Multi-Branch ERP System for Optical Retail

Optical retail has one of the most complex operational flows in retail: customer eye examination, prescription, frame selection, lens ordering, fitting, delivery, warranty management and servicing. All of these steps must be carried out consistently across 20+ branches at the same time.

Existing solutions fell into two categories, and both fell short: either general-purpose ERPs (SAP, Logo, Mikro), which did not support sector-specific workflows and therefore required heavy, costly customisation; or small-scale sector software written for a single branch, which could not meet requirements such as multi-branch coordination and modern integrations (e-commerce, online appointments, a customer portal).

Our client was looking for an ERP that understood the realities of the optical sector, offered a modern cloud architecture and could be adapted to its own processes. Not generic — one that knows the sector.

At the start of development, we visited 12 different branches on site with our client and conducted 40+ hours of interviews with opticians, the sales team, warehouse staff, accounting and management. This process surfaced all the 'small but critical' details of the optical sector that are hard to digitise.

The resulting platform is a modular, cloud-based ERP. Its main modules: Customer Management (including medical history), Examination and Prescription (electronic record forms for ophthalmologists), Stock Management (frames, lenses, contact lenses — tracked per unit), Multi-Branch Synchronisation (each branch sees its own stock while head office has the full picture), Current Accounts (integration with lens laboratories), Order Tracking (lens production flow), Warranty and Service, and Customisable Reporting.

The cloud infrastructure was built on PostgreSQL + Supabase. Thanks to the multi-tenant architecture, the same codebase can also serve other optical chains. The React frontend was designed offline-first: when a branch loses its internet connection the system keeps working, and it synchronises once the connection is restored.

Integrations: order submission to lens production laboratories via EDI, e-commerce site integration (online product catalogue), an online appointment system (customer portal), e-invoice and e-archive, and bank POS integration. SEO work ran in parallel, with local SEO and schema markup implemented for the multiple branch locations.