With more than 150 years of retail heritage, Robert Dyas is a trusted and much-loved name on the British high street. Operating 95 stores across the south of England and generating an annual turnover of £165 million, the retailer offers a diverse range of homeware, small electrical appliances, gardening products, kitchenware, DIY, and consumer electronics.
Since being acquired by the Theo Paphitis Retail Group in 2012, Robert Dyas has continued to evolve — blending its strong store presence with a rapidly expanding ecommerce operation to meet the changing expectations of modern consumers.
Robert Dyas set out to significantly grow their ecommerce channels without investing in additional distribution centres or taking on inventory risk. While they were already using dropship, they needed to accelerate supplier onboarding and improve operational efficiency.
Their existing system required building one-way, point-to-point EDI connections with each supplier — a process that was slow and resource-intensive, limiting them to onboarding just one or two suppliers per month.
At the same time, Robert Dyas aimed to expand their online product range to offer customers greater choice, while ensuring real-time stock availability updates and accurate delivery status for maximum customer satisfaction.
However, their legacy setup provided limited visibility into supplier stock levels and order progress, creating potential risks for customer experience as the dropship programme scaled.
Additionally, the accounts team faced challenges reconciling supplier invoices with customer orders, adding unnecessary cost and complexity to back-office operations.
Virtualstock’s Distributed Order Management Platform, informed by dropship best practices from leading retailers, is designed to directly tackle the challenges faced by Robert Dyas.
Through a single connection to Virtualstock, Robert Dyas was able to quickly and efficiently onboard hundreds of suppliers within a matter of months, eliminating the slow onboarding process that had previously limited them to just one or two suppliers per month.
Since January 2021, Virtualstock has onboarded over 600 suppliers to their dropship platform. This rapid scaling has enabled Robert Dyas to expand their online range from 16,000 to more than 300,000 products, introducing a far wider choice across new categories. Following launch, they experienced a 93% reduction in WISMO (Where Is My Order) calls and a 69% decrease in order cancellations.
The Virtualstock Platform provides complete visibility into stock availability, order status, and delivery updates—resolving the visibility challenges that had previously hindered Robert Dyas’ ecommerce growth. This transparency and operational efficiency led to a dramatic uplift in performance: dropship sales now account for over 60% of gross revenue and 70% of Group GMV, exceeding net margin expectations.
Additionally, Virtualstock’s invoicing module was custom-built around Robert Dyas’ specific requirements, streamlining invoice reconciliation and alleviating pressure on accounting and finance resources.
Simon Spencelayh, Managing Director at Robert Dyas, commented:
“Dropship is the fastest ROI in retail… I wish I’d met Virtualstock two years earlier!”