Friday, July 10, 2015

Google For Work - Case Study



Fostering Innovation in Retail With Google for Work
a study of Chico’s FAS by PwC


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CONTENTS
Background ................................................................................................................................ 3
Merchandising............................................................................................................................ 4
Planning & Allocation ................................................................................................................. 6
Store Sales & Operations ........................................................................................................... 8
Contact Center ..........................................................................................................................10
Customer Analytics ...................................................................................................................12
Human Resources & Corporate Communications .....................................................................14
References ...............................................................................................................................16
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BACKGROUND
Chico's FAS, Inc. is a specialty retailer of private label women's apparel, accessories and related products. They have 23,000 employees and a portfolio that consists of four brands: Chico's, White House | Black Market, Soma Intimates and Boston Proper, each of which sell merchandise through their branded channels including retail stores, catalogs and ecommerce sites. In recent years, Chico’s FAS, Inc. has made significant strides and investments towards improving its omni-channel capabilities, which reinforces their longstanding commitment to providing an outstanding, personalized customer experience across all of their sales channels. The move to Google not only serves as an enabler for this strategic vision but also creates a culture innovation and invention within the organization.
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In 2013, Chico’s FAS, Inc. deployed Google Apps for Work to its employees worldwide, across all banners. To date, all teams across the retail organization have reported a boost in productivity and efficiency with the implementation of Google. Basic training on Calendar, Contacts, and Gmail was provided at the outset but teams have adopted the tools to meet the needs of their individual business units.
This case study provides an overview of how Google for Work tools are being used and the impact of this technology on the Chico’s FAS, Inc. retail environment.
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MERCHANDISING
In retail, the merchandising function is one of the most integral parts of the business. This team is responsible for selecting the right product assortment for each store and determining how the products should be presented and priced. Working on this team requires a great degree of collaboration and coordination of disparate information from multiple stakeholders.
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BEFORE
• The merchant team was constantly on the go, meeting and sharing information with other internal departments, store teams, and external vendors and partners.
• Email was the primary means of communication and storage limitations were a challenge.
• Deliverables were shared back and forth via email so that the team could provide feedback and make updates to document. Often, this led to a loss in version control and/or critical feedback was lost in the process.
• They needed a better way to collaborate, share and organize merchandising and sales plans, and required the ability to access information at a moment’s notice.
AFTER
• With the move to Gmail, storage limits increased significantly so the team can refer back to previous conversations as often as they need.
• The merchandising team now uses labels and folders to group emails and keep track of ongoing conversations.
• Collaboration on merchandising and sales plans is more efficient now that files are stored in Drive and multiple stakeholders can access documents to make edits at the same time. “It’s become so seamless,” remarked one merchant referring to the collaborative nature of Drive.
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• With Drive, all teams work from a single, shared version of critical documents such as buy sheets, allocation schedules, or visual merchandising planograms. They also have the ability to quickly access documents via their mobile devices when attending off-site meetings with stores and vendors.
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IMPACT
Gmail introduced a better way of working for a team that relies heavily on email on a daily basis. Merchant teams needed to be able to organize emails from planning teams, stores, and vendors in a logical way and key features of Gmail allowed them to do this. Similarly, Drive streamlined operations by eliminating the need to email multiple versions of merchandising plans among team members, and improved collaboration among this team and other stakeholders.
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PLANNING & ALLOCATION
The Planning & Allocation team is responsible for tracking and allocating every piece of inventory that flows through the Chico’s FAS system. The Chico’s buying cycle lasts 4-6 weeks and they change floor sets every 2 weeks. Thus, merchandise sold in the first 2 weeks is most profitable for the business because it typically is sold at full margin. Whether moving inventory from a distribution center to a store or between stores, this team ensures the right product makes its way to the right location. Prior to Google, this team relied on a number of applications.4
BEFORE
• The Planning & Allocation team tracked inventory using multiple spreadsheets on a daily basis. Each of the 12 team members for the Chico’s brand were responsible for inputting their own updates, and the files were emailed back and forth within the team and shared with other business units.
