Wellworths enjoys sales and margin uplift with Immediate Impact from Episys

This article is brought to you by Retail Technology Review: Wellworths enjoys sales and margin uplift with Immediate Impact from Episys.

Wellworths, a general merchandise store based in Dorchester, has boosted sales and margin following the implementation of Immediate Impact, a solution aimed at retailers who need to produce professional signage, without the overhead of an IT infrastructure, from global information technology services company Episys. Wellworths implemented the Episys solution following its opening in March, on the site of an old Woolworths store, by Claire Robertson, who was previously the Woolworths store manager, in a bid to help the store produce effective, low cost professional signage.

Claire Robertson, Store Manager, Wellworths, said, "When our store first opened, labelling and point of sale was a huge issue for us, as this was an area that Woolworths was extremely good at.   Signage was either packaged up and sent to us, or we just printed it off the system, and I must admit that was one of things that I really missed.  Before implementing Immediate Impact, all we could manage at Wellworths was shelf edge labels from our system, but that was it.   We couldn't highlight promotions, or show our customers reductions.  If we did produce anything ourselves it wasn't very professional looking, and there was no consistency, plus it was a very time consuming process for staff."

"We needed a solution that would provide us with professional, consistent signage, with plenty of flexibility to let us make changes," continued Robertson. "When we saw the Immediate Impact system in action, it was clear that this solution was perfect for us.  It gave us the facility to have shelf edge labels, peg labels and any promotion signage required, and we were able to work with the team at Episys on the design.  All we need is a web based browser and a printer.  We go online, bring up the Immediate Impact system, put in our details and we're up and running.  We didn't need an IT system, or lots of different systems in place, or programmes on a computer, and it was extremely easy to set up."

Users of Immediate Impact benefit from a 'pay per use' mechanism that only charges for the signage printed.  "We didn't have the outlay of a big system, we just pay as use it, which is ideal, as sometimes we use it more than others.  That's a much easier system than paying out constantly for a solution that we're not using or having to put in new things all the time, so the pay-per-use works for extremely well for us," said Robertson. "A benefit from the start is that we could clearly show promotions to customers.  We saw uplift straight away on promotional goods, compared to when we'd done our own point of sale before.  The system allows us to produce promotion signage and shelf edge tickets that make much more of an impact on customers.  Immediate Impact has delivered an uplift in sales, and margin as well, and delivered consistent and professional looking signage."

Peter Lewis, Marketing Director at Episys, said, "As a start-up company in such challenging times, Immediate Impact has enabled Wellworths to produce signage and run promotions and campaigns without having to invest heavily on IT infrastructure and resources.  This has allowed them to keep operational costs down, and ensure the business is agile."