Mothercare brings PoS printing in-store

By adopting in-store printing for its point of sale (PoS), Mothercare, which also owns the Early Learning Centre, is hoping to reduce operational costs and better reflect Mothercare's above-the-line marketing and promotional messages at the point of sale.

Initially, the system is being used to manage markdown labels and tickets. However, the intention is for all branches to eventually print data-rich shelf-edge communications.

"The impetus to move to in-store printing was the introduction of Early Learning Centre products to Mothercare shops and the requirement to manage their markdowns," said Mothercare group retail systems manager Richard Godfray.

"We knew that implementing a web-based marketing solution would also provide us with the capability to extend the range of PoS we could produce in-store to shelf-edge labels and barkers."

The system will save staff time, as well as cut down on material and transport costs, he added. Pierhouse believes retailers have been wasting tens of thousands of pounds a year creating and transporting point of sale that is not required.

Net.tickIT enables store staff to log on and pull down the data they need into ready-made templates. When prices are changed at the till they can also be changed within minutes to generate new point of sale and promotions can be communicated in stores quickly.

"Great marketing creativity goes into driving footfall and conversion relies on following through right to the point of purchase," said Pierhouse business development director David Jenkins. "Every customer who comes into a store but cannot find the offer they want results in loss of both revenue and reputation."