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Red Cross invests in Epos system
Charity shops go state of the art

By Julian Goldsmith

Published: Monday 14 July 2008

The British Red Cross has signed a deal with Cybertill to install up to 430 electronic point of sale (Epos) terminals as part of a £12m store refresh and expansion over five years.

Currently each store at the charity's retail outlets has electronic tills rather than an integrated Epos system. The new tills will be able to provide much more sophisticated and timely data about sales and stock.

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British Red Cross head of trading Sue Azzopardi said: "The tills are as state of the art as our budget would allow because we felt it would be better to go for the best rather than have to improve the system when required later."

Azzopardi told silicon.com the tills will also act as a communication tool to staff on the shop floor.

In addition, data will be sent back to head office from the tills indicating how fast certain products are selling and others less so. Azzopardi said this will allow the retailer to manage stock levels and pricing in each store more effectively.

The charity retailer is about to go into pilot with the system this month with a full roll out expected by March 2009.

The till refresh, which is expected to cost just over £1m, coincides with store refurbishment scheme that will have 87 per cent of the stores on brand by the end of 2009.

Azzopardi said: "We have detected a low awareness of Red Cross retailing in the areas where we have a point of presence. We will be training staff to embrace the new brand."

The refurb is also driven by the expansion of the store portfolio by 110, with a net increase of 50 additional stores.