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Report: Boots U.K. rolls out iPads to store employees, takes advantage of IBM-Apple partnership
Almost nine months after Apple Inc. and IBM announced their partnership, U.K. pharmacy chain Boots has announced that it will issue store employees with iPads running customer service apps to attend to shoppers on the pharmacy floor.
The company, which forms part of Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc., hopes that customers will pre-order cosmetics and toiletries online, much like calling ahead for medical prescriptions, effectively turning its 2,500 retail outlets into expedient pick-up points, reports Reuters.
“These apps put all of Boots’ inventory at (employees’) fingertips,” said Robin Phillips, head of digital and e-commerce business at Boots. “This makes it easier for them … to interact with customers on their own terms.”
Robin Phillps, who is in charge of digital and e-commerce business at the company, now part of Walgreens Boots Alliance, told Reuters that “These apps put all of Boots’ inventory at (employees’) fingertips. This makes it easier for them … to interact with customers on their own terms.”
Boots U.K. intends to roll out 4,000 iPads loaded with the company’s Sales Assist app to pharmacies across the U.K. Part of the effort will include pervasive Wi-Fi in stores, enabling staff to assist shoppers on the pharmacy floor and eventually take payments on the spot.
“The direction we are moving is purchasing in the aisles,” Phillips says, adding that “the goal is to remove the check-out till as a barrier to buying.”
According to IBM, over 200 companies have plans to implement the use of iOS apps through its partnership with Apple, including U.S. banking group Citi and Banorte of Mexico, Air Canada, and retailers American Eagle Outfitters and now Boots U.K.
“We are trying to bring that same ‘wow’ factor, the same changes we have had in our personal lives, to our working lives,” stated Katharyn White, IBM’s global sales and marketing lead for the IBM-Apple partnership.
The IBM-Apple partnership has yielded 14 iOS app templates so far, which IBM then customize for individual business needs. The aim is to allow employees to better assist customers on the go by having access to information without being tethered to fixed counter terminals or workstations.
The partnership aims to create 100 iOS enterprise apps by the end of this year.
Image via walgreensbootsalliance.com
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