StORES Magazine - August 2007 - (Page 65)

Longo’s in-stocks: 97% Up 1.5% for Longo’s. With help from Tomax, data now resides at the head office and all stores access the same data on the central server via the Internet. Big bang Longo’s has implemented several Retail.net modules in two phases. During the main phase, the item master for ordering was implemented in what Charleson terms a “big bang” approach. In May 2006, Longo’s “turned off our other item master and turned on Tomax Retail.net,” Charleson says. “We had to do this all at once because of the centralized approach we were taking. It would have been too much of a challenge to keep two systems up to date with some stores up on the new system and some still on the old system.” The second phase involved Grocery Gateway, Longo’s online grocery business. Serving the core of Toronto, this online shopping service takes customer orders and feeds them into the Tomax order management system. Items are picked at individual stores and orders are delivered the following morning. Grocery Gateway fills 2,500 to 3,000 orders each week. WWW.STORES.ORG “Longo’s stores are the locus of its inventory fulfillment,” Olafson says. “They are leveraging the dynamics of a successful retail chain to drive store visits.” After implementing order management with Grocery Gateway, Longo’s is “going to the next level” by creating an online system whereby customers can place an order that will be readied for instore pick-up. “If online customers want to pick out their own produce, they can do that when they pick up their order,” Charleson says. The Tomax system “gave us a single ordering process so that store personnel can scan any items in the store into the system, whether DSD or from our warehouse,” he says. “This saves time in ordering.” Longo’s warehouse also is benefiting: in-stocks are at a strong 97 percent, up about 1.5 percent since going to the new system. Longo’s will have the processes and technology for perpetual inventory in place within the next six months. It views perpetual inventory as being critical to its efforts to streamline operations and vie with competitors such as WalMart Supercenters, still fairly new to the region. Perpetual inventory “will allow us to plan out forecast and demand,” Charleson says. “Then we will turn on computer-assisted ordering.” Choose your modules Retail.net’s modules may be used separately or in combination, depending upon a retailer’s needs. Merchandise planning includes all aspects of retail planning; in-season merchandising includes revenue and inventory management. The merchandise management module covers inventory control, purchase order management and price maintenance; workforce management includes labor scheduling and operations support. The store operations module ranges from inventory control to receiving, store ordering and loss prevention. Customer management includes point of sale and customer loyalty. Olafson counsels retailers that an automation strategy, like much of anything else, “is only as good as the ability to execute. You can invest millions of dollars in solutions but you must be able to convert that into actionable execution in the store, which is a problem many retailers face. “Everything is connected in retail,” he says. “You cannot have a conversation about planning without considering its ultimate consequences at store level. Retailers are realizing that they cannot just purchase technology without adapting it to their people and processes.” Tomax attempts to “map out a strategic partnership that asks, ‘Where’s the business problem today?’ ‘How can we help today?’” Olafson says. This approach recognizes that we are going to need to work with the retailer’s other systems and the problems they already have in that diverse environment. “Over time, we can move more components into Retail.net and displace some of that chaos,” he says. “Everything we do is geared toward trying to get simplicity and effectiveness into the retail business, where so much complication exists.” StORES D. Gail Fleenor, a Virginia-based freelance business writer, has 18 years experience in retail and consumer research. STORES / AUGUST 2007 65 http://Retail.net http://retail.net http://retail.net http://Retail.net http://WWW.STORES.ORG

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of StORES Magazine - August 2007

Contents Executive Editor's Page President's Page Upfront NRF News Retail People Concept2Watch Supermarkets Cover Story Online Marketing In-Store Marketing RFID Data Management Payment Systems Software Loss Prevention E-Commerce Risk Management Communications Loyalty Marketing Human Resources Mobile Commerce Loeb Retail Letter Arts Update Point of View Advertising Index Retail Industry Calendar

StORES Magazine - August 2007

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