Health food retailer Holland & Barrett will trial Mercaux’s in-store digital solutions to support store colleagues to deliver specialist health & wellbeing service to customers.
Staff will be using Mercaux’s Sales Assist & Omnichannel solutions, accessed by tablet devices, to offer advice and stock availability to customers.
The solution also offers an interview scenario for colleagues to further pinpoint the products that are best suited to that customer’s specific needs. If a product is not available in-store the colleagues can offer an alternative or fulfil the order through another store or online.
In response to post-lockdown social distancing measures, Mercaux’s new Queue Scenario is also being trialled to build baskets in the queue of busy stores, before being transferred to staff in-store to fulfil – giving customers the option to only enter the store to pay as opposed to queueing to later realise something is out of stock.
For busier stores where capacity is limited and customers are required to join a queue outside, Holland & Barret has deployed one of Mercaux’s New Service Models that have been released in response to the pandemic – Store-Side Ordering through the Queue Scenario. Staff engage with customers in the queue using the Mercaux App, browse or search for specific products, create a basket and have this transferred to colleagues in-store to complete the order. The customer then enters the store to pay and pick up the pre-packed bag only, saving customers precious time and allowing Holland & Barrett to serve more customers.
Speaking of the pilot, Darsh Chand, Head of Change and Continuous Improvement at Holland & Barret commented, “We initially launched with Mercaux in our new concept store in Chelmsford, Essex, which acts as a live hub to test innovative customer concepts. Both customer and colleague feedback on these new solutions has been positive, and serves us well in our mission to make wellness accessible for all. We are now working on the roll-out of the technology to nine additional stores in September we look forward to seeing the results in a wider selection of stores”.
Olga Kotsur, Co-Founder & CEO, Mercaux, commented, “It’s imperative that retailers act now to meet the heightened expectations of customers returning to stores. Holland & Barrett has shown, through the launch of their Chelmsford concept store, the power that digitisation can bring to exceeding these expectations and prevent potential lost sales. We very much look forward to supporting them to extend this vision out to their entire estate.”
