news

← Back to News

PMC Managed IT Services ensure consumers had incredible In-Store Experiences over the Christmas Shopping Peak

Abingdon, U.K - 21st January 2020. The Peak trading period can be a challenging time for retailers, placing extra demands on IT systems, both online and in-store. Whilst the detailed picture of the retail winners and losers over Christmas is still to emerge, BRC data shows that 2019 December retail sales increased by 1.7% on a like-for-like basis from December 2018, in part due to the late timing of Black Friday, also taking place in December.

The Consumer’s Preference for Christmas In-Store shopping

The three-month run-in to Christmas and the new year, known as the Golden Quarter, places extra emphasis on the consumer’s experience in-store, as they browse for seasonal gifts, or join the queues for discounted bargains. Digital consumers clearly still value the in-store shopping experience with nearly two in five (37%) shoppers stating that they strongly prefer to shop in a physical store, compared with a lower 32% who strongly prefer digital shopping channels.

Maintaining Operational Performance of In-Store Systems during Peak Trading

Retail systems, whether online or in store, must remain 100% operational to deliver a positive customer experience. PMC, the ‘trusted’ partner for many of the UK’s leading Retailers, provides a comprehensive range of Managed IT Services, from technology Infrastructure management, and incident & helpdesk services, to database and application support. Following implementation of cloud-based, self-healing remote systems monitoring, managed by PMC, in-store incidents can be reduced by as much as 50%, giving valuable hours back to store and IT staff.

This Christmas Peak, for one UK high street retailer, PMC delivered a 99.6% overall SLA achievement and resolved 80% of help desk calls at 1st contact, exceeding by some margin the SLA target. The retailer Customer Satisfaction Survey (CSS) feedback recorded that ‘PMC delivered a great service over the Christmas Peak period, with regular updates and prompt escalations when required, minimal disruption and a great understanding of [our] requirements over this period’.

Back To Managed Services