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Case Study - Little London |
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VPN for competitive edge Little London is a small, but perfectly formed, chain of four upmarket boutiques. Like most small retail chains it had some very specific merchandising problems. Unlike most, it has found a technology solution that not only supports it’s merchandising and operational needs, but offers it the potential for commercialising its own system over time.
The company had various operational issues, some of which it was already addressing with individual technology solutions. For example, bar coding stock in each of its stores meant having four bar coders. Using the company’s AlwaysON VPN (virtual private network), the bar coding software can now be held remotely and users instruct it to print in store – just one small example of the way that the Little London has used its VPN technology to reduce cost and innovate.
MPLS IP technology for quality and securityThe AlwaysON VPN is built on the very latest high speed, MPLS IP technology – often known as a next generation network. It creates a virtual ‘pipe’ to each of the Little London boutiques, allowing information to be delivered in real time. The network itself is managed by AlwaysON, to ensure the highest levels of quality and security, whilst allowing Little London to decide which applications (software) to run across it and to configure it to meet the company’s own needs and preferences.
From the moment a customer walks into a Little London boutique, they are made to feel special. Each branch carries ranges of designer clothes, from Belstaff and Biba to Boss, available in limited quantities. Once they have sold, they are not replenished, ensuring that customers are highly unlikely to bump into someone wearing the same thing.
Networked stock management systemTo maintain this air of exclusivity, Little London subtly uses technologies in each store. To ensure having the right stock in the right place at the right time to meet the needs of the customer - an enduring problem for all multi-site retailers - Little London has developed its own stock management system based around a complex algorithm. If a customer wants a size or colour of garment not in store, staff can see information in real time regarding available stock elsewhere – and even where it is in that branch.
Each garment is given an RFID tag, which is monitored in store. This allows staff to identify immediately where a particular garment is in their own shop – or in another branch. In consequence, if an item is in the changing room of another branch, they won’t promise it to their own customer. And as some items are now offered for sale over the Internet (also hosted by AlwaysON VPN), on-line purchasers are not allowed to complete their purchase until the garment is back on the rails in store.
Highly advanced in-house developed stock management systemIf a customer does ask for an item which isn’t in stock, the stock system will intelligently calculate the best place to bring the stock in from, based on not removing stock from a branch likely to sell it, or ensuring that multiple items are taken from the same shop to minimise costs. If two people want the same item at the same time, shop visitors are prioritised over web purchasers on the basis that the garment can be tried on and seen/felt by the shop visitor and therefore less likely to be returned.
“This is really important when we find ourselves bullied out of a brand,” said Steve Waller – Little London MD. “In towns like Guildford, which have a number of up market retailers, the suppliers can’t let everyone be flooded with the same merchandise. But our customers trust us to provide them with the best of everything. Over the VPN, our assistants can offer them a 360o view of items held elsewhere in Little London boutiques, and bring it in especially for that person.”
This is made possible by taking digital images of stock as it arrives in the company’s London studio. These images are sent directly to the store and to the website, allowing store assistants to match customer needs and confidently suggest to them that something in the newly arrived range might suit them to perfection.
At the start of each season, the brand manager will have visited each shop to explain and preview the coming season’s range. The preview catalogue created for the season is made available over the VPN for reference across the season, with the stock photographed in the studio when it was initially bought.
Music piped over the VPNTo complement these ranges, and ensure the in-store ambience, even the music is piped over the VPN. “We used to have to purchase four CDs,” said Waller “one for each store, but now we share.”
The point of sale system (EPOS) used when customers purchase is another area that the VPN comes into its own. Little London has developed its own software after various attempts to use an off the shelf solution.
“If what we were looking for is out there, we couldn’t find it,” said Waller. “We once spent £35k on a system that we used for two years and then had to bin. All of the software manufacturers are geared at much larger operations which hold warehouse stocks. We don’t. Once our stock’s gone, it’s gone. And our sales staff have a passion for fashion – they have little time or inclination to dedicate time to computer systems, so it had to be really streamlined and simple.”
Secure cash paymentsThis software too is piped over the VPN for each boutique to share. Non-cash payments for stock are also made securely over the VPN. Because the payments are going over this VPN, the system only requires one line – previously there would have had to use one line per branch. Not only does this save money, but because the secure VPN is high speed, the customer isn’t held up at the till.
But the biggest difference that the VPN has made is on-line. Customers have come from as far away as Australia, and recent large orders have been received from Korea and from Bulgaria. The immediacy that the VPN allows into the stock system avoids frustrating consumer delays. Despite being a fairly recent comer to e-commerce, Little London’s on-line customers now account for around 10% of its business.
IP telephony is the next stepThe future will see Little London using the VPN to carry phone calls – IP telephony – driving further cost savings for the company, which is also seriously considering commercialising its infrastructure software.
Ostensibly, the VPN is just a hidden piece of technology, a simple pipe to get information from A to B. Yet the speed, quality and security of the VPN is underpinning a highly sophisticated customer experience, one upon which Little London is staking its brand.
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