INDUSTRY NEWS eBay ‘pops up’ in the capital
Crossing from the world of digital to high street shopping, online auction site eBay has opened a Christmas pop-up store in London’s Soho. Testing the possibilities for integrating in-store, mobile and online commerce, the space is showcasing 200 of the site’s bestselling items, although none are be available for shoppers to take away; instead, QR codes can be scanned and items purchased on the site’s ‘Buy it Now’ function. An area is laid out with tablet computers on which customers can search the full range of products listed online, and bid or buy in the traditional format. Open from December 1-5, eBay hopes the store will cash in on customers wanting to use Smartphone technology during the busiest window for online Christmas shopping. The venture marks the latest in a number of retailers’ initiatives to bring digital commerce onto the high street. Both Tesco and Ocado have experimented with virtual shopping “walls” through which customers can use applications on their mobiles to order groceries and House of Fraser also recently launched a store in Aberdeen offering free coffee and assistants with iPads to help customers browse products online. For more information visit
www.ebay.co.uk
Vestel to launch Servis into
UK market Vestel, an international manufacturer of white goods, is to launch the Servis brand in the UK in 2012. After acquiring the brand earlier this year, Vestel will be rolling out first in the UK and then to global markets. Product categories expected to be included in the launch are laundry, cooking, refrigeration and dishwashing. Vestel has recently acquired the Servis, Electra, New Pol and Atlantic brands from the Antonio Merloni Company of Italy. Distribution channels and routes to market for the acquired brands have yet to be announced. John Welbourn, managing director at Vestel UK said, “The launch of Servis is a big step for Vestel as it represents our first major open market retail brand. This is particularly exciting for us as there has not been a similarly significant launch to the UK market place in many years. We have identified this marketing opportunity through our work with specialist agency BrocklebankPenn who have been retained to help mastermind our launch strategy.” For more information call 01753 834552, email
lisa.holloway@vestel-uk.com or visit
www.vestel.com
Whistles selects Retail Assist to help drive
business growth In 2008, Jane Shepherdson, the retail visionary credited with transforming Topshop to a global success story, entered into an agreement to purchase Whistles from Mosaic Fashions. Her aim was to create an independent cutting-edge women’s fashion brand, able to direct its own future. To achieve this, it quickly became clear to Whistles’ senior management that they required dedicated IT solutions, mapped to the unique ‘retail DNA’ of the business. In July 2010 David Mold, former Aurora head of IT business development, was appointed as IT and logistics director. One month later, following competitive tenders, Retail Assist and BT Expedite were selected to provide supply chain and store solutions. “We needed specialists with expertise in their own fields, and with the ability to integrate with other parties. Pulling together as a team was essential,” explains David Mold. Retail Assist’s integrated merchandising and warehousing solution, Merret, had to be live by January 2011 and in advance of Whistles’ contract with its previous supplier ending, to coincide with the opening of a new Whistles warehouse. However, given the highly seasonal nature of Whistles’ fashion business, purchase orders had to be raised using Merret only two months after project kick-off in November 2010, to order Spring/Summer 11 stock. Retail Assist’s
Merret.NET supply chain management
6 | Department Store Buyer |
DepartmentRetailer.co.uk
application was required to drive the multichannel business forward through interfaces to Whistles’ e- commerce website, and EPoS solution. The solution supported both merchandising and warehouse management and had to be live by February in Whistles’ shops and store systems in multiple concession partners. Extensive support services were also designed and delivered to underpin the new IT infrastructure, including hosting Whistles’ new core servers from Retail Assist’s Northampton Data Centre and technical and application support from Retail Assist. With only three in-house staff looking after IT, e- commerce, logistics, payroll and finance systems, it was essential that any systems were low maintenance. The successful reduction in the number of interfaces enables this small team to manage successfully. David Mold commented: “From the new system, we will get clear SLA-based reporting, so the ability to introduce these service levels is one of the major improvements over the previous system. As our new solution was designed for us, responsiveness to issues has increased, and we expect we’ll be able to drive call volumes downwards.” For more information call 0115 853 3910, or visit
www.retail-assist.co.uk and
www.merret.com
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