Blackwell's boosts sales with itim mobile tech

Blackwell's has increased the sales of physical books by more than £500,000 during the last year, after adding new itim mobile technology that allows it to sell more widely at off-site events and pop-up stores.

The 140-year-old academic books specialist operates around 40 permanent stores across Britain and another 40 pop-ups, some of which open on university campuses for a few weeks at the start of each term and others at book festivals and conferences across the UK. “We wanted to use mobile technology to improve customer experience and extend our services across multiple channels,” says Kate Stilborn, Customer Service and Operations Director at Blackwell's. “Mobile technology will also give our customers access to not just the stock in our bookshops, but also across eight million titles available online for free home delivery or collection.”

Blackwell’s uses itim’s Chameleon PoS solution on 122 fixed tills across 37 stores, as well as on tablets. The software is able to manage promotions and quickly process book tokens and rewards via its loyalty scheme (GiveX), whether in-store or off-site. The retailer also offers a buy-back facility for its customers, exchanging used books (often at the beginning or end of each university year) and recording them in the system for selling second-hand in stores and online.

“During a six-week trial period, we were able to take an extra £100,000 by being able to use tablets off-site and by being at events where thousands of extra books can be sold,” adds Stilborn. “This has now escalated to around £500,000 when we started to use them more.”