David’s Bridal alleviates stress — for associates and customers

A specialty retailer’s new point-of-sale upgrade is helping to meet — and surpass — its customers’ expectations.



David’s Bridal has created a reputation for enabling brides—and her entire wedding party— to choose a gown right off the rack. But as it expanded its offerings and services, the retailer has also established a robust special order business.



“We feature bridesmaids dresses in 45 colors and 13 sizes, but we can’t carry all of these in-store,” Diane Garforth, the chain’s senior director of supply chain systems and operations said at Manhattan Associates’ Momentum conference in Las Vegas (May 8-11).



That’s where special orders come in. Once the measurements are taken and styles and sizes are recorded, the retailer creates the dress order, including a pick-up date. The chain added a mobile point-of-sale system to drive more flexibility and customer engagement during the shopper’s visit.



However, this homegrown solution had its share of issues. One of the biggest was a lack of insight into on-premise inventory and arrivals of incoming orders, an issue that could make stores — and associates —unprepared for in-store pickup appointments.



“Our associates couldn't use the devices to see if orders had arrived in store,” explained Rajesh Mathusamy, senior quality assurance analyst. “And if they were available, employees couldn't determine which orders were complete or if they needed to be assembled. We also couldn’t see if pending orders were in transit from the distribution center to the store.”



Ready for a POS refresh, David’s Bridal opted for a combination of iPods and iPad mini tablets that supported an integrated store inventory management system from Manhattan Associates. “It was like gaining an event management system that provided one view of the bride’s ongoing activity, including the status of all of her ordered gowns — hers, her bridal party’s, and even the mother of the bride,” Mathusamy said.



The solution also manages receiving operations for orders shipped to the store from the distribution center. Using the mobile device’s embedded scanner, associates scan item barcodes to confirm individual pieces packed in each delivery parcel, and can even validate when they add new items to orders waiting to be picked up.



The retailer piloted the integrated mobile POS system, which ran on the Apple-based iOS 9 operating system, in two stores in April 2016. Four more stores were rolled out three months later. By August, the new mobile POS solution was available chainwide.



David’s Bridal is currently preparing to upgrade its fleet of iPad Minis, which will be dedicated to store-level receiving operations, to the iOS 10 operating system, according to Mathusamy.