and keep the browsing experience organized for online shoppers. 

When Shopify POS launched, Lars knew its ability to pull their existing product categories and tags would help them virtually eliminate manual processes and track food ingredients more effectively. With the Danish Health Authority requiring food businesses to maintain an audit trail for the ingredients they use, this was essential. 

By using Shopify for both its online and physical store, TeSelskabet’s inventory follows the same logic online and in-store. With the help of Shopify certified apps Stocky and Bundles, TeSelskabet’s product categories, ingredients, tags, and bundles are bi-directionally shared between their ecommerce platform and POS system. The brand now has a single source of truth for inventory. 

Since Shopify Payments launched in Denmark, the brand has also enjoyed less back-and-forth with third-party payment processors, faster payouts, and a unified view of its finances from Shopify’s back office. This has significantly reduced the time spent managing finances and  accounting.

Using Shopify POS and Shopify Payments was a real turning point for us. Our operations and customer experience are more efficient today than they used to be, and getting started was easy.

Results: focusing on growth, not managing inventory 

TeSelskabet’s team now spends far less time managing inventory across its sales channels. The time they used to spend controlling inventory and tracking ingredients is now spent developing new and exciting tea blends for its customers.

The brand’s stable foundation has enabled them to serve customers throughout Denmark and explore local partnerships with up-and-coming fermented beverage companies and bakeries like Empirical Spirits, Muri Drinks, and Copenhagen Coffeelab.  

TeSelskabet’s team now has more time to focus on its customers, its product line, and its growt—and if the results of their efforts are promising. Since unifying its sales channels with Shopify, TeSelskabet has seen a 25% lift in sales. 

Our online and in-person sales are now all unified with Shopify. We have a variety of apps that all run seamlessly within Shopify, so we never need to jump from one program to another. This saves us a huge amount of time and allows me to feel in control of my own brand.

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