New EPoS solution modernises Slaters customer experience

Clothing business Slaters, which was established as a menswear retailer in Glasgow in 1973 and today boasts 25 stores across the UK, has implemented a new EPoS solution in order to improve the overall customer experience and assist with crucial management decisions.

Prior to doing so, Slaters used legacy retail software, but found it to be increasingly unreliable. The company therefore decided that it needed a new retail solution for their stores to bring the technology up to date and provide confidence that their EPoS solution was future proof.

After evaluating a number of products, Slaters decided that a best-of-breed EPoS solution was the best fit and chose Retail-J from Sanderson. Paul Rose, financial director at Slaters, comments: ““Retail-J gave us the assurance of a leading EPoS solution and it was matched by the strong skillset and experience Sanderson has in the fashion retail sector.”

Once the decision was made, Slaters wanted the new system up and running as soon as possible; Sanderson proactively managed the implementation and Retail-J went live across 90 EPoS in all 25 stores within just six months. Sanderson also supplied and installed new IBM hardware for each point of sale.

Implementation by Sanderson was not only swift but also very smooth. Standard Retail-J functionality fitted all store processes, with some additional enhancements from Sanderson enabling Slaters to capture deposit information for each ‘hirewear’ sale.

Immediately, the benefits were apparent in the stores, with the new technology enabling a far smoother transaction for the customer. Beyond that, the implementation has delivered wider business benefits – by upgrading to a modern, best-of-breed solution, Slaters is now on a par with other retailers using sophisticated point of sale systems. Promotions, loyalty schemes and special orders, for example, are simple to administer and manage. “Retail-J enables us to use technology to meet market demands in a way that would never have been possible with our old system, certainly not without expensive and time-consuming development work,” says Rose.

The system’s promotions functionality is intuitive and easy to use, and has transformed promotions management for Slaters, since any format can be set up quickly and simply. Slaters can use this to match a local competitor’s offer, for example. Alternatively, managers can use the data provided by reports to identify poorly performing lines and set up a short-term promotion to boost sales – a promotion can be set up on the system in a matter of minutes. What’s more, multiple promotions can run simultaneously for different stores or products.

Behind the point of sale improvements, other benefits have been seen with stock management. Real-time data enables Slaters to see which products sell best in which locations; automated store replenishment means top sellers need never go out of stock. “The comprehensive reporting from Retail-J enables us to react very quickly to sales trends within the stores,” confirms Rose. “We can see at a glance how each store is performing, right down to each product line.”

Point of sale data is fed continuously to the Retail-J server via a wide area network (WAN) providing real-time updates of central systems. An interface then provides batch updates of the EPoS data into Slaters’ head office system.

The implementation of Retail-J has meant that the company’s unrivalled customer service is now matched by sophisticated point of sale technology. The system is providing Slaters with real-time, accurate data which allows immediate management decisions to be made on business issues as soon as they arise.