Asda has drafted in software from technology experts Visual Retailing to ramp up the store experience in its George fashion departments.
The supermarket giant has joined forces with the Dutch firm, which also works with Marks & Spencer, Adidas and Tommy Hilfiger, to help it plan for upcoming seasonal collections and merchandise new products more effectively across its 350 stores.
Visual Retailing overhauled Asda’s retail planning and visual merchandising processes using its MockShop software, which allows users to mock up 3D store layouts with their products and collections automatically imported in real time.
Asda said the partnership helped it save money and time, and drove efficiencies between its George planning and merchandising teams.
“We want to give our customers the level of inspiration and excitement that they require”
Mark Matthews, Asda George
Asda George senior director of retail, supply and central operations Mark Matthews said: “We want to give our customers the level of inspiration and excitement that they require.
“However, that’s very difficult without technology to deliver that to 10,000 colleagues and display it in the same way that we started out with when we did the design brief.
“We found with the technology we were using at the time, we weren’t able to deliver that for every store.”
Before using MockShop, Asda would rack its products up in a large mock store and agree on the merchandising with senior directors.
It would then take pictures of the layout and forward those on to shopfloor teams to illustrate how products should be displayed.
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