Integrated retail management, EPoS and e-commerce systems streamline stock control at luxury retail group

Integrated retail management, EPoS and e-commerce systems streamline stock control at luxury retail group

UK independent luxury retail group, Flannels has upgraded its online store with Eurostop.

The new website, which was launched in April, now boasts an innovative dynamic design with more customer focused product information like zooming facilities, up to six images per product, detailed sizing information, care labels, and a fashion blog.

As Eurostop already supplies Flannels’ head office retail management and electronic point-of-sale (EPoS) software, the entire stock management process is now fully integrated across all channels. The new online store is more flexible and easier to maintain and update in-house than the previous one. It has been developed as part of a focus by Flannels to increase online sales.

Maturing system functionality

Richard Blank, financial director at Flannels, said: “When we launched our first online store two years ago, Eurostop did not offer e-commerce services. Now that they have the capability, it is a logical step for Flannels to have all our retail systems with one supplier. We have full integration between our head office retail management system, our EPoS system and now our e-commerce operations too. We are able to control our stock across our entire business much more effectively and we avoid the complication and technical issues that often come with trying to get different systems to talk to each other.”

Blank continued: “As well as being a great design, and easier for our customers to navigate, the new online store is set up such that we are able to manage changes ourselves, so we are able to populate the system with product details, make changes and set up promotions and special offers.”

Since its launch in 2007, Flannels’ website has been designed to be an extension of its already successful business and offers a capsule collection of the season’s men’s and women’s wear contemporary fashion and accessories from a selection of Flannels key designer labels. The Fashion Blog is designed to provide a constantly updated stream of fashion related news and gossip, and with links to products, it has also been a good sales tool for the site.

Adding front and back-end benefits

Lauren Shanks, website manager at Flannels, who uses the system on a daily basis, said: “The new website is much more dynamic than our previous site. There are no restrictions now on what we can do with the home page and landing pages. This gives us the freedom to run special campaigns and promotions whenever we want to with minimal support required. The new Fashion Blog has been a big hit with our customers, and certainly puts us ahead of our main competitors.”

The Flannels team is now able to manage the new transactional site internally, controlling which products appear on the site from within Eurostop’s e-rmis head office system. They are able to manage special offers and promotions easily from within the system. The e-commerce site has been designed by Eurostop working with the Flannels team to ensure that the instore customer experience is extended to the website.

Deborah Loh, e-commerce manager at Eurostop, said: “As more and more retailers are moving towards a multichannel strategy to reach their customers, integration of the different systems becomes a key issue. With our long track record in the fashion sector, Eurostop is able to provide a complete suite of systems to support retailers, whichever channel to market they chose.”