Retailers fill their baskets with tech

It's been a busy week for the UK's shopping giants - the Retail Solutions show in Birmingham showcased new technologies for the sector, while a number of companies took the opportunity to unveil IT deals.

Boots is rolling out a new Extra Offers kiosk system for use by its 15 million Advantage loyalty cardholders to check their points and offers available to them.

The pharmacy-to-cosmetics retailer expects 1,200 units - supplied by IBM and Ingenico - to be installed in more than 500 stores by the end of August, replacing the original kiosks installed in late 1999.

The retailer said this represents a significant investment for Alliance Boots and shows its commitment to the scheme.

Midlands Co-op has installed a supply chain management system from Aldata to manage orders, store inventory, replenishment, point of sale and payments. The system will be supported by a project team of 12 staff and managers.

The retailer's head of IT, Mark Ruttley, said it had chosen an open, scaleable system that will drive "large business benefits quickly". He said it is a retail-driven project, with the head of retail in charge.

Beds and bedding retailer Dreams is about to go live with an ordering system supplied by K3.

The system which displays images of the products ordered on a terminal or tablet PC, tailored to the customer's exact specifications, is built on a Microsoft Dynamic score system.

The ordering system is designed for stores where the product set and site format do not allow all variations of the product to be displayed physically.

The idea is customers can establish exactly what they want without any mistakes entering the paper trail and retailers have a detailed proof of order if the customer complains that they did not receive what they ordered, thereby reducing markdowns on unwanted stock.

And finally, the UK's largest speciality jewellery retailer Signet has implemented a communications system from Triangle. The system, called Retail Manager, will support the retailer's 580 stores in the UK and the Republic of Ireland, electronically delivering day-to-day communications between the head office and each branch.

Signet senior business systems manager Barrie Showers said the new systems will simplify the management of common tasks within HR, payroll and store maintenance, enabling staff to spend more time on store presentation, merchandising and customer service.