Industry News - September 25th, 2009
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RETAIL AND TECHNOLOGY
NEWS
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Denim Enterprises Rolls Out POS, BI and Planning Software
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Denim Enterprises selects Island Pacific Planning along with the
AdvanceRetail POS system for installation throughout the company's
Australian and New Zealand locations.
Denim Enterprises also plans to implement the AdvanceReports Business
Intelligence solution, which provides detailed management information
reports on key aspects of the business operation. It also includes the
AdvanceCard Gift Card solution and the Island Pacific Planning
solution. These solutions are fully integrated with AdvanceRetail POS,
and the total system will be rolled out to all company stores over the
next 2 months.
Denim Enterprises is headquartered in Melbourne, Australia and operates
the G-Star Concept Stores throughout Australia and New Zealand. From
its conception in 1989, G-Star (Amsterdam) has been known for its
innovative and cutting edge style in the world of denim and luxury
street wear.
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Pier 1 Plans to Invest $7 Million on Technology Upgrades
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Pier 1 unveils its plans to spend $7 million on existing stores and
technology upgrades over the next year, according to Charles Turner,
CFO and Executive Vice President of Pier 1. Pier 1 reported that total
sales for its second quarter declined to $287 million from $320 million
reported in the year-ago quarter.
The retailer plans to cut back by closing approximately 50 locations
this year. In continuing rental reduction efforts, Pier 1 has reached
principle rental reduction agreements on approximately 30 percent of
our stores. These agreements will result in total rental savings of
approximately $11 million in fiscal 2010.
Beyond closing underperforming stores, Pier 1 announced it plans to
spend twice as much in marketing dollars in its third quarter compared
to its second quarter, in order to support the upcoming holiday selling
season. Its marketing campaigns include direct mail, Internet,
newspaper, and social networking.
According to Turner, "Our private label cardholder continues to be an
important target of our marketing efforts. Our rewards program
continues to attract new cardholders each month and drive repeat
purchases from existing cardholders. Our average ticket on the private
label card is three times the normal amount. For the quarter, sales on
the card were 26.1 percent of U.S. sales, up from 24.4 percent in the
year-ago quarter."
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1-800-FLOWERS.COM Launches on Google Android
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The 1-800-FLOWERS.COM mobile storefront is now available as a
downloadable storefront application for Google's Android platform. This
launch extends the existing 1-800-FLOWERS.COM mobile strategy built on
Digby's Mobile Commerce Suite Platform - which includes the mobile
commerce Web storefront and Mobile Gift Store applications for the
iPhone and Blackberry.
Customers are now able to easily access popular products from
1-800-FLOWERS.COM when shopping on their Android phones. Users can view
product descriptions and full-color images, select addresses from their
online account or local address books and place secure transactions
with password-protected purchasing.
"1-800-FLOWERS.COM is dedicated to creating an exceptional customer
experience," said Jim McCann, CEO and founder of 1-800-FLOWERS.COM.
Digby has enabled our customers to seamlessly view flowers and gifts
from their mobile device."
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Sears Builds Drop-Ship Supplier Network
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Sears Canada has teamed up with CommerceHub to provide supplier
integration to build its drop-ship supplier network. CommerceHub will
provide a direct connection to Sears Canada's existing order management
systems for processing purchase orders, order acknowledgements,
inventory and fulfillment data with drop-ship suppliers.
"We are building a drop-ship network as part of our online strategy to
increase product selection and inventory efficiency," said Simon
Rodrigue, Sears Canada AVP of E-Commerce. "We selected the CommerceHub
platform to reliably integrate our existing systems with new and
current suppliers."
Sears Canada now has the ability to bring on new suppliers and expand
product selection with all its suppliers without incurring inventory
and handling costs. The Sears Canada drop-ship supplier network enables
orders to be sent directly to suppliers, manufacturers and distributors
who then fulfill and ship the merchandise directly to customers.
The Supply-on-Demand platform also enables purchase orders to be sent
to each supplier with all the information required to create customized
Sears Canada branded packing slips for direct-ship customer orders..
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The Army and Air Force Exchange Service Add Task Manager
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The Army and Air Force Exchange (AAFES), which operates more than 3,150
retail facilities, adds Reflexis Task Manager. The retailer implements
task management in order to boost efficiency, ensure compliance and
improve customer service.
After a thorough review, AAFES selected Task Manager due to the breadth of the solution and its large installed base.
"The mission of AAFES is to provide quality merchandise and services to
military service members and their families at competitively low prices
while providing a dividend to contribute to morale, welfare, and
recreation programs for our armed services," said Darrick Smeby, Senior
Project Manager for AAFES. "Streamlining operations and improving
efficiencies are critical in allowing us to meet both aspects of this
dual mission."
Scandinavia’s Largest Department Store, Gekås, Adds WMS
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Scandinavia's largest department store, Gekas Ullared AB, implements
InVision Enterprise WFM for staff scheduling. The retailer uses WMS to
optimize the staff planning of 1,100 employees at Gekas' hyperstore.
The Swedish department store has decided to implement all modules of
InVision's employee scheduling software to cover the entire workforce
management process - from demand-oriented forecasting to scheduling,
optimization, integrated time management. The system also will be used
to monitor and manage schedules.
Using WFM, Gekas intends to match the deployment of its in-store
employees with actual customer footfall and thus improve customer
service while avoiding over- and under-staffing. Applying the
integrated time management features of the WFM solution the department
store will establish an efficient payroll processing system.
Additionally, employees will be able to enter preferred working times
online, and these choices will be taken into account within the
scheduling process.
InVision Enterprise WFM is scheduled to go live at the beginning of 2010.
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