Automotive retailer Halfords is stepping up its in-store communications in an attempt to become more customer friendly and to support its multichannel strategy.
The company, which employs 12,000 staff, will incorporate new design features such as QR codes, barcodes, logos and colour to create more engaging shelf edge, peg end labels, promo shelf talkers and signage.
Joy Edwards, Business Process Consultant at Halfords, said: “The Episys software allows us to create colour signage and to incorporate QR codes, which are crucial in providing information at the point of need. Our processes will be streamlined as all ticketing management will come straight from the support centre and be printed in-store.”
ITC company Episys, who have provided solutions for John Lewis Partnership, Fortnum & Mason, B&Q and Sainsbury‘s, will provide support for the chain of 467 stores in the UK and Ireland.
The upgrade will enable Halfords to scale up in order to handle major seasonal promotions as well as additional stores as required.
Outsourcing label design will be a thing of the past and the deal will enable the majority of stores to print material locally – reducing the need for manual distribution of signage to stores dramatically.
Derek Buchanan, CEO at Episys, said, “In an omni-channel world, Halfords is putting the customer first and our solution supports that goal. Our labeling and QR code functionality allows much more information to be available to the consumer in a clear, concise and timely manner which supports Halfords wider customer communication activities.”
