ERP Failure Led Lofta to Cin7 and Eye-Opening Success

Based in Sorrento Valley, California, Lofta breathes life into its sleep-deprived customers with a streamlined and personalized sleep apnea diagnostic and CPAP selection process. And Cin7 breathes life into the unique e-commerce business.

In 2017, Jay Levitt founded Lofta after a very frustrating health journey.

“He had been struggling with some health issues for years and just couldn’t get answers. After doing his own research, he thought it might be sleep apnea, so he went to a doctor and then multiple doctors,” explains General Manager Boyd Goodson.

“He was referred to a sleep center where he did a two-night sleep study, which showed that he needed a CPAP machine. He had to search for a CPAP company, but once he got his CPAP machine, it was difficult to use. It took him about two years to be able to use the machine and sleep well.”

The health transformation was nothing short of miraculous but getting there had been grueling. Jay, who was in the mortgage industry at the time, decided someone needed to transform the sleep apnea treatment process. Why not him?

"The big idea for Lofta was revolutionizing the diagnosis and treatment journey to get people on therapy quicker—and stay on therapy longer,” Jay says. 

How Lofta Helps Customers Breathe Easier

Boyd says it was the first sleep apnea treatment company of its kind. Instead of people navigating the sleep apnea journey alone, Lofta guides them every step of the way.

"We start with sleep apnea education. Eighty percent of people that suffer from it are undiagnosed, so we help people understand what it is. We then have an easy at-home, FDA-approved sleep test device that we ship directly to the customer, and the device syncs with their phone. The one-night test, where customers sleep in their own beds, provides us with the data we need to help them.”

A customer’s doctor reviews Lofta’s sleep test results and provides a prescription. From there, Lofta’s experienced team members, including respiratory therapists, help the customer determine which CPAP machine, masks, supplies, and curated accessories (which they sell direct-to-consumer via the Lofta website) will work best for their specific diagnosis. 

Lofta also offers LoftaCare, an optional program that delivers on-demand coaching, monitoring, device adjustments, and compliance reports. This program, along with its complete sleep wellness service, has earned Lofta an amazing 90% CPAP therapy compliance rate (compared to the 60% - 70% industry rate).

“We control everything from the moment our customers start investigating whether they have sleep apnea to when they’re successfully using CPAP,” Boyd says.

On top of all that, Lofta has eliminated insurance challenges by operating as a cash-only business. 

“A process that used to take months and cost thousands of dollars now takes five days and costs $189.”

Lofta’s Exhausting Journey to Cin7

Not getting enough quality shut eye whether from apnea insomnia, narcolepsy, or other disorders increases the risk of strokes, hypertension, heart disease, diabetes, and more. Sadly, the NIH reports that a whopping 50 to 70 million Americans have sleep disorders.

When the COVID-19 pandemic shut down in-person sleep labs, demand for Lofta’s at-home solutions skyrocketed. But the business wasn’t built to handle that scale—at least, not behind the scenes.

“Lofta didn’t really have a true ERP. They were using a point of sale system that didn’t have great inventory capabilities. It just wasn’t sufficient.”

Boyd, who joined Lofta in 2020, and his small but agile development team quickly implemented a new ERP system. But just as Lofta was going through its own acquisition by Apria—a national home medical equipment provider—that ERP vendor was acquired and shut down.

“Once again, we had to find a different ERP system. We wanted a solution that would keep it simple, could keep up with our fast growth, provided service levels that were up to our standard, and that enabled us to customize pick, pack, and ship flows as well as reduced errors, so that we could get the exact equipment and parts our customers need so they can start their therapy right away,” Boyd says.

He adds, “It had to also be able to allow us to serialize the CPAP devices in case of recalls.”

Energized by Cin7

This time around Lofta cast a wider net looking at Fishbowl Inventory, Acumatica, Oracle NetSuite, and Cin7.

“Cin7 was the right choice for what we needed.”

Why? Because it ticked all the right boxes:

• Simple and scalable
• Customizable order workflows for healthcare compliance
• Seamless integration with QuickBooks Online, Shopify, and ShipStation
• Serialization support
• Real-time inventory visibility

Lofta’s sleep therapy services and CPAP devices deliver life-changing benefits to its customers—and now so does their ERP.  With Cin7, Lofta gained: 

• Native integrations to QuickBooks Online, Shopify, and ShipStation
• Direct access to in-depth, straightforward, and accurate reporting 
• Tailored pick, pack, and ship workflows for their unique healthcare needs
• Customized order management workflows, enabling Lofta to put orders into specific review queues (e.g., Ready Status, RX Required Status, and more) 
• More accurate tracking across orders 
• Faster shipping 
  • Less than one day for non-prescription orders
  • Less than two days for prescription orders 
• Automated fulfillment and reduced shrinkage
• Easy addition of three separate instances of Cin7 for sister companies
• Real-time visibility into inventory 

“With Cin7, we now have a single system that’s totally scalable. We can keep track of all customer orders and needs and keep them happy. Before Cin7, we had order delays and inventory adjustments, and after Cin7, we have responsive fulfillment operations and dead-on inventory.”

What’s next for Lofta? They’ll be broadening their offerings, including providing GLP1s (which have shown to help reduce sleep apnea) and oral appliances, with the intent of improving its customers’ sleep for better health outcomes. 

By plugging into Cin7 as its single source of truth for operations, inventory, and fulfillment, Lofta has the technology it needs to scale—without losing sleep.