O&CC adds ESL
Specialist outdoor retail group, Outdoor and Cycle Concepts (O&CC), has leveraged shelf-edge automation to improve operational efficiencies in-store, increase labour productivity and enhance customer service
As the UK’s largest specialist outdoor, run and snow sports retailer, O&CC, which operates Cotswold Outdoor, Runners Need and Snow+Rock, was seeking to put in-store customer service at the forefront of its retail offer across its group of brands.
O&CC wanted to enhance customer experience (CX) further, by improving store efficiencies to free up staff from time-consuming manual or purely operational tasks, allowing them to focus their time and attention to customer-facing activities. It partnered with Pricer to deploy a full chain rollout of cloud-based platform, Pricer Plaza, and a customised Electronic Shelf Labels (ESLs) solution, delivering automated, real-time digital pricing and promotions capabilities across its estate of 78 stores earlier this year.
Since implementation, O&CC has diverted upwards of 2,500 hours from retail tasking in maintaining the shelf-edge into customer service, which, in turn, has improved conversion rates across its ESL-enabled stores.
“Inspiring and supporting customers to get outside and enjoy the outdoors is our brand mission, and the services we build into our store offer are central to delivering this,” Chris Jones, strategic operations director at Cotswold Outdoor, said. “Our store associates – all passionate experts with a shared love of the outdoors – play a key role in delivering that customer experience, sharing their knowledge, expertise and passion to kit out customers with the equipment to make exploring the outdoors all the more enjoyable.”