48 countries, 30 languages,
36 currencies

Mothercare International: A Case Study

Mothercare is a household name in the UK. With over 230 UK stores located out of town and on high streets, they offer the widest range of clothing for mums-to-be, babies and pre-school children, together with toys and hardware such as pushchairs, carrycots and car seats for the pre-school child in the UK.

Mothercare aims to be the leading specialist retailer in the UK and internationally. Overseas, Mothercare operates franchises in 48 countries primarily in Europe, the Middle East and the Far East.

Sustaining a uniform corporate image across so many countries is not an easy task, particularly for the wide range of point of sale (POS) that is required in so many languages. Some countries have one to two shops whilst others have up to forty. The cost of producing local accurate POS was becoming increasingly expensive and difficult to sustain.

So when Mothercare introduced their On-line Data Management System (ODMS) for the upkeep of their catalogue and marketing images, it presented an easy vehicle for providing the franchises with a library of POS for their shop display needs.

For many years now, Eastman-POS has been producing the shelf edge labeling for the UK stores. By taking buyer spreadsheets, Eastman-POS were able to automate the type setting and print sets of labeling specific to the grade of store. It was a simple step to prepare this data for online access by the overseas countries.

What was needed was an easy way for franchises to select and print any POS they chose when accessing the ODMS. Mothercare did not want a library of POS images but a data set of all product details that would be merged with locally held currency templates to suit the local POS print requirement. Five A4 stationery types have been designed with pre-printed areas in the corporate livery and perforated to suit the various POS sizes. Franchises overprint the product details and prices for all the sizes of POS they require using their own printers.

There were three important considerations. Firstly, that online time would be kept to a minimum; secondly, that downloaded details could be translated into the local language and thirdly, that the whole process was simple to use.

Eastman-POS provided the franchises with a net.tickIT web system containing all the local POS templates, currency formats and brand graphics. Updates to products are published as the new season's lines become available.

Once net.tickIT was installed, the franchisee went online to select their currency templates icon. As the products are automatically grouped by category and linked to their correct template style for viewing, it is an easy task to translate and edit in the net.tickIT WYSIWYG ("what you see is what you get") screens.

Each country then add their local retail prices prior to print. net.tickIT will collate like POS sizes together and compile full pages before printing. This minimises stationery changes and wastage.

net.tickIT is a versatile package and will install on Microsoft® Windows platform. It will print to any printer recognised by Microsoft® Windows.

The net.tickIT system is currently installed in Bahrain, Belgium, Brunei, Cyprus, Czech Republic , Gibraltar, Greece, Hong Kong, Ireland, Kuwait, Lebanon, Malaysia, Malta, Nigeria, Oman, Poland, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovenia, Spain, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, U.A.E. and China.

The reception to this approach has been extremely enthusiastic. The whole cycle of POS creation and print has become streamlined, locally accessible and cost effective.

 

"the use of the net.tickIT system has made it so easy for all our franchises around the world to ticket all shelved and hardware products, a very user friendly system. Using net.tickIT gives a professional, consistent look across the international business, without the need of the franchises to use external printers which would prove too expensive for the low quantities required."

 

The management benefits are considerable, these include:

• Control over corporate image worldwide
• Huge savings for local ticket production
• Ease of use with little training required
• Single source for product descriptions