How Mastertools uses smart inventory management and dynamic pricing to maximize profit

Mastertools, founded in 2008, is a fast-growing family business specializing in high-quality power tools. From their offices in Groningen and their warehouse in Bleiswijk, they handle over 100,000 online orders per year, generating €36 million in revenue and growing more than 10% annually.

But behind the scenes, the purchasing process was reaching its limits.

With over 1,100 open backorders and error-prone manual workflows, it was clear something had to change. In May 2024, Mastertools switched to Optiply.

At Webwinkel Vakdagen conference, Business Manager Randy Hatzmann explained how this decision led to smarter inventory control and significantly higher margins.

How a static min/max model limited Mastertools' growth

Mastertools relied on a static min/max purchasing model within Exact Online for years already. As the business grew and the assortment expanded, the limitations of this setup became impossible to ignore. There was no way to dynamically adjust stock levels based on real-time demand, trends, or pricing.

Buyers worked mostly on gut feeling without clear triggers, leading to:

• More than 1,100 open backorders
• Overstock and dead stock of slow-moving items
• No visibility into supplier lead times
• Up to 20 manual purchase rounds per day

The lack of structure created high workload, delays, and a process that simply didn’t scale. As Randy put it: "Without price insights and automation, we were consistently bleeding sales. Sometimes we missed an entire order because one item was out of stock."

The team realized the current setup was costing time, accuracy, and most importantly, margin.

From complex systems to a smart and scalable solution

In their search for a solution that matched their scale and ambitions, Mastertools discovered Optiply. Where larger solutions felt heavy and rigid, Optiply offered clarity, speed, and flexibility.

Thanks to the plug-and-play integration with Exact Online, implementation was completed within weeks, without lengthy IT processes or complicated set-ups. The team now describes the platform as user-friendly and designed to help purchasing teams work proactively and strategically, not just reactively.

The impact of data-driven purchasing: control, growth, and higher margins

The switch to Optiply had an immediate effect. Instead of spending full days on repetitive tasks, the team suddenly had time to focus on strategic work. Purchasing advice became more reliable, operations ran smoother, and inventory management got sharper.

The results speak for themselves:

• 50% fewer back orders
• 21% less inventory
• 92% of purchasing automated

Randy specifies:

“Our two buyers now spend no more than 15 minutes a day on replenishment, thanks to 92% automation. It used to take them the entire workday. At the same time, we cut our backorders in half and reduced inventory by 20%.”

As a result of this automation, the team not only works more efficiently, but the focus is now on issues that directly contribute to growth and margin improvement.

Sharper insights and smarter decisions with dynamic pricing

Beyond automation, Mastertools wanted to integrate dynamic pricing into its purchasing strategy. By connecting Priceshape to Optiply, the team now gets real-time insights into their market price position. That transparency turned out to be a game-changer.

With Optiply’s price performance indicator, buyers can immediately see which purchase suggestions require a second look, and which ones can be pushed through automatically.

“When we know we’re in price position #1, we can confidently hit the order button 95% of the time,” says Randy. “The time we save goes into actively managing campaigns, price optimization, and international sourcing.”

Dynamic pricing and dynamic purchasing reinforce each other, leading to better margins, faster decisions, and higher availability of high-demand products.

From operational to strategic purchasing

With 92% of the replenishment process automated, the Mastertools team now has space to look ahead. The previous daily firefighting is gone and is replaced by continuous optimizations that directly improve profitability.

The team’s current strategic focus includes:

• Full EDI integration for automated ordering across all brands
• Expanding dynamic pricing to more product categories
• International sourcing to maintain and improve price position #1
• Smarter assortment planning based on data and seasonal trends

This partnership with Mastertools illustrates exactly what Optiply stands for: helping companies make the right purchasing decisions, fully automated. With smart automation, user-friendly software, and strong data integrations, Mastertools is now getting more out of every order.

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