Crew Clothing expands tech partnership with Cegid for new stores

Premium lifestyle fashion brand Crew Clothing has expanded its partnership with cloud management solutions provider Cegid to implement the Newsfeed feature within Cegid Retail Store Excellence.

Crew Clothing has been utilising Cegid Retail Store Excellence, a task management and retail operations platform, since 2009. This recent expansion involves rolling out the Newsfeed feature across its 105 stores. The Newsfeed aims to enhance communication between the management and store teams by keeping staff engaged, informed, and connected to the brand's vision. This feature provides updates not only on a company-wide level but also specific to each store, role, and individual interests.

The Newsfeed feature will be implemented in Crew Clothing's new locations, including stores in Canterbury and Stow-on-the-Wold and soon-to-launch stores in Monmouth and London Paddington.

Charlotte Eaves, Retail Operations and Customer Experience Manager for Crew Clothing explained the benefits of the new system. "Previously, we would send out newsletters to stores with an attachment for them to pin to notice boards, and now it goes through Cegid Retail Store Excellence," she said. "Each week we have a structured routine for how we send our communications, so instead of having to do everything from scratch, we have lots of pre-set templates which makes things easier. We can also see when stores have read updates. When you combine that with tasking, which is built into the platform, it's priceless."

Eaves also highlighted the operational improvements brought by the new technology. "Rather than having multiple sources of information, stores have one dashboard. We’re also moving away from desktop computers to be more tablet-based. The fact that staff can go to one location on the tablet and navigate to different functions is a huge benefit," she stated. "As a result of using Cegid Retail Store Excellence, we've been able to simplify our tech stack by eliminating a platform we had used for several years and removing the need for stores to access our central intranet, as all the information and files are now on the platform."

Alan Holcroft, UK Managing Director of Cegid, remarked on the continuing partnership with Crew Clothing. "Crew Clothing is a real success story in how they are continuing to grow the business and leverage technology to empower their store teams to be successful," he said. "Cegid Retail Store Excellence has become the de facto standard for helping retailers achieve superior retail operations, and it's fair to say that the Crew team have played their part in making the platform what it is today. It's great that they've been able to embrace all the new features we're bringing out, and we look forward to them continuing as a partner for many years to come."