Client name . Tesco
Sector . Retail
Summary comment . Tony Gallagher, Print Controller, Tesco
"Getting the point-of-sale material right is of crucial importance. Poor marketing leads to poor customer information and poor sales. The StorePoint FileMaker solution enables us to produce marketing collateral quickly and easily – saving staff time, and saving us money by streamlining the promotional process."
Tesco
FileMaker Drives Point of Sale for Tesco
Tesco PLC is a British-based international grocery and general merchandising retail chain. It is the largest UK retailer by both global sales and domestic market share, and number 3 in the world. Significantly, Tesco now controls just over 30% of the grocery market in the UK, approximate to the combined market share of its closest rivals, Asda and Sainsbury's.
Operating in the highly competitive retail sector, Tesco needs to react rapidly to the promotional activities of its closest rivals to ensure its stores continue to offer the best value for money in their local areas. Marketing and up-to-date Point-of-Sale (PoS) literature is a key element in informing customers of its price leadership and Tesco demanded a solution to produce high quality, local-specific promotional material, in-store, as quickly and cost effectively as possible.
FileMaker Business Alliance member, StorePoint International, creates a flexible and ODBC compliant data management solution based on FileMaker – giving in-store managers the 'promotional edge'.
- FileMaker underpins the PoS solution – delivering an open, standards compliant data management solution for use in all Tesco stores across the country
- Enables Tesco to slash marketing costs and allows stores to price locally
- FileMaker injects the flexibility to allow stores to compete on price against rivals and respond rapidly to local market conditions
…producing this collateral as easy for staff as getting cash from a cash machine
StorePoint International Ltd, a member of the FileMaker Business Alliance, has been working for Tesco in the production of PoS material for many years. Tesco was looking for a solution to enable its local teams to produce high quality marketing material in-store. Its goal was to develop a system that would make producing this collateral as easy for staff as getting cash from a cash machine – a not inconsiderable task!
Originally, StorePoint International looked at developing solutions using C++ & Visual Basic, with little success. It then turned to FileMaker, and found that the system was not only fully capable of automating all of Tesco's requirements, but was robust and scalable.
Today, the system is fully ODBC compliant – making it possible to access any data from any application, regardless of which database management system is being used – and allows the straightforward import and export of client data.
…system is so flexible it will produce anything from a business card to a poster
Linked to a Denso hand-scanner, users can scan barcodes and produce PoS material without laborious typing. By using a password, users can go straight into command mode and produce custom one-off posters. The system is completely flexible, and will produce anything from business card sized PoS to an A1 poster.
The FileMaker solution, branded 'StorePoint', has enabled Tesco to drastically slash marketing costs. It allows stores to price locally, to compete on price against rivals and to respond to local market conditions.
"Getting the point-of-sale material right is of crucial importance. Poor marketing leads to poor customer information and poor sales," said Tony Gallagher, Print Controller of Tesco. "The StorePoint FileMaker solution enables us to produce marketing collateral quickly and easily – saving staff time, and saving us money by streamlining the promotional process."
