The Future Uniform Store: A three-part series

This month, UniformMarket begins a series of articles examining the state of today’s uniform stores and the changes they are undergoing to assure success and viability.

Part 1 will focus on the technological changes going on that affect the way a uniform store conducts business. In Part II, we’ll take a closer look at the brick and mortar store and what it is doing to attract customers in terms of store design. Finally, we’ll take a look at where the industry is in terms of inventory and product mix, and what the future may hold in these areas.

Initially appearing online, some topics in the Series will be expanded and run in the Spring & Summer 2007 edition of Made to Measure

Part 1: The Store and Technology: Moving From Automated to Integrated

Background. A mere decade or so ago, when a customer purchased an item in a uniform store, the employee would manually write up the sale. If you wanted to track your stock, you would count, one by one, the items in your inventory. Needed to talk with a customer? You’d call them on the phone. Invoices were sent via mail. And while the fax machine was all the rage, few had ever heard of the Internet, let alone imagine its potential to influence the purchasing decisions of customers.

But that all changed in the 90s when the World Wide Web made it theoretically possible to reach a global audience, and other technological advances gave retailers the opportunity to automate their systems, effectively streamlining costs and bolstering efficiency. Some embraced the changes; others went kicking and screaming toward the future. A handful became bogged in the past, refusing to accept the new tools at their disposal. “For several years, I tried to get one store owner to automate, making proposal after proposal,” says David Johnson of Premier Data Systems, whose company provides The Uniform Solution, an automated point-of-sale, purchase ordering, and inventory control system to many in the business. “But he was uneasy with the technology and couldn’t see the benefits, and he’s since gone out of business.”

Technological Fear Factor

Although not widespread, that reluctance still exists today, according to Johnson. “Our research indicates that fear of technology and a fear of failure dramatically affects purchasing decisions,” he says. “In order to buy anything new, the customer needs to be comfortable with the product.”

To assuage such concerns, Premier Data Systems offers its customers a rigorous training process, including on-screen tutorials and telephone technical support, and has incorporated the suggestions of its customers into product enhancements. And while some prefer on-site training, Johnson discourages the idea. “It’s really cost-prohibitive in today’s world, and it’s not necessarily better,’ he notes.

Making their Presence Known: Stores and the Web

In 1999, the most important thing a uniform store could do regarding the Web was to simply be there. “No one was selling back then; the site was for informational purposes only,” says Chris Ciccone of MP Uniforms and Supply. But just being there today isn’t good enough. “If you’re a store, you must have an e-commerce component to your site,” continues Ciccone, who will soon launch a site using UniformMarket Store System. “You can only stock so much product in a store. The e-commerce site shows the customer all the options available, and gives him a better knowledge of what we do. Besides, today’s customers are very savvy, and they expect you to have such a site.”

Joe Chiusolo of Turn Out Fire & Safety agrees. “E-commerce is an extension of service that the dealer can provide to the customer,” says Chiusolo. “Most customers go to the website to see what’s available, and then either make their purchases online or come into the store.”

One of the many benefits of e-commerce is the ability for the customer to order an item online and pick it up at his local store. Indeed, retail giants such as Wal-Mart and Circuit City have such a procedure in place, even going so far as designating special pickup areas and marking the space with electronic signage. Has the practice trickled down to the uniform industry?

Not really, according to the retailers we spoke with. Selling on the web seems to be an either or situation – customers either buy exclusively online, or they research the product and visit the store to make a purchase. “Uniforms are not appliances, they have added-on value,” notes Chiusolo. “I list a large variety of trousers on my website; each can be specialized to fit a department’s individualized requirements, whether that is providing a stripe, a certain shade of blue, or a specific fabric blend. You can’t provide that level of service over the Web, and we’re too complex of an industry to function like a Circuit City.”

“The uniform business is too touchy-feely,” adds Leonard Sloan of Chef Uniforms of Dallas. Sloan, who started in the screen printing business some 30 years ago, recently opened his first uniform store. “Yes, I do a lot of business online, and there’s no doubt about the strength of e-commerce, but I’ve actually picked up additional customers because I now have a store.”

Which brings up an interesting point: Do uniform retailers attract more business by having an e-commerce site, or is it simply another benefit for existing customers?

The answer, at least for the moment, is a qualified both. “We’ve picked up additional business since we started selling online, but it’s sporadic,” says a representative from Graves Uniforms. “While we do get queries outside our area, much of the business is local or within the region we traditionally sell.”

POS, Inventory Tracking and Email: What’s New, Where is it Going?

When MP Uniforms opened its first store 14 years ago, Chris Ciccone wrote up all orders by hand and, if he wanted to know if an item was in stock, he walked around until he found it.

Since that time, Ciccone and his partners have opened three additional stores specializing in medical apparel. Their initial store, serving the law enforcement market, has grown from 800 square feet to 1,900 square feet.

“We couldn’t have survived the growth without computerization and technology,” he says.

The automated store is perhaps the greatest achievement in the industry over the last decade or so. Most store owners rely on either Uniform Solutions or Merchant Technologies to fulfill their computer and in-house needs, using the systems to generate electronic sales reports and to easily determine if an item is in stock. Uniform specifications, too, can now be stored in a computer, saving time and reducing the chance of human error. “Before, you had to hope an employee jotted down a customer’s most recent specs in his file,’ notes Chiusolo, who uses Merchant Technologies in his original store and Uniform Solutions in the recently-opened Totowa, NJ location. Automation has not only streamlined costs and improved efficiency, but it has facilitated a better level of customer service, a much coveted goal on the retail side of the business.

But technology moves at rapid speed, and the uniform store moved with it in 2007. This year, The Uniform Solution began offering several new options to the 700 uniform stores using its system. Stores now have the ability to convert anything that is printed from the program straight to a PDF file, and email it at the same time. Custom emails can also be created, and customers can attach their own files as well. Also new is the ability for stores to electronically send purchase orders to vendors over the internet. And advance ship notices makes it possible to quickly receive shipments by scanning the barcode on a shipping label. Next year, stores can look forward to real-time vendor stock reporting, a tool designed to make the retailer more efficient and productive. “We’re putting in their hands the capability of a Wal-Mart.”

Indeed, none of the above is exactly new to retail, but it is new to the uniform industry, at least on the retail side. “You have to remember that many are small business owners, and the costs traditionally associated with this type of technology were huge,” says Johnson.

And what of the future? Before 2000, the mantra was automation. Today, it may very well be integration. “We’re moving from a point where technology operated independently,” says Johnson. “At the beginning of this century little, if anything, was connected. Today in the uniform industry, we’re moving away from automation in a vacuum to an integrated system between manufacturers and retailers that will enhance the business for all.”

Would you like your store and views included in this series? Send an email to jackie@uniformmarket.com to schedule an interview.