Faster check-out work at Euro Shop

Euro Shop, which headquarters are located in Roeselare (Belgium), invested, for its seven stores, in new bar code readers and in a PoS system, to connect the shops between them, via its own network, and to the back-office server at the head office. Benefits have been visible very quickly: cashiers’ productivity and efficiency are improved; queues have dramatically shortened at check-outs…
This also led to increased customer satisfaction, improved stock level and inventory management based on reliable data transmissions and exchanges. Thanks to this new hardware and software solution, Euro Shop can benefit from a 100% reliable system, without any break-down, for a more efficient retail management.

Euro Shop is a major non-food retailer in Belgium. Founded in 1958 to sell superfluous US army stores in the city of Roeselare, the company soon expanded into a superstore with seven satellites: Roeselare (1958), Kortrijk (1979), Maldegem / Oedelem (1985), Ramegnies-Chin (1982), Sint-Niklaas (1991), Veldegem (1996) and Maldegem (2000).
The first historical store and the headquarters are based in Roeselare. Opened in 1958 with a selling surface of 400 m², it has now been 32.378 m² since 1991 and gathers over 200,000 references (excluding furniture, home equipment…). The number of PoS varies from one store to the other and goes from 5 to 15 terminals by stores.
Euro Shop’s assortment goes from clothing to kitchenware and from toys to consumer electronics, furniture…

THE CHALLENGE AND THE SOLUTION

Retail Automation can be very positive, especially when it leads to better logistics management and when it has direct profitable consequences on the productivity and efficiency of front and back-office operations.
Before the implementation of an IT system, “our employees had to calculate daily sales revenues manually, by adding the total of all the sales done throughout the day. This was of course very time-consuming. Periodical stock inventories were done manually too. Purchases and orders to suppliers were also becoming increasingly laborious, since the employees had to check, shelf by shelf, stock levels”, Mr. Kris Vanlerberghe, Purchase Manager at Euro Shop explains.
He adds: “at this time, all shops communicated with the head office and the other stores by telephone or fax, in order to exchange information on sales, out-of-stock situations or surpluses which was very expensive. All these data were then computerized by hand in our Roeselare head-office. It was quite a relief when we started to computerise the book keeping processes”, remembers Mr. Vanlerberghe.
The priorities on the way to efficient retail automation system were PoS software and hardware installation with the help of partners that would be selected only if they were able to provide Euro Shop with deep non-food retail know-how and experience, real proximity and a high-level of service.
Euro Shop started to work on an IT system in 1998 and began installing Datalogic Scanning products with satisfaction. However, as far as the software and communication part was concerned, the retailer was not completely satisfied with the solution proposed by its previous IT partner.
“Unfortunately, the IT company that Euro Shop has contacted was more interested in large retailers”, comments Mr. Chris Vandaele, MMPCS’s CEO, who has become the retail automation consultant at Euro Shop since 2004. He adds: “on the contrary, MMPCS is dedicated to small and medium retails like Euro Shop”. Very quickly, a solid relationship was established between his company and the retailer. “From this moment, our automation has expanded and improved very rapidly”, says Mr Vanlerberghe.
The PoS software solution which was implemented is EasyPoS, developed by MMPCS and especially dedicated to small and medium retailers to manage their check-outs, inventories and purchase managements as well as bookkeeping / accounting interfaces.
“However, before this become possible, MMPCS and Euroshop had to build a new network on which all PoS units would be connected to the store central server, but also on which all stores would be connected to the head-office”, Mr. Vanlerberghe explains. Once this was implemented and successfully tested, all information could be downloaded quickly and seamlessly into the shop’s central server and back office computer at the headquarters.

“Together with Datalogic Scanning”

MMPCS’s software solution was therefore perfectly fulfilling the retailer’s needs. However, no PoS system can be efficient without high-performance scanning equipment. “One of the decision criteria was its capacity to communicate efficiently with the new software to allow us getting more and faster dedicated information about sales, inventory and profits”, explains Mr. Vanlerberghe.
Moreover, with an assortment going from small and light items like kitchenware, batteries, candles, bulbs, clothes, kennels, games… to lawnmowers, garden and home furniture, bikes, TVs…, the stake was to find a scanning solution truly adapted to Euro Shop’s needs, where many barcodes also need to be read on PLUs.
The retailer has already been working with Datalogic Scanning’s readers for some time, which brought him entire satisfaction and needs fulfilment. However, when the new IT system was under project, and in order to select its new hardware solution, Euro Shop decided to start a benchmark with several barcode manufacturers in order to identify the best solution currently available on the market. The benchmark started in 2004/2005 with the co-operation between Euro Shop and MMPCS. It made use of several operational tests of scanning systems from a variety of manufacturers.
The selection of Datalogic systems was based on the scanning performances, on the high price to quality ratio and on the quality of services that could be provided during and after the implementation of the project. It appeared very quickly and clearly that Datalogic Scanning was still the partner that they needed: “it turned out that Datalogic Scanning readers were the fastest and the most reliable of all” and that it could answer all the other retailers’ needs.
Datalogic Scanning had all the arguments to satisfy the retailer’s needs: the company has a proven and unmatched experience on retail, and can offer the largest range available on the market. Moreover, Datalogic Scanning is the leader on CCD barcode readers, which is the ideal solution for this kind of stores where hand-held readers offer undergo frequent shocks and drops and when barcode labels are often damaged. In addition, no break-down or failure is noticed with Datalogic Scanning products, which is of course fundamental in a retail environment, where this kind of trouble is synonymous with an disruption of sales and as a consequence, of a loss of revenues.
The chosen solution was to install a fixed position scanner, Magellan 2200VS, combined with the hand-held QuickScan 6500 reader. Reliable and user-friendly, these high-quality scanners facilitate cashiers’ tasks and fasten check-out operations for a better customer service. “We use of course the Magellan scanner for small articles, coming over the PoS conveyor, and the QuickScan handheld scanner to scan bar codes on heavy and bulky items, which can remain in the shop trolley”, Mr. Vanlerberghe says. The QuickScan readers also enable our operators to read barcode printed on PLUs.
“Our scanners offer the most performing and aggressive reading of all the existing bar codes, even the most damaged and hard-to-read”, underlines Mr. Philippe Vellut, Key Account Manager Retail Belgium and Netherlands at Datalogic Scanning. The embedded software of the Magellan and QuickScan range has been upgraded to facilitate the interfacing and the integration on retail environments. Offering unmatched robustness and reliability, Datalogic Scanning’s readers are also faster than ever. This was immediately notified on daily operations: “indeed, the difference in scanning speed, comparing with other barcode readers, was the first thing that our PoS employees found out”, Mr. Vanlerberghe remembers.
Datalogic Scanning’s Magellan and QuickScan have been installed in February 2008, after an implementation period of 3 months, during which EasyPoS installation, testing and training to employees were done.

MAIN RESULTS

Thanks to this reading aggressiveness, queues have dramatically shortened. Combined with EasyPoS software, Datalogic Scanning readers lead to improved sales recording and information, also enabling Euro Shop, throughout its 7 branches, to operate with a higher productivity ratio by employee and to get better inventory management, as expected. It also facilitates daily operations in ordering administration and leads improved customer satisfaction. All together, this new automation provides Euro Shop with strong improvements in its processes, leading to lower costs and higher profits.
Euro Shop is planning to open new stores in the next months, in order to fulfil the market demand for this kind of stores, offering competitive prices, local services and large product assortments. And without any doubt, this development will continue in collaboration with MMPCS and Datalogic Scanning as premium IT partners: this is what we call a true partnership, like only Datalogic Scanning and its network of partners can offer to its customers!

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