Longchamp completes rollout of Cegid's retail software

04 Feb '20

3 min read

Pic: Cegid

Longchamp, the French luxury leather goods brand, has completed a rollout of Cegid’s retail point-of-sale software across its global 300-store estate to boost sales and improve services throughout the expanding business. The retailer has been adding new stores over the last few years in countries, where demand for the French luxury handbags remains strong.

The Cegid IT project, alongside integration to an ERP system and new ecommerce ventures, first started in France and then continued across Europe. Then, new stores were steadily added as the business expanded across the US and Asia. Following a 2018 upgrade to Cegid retail’s Y2 software and recent deployment in Australia during 2019, all stores now have access to the same tools for better serving the needs of local customers and instant, accurate information on stocks and sales, according to a media statement by Cegid.

Armed with better reporting tools and having identified best-selling ranges and big spenders like the Chinese and Americans who flocked to stores in Europe, Longchamp has since opened around 20 stores in the US and 20 more in China, as well as launched new ecommerce sites dedicated to serving each country.

In the last year, the fashion accessories brand has been testing new technologies for adding popular services like ‘click-and-collect’ (for picking up web orders in stores) during 2020, not to mention other initiatives like ‘ship-from-store’ to serve the growing proportion of consumers who shop online. Mobile devices are also being introduced into flagship stores so that staff can more easily serve customers using iPhones and the latest omni-channel technologies while on the shopfloor – including clienteling and loyalty apps that help ensure a more personalised service.

The Cegid Retail software is also being used to help target more local events and launches specifically geared towards each country and type of customer. This might involve gathering information on a customer’s previous shopping preferences – or, say, the nationalities of customers visiting different stores - so that staff have a better idea of what to offer.

Longchamp’s massively popular Le Pliage handbag can now be personalised to suit the particular tastes of the customer: for instance, choosing the colour and type of leather; or adding their own initials. Speedy processing of sales and easy tax returns for tourists complete the picture of Longchamp’s desire to make the customer journey a smooth one.

Longchamp launches two new collections per year and sells thousands of different products in various style and colour combinations.

“The brand’s positioning in the fashion market requires us to renew our product ranges quickly. Speed has become a performance criterion in our market, and we must have the right tools that enable us to achieve it. Customers want a dialogue, not a monologue. And sales associates need easy-to-use technology and information that they can rely upon,” André Louit, CFO at Longchamp said.

With solid foundations in place and unified systems across the international business, Longchamp is striving to make customer service as seamless and personalised as possible – whether for customers shopping in a flagship store in London, New York, or Paris; in a department store or concession; or online. Moving the Cegid Retail Y2 software and IT operations into the cloud may next make the business even more nimble as it continues to adapt to the evolving needs of the business.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (GK)

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