Exclusive Interview: Richard Waltham — Director at Retail & Sports Systems
Over 25 sites including 16 Football Clubs & 3 Rugby Clubs work with Retail & Sports Systems. Richard Waltham, the Director at Retail & Sport Systems was asked a series of questions by the CEO of DiscountIF, Lewis Holland. Richard shared his views on how they have improved their service, and discussed any potential changes and innovations coming out within the merchandise space.
We’re curious to know, what is the achievement you’re most proud of from the 2016/17 season?
The signing of West Ham United proved the scalability of our system with the large Store at the Olympic Stadium and the volume of online orders that we have been able to take during peak trading periods.
Aside from West Ham we are very proud that all of our clubs that have reached contract renewal for the first or second time decided to renew again with us. If our customers are renewing, we are doing things right.
How does RSS help cubs’ merchandise stores reduce seasonality of sales?
The seasonality of sales follows a very similar trend for all clubs. As follows: Shirt or shirts Pre Order, Shirt Launch, Start of season, First Home game, Black Friday, Christmas trading, On Sale. Overriding this we have cup runs and extraordinary events (New Stadium, Trophy Wins or relegations). Our retail system with the live stock and sales position allows for reaction to these events and if the supply base is flexible enough sales can be maximised. It is the ability to cope with the peaks whether they are caused by match days in store, Black Friday or other events that control the efficient delivery of a successful solution.
Are you seeing any shifts in online vs. offline sales of merchandise from your clients?
Yes, there is a significant move towards online trading. More recently we have seen a significant shift to mobile conversion within the overall online growth. More and more people have smart phones and are confident to use them. This demand requires sites to be optimised for mobile, and with this in mind when we build a new site we start the design from the mobile upward.
Being able to take more orders online is great, but the ability to fulfil them promptly is the key, good customer service with clear telesales screens capturing customer queries helps, the ability to pick and pack efficiently and then despatch with carrier integration with order tracking delivers the growth customer satisfaction and repeat business.
If there is one thing you would change on club’s websites, that could help clubs merchandise stores, what would it be?
The R&SS system allows the Retailer to upload and manage the website quickly with a comprehensive content management system. These changes need to be reflected on the Main Club Website as many shoppers start off on the main site and navigate over to the online shop. Social Media sites specifically for Retail can help drive sales.
Single Sign On for the customer is important allowing the customer to have one login and password and only one place to change addresses.
What innovation in clubs marketing activities around merchandise have you seen over the last 5 years?
Moving away from the standard discounts for season ticket holders to more intuitive loyalty schemes, these are either cash or points based. CRM systems have moved away from blanket emails to targeting specific groups as they now have feeds from both Ticketing and retail.
Any new features from RSS this coming year that will help increase merchandise revenues?
Our latest developments are around increasing efficiency in the ordering process. Several more warehouse scanner developments have taken place and this will continue to grow. We are looking to launch a User Group for our customer base that will allow them to share experiences and also to help improve the system.
We will continue to invest in order to improve as we have done over the last 6 years.
Feel free to share your feedback and comments.
If you would like to share any tips or insights of your club’s online retail store, please get in touch on www.discountif.com or via email on contact@discountif.com
