Overview
DRIM is a family owned company that started building its Catalonia, Spain toy store chain in 1972. After years of steady expansion, DRIM now has over 80 stores, as well as an online shop. Customers at DRIM stores can choose from over 10,000 items, including toys, games, childcare products and hobby equipment. In order to manage such a vast selection of products, help speed up service in all its locations, and keep customers happy during peak times, such as Christmas, DRIM decided to open a 16,000 m² logistics center and update it automated labeling system.
The Challenge
Christmas season is critical for toy stores like DRIM. The warehouse must be well-stocked, sales associates must assure the shop floor is covered at all times, and special offers must be marked correctly to avoid confusion at checkout. DRIM needed a new automated solution for labelling products and facilitating price changes for special offers during the Christmas season. Labelling speed was DRIM’s top priority. The company wanted a light and ergonomic device that would be easy to use and comfortable in the hands of its sales associates to avoid fatigue.
DRIM contacted several companies, including Datalogic partner MB Tecniques Industrials, which introduced the company to the Lynx™ PDA. DRIM liked the design, form factor and functions of the device immediately. The quality of the Lynx PDA demonstrated during the testing phase convinced DRIM that it was definitely the right solution for the company’s needs.
Assumpta Ballbè, MB Tecniques Industrials Manager stated, “Every year DRIM prints over 2 million tags. This amount doubles at Christmas time, printing 4 million labels. We cannot afford any failures from the system or the devices. We needed reliable equipment and, above all, a quick response from the manufacturers of the devices.”
The Solution
The first stores implemented the Lynx PDA only two months after the solution was selected. The other stores installed it soon after due to its overwhelming success. After only a half-hour of training, sales associates fully understood how the device worked and could perform all the applications needed in the store. Labelling operations sped up significantly and inventory management became much more efficient. DRIM noticed the improvement during the Christmas season, a period in which DRIM’s activity increases significantly. The company hires extra staff and rents spaces in shopping malls, opening 5 to 10 new stores at Christmas time to meet customer demand. Over 70% of DRIM’s business occurs during the holidays.
“Every time we launch an offer, a special label is printed and attached to the product to inform our customers of the promotional price. Depending on the type and duration of the offer, prices can change 2 to 3 times in a 14-day period, which occurs frequently during the Christmas season. When the promotion ends, we remove the label and attach the original price again. The Lynx PDA labelling solution makes the process fast and easy,” stated Raúl Lleberia, IT Manager at DRIM.
To manage price markdowns, all labels are printed directly at the point of sale using the Lynx PDA and a portable printer. DRIM uses two label formats, allowing the original price and special offers to be printed in different ways. Customers can see the price before and after the discount on the same label, with the discounted price highlighted.
During labelling operations, the Lynx PDA scans the product before printing out the label, the central system checks its inventory and if there are none left, no label is printed. Inventory management is done automatically and in real time.
Sales associates can also use the Lynx PDA and a special menu application to download the current product price list. They connect through a Wi-Fi connection to the host system and the list downloads instantly. Labels are then printed with the new price directly in the store. The Lynx PDA connects to the printer via Bluetooth® technology for real time printing.
The Results
According to Raúl Lleberia, DRIM leverages the many advantages of the new system every day. The ergonomics, robustness, quality and attractive price of the Lynx PDA, as well as its intuitive use and battery life are just some of the features that allow the device to perform various applications in real time, speeding up price changes and product labelling. Before using the Lynx PDA, hours were needed to change prices; now it only takes 5 minutes. Lynx PDA programming and system integration was fast and easy due to the standard programming language used in the device.
DRIM now manages labelling and special offers of the thousands of references used in stores with complete accuracy and efficiency, especially the Christmas promotions. “Our Christmas catalog contains about 1,000 references. Before we had the new system, the price changes took 3 to 4 days. Using the solution with the Lynx PDA, we finish the process in one morning. The system is much faster and our employees can handle it on their own because of the Lynx’s ease of,” adds Raúl Lleberia.
Good collaboration with the manufacturer and supplier has also contributed to the success of this project. “Datalogic, as a mobile computer manufacturer and supplier, has given us all the help we needed and our relationship with MB Tecniques Industrials has been very professional and effective. We were offered a complete solution that included a mobile computer and bar code printer, as well as support for implementation. The system is 100% accurate and the collaboration with the two companies has been 100% positive,” concludes Raúl Lleberia.
Customer: DRIM
Industry: Retail/Specialty Retail
Application: Pricing, Stock Management
Country: Spain
Datalogic Product: Lynx PDA
Datalogic Partner: MB Tecniques Industrials
