This project is aimed at the managers of Marques Avenue’s 600 partner brands and ten shopping centers. It’s a key focus for the group, which aims to digitize and facilitate the daily reporting of sales data.
As a result, the company is now able to focus on: analyzing field data, improving the customer experience, and optimizing operational performance.
Summary video: what was the challenge for Marques Avenue, review of the project carried out with Toucan Toco and Jack Russel, and the advantages of Toucan Toco’s application. (English subtitles are available in the video settings)
PROVIDE EMPLOYEES WITH AN EFFICIENT MANAGEMENT TOOL
The initial observation is quite simple; “we work with over 600 partner brands […] and brand-specific IT systems”, explains Patrick Dujeux, CEO of Marques Avenue. “It was vital to be able to harmonize management across all brands.”
Before the project was implemented, paper sheets were sent daily to brands, each ones recording their sales figures. All this was then sent back to headquarters.
All in all, over 2,500 hours/year spent collecting and consolidating data on Excel files, which equates to more than 140 working days! It also represented 140,000 annual raw data compiled with the risk of errors.
AGILE METHODOLOGY: EASIER PROJECT DEPLOYMENT
Project deployment was completed in just 3 months, from the first meeting to the application’s national launch.
Marques Avenue decided to call on Toucan Toco through their partner Jack Russel in September 2016. Marques Avenue’s goal was to “enrich, simplify and interact easily with the data we had at our disposal”, explains Patrick Dujeux.
Five years of data were fed into the application. As soon as the application was deployed, operational managers were able to understand the relevance and importance of weekly, monthly and annual history reports.
This application took 3 months to build in close collaboration with the Marques Avenue teams. “At Marques Avenue, we always wanted more. But as Toucan Toco reminded us, more isn’t always better!”
Users felt involved and listened to. Today, the application records over 500 sessions a week, with an average use of 5 times a month per user.
MORE TRANSPARENCY FOR MARQUES AVENUE AND THEIR PARTNER BRANDS
“Filling out your weekly results in the tool now takes about ten minutes per manager, compared to one hour with the old process”, explains Patrick Dujeux.
Each brand now enters its information in an entry table. The data is then automatically compiled. Hence, the input workload is diluted between all managers.
These 2,500 hours can now be dedicated to more strategic tasks; analysis, recommendations, training, and support for the brands.
In cases where dozens of PDF files were sent each week to each store, a single interface can now retrieve the information according to their perimeter.
Brands have access to various indicators concerning them; throughput by shopping center, traffic, turnover, average basket, and conversion rate.
With this data, they can compare themselves to their competitors or to other boutiques in the shopping center. It makes it very easy for a brand to assess where it stands compared to the rest of Marques Avenue’s ecosystem.
PROVIDE A COMPREHENSIVE USER EXPERIENCE
Make it easy to understand data
Rolling out such distribution reporting helps bring more value to Marques Avenue’s partner brands. The application’s architecture is the same across all screens.
The tool is very easy to use and, according to Marques Avenue, “did not require any specific training on the field”.
In addition to managing the operation of 600 boutiques, store managers and shopping center managers face a real challenge in terms of training, support, and communication regarding their sales activities.
Support sales and marketing efforts
Activity data is accessible both before and during regularly scheduled brand meetings. The tool helps identify specific indicators to be discussed. This greatly improves operational efficiency.
In addition, Marques Avenue’s marketing and sales departments can access the application to analyze macro data. For them, it can be particularly interesting to analyze the weight of each sector. Depending on the time of the year, they can plan communication and prospecting initiatives.
“This tool allows us to better manage and understand the performance of our 600 partner brands”, concludes Patrick Dujeux. The retail sector is rich in data, and it is absolutely vital to undertake transformation projects to better label and understand this data.
Uses are also evolving and any new digital management solution must be developed on mobile. This is how data is now processed on a daily basis by Marques Avenue’s employees.
To learn more about the collaboration between Marques Avenue and Toucan Toco, click here!
