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- Multi-brand paint retailer (name withheld)
Paint retailer replaces a 40-year-old legacy system with Zoho Creator and Zoho Books
A family-run paint retailer trading since 1960 moved purchasing, stock, sales, fulfilment and colour dispensing from in-house software to Zoho Creator, connected to Zoho Books. Sales staff save about two hours a day and the store closes about two hours earlier.
A family-run, multi-brand paint retailer in Kerala, trading since 1960. One high-volume store serves hundreds of customers a day. Its in-house software, built over four decades, had reached its limits.
The problem
The software had been outgrown
It struggled with newer hardware and statutory changes, and could not be used outside the store.
Packaged systems did not fit
Larger retail platforms would have forced the store to change workflows refined over decades.
Two invoices per customer
Ready-made and custom-tinted products were billed separately, with paper records and manual reconciliation.
What we built
Zoho Creator
- Purchasing and goods receipt with batch, expiry and MRP
- A QR code for every product, used for first-manufactured, first-sold rotation
- Walk-in, WhatsApp and web orders turned into picking lists
- A labelled colour-dispensing workflow
Zoho Books
- Sales and dispensing documents pushed from Creator, with no re-entry
- Regular and tinted items on one invoice
Before and after
| Area | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Core system | In-house software | Zoho Creator, available from anywhere |
| Stock rotation | Staff memory | QR batch data |
| Custom colours | Separate invoice | Same invoice |
| Accounting | Duplicate entry | Pushed to Zoho Books |
| Store closing | 8:30–9:00 PM | 6:30–7:00 PM |
How the project ran
- Process study: on site, to map each team's work
- Build: Creator modules shaped around existing workflows, then connected to Zoho Books
- Training: after hours, with Sunday mock days recreating about 250 real invoices
- Phased go-live: sales first, then cash, finance and purchasing
Results
Sales staff save nearly two hours a day, the store closes about two hours earlier, and each customer receives one invoice. The switch happened without closing the store.
Questions about this project
Why Zoho Creator instead of a packaged retail system?
It let us rebuild the store's proven workflows as they were, with cloud access and Zoho Books integration.
How was the switch made without closing the store?
Training and testing ran after hours and departments moved across in phases, starting with sales.
Have a similar business challenge?
If your business has outgrown spreadsheets or legacy software, talk to us about a phased move to Zoho.