UK retailer Outdoor and Cycle Concepts partners with Pricer for digital in-store pricing initiative

Outdoor and Cycle Concepts (O&CC) has leveraged shelf-edge automation to improve operational efficiencies in-store, increase labour productivity and enhance customer service, in a partnership with Pricer.

As the UK’s largest specialist outdoor, run and snow sports retailer, O&CC operates Cotswold Outdoor, Runners Need and Snow+Rock. As well as offering a range of specialist sporting and outdoor goods, it builds in ‘value adding’ services, such as 3D foot scanning and running gait analysis, and outdoor footwear, pack and ski-boot fitting, into its store offer.

“Inspiring and supporting customers to get outside and enjoy the outdoors is our brand mission, and the services we build into our store offer are central to delivering this,” says Chris Jones, Strategic Operations Director at Cotswold Outdoor.

“Our store associates - all passionate experts with a shared love of the outdoors - play a key role in delivering that customer experience, sharing their knowledge, expertise and passion to kit out customers with the equipment to make exploring the outdoors all the more enjoyable.”

O&CC wanted to enhance customer experience (CX) by improving store efficiencies to free up staff from time-consuming manual or purely operational tasks, allowing them to focus their time and attention to customer facing activities. 

It partnered with Pricer to deploy a full chain roll-out of cloud-based platform, Pricer Plaza, and a customised electronic shelf labels (ESLs) solution, delivering automated, real-time digital pricing and promotions capabilities across its estate of 78 stores earlier this year. 

Since implementation, O&CC says it has diverted upwards of 2,500 hours from retail tasking in maintaining the shelf-edge into customer service, which, in turn, has improved conversion rates across its ESL enabled stores. 

“Installing digital in-store pricing has helped drive efficiency, improve sustainability, and, ultimately, enriched our in-store teams’ roles by allowing them to dedicate more time to serving our customers,” Jones says. “Our colleagues have adapted quickly to the new technology and have appreciated the reduction in labelling, which takes them away from serving customers.” 

Peter Ward, Country Manager for UK & Ireland at Pricer, comments: “Customer centricity is the cornerstone for O&CC’s brand mission, ensuring shoppers get the dedicated customer service, underpinned by expert knowledge, they need to enhance their enjoyment of the great outdoors.”

“By investing in store technology and digitalising the shelf-edge, O&CC has enhanced efficiency and improved labour productivity - diverting store staff’s time to the most valuable - and profitable -tasks that drive retail performance and grow customer lifetime value.”

O&CC is also considering using Pricer’s ESLs to create further efficiency gains, including picking of online orders for its Click & Collect service and enhanced replenishment to improve product availability and reduce shelf gaps.

2024 RTIH INNOVATION AWARDS

Pricer was among the finalists at the sixth edition of the RTIH Innovation Awards.

The awards celebrate global tech innovation in a fast moving omnichannel world.

Our 2024 hall of fame entrants were revealed during an event which took place at RIBA’s 66 Portland Place HQ in Central London on 21st November, and consisted of a drinks reception, three course meal, and awards ceremony presided over by comedian Lucy Porter.

In his welcome speech, Scott Thompson, Founder and Editor, RTIH, said: “The event is now into its sixth year and what a journey it has been. The awards started life as an online only affair during the Covid outbreak, before launching as a small scale in real life event and growing year on year to the point where we’re now selling out this fine, historic venue.”

He added: “Congratulations to all of our finalists. Many submissions did not make it through to the final stage, and getting to this point is no mean feat. Checkout-free stores, automated supply chains, immersive experiences, on-demand delivery, next generation loyalty offerings, inclusive retail, green technology. We’ve got all the cool stuff covered this evening.”

“But just importantly we’ve got lots of great examples of companies taking innovative tech and making it usable in everyday operations - resulting in more efficiency and profitability in all areas.”

Congratulations to our 2024 winners, and a big thank you to our sponsors, judging panel, the legend that is Lucy Porter, and all those who attended November's gathering.