Primark Elevates In-Store Efficiency and Customer Experience with Zebra ET40 Tablets
Primark has implemented Zebra ET40 tablets to help enhance in-store operations and improve customer service. The adoption of these tablets has allowed Primark to replace outdated technology, leading to increased productivity and a better shopping experience.
Zebra Success Story: Primark
Overview: Retail Challenge
Primark's previous tablet solution hindered in-store efficiency due to limited functionality and processing speed. These issues forced staff to rely on desktop computers, reducing their presence on the sales floor and requiring manual stock information management. The retailer needed a modern tablet solution to enhance task completion, support sales colleagues and improve the customer shopping experience.
Benefits / Outcomes
- Increased colleague productivity
- Improved shopper experience
- Reduced reliance on obsolete technologies, ensuring a future-fit business
About Primark
Founded in 1969, Primark is a leading international clothing retailer based in Dublin, Ireland. Few brands around the world command the same level of awareness. With 80,000 employees across 17 countries, the retail giant operates in over 450 stores worldwide. Primark provides cost-conscious consumers with affordable and sustainable fashion. Affordability, quality and style are its driving principles, enabling it to cater to shoppers from all walks of life.
Primark’s focus as a growing fashion brand in the retail industry is on creating great retail experiences. This ambition is reflected in Primark’s mission of creating maximum joy at minimum cost to the customer. Achieving this ambition means that stores need to carry products and stock to meet customer requirements. To that end, Primark uses technology to ensure product availability without the disruption of the day-to-day tasks of colleagues. The technology required for such vast retail operations has a definitive shelf life, and recently, the retailer realised that the tablet solution it was using was becoming obsolete.
The Challenge
Primark’s previous tablets were at the end of their life due to limited functionality. Challenges with tablet availability and processing speed limited their effectiveness, occasionally requiring the retailer to rely on desktop computers, which reduced colleague presence on the sales floor. In some instances, product stock information needed to be noted manually for cross-referencing on back-office systems.
“It was clear to see that our existing tablets could no longer deliver the speed and efficiency needed to streamline colleague tasks,” says Jack Newton, Group Operations Project Coordinator at Primark. “As we work towards becoming a store fit for the future, we sought to upgrade our technology to achieve the necessary in-store improvements."
Primark has an extensive and successful relationship with Zebra and its products, including scanners, printers and mobile computers. When Primark realized that its current tablet solution was no longer up to the task, the company turned to Zebra and Zebra Premier Solution Partner, HCLTech, to find a more suitable option.
What’s really great about the ET40s is that they allow colleagues to use Primark systems and software anywhere in the store, reducing the time it takes for them to complete daily tasks. The upshot here is that colleagues have more time in their day to complete additional tasks which wouldn’t have been possible before.
The Solution
Primark needed a new tablet solution to better meet the needs of colleagues on the floor. “To decide what tablets to choose, we took many factors into account,” says Newton. “We looked at performance, power, weight, connectivity, camera quality, hardware interface and future capability.”
In November 2023, Primark switched to Zebra’s enterprise-grade ET40 tablets for in-store operations. “The ET40 was selected because it met every colleague’s needs while enabling Primark to deliver future innovation for stores and enhanced customer service,” says Donal Egan, Continuous Improvement Manager at Primark. “We completed the transition in January 2024 and to date 3,000 devices have been handed to colleagues for their day-to-day tasks.” The devices needed to enable Primark’s colleagues to report issues and also use the ET40’s as a form of communication between colleagues and stores.
Newton continues: “The tablets provide an easy to use, user friendly and familiar interface. The ability to check and alter inventory levels with the Zebra ET40’s integrated scanner means customer queries for size availability, for example, can be resolved faster, which saves both the colleague and customer valuable time. Now that our stores have been resourced with updated technology, they’re better aligned with customer trends and demands, making for a more enjoyable customer journey and enhancing our customer service.”
To further maximize productivity and device uptime, Primark also invested in Zebra’s OneCare™ Select Advance Device Replacement + Fastrack service. This service ensures a spare pool of devices is readily available, saving both time and money. Replacement devices, fully loaded with the necessary company application software and settings, can be hot-swapped on site.
The Zebra Difference: Outcome and Benefits
The rollout of the tablets has markedly impacted Primark. “The addition of these tablets means inventory ordering, customer inventory queries and health and safety checklists are once again completed on the sales floor,” explains Egan. “This has drastically reduced the number of back-and-forth trips colleagues need to make because stock can be ordered from their zone in the store, improving stock availability and order accuracy.”
The tablets have had a direct impact on the in-store experience of customers. Because colleagues can complete orders from their store zones, stores have improved commercially. The time taken to replenish stock on sales floors has dropped as colleagues can react to customer demands faster. “The Zebra tablets have been a complete gamechanger for our stores,” concludes Egan. “The ability to react to incidents quickly and empower our colleagues with technology that supports them in providing excellent customer service is invaluable and as we look to the future, it is clear that devices like Zebra’s ET40 tablets will empower our plans for our Store of the Future vision.”
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