Lakeland is still family owned and run by Alan's three sons. Now based in large, modern, purpose-built premises in Windermere, Lakeland offers a range of over 4,000 products. There are now at least 11 catalogues produced each year which are distributed to over one million households throughout the world.

Not only has expansion grown with mail order; Lakeland has seen a successful development of its retail outlets too. The company now has 26 thriving stores, as far north as Aberdeen, to the tip of Cornwall in Truro, its most recent site being in Handforth.

Lakeland’s EPoS issues
The Lakeland estate has seen rapid growth over the last few years and with expansion came the requirement for a more flexible EPoS solution. The previous system, although only installed four years ago, had become inefficient in meeting Lakeland’s business requirements and couldn’t offer the necessary upgrades required to counter the problems associated with the growth of the business.

Lakeland needed an EPoS application that supported the latest advances including chip and PIN and euro compliance, together with efficient estate management, customer service and control of online sales information.

Why did Lakeland select DigiPoS?
Mark Goodfellow, retail operations manager at Lakeland, comments, “We selected DigiPoS as we believe it represents the best EPoS solution in the market and meets our very specific business needs. DigiPoS offered us a cost effective, well-respected EPoS solution which is extremely versatile in terms of its configuration, is aesthetically attractive in appearance and requires a smaller footprint than most other solutions offering stores considerable space-saving benefits.

“A main driver in our decision–making process was that DigiPoS were able to offer us a built-in resilience to the back office PC via a mirrored hard drive,” continues Goodfellow. “This ensures, should the hard drive ever crash, we always have a duplicate allowing us to continue trading without the loss of vital data.”

As a retailer, Lakeland is extremely customer-focused and DigiPoS were also able to offer dual screen capability at till point, allowing stores to maximise customer interaction at the PoS.

The DigiPoS solution
The installed solution comprises 180 PowerPoS 1Gz units, dual LCDs and in-store management PCs running Retail Business Solutions’ (RBS) java-based inventory and cash management PoS solution. This has been implemented in all of Lakeland’s 26 stores, each of which has an average of four tills plus a back office controller.

Lakeland is believed to be the first retailer to implement a full size 15” customer display system, which allows them to display customer receipts, product images and interactive in-house and supplier advertising videos.

The implementation process
Lakeland completed its selection process in September 2003. Its objective was to get its EPoS solution installed across its 26-strong estate in the early part of the year as this tends to be a quiet trading period and would result in minimal disruption. The first pilot implemented with RBS went live, on time and in budget, in its Solihull store.

After successful completion of the pilot, roll out commenced in January 2004, and was completed in just over eight weeks, meeting imposed deadlines.

Business benefits
“The new EPoS solution has quickly delivered tangible benefits for the Lakeland estate,” says Goodfellow. “We have already realised significant savings both in terms of maintenance costs and in reduction of EPoS downtime.”

Lakeland is a very customer-focused organisation and customer interaction is hugely important to them. Customers are extremely impressed with the dual
screen technology. They like being able to see items as they are scanned and the fact they are able to see full customer receipts in the same way that the cashier views them.

“The promotional opportunities available via the dual screens have been tenfold,” says Goodfellow. “We are now successfully able to cross-sell at the till point and customer feedback has shown that they enjoy becoming better acquainted with Lakeland through our company video.”

The move to touchscreen technology has had a massive impact on simplifying staff usage at till point and while awaiting chip and PIN accreditation, Swipe and Park units have allowed ease of transition by successfully educating both staff and customers about the new requirements.

Lakeland’s VPN allows access to the mainframe stock management system so staff can now gauge product availability at the till point. Lakeland’s mail order capabilities mean staff can also offer the option of having goods delivered if not currently in stock or too big for the customer to take home.

Space is at a premium in Lakeland stores and the pole-mounted screens have considerably reduced footprint and allowed for a much cleaner service point.

The overall effect has been improved customer service due to vastly improved store efficiency and productivity.

Next steps for Lakeland’s IT development
“New IT developments for the future are likely to be equally customer-focused,” says Goodfellow. “We are currently successfully trialling DigiPoS RF tills in our Nottingham branch. This will allow us enormous flexibility in terms of adding additional tills anywhere on the shop floor during peak times.”

The RF tills are due to be rolled out in 21 stores by 1 October 2004 in time for peak pre-Christmas trading period.

Lakeland have also been trialling DigiPoS RF HHT’s in its Stratford store and
are about to commence roll out across the estate, again in time for the
Christmas rush.

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