Albion

Lorna Jane are a leading, Australian, women’s activewear brand who were looking to set up their flagship store in the UK.

Gunnar Sigurdsson, Chairman of Lorna Jane UK, explains that as a small and growing business owner he ‘has a requirement to be very involved and on top of what is going on’.

So Lorna Jane needed to find a solution that allowed them to manage their Point of Sale, inventory, customers, employees and accounting. As well as this, the system needed to be cloud based, cost effective and easy to use. 

Implementation

To help Lorna Jane continue to grow, we offered them a one stop solution to all of the system requirements they had, at the heart of which was iPad and iOS Apps.

The solution included:
• Set up and configuration
• Training of their staff
• Supply and installation of hardware
• Ongoing support
• Bespoke software development

Albion also provided infrastructure services and this included:
• Internet connection
• Wi-Fi network
• Phone system

iOS Apps

Our solution for Lorna Jane involved the supply, installation and configuration of
three powerful iOS based apps; Vend, Deputy and Xero. 

Point of Sale – Vend

Vend is a cloud based platform for retailers, allowing them to manage inventory, ecommerce and their customers.

Staff Management – Deputy

Deputy which is an app allowing managers to organise their staff, roster employees and see employees availability.

Point of Sale – Vend

Vend is a cloud based platform for retailers, allowing them to manage inventory, ecommerce and their customers.

Custom Development
Lorna Jane not only sells through a brick and mortar store but through major national retailers such as Debenhams and House of Fraser. This presented a challenge for Lorna Jane as they needed to better understand their sell through and manage stock in this channel. So we worked Lorna Jane to develop a custom import tool that enabled them to easily see how their products were selling at these retailers all within their Vend Point of Sale application. Gunnar finds this integration really useful, as he remarks that: ‘Through iPad and iPhone, we can see exactly what our sales are, we can see what is selling and can see exactly what our stock is during the day. The staff can use the system easily and the customers get a seamless experience.’
Support

Our comprehensive support solution means that we supplied, configured and installed a solution that serviced all their IT requirements and we continue to support them with any day to day queries they may have. Lorna Jane are really impressed with our support response times, with Rachel noting: ‘Whenever I have any queries, I know the support is just a phone call away.’ And Gunnar adding that Albion are ‘always available when we need them.’

The Results

Our comprehensive POS solution has enhanced Lorna Jane’s customer service, efficiency and staff productivity.

For Lorna Jane, Vend has really helped them refine their great customer experience. Rachel really enjoys using Vend on the iPad, describing it as ‘just amazing. It’s efficient and compact.’ Using iPad means she has the freedom to move around the store, advise customers and even start a transaction process anywhere in the store. Rachel goes on to describe how Vend and Deputy allows her to ‘focus on growing our business’ as opposed to being tied up in day to day management.

Lorna Jane were impressed with the solution. Johanna, the co-founder and managing director of Lorna Jane, noticed how great Vend is, referring to it as ‘a real eye opener when compared to other systems I’ve used before’. She went on to say:‘It’s just so simple. It’s so easy to work with. It’s been really great the whole time.’ 

Deputy, the staff rostering and management app has also been a great success. Rachel found Deputy to be extremely helpful, especially when it comes to rostering staff for shifts. She explains: ‘All of the staff have the Deputy smartphone app. They are able to input their availabilities, their unavailabilities, they can swap shifts and then that talks to me through the Deputy Kiosk.’ Ultimately Rachel summed up by saying that: ‘the Albion experience of using Vend and Deputy in conjunction with each other really simplified my role as store operations manager and also a staff member on the floor.’

Gunnar says it has ‘been very good working with the Albion team, from the time we started to scope out the project, to the full integration and support. It’s all been working really well.’

Overall, he was very impressed with the speed of setup and the custom development we provided for Lorna Jane. He said: ‘Starting a new, small business is quite tricky. Working with Albion on setting up the system has been paramount in helping us develop the business quicker than would have been possible otherwise.’

 

Looking to the future

As an inspirational and forward thinking company, it’s always a pleasure to work with the team at Lorna Jane UK. By working with us Lorna Jane has a one stop shop for all their IT needs. This means we can provide more meaningful support and advice whenever they need it, additionally they don’t have to waste time project managing and coordinating with different suppliers.

Looking to the future, Gunnar remarks: ‘I have no doubt that people will be using iPad much more in the store environment and systems like Vend in the future. If somebody would have told me a few years ago that our whole business could be run from an iPad I wouldn’t have believed them.’

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