BUT improves omnichannel capabilities
Max Dragone, CIO of BUT
Openbravo’s architecture has allowed us to simplify the overall IT infrastructure and achieve greater agility and flexibility required to improve our shopping experience. Specially for the stores, it simplifies the overall IT complexity , since it allows us to avoid the usage of local store servers.
40 years of retail leadership in the home furnishings, appliances
More than 40 years present in the market, BUT is a leading retailer with over 300 stores in furniture, decoration, home appliances and kitchens. BUT presents a highly specialized offering consisting of a wide range of products and services at a highly competitive price, aimed at offering the best customer service in both online or physical channels and in its two store formats, BUT Classiques and BUT Cozy.
Challenges
Improve support for BUT’s omnichannel strategy and deliver enhanced services to customers
The company needed to offer an enhanced shopping experience and support the growth of its stores and online sales. BUT aims to offer more convenience and speed to customers while helping the company steadily progress in its omnichannel strategy.
Gain IT agility and lower maintenance complexity
Due to rapidly changing market requirements, BUT needed a new store solution that would provide greater agility and adapt to its business-specific requirements, scale up across new and existing locations faster and more cost-effectively, and reduce the maintenance complexity and its associated costs.
Facilitate integration with existing legacy systems
BUT’s processes were previously running on a number of legacy systems that required a new platform with much stronger integration capabilities.
Max Dragone, CIO of BUT
Openbravo has become a key tool to progress in our omnichannel strategy and so our stores are now able to play a new role in serving the increased online demand by acting as fulfillment points. It is also central for delivering the type of in-store experience our customers demand, including personalized assistance everywhere in the store as well as more convenient delivery and payment options at the checkout. It also opens the door to build future new contactless scenarios, which is today becoming a priority for retailers for safer in-store experiences.
Solution
Comprehensive point of sale functionality adapted to different in-store scenarios
Openbravo Store provides BUT with a comprehensive point of sale component whose flexibility allows BUT to support different in-store scenarios. This includes standard checkout terminals where all types of payments are executed; dedicated loyalty terminals capable of validating customer eligibility for a Cetelem card in real time; and dedicated post-sale terminals for easy management of returns and exchanges.
Mobile-enabled clienteling solution
The web and mobile POS solution is being rolled out in stores. Associates are equipped with mobile devices and can now help customers more effectively with a clienteling solution that gives them access to the complete point of sale functionality plus additional features for an enhanced assisted sale. Features such as fast and intuitive catalog navigation, access to multiple product images and product reviews, and the ability to accept a payment or book the order to be paid at the checkout counter.
Associates can, at any moment, project the product images on larger screens distributed across the store instead of having to view it on a small screen, thus delivering a more convenient experience to customers. The solution also leverages Openbravo’s skinability capabilities, which makes it possible to add, rearrange, hide or resize POS user interface elements in order to adapt it better to customer experience needs.
Multiple delivery options and payment methods at the point of sale
Customers at the checkout can now choose from various delivery options such as Pick & Carry, transport (with the possibility of renting vans or trucks directly from the POS), home delivery (delivery at a date) and multiple payment methods including credit cards, Cheque Cadeau, Cetelem (micro credits), Solde Client, and gift cards and certificates.
Order preparation and management from mobile devices
In the case that an order must be prepared in the store warehouse, the associate at the checkout counter can automatically launch the order preparation process. The order goes directly to the team in charge of preparing orders at the back office. The solution offers an intuitive and easy-to-use functionality for managing the whole preparation process. Related tasks such as picking can be easily assigned to associates on their mobile devices till the task is finally completed and the merchandise is delivered either to the customer or to the delivery zone for transportation. Big screens in the preparation zone let customers know when the order is ready to be picked up.
Omnichannel execution
Stores can now receive online orders which can be prepared using previous order preparation capabilities to respond more quickly and effectively to omnichannel scenarios including Click & Collect, Buy Online Home Delivery, and Curbside Pickup.
Associates in the preparation zone are informed about new incoming orders on their terminals so they can identify and prepare them more easily.
The results
Deployed in more than 300 stores
The solution has been rolled out in more than 300 stores. BUT utilizes over 4,000 POS terminals and has over 7.2 million customers.
Enhanced customer service
In-store associates can now deliver more personalized and convenient services to customers from anywhere in the store. From registering an order in a department that will be paid later to assisting them from mobile devices with comprehensive clienteling capabilities or managing returns and changes more easily in dedicated terminals. Multiple delivery and payment options also provide a more convenient checkout experience.
Effective omnichannel support and faster order preparation
Registered online orders are now directly received at the stores, which can act as fulfillment centers. Dedicated staff at the back office can easily identify and manage these orders to ensure they are delivered on time.
In-store and online orders can be now prepared faster thanks to an intuitive and easy-to-use order preparation functionality, with tasks such as picking that can be executed from mobile devices. Associates at the checkout counters can also automatically launch the order preparation, thus reducing the waiting time for customers.
Faster rollout of new products and promotions
Openbravo’s unique architecture facilitates a faster rollout of new products and promotions across locations, which can now be updated centrally and transferred to all stores in near real-time.