CASE STUDY: DavidsTea Ramps Up Efficiencies with New POS
DAVIDsTEA has had its milestones of success over the years – launching and opening their first store in 2008 in Montreal, Canada, expanding to the United States in 2011, and reaching over 200 stores opened in 2016. Their approach to the customer experience is a belief that tea is a journey where fun, wellness and knowledge never end. Their storefront and technology are no different. With more than 100 types of tea and the largest collection of organic teas and infusions in North America, the retail brand’s main intention of bringing quality tea and above-and-beyond service to their customers is, and needed to remain, consistent across their store expansions.
“It’s no secret that we offer a fun and accessible in-store experience,” says April Sabral, Vice President of Retail Sales and Store Operations. “As we approached our 10th anniversary, we needed to find a way to simplify the shopping experience for our educated fan base who know what they like and visit our stores to purchase their favourite blends, or even a single cup.”
Always looking to enhance their tea storytelling through innovative store design, DAVIDsTEA recently tested a new store concept with cutting-edge fixtures and an increased selection of pre-packed tea. DT 2.0 was designed to better accommodate customers according to their purchasing habits, particularly those in a rush, but they needed the technology to support it.
Any new workstation considered for their POS system would need to play a pivotal role in being able to streamline store flow. This pilot refresh wasn’t just about appearances or the front-end experience, either. The retailer was also revamping its Microsoft Dynamics ERP, which meant making software decisions that would support its growth in the future.
DAVIDsTEA’s continued interest in the new products in HP’s PC portfolio has grown year over year, always wanting to test the new devices and models, eventually resulting in the adoption of HP printers.
Having had a positive rapport with the technology brand and overall experience with HP products, DAVIDsTEA decided to build on their seven-year, trusted relationship for its new retail POS system. They began replacing their legacy POS system through a slow rollout at the model test stores with the HP RP9 Retail System, an 18-inch, all-in-one solution.
Powerhouse performance and reliable engineering of the RP9 Platform made it a top candidate to handle the retailer’s in-store constant uptime requirements. DAVIDsTEA handled the deployment with their IT team and resources, rolling out 120 sleek units across its store network.
The roll out didn’t just stop there - DAVIDsTEA continued to build their retail workspace with a range of integrated HP peripherals, such as the HP Cash Drawer, HP Barcode Scanner, HP Receipt Printer and finally, the HP Pole Display for POS.
DAVIDsTEA’s new POS plays a critical role in its growth strategy as they continue to stay committed to elevating their POS experience for their customers and their employees.
Based on the feedback from the pilot store team, DAVIDsTEA selected the RP9 as its standard POS device, with all new locations being outfitted with this model. Incredibly pleased with this solution, they have rolled out the RP9 to an additional 80 stores and will be retrofitting another 45 this year.
As DAVIDsTEA undergoes transformation of their retail experience, they
continue to rely on the broad range of retail platforms available from HP to address various in-store workflows.
To address peak time demand, for instance, DAVIDsTEA’s IT department designed a mobile cart to house HP MX10 Convertible Tablet POS, HP Receipt Printer, a pin-pad and bags, which can easily be wheeled into the store creating another transaction point without compromising the customer experience at check-out.
Windows-based architecture and expandability of the HP Convertible
POS Solution allowed DAVIDsTEA’s project team to reduce the complexity typically associated with ‘lane busting’ and mobile payments – a result of deploying the solution in select stores in just weeks from inception.