• For management, having a real-time view of inventory was challenging, as there were always multiple versions of spreadsheets in circulation.
• The team was constantly asked to produce ad-hoc reports of the data to capture the status of inventory at any point in time.
• The team met weekly to respond to store call-outs and allocate inventory across stores. Often, the timing of this meeting delayed the allocation process and impacted sales and profitability if merchandise had already been marked down.
• The team needed a more efficient way to track and manage inventory and make allocation decisions in real-time, in a way that was visible to multiple functions.
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AFTER
• With Google Apps for Work, multiple planning teams work together in real time, reducing the number of meetings and the time required to email team members for updates to a spreadsheet. “Sheets is a tool that our team uses on a daily basis,” remarks one of the planners for White House Black Market.
• Sheets helps the team track and reallocate inventory to the locations that need it the most. Specific use cases include managing store call outs, reallocating inventory from ecommerce to stores, and tracking lost items or issues in the distribution center.
• Reallocating inventory happens in real-time and the team no longer has to wait for their weekly meeting to respond to store call-outs. This facilitates quicker movement of inventory and leads to higher margins during the first two weeks merchandise is on the sales floor.
• Using Drive, the planning teams can easily share their planning numbers across the organization allowing management from various functions to access the data at their own convenience. This has significantly reduced requests for ad-hoc reporting and allowed the team to focus more on analyzing the data and deriving insight.
IMPACT
Using Google, the Planning and Allocation team has increased productivity and the efficiency of their core business processes. Sheets has replaced the practice of emailing multiple versions of the same file and allows the team to work faster and collaborate in real time. Storing documents in a shared drive folder reduces requests for ad-hoc reporting and allows managers across multiple functions to have real time visibility into their business. Access to real-time inventory data provides management with more accurate revenue forecasting as the team no longer needs to wait for meetings.
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STORE SALES & OPERATIONS
Chico’s FAS, Inc. operates more than 1,500 boutiques and retail outlets throughout the US and Canada. The Store Operations team is responsible for ensuring that these stores operate efficiently. They also work hand and hand with the store sales teams to ensure they are have tools they need to create engaging customer experience, which is the hallmark of the brand.5
BEFORE
● Chico’s knew that it wanted to create a more modern work environment and personalized shopping experience in its retail stores.
● Stores and corporate headquarters communicated via phone or mail. Information such as updates to store policies or new planograms had to be organized and physically posted onto a bulletin board for employees to view. Often, paper was lost or torn as multiple people accessed the information on a daily basis.
● Store associates spent time during their shifts calling customers to alert them of new merchandise and upcoming sales and events.
● Customer engagement in the store was limited to the traditional retail interactions that customers have with products and sales associates. Advertising displays and promotional materials were static and not customized to a particular store location.
● To accomplish their vision, Chico’s would need an agile and flexible toolset that would allow them to increase the efficiency of store operations and engage customers in innovative ways.
AFTER
● Chico’s has provided email accounts to each of its stores. This has proved to be a more efficient communication tool for store associates to communicate with headquarters and with their customers.
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● Now, store associates save time by making fewer phone calls to customers and email them directly from the store branded email account.
● Pertinent information received from headquarters is stored in a shared folder on Drive and is accessible from a mobile device. For example, merchandising teams can take and upload photos of new floor sets to Drive and share them instantly with the store team. Previously, these images were printed and shipped to stores and in most cases were eventually torn apart as multiple teams used the same paper copy. Drive allows everyone access to the same document multiple times, with all images intact.
● Digital signage powered by Google Chrome for Work is a key part of the Chico’s “Digital Retail Theater” strategy, which includes bringing digital signage to stores and displaying relevant content and promotions based on the store, category, and/or season. This has created a more engaging experience for Chico’s shoppers.6
● With Google’s digital signage solution, this team can easily push out relevant content and change displays without burdening the IT department or maintaining additional hardware at each store. This team is also beginning to measure the relationship between how shoppers respond to content and the resulting impact on sales in real time, a task which was not possible prior to their adoption of Google for Work products.
IMPACT
The move to Google created a more efficient work environment for store associates and an innovative and engaging in-store experience for customers. With Google, associates spend less time searching for hard copies of communications from headquarters and have more time on the floor with customers. They are also able to connect with their customers via email which further enhances the clienteling experience. Digital signage powered by Chromebox devices have transformed the in-store experience, giving customers a new way to view and engage with merchandise and marketers the ability to test content and promotions in real time. Digital signage has allowed Chico’s FAS to create more relevant experiences in-store.

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