Mothercare tears up paper-based store comms

Mothercare has sped up communication times and boosted the effectiveness of marketing campaigns across stores by implementing a store management and communications application from Triangle.

The children's clothes and equipment retailer operates 225 high street and out-of-town stores in the UK, plus 319 franchises overseas. In April the retailer announced the acquisition of children's toy retailer Early Learning Centre, adding a further 210 stores to its estate.

With such rapid expansion, it became imperative that Mothercare had clear communication between the head office and all branches.

Mothercare project manager John Kerr recalled that the organisation previously used a combined AS400 messaging and paper-based system. The time it took for information to get down to the branches and back again limited Mothercare's ability to react in a targeted way to changes in local circumstances.

What was required was a system that could relay instructions, offers and stock data to stores in an up-to-date manner without removing staff from the shop floor for any longer than was necessary.

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Kerr decided he wanted to use Triangle's Retail Manager application because he had seen it demonstrated in The Bodyshop and New Look. The key functionality of the application suite includes store and task planning, business forms to do with accident and health and safety, POS graphics ordering and staff surveys.

He said: "We could see that the solution would fit for Mothercare. These organisations had issues not dissimilar to ours. The information they used was structured in a sensible way and passed at a speed stores could absorb. It was important that we could give staff enough support to improve their lives without overburdening them with data."

Kerr knew he needed a more integrated system but waited until the retailer updated its electronic point of sale (Epos) system in February 2006, so he had a more advanced platform at store level on which he could build one.

Because the Epos system, provided by BT Expedite, was designed with Retail Manager in mind, Kerr has been able to port management communications straight to the till-point. He believes he is the first retailer to do this.

The way head office instructs store staff has not changed a great deal. Most of the processes central staff now use are the same ones they have used for years but the speed of communication has been increased from a matter of days to become almost instantaneous. This has improved the consistency of message across the business and, at the same time, has allowed head office to be more targeted in the way it communicates with each store.

This should improve the effectiveness of merchandising campaigns and efforts to reduce stock wastage and price markdowns.

The whole Epos replacement of Mothercare's 225 stores cost slightly over £5m. The Retail manager system cost a fraction of that, at £250,000. Kerr believes once the dust settles with the ELC merger he will be able to extend the system out to those stores too.