Retail Week Technology Awards: the winners

On Tuesday retailers and technology suppliers came together to celebrate the industry’s achievements in the past year.

In its first year rebranded as the Retail Week Technology Awards, we are delighted to announce the winners, who between them have shown how technology can be used for maximum impact across all operational areas of a retail business.

While cash for IT investment is harder to come by, the winning implementations and projects have shown how the return can be both quick and substantial when new systems
are closely linked to business needs.

The night was rounded off with two awards for the team and individual who have made huge contributions to the businesses in which they operate. They have raised the profile of IT, not just within their own organisations, but also the wider retail industry.

Employee communication or training

Value retailer Peacocks has changed the way it does business with the introduction of the Retail Manager suite to act as a single point for all store communication, tasks and feedback. As a result, it has achieved significant operational efficiencies with the system, removing millions of sheets of paper from the business each year, achieving 100 per cent product recall compliance and increasing the availability of staff on the shopfloor.

The BT Multichannel Integration Award

With the introduction of self-service kiosks, Kiddicare has ensured a consistent shopping experience for customers, whether they use its
website or come to its Peterborough superstore. With many of the items it stocks being bulky, customers can come to the superstore and try products out before ordering them at a kiosk for home delivery. The introduction of a new warehouse management system last year, which can cope with such multichannel orders, has also positioned the company well for growth.

Internet Technology

Since its launch in December 2007, New Look’s first transactional website has experienced substantial growth, and proven that web sales can work for value fashion. The site now records between 850,000 and 1 million hits a week and, proving that it hasn’t just cannibalised sales, many of the top sales postcodes are in areas where New Look doesn’t have stores. It worked with E-InBusiness to create the site, and since its launch significant extra functionality and categories have been added.

Loss prevention

Makro UK has reduced shrinkage and increased on-shelf availability and sales with a three-tier security protection programme delivered by Alpha High Theft Solutions, utilising a variety of security devices. In addition, the retailer is now able to display high-value non-food goods in an open environment, without incurring the risk of theft, and no longer has to defensively merchandise these items.

International solution

The 1,000-store Douglas Perfumeries chain is in operation across Europe as well as the US. Working with GK Software, it has replaced a number of point-of-sale systems with a single platform across the business. The new system has been designed to adapt to regional needs while retaining central control. As well as being rolled out quickly, the system has much lower maintenance and support costs.

The GK Software Project Implementation of the Year

Project Crystal was initiated by Shop Direct Group to deliver the integration of Empire Stores UK within six months, after agreeing to purchase the company in January last year. Aside from setting up the new brand on Shop Direct’s IT platform, the project involved the migration of all customer data, the relaunch of websites and stock transfer.
All this occurred while the retailer managed to retain Empire Stores’ customers and increase the number who placed orders.

Responsible technology initiative

Shop Direct Group no longer has to print and store copies of the many catalogues it produces within its contact centre operation, after introducing Virtual Books from CDMS.

EPoS Initiative

Multichannel nursery retailer Kiddicare has successfully introduced self-service order and payment kiosks to its superstores, working with Protouch. Now more than 50 per cent of its customers use the kiosks, and as well as improving service, they have increased shopper spend.
Highly commended Working with BT Expedite, JJB Sports has rolled out new tills to more than 400 stores for quicker transactions, improved security and a significant reduction in IT support costs due to increased reliability and remote monitoring.

The Argility Customer Technology Award

A Suit That Fits is a bespoke suit retailer with a difference. Using innovative technology through its website, it generates 20 per cent of its orders purely online, allowing customers to measure themselves and design their own suit. Its Suit Wizard allows customers to refine their choice from more than 40 billion combinations. 36 per cent of customers reorder online within six months of their first order.

Highly commended Mothercare is allowing customers to find answers to common questions on its website with the introduction of the Ask Carrie tool, using technology from Transversal. The self-help tool allows customers to ask questions in their own words, and the retailer also plans to roll out the application for staff use, to act as a central knowledge base for both the Mothercare and Early Learning Centre brands.

The Home Delivery Network Supply Chain Excellence Award

Asos continues to keep pace with the staggering growth of its business, partly through the supply chain system it has introduced from Metapack to help manage its carrier relationships. It has improved standard delivery from three to five days, to two to three days, and brought in next-day delivery on Saturdays. The e-tailer has also moved from using two carriers to four, and is planning further delivery improvements.

IT team of the year

Asos’s IT team has to contend with supporting a business that’s growing by more than 100 per cent year on year, delivering multiple new applications and running a website that is the retailer’s only shop window. In 2008, the headcount of the team grew by more than 700 per cent. Despite these challenges, the team has delivered on the business’s needs - in fact, the team was honoured at Asos’s internal awards with a Best Team in the Company award. It has also achieved a high level of integration with the rest of the business: all directors and departments are encouraged to have direct contact with IT.

Outstanding contribution award

Sainsbury’s IT and change director Angela Morrison is not one to court publicity, but for the past four years she has quietly led the transformation of the IT function within the business. Soon to leave her role for a career break, it is the perfect time to acknowledge her achievements. When she arrived in 2005, the retailer’s IT systems were being discussed in the press for all the wrong reasons. Since then, she has integrated an outsourced IT department back into the business, and created a technology platform to support growth. She has also taken on extra responsibilities including managing change, and sits on the grocer’s operating board.