Episys makes prices more attractive at Bon-Ton Department Stores

The Bon-Ton Stores, Inc., a chain of 271 department stores and seven furniture stores in 23 states throughout the US, has announced that it is upgrading the signage software at all its stores to the latest Retail Enterprise Suite from global information technology solutions and services company, Episys.

The Bon-Ton group, which trades as Bon-Ton, Bergners, Boston Store, Carson Pirie Scott, Elder-Beerman, Herbergers and Younkers, will use the latest techniques for signage such as product images and point of service integration to improve in-store signing quality and accuracy, to raise promotional impact, and to cut costs through greater efficiency. Managing the quantity of signs printed, and ensuring that signs are only produced in locations that stock the item is a significant benefit in terms of productivity and cost said James Lance, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer.

The software is integrated with the pricing and inventory data through the use of business rules to ensure new signs are automatically generated when price or inventory changes. Also, multi-product, or menu, signs are tailored to the store level and only include items with inventory in the specific store.

Through the use of the Content Manager module within the Retail Enterprise Suite, and integration with the Bon Ton product hierarchy, the merchants will create much more descriptive and attractive signage as opposed the current library signs that carry no product-specific text for example 20 per cent off.

One key benefit in selecting Episys was the potential for future expansion. The Image Module can be used to manage images for signage and to build up the image database for use on the web sites as well as the printed signage. This would allow us to keep content consistent between the signage system and the web site through the use of Business Process Automation. said Lance. Product specific signage with clear and concise pricing should improve customer satisfaction and increase sales. Other areas for future extensions to the system include the addition of hand-held device integration to aid in-store operations in set-up, take-down, mobile sign requesting and the ability to build a sign for a specific display from the selling floor.

Peter Lewis, Director of Marketing at Episys said, Our work with Bon-Ton on the implementation of the new solution represents the efficiencies and return on investment that can be achieved by our unique solutions based on business rule processing.