Store name: Russo's Music
Number of stores: 1
Specialty: music store
Location: Omaha, NE
Established in 1971

Whether they’re buying, renting, learning, or repairing their guitars, it’s no secret why musicians in the Omaha, Nebraska, area choose Russo’s Music. Russo’s Music features the largest selection of guitars and guitar accessories in the Midwest, and both amateurs and professionals having been singing their praises since 1971.

Vince Russo began business in the basement of his house. And it was music to his customers’ ears when he opened his first retail store. Today, Russo’s takes full advantage of CounterPoint’s extensive feature set to help increase sales.

“We could have not grown without it,” says current owner Jim DeSchamp. Jim understands the importance of keeping costs down. “In our business, pricing is very competitive.” With CounterPoint, Russo’s can analyze their sales, control costs, and maintain optimum inventory levels.

“It helps to control what we need and when we need it.” And every retailer knows that lower costs means higher profits. Running a profitable music store requires a serious software solution.

“Synchronics [now Radiant Systems] is always improving the software for the better – I haven’t found anything else that does a better job of helping manage inventory and sales,” adds Jim. And CounterPoint does a lot more than inventory and sales.

CounterPoint gives Russo’s the up-to-the-minute information they need to keep their customers coming back for more. “We’re able to look up items and let our customers know what we have on order if it’s not in stock,” says Jim.

Russo’s uses CounterPoint’s comprehensive sales history to identify key customers and send out special promotions. And when a customer is ready to trade in that used guitar, CounterPoint identifies when the customer bought it and how much they paid for it.

CounterPoint also tracks Russo’s rentals and serialized items, manages repair work (using point-of-sale orders), allows them to issue store credits and gift certificates, and even lets them write custom reports to get the details they need on their students and customers.

“Our employees think CounterPoint is the best thing since sliced bread! All of the different lookups and reports make our business run so much smoother, so we have more time for sales,” adds Jim.

Russo’s has plans to jazz up their Internet sales with CPOnline, the web-hosting and ecommerce service. “This will allow us to reach sales outside of our area,” adds Jim. Plus they’re planning for additional locations and a warehouse to handle their online business.