Ted Baker Rolls Out Cegid Retail Management Software To Support Expansion In Asia

Ted Baker, the fast-growing British designer brand, is rolling-out new point-of-sale and retail management software, Yourcegid Retail, to help support its expansion in Asia. Yourcegid Retail is expected to make dealing with complicated tax regimes and customer service in local languages more straightforward. The initial implementation of the stores in Hong Kong will be completed just in time for the upcoming busy Christmas trading period and ahead of the opening of its first stores in mainland China early next year.

Dustan Steer, Ted Baker's IT director, said "We chose to work with Cegid because of its expertise in fashion and its international reach". Cegid is present in all the local markets we operate in and the software is highly flexible, giving local support in the relevant languages and lots of specific tools already configured for each region. Following local regulations is one of the greatest challenges in Asia, so Cegid proved to be a ‘one-stop shop' for our overseas activity."

The retailer also plans to take advantage of other Cegid features to help better align the business with certain country-specific needs. For instance, higher levels of in store service in Asia often requires more sophisticated Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and VIP tools, with gift card and loyalty schemes possibly being explored in the future. Steer also acknowledged the need for building new data centres in the US and Hong Kong to support the growing business and speed up data transfer.

The £188M designer brand recently announced further expansion abroad after half-year sales in the US went up by 74% to $16.7M (£10.8M), boosted by new concessions and strong demand for its clothes. Ted Baker said it would add 13 concessions in US department stores, including Bloomingdales and Nordstrum, to its existing base of 150+ stores, mainly in the UK, France, US and Asia. The company will also open a new flagship store in New York in 2012, in addition to four new concessions and an outlet store in the US this year.

About Ted Baker

The ‘No Ordinary Designer Label' story
Having launched as a shirt specialist in Glasgow in 1988, Ted Baker quickly became the place to buy the best contemporary men's shirting around. From the beginning, Ted Baker had a very clear, unswerving focus on quality, and attention-to-detail, all delivered with a quirky sense of humour. What other brand would give away Paxo stuffing at Christmas, or a can of chocolate bunny hotpot for Easter? The out-of-the-ordinary marketing campaigns gained the quickly growing brand the title, ‘No Ordinary Designer Label.'

Today, Ted Baker has a multitude of locations across the globe, from Australia and the USA to Asia and the Middle East. They've brought their irreverent touch to everything from menswear and womenswear