Member Article

Oscar Jacobson tailors a seamless customer experience

International menswear fashion and lifestyle brand, Oscar Jacobson, has underpinned its retail operations with enhanced omnichannel capabilities, thanks to an integrated retail solution from omnichannel system, iVend Retail, and IT provider, Retail Store Scandinavia.

With its longstanding heritage as a leading Nordic menswear and lifestyle brand which spans 114 years, Oscar Jacobson’s international store footprint now boasts 9 stores, in addition to selling though concessions in sports and High Street retailers, including House of Fraser in the UK. Oscar Jacobson also sells direct via its online store to the UK and Sweden markets, and plans to roll out its online offer to the Norwegian market this year.

More recently, Oscar Jacobson’s expansion strategy has focused on growing its own store estate across Europe, with six flagship store snow in Sweden, including the recent opening of its Täby flagship earlier in April 2017, and a further two store openings planned in Olso, Norway in August 2017. Its ambitious own store roadmap looks to grow its estate across Europe by 1-2 stores each year for the next 5 years.

Recognising the changing needs of the connect consumer, Oscar Jacobson sought to better integrate in-store operations with its back-end systems to deliver an enhanced omnichannel experience to customers.

The outdated legacy system allowed little integration and visibility of available stock between stores in different markets and its central warehouse. This siloed approach not only made it difficult for store managers to request additional stock or transfer items to different stores in line with customer demand, but it meant Head Office received disparate reports across differing formats from each store.

The new omnichannel solution from iVend Retail, implemented by strategic partner Retail Store Scandinavia, has migrated all stores and Head Office onto a single, integrated platform, affording Oscar Jacobson a real-time single view of stock across its entire international estate – both in-store and online.

Integrating seamlessly with Oscar Jacobson’s Microsoft Dynamics AX ERP system, the iVend Retail system’s open API platform now allows real-time view of the customer data across its sales channels, enabling store associates to personalise in-store encounters as well as providing up-selling or cross-selling opportunities in line with a shopper’s previous purchase history.

Marcus Knutsson, IT Application Manager at Oscar Jacobson, said: “We took a lot of time to analyse our needs and finding the right retail solutions to support our omnichannel roadmap as we look to expand. International growth is a major focus for us – indeed, we’ve just hired a dedicated export manager.”

“iVend Retail has helped us implement an intuitive and interactive interface which will reduce administration with deliveries, reporting and the checkout process in-store, allowing our store staff to focus on providing high levels of customer service at each touchpoint during the shopping encounter,” he added.

Rob Gentles, Channel Director at iVend Retail, commented: “Connected consumers don’t differentiate between channels; they just shop using the option that’s most convenient to them at the time – be it online or in-store – making a seamless customer journey all the more important. Retailers must ensure fluidity and visibility between the sales channels, which is what our solution has offered Oscar Jacobson as it moves towards offering customers an enhanced omnichannel experience.”

Patrick Johnsson, Business Development Manager at Retail Store Scandinavia, concluded: “Underpinned by the new solution, Oscar Jacobson can now manage multiple stores with a unified view of store processes – a key grounding for any retailer looking to expand its operations at the same time as delivering enhanced customer experience.”

Looking ahead, as Oscar Jacobson continues on its omnichannel roadmap, the retailer plans to roll out additional omnichannel capabilities in-store, with the implementation of click-and-collect and accepting online returns in-store, planned for later in the year. Looking to further personalise in-store encounters its product offer, the menswear brand will also roll out a ‘made to order’ service, supported from iVend POS with an integrated process, which will allow shoppers to customise orders with bespoke fabrics and size alterations.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Richard Kolodynski .