During late Spring 2009, independent shoe retailer John Ives of Woodbridge in Suffolk turned to Retail Technology Limited for the installation of their retail management system. David Ives, the person in charge, was very open when he talked to us some five months after having gone "live". We were interested to learn how David perceived the process and how he is benefitting from now having merchandising information at hand.

The John Ives Children's store in Woodbrige.

John Ives is an independent retailer in East Anglia running two stores.  We asked him about his experience to date with Retail Technology Limited.  This is what David Ives had to say:  

Why did you decide to opt for a Retail Technology system?  
For the first 6 years of trading in Colchester I used a modern "Arkwright" Samsung till which took ages to load up tiny bits of information and would only do ìbrand and colourî on a good day.  On a bad day it would seize up.  The three reports available were also very basic.  Clearly I needed to implement a better system but was reluctant to ìtryî another company after the terrible experience we had with a certain company that will remain nameless.   I therefore just installed an Excel programme but this proved to be time consuming and extremely basic.  By the time I finished inputting the information onto the spreadsheet, it was well into the evening and in no way could it tell me all things stock related at a touch of a button.
After my father convinced me that investing in a stock control system made more sense than splashing out on a MX-5, and correctly pointed out that you canít get many shoes in the boot and in any case a trailer doesnít look that great either!   I started looking for a system for both shops which would eventually link the tills to our existing e-commerce site. I could only really come up with three companies, of which Retail Technology was one.  The trouble I found with the other systems I looked at was that the software is written for all businesses in general whether you sell shoes are carpets.  One has to make do with non ìadequateî software which is evident right through the system from Sales to Reports.  Unlike Retail Technologyís system, where the software is specifically written for shoe and fashion retailers.  As soon as you start looking into what Retail Technology can offer, it is very evident that this company has ìshoe blood flowing through their veinsî and that they have thought of everything a shoe and fashion retailer would need.

What can you tell us of your experience of training, installation & getting up and running?
I was dreading this as the previous experience I endured wasnít a good one.  As my business was going from a paper based system this meant that the system arrived with no stock on it.  I was going to be responsible for the inputting of all the information.  I had three days training, but found that there was a lot to absorb.  
The support team are fabulous, patient, humorous and understanding.  However I feel that one does benefit if you have a little computer knowledge, but by no standard do you have to be a computer ìboffinî.
Once the system was installed and I was allowed to start working on ìmy systemî, I was pleasantly surprised how easy the system was to use and how easy it was to understand the way things like refunds, exchanges and end of day were performed.  Adding new stock was a little more complex but you soon get the idea and that too is extremely efficient and easy.  No, it really is.
For someone like myself, who is a bit nervous when working with computer equipment, I did find the installation of the hardware onto the shop floor a little more challenging.  
Running the system has been trouble free and the support and technical team at Retail Technology, are only a phone call away, no nothing to worry about.  

Major benefits?
Where do I start?  Catalogue Import  instant access to supplier information (barcodes, descriptions, cost and retail pricing etc) of many of the major brands including Ecco, Josef Seibel, Clarks, to name but a small few, made setting u our stock onto the system extremely simple
Being able to easily identify the following:

• Best Selling Brand by Style, Colour & Size
• Amount of Repeats Received/Transferred
• Busiest times of the day
• Stock levels: Know when to re-stock but without over doing it
• Sales by week to date, month to date, year to date on screen in an instant

The reports are endless.  I will be managing our autumn 2010 buy on the current information that is building up.  We will know exactly what has sold.  I used to get an ear bashing from my staff when I didnít buy many ladies size 8ís; however, this doesnít happen anymore since I ran a report on how few eights we had sold!!
The ability to identify if you have a particular size and colour at another branch, from the point of sale (till) is of huge benefit to us also.  
Having the system fully integrated to your e-commerce site, cutting down the amount of time spent managing the website.  As stock is sold and received, the system and e-commerce site is immediately update so customers buy what you have, not what you havenít.  This has eliminated the embarrassing emails confessing the mix up.  This has freed up much of my time.
I now have all the information I need without spending many hours retrieving it.  Which means that I can get out of the office and spend my time seeing and serving my customers.  
Would you encourage other retailers that are not automated to implement a Retail Technology system?
Retailers that are not automated seriously need to look at implementing a system.  There is no time like the present.  DO IT NOW!   I agree that it is a large investment but the rewards are high, as explained above.  The system will start paying for itself as you can see the amount of money you have tied up in stock.  You buy what is selling and donít end up having to put the unsold stock into sale.

What level of support do you receive from the company?
Any queries or issues relating to the Point of Sale (till) are only a phone call away, so if a problem occurs at the till when thereís a queue as long as the M25, you are guaranteed to have a support technician available that will sort the problem out.  I have only had to do this on a few occasions and these were minor issues.  For back office support there is an online service portal.  These queries are answered the same day.  I do find it very reassuring that the support technicians are only a phone call away should I have any problems.  

Would you recommended Retail Technology Limited to other retailers and if so why?
If you sell shoes or fashion and want to carry on selling shoes and fashion, this is the system for you.  
In just three months after installing my system from Retail Technology, I have gathered valuable information.  I am able to retrieve information I so desperately wanted before, in a format that is easy to understand.  Thereís one thing gathering this information and another thing in being able to understand it!!  Iím more confident now with the day to day running of our business since everything is being recorded.  I now know exactly what is happening in my business, my current stock position etc and i donít have to be stuck in the office for hours anymore.  I can leave for home more or less when my staff members leave!
Of course the information is only achieved by entering it in, in the first place so itís more important than ever before that your staff members are properly trained and that they know why everything sold must not be on a dump code.  

Any other comments?
My only suggestion to Retail Technology would be to look at offering retailers an off-site backup system.  As I flitter between the two shops, I am not always able to bakup the system on a day to day basis.  If there was a facility whereby the POS & HQ was constantly being backed up then the package would be complete for me.  I realise that there is an expense to this and would be happy to pay for this peace of mind.  
Ed:  RTL can now offer an on-line data backup service!