Analysis: IT gives the high street a new lease of life

A major retail and supply chain systems integration project is expected to more than double click-and-collect sales at toy retailer The Entertainer

The picture portrayed of UK retail by national media and even government is bleak. Anecdotal tales of tumble-weed-strewn high streets were confirmed by a government-commissioned report from retail consultant Mary Portas, published in December .

Portas’ High Streets Review claimed that one in three of the nation’s high streets is failing. Some 10,000 shops have closed in the last two years, and 183 chains or independents entered administration in 2011, according to The Economist. Consultants at Deloitte predict more will follow this year.

Technology is often seen as a contributing factor to the decline: online price competition is undercutting the high street, or so the analysis goes. However, it need not be this way and news in February from toy retailer The Entertainer points to a brighter – technology driven – future.

The Entertainer is overhauling its retail systems to integrate e-commerce, physical stores and supply chain. The aim of the million-pound-plus project, which goes live in June, is to enable the retailer to offer a unified multichannel experience to customers.

The company’s senior management says this is essential if retailers are to meet customer expectations set by online giants like Amazon.

Company-wide view of inventory

The company is replacing its existing retail systems with Retail Suite from Itim and using Neoworks’ Hybris web platform and applications for its website. The systems refit will provide a company-wide view of inventory in near-real time drawing on electronic point of sale data from its 65 stores, so customers can choose how they buy and how the product will be delivered.

“If we have stock anywhere in the business we will be able to sell it to you whatever the channel you choose to buy it in – high street store, our online store or via Amazon – and fulfil it in the way that suits you: collect from any store; standard three to four working-day delivery, or next-day delivery,” Duncan Grant, director of multichannel at The Entertainer, told Computing.

One of The Entertainer's main competitors is Argos, whose sales have benefitted from its click-and-collect service, where a product is bought online and then collected in a nearby store.

Click-and-collect volumes have more than doubled for The Entertainer in 2011 and look like doubling again in 2012, said Grant.

Delays reduced from days to minutes

Its current click-and-collect service has a delay of two to three days. The new systems will cut this to about 30 minutes, turning each store into a “miniature warehouse”, he said.

“The system will make it easy for the store staff to know what they have to transfer to another store, and what they have to ship to customers,” Grant added.

The new system will also dovetail with the retailer's couriers’ systems and provide much greater order tracking detail, enabling the retailer to pre-empt any fulfilment issues before they cause delays, or email customers in advance if delays occur.