RetailT
echnology
785 of which are in the UK. With such a large estate, ongoing investment in high quality and well-trained sales consultants is essential. The fast-moving development of mobile and
cloud computing technologies make it ideally placed to benefit from the growth in smartphone and tablet adoption, as well as other areas of consumer technology. But now, in line with its core market and a number of other High Street retailers, Retail Technology has learned exclusively that is rolling out its tablet devices to its own store staff. Paul Scullion, head of business intelligence
(BI) at Carphone Warehouse, revealed the roll out during an interview at the end user conference of BI software company, MicroStrategy. The retailer has been a MicroStrategy user for some time now and the work to mobilise store staff represents the next stage in development of an information sharing strategy driven by sophisticated key performance indicators (KPIs) that is designed to support all of its people more effectively in their operational and customer-facing roles. “As far as networking is concerned, it is
certainly a great opportunity to meet like- minded customers,” commented Scullion on MicroStrategy World. “It makes you realise that everybody is on the same journey, but at different stages. We can learn from those further along than us on that journey or share our experiences with those new to the BI path. Then there’s also the opportunity to find out about new capabilities of the product and best practice, like how stress testing the product might best help develop the next dashboard.” As far as the Carphone Warehouse BI journey
is concerned, Scullion reported: “In terms of the dashboard work we’ve delivered, I would say we’re quite advanced. The next step is how we can deliver that globally, across all of our business areas and build out a ‘self-service’ vision.” But the company operates within an extraordinarily complex and competitive, not to mention fast-moving market. In addition to mobile phones, the company’s expansion into other areas of technology means it
www.retailtechnology.co.uk
sells laptops, netbooks, tablets, music and gaming products plus a host of other technology products through its stores and online. As consumers become evermore price and value
sensitive, and are aware that when they buy a tablet, for example, they might be able to find a promotion that gives them the right data bundle too, or vice- versa, so Carphone Warehouse has a wealth of sales information to help shoppers choose the best deal for them. It has to decide which products to sell, how to sell them competitively in a low-margin, price sensitive environment, and how to carry out sales within its stores, some of which are quite small, and staffed by people more familiar with selling mobile phones. Given the nature of the cost driven UK market
and the opportunity that affords the retailer to offer promotions when it comes to buying the latest smartphones, tablets, laptops, broadband or gaming products, it would seem Carphone Warehouse is already excelling through its sales execution and customer service. But Scullion’s report demonstrates the retailer is certainly not resting on its laurels. Instead, with eMarketer finding 40% UK tablet sales growth this year compared to last year, it is preparing to embrace this emergent form factor as part of its store operations. “We’re about to launch MicroStrategy Mobile
The next step is how we can deliver that globally, across all of our business areas and build out a ‘self-service’ vision
as part of a tablet roll out programme that is going to put more information into the sales consultants’ hands in every branch,” Scullion told Retail Technology. “They can use it as a point-of-sale or demo tool for finding the tight tariff mix for the customer. The great thing is that consultants will be able to inspire customers over tablets, meaning we eat our own dog food.” The project will not only put state-of-the-art technology at the fingertips of those selling it to consumers and so improve service, but it will also support better-informed business decision making. “They’ll also be able to view their own KPIs
through MicroStrategy Mobile for internal operations,” explained Scullion. He said that staff will have some level of secure interactivity with
Autumn 2013 11
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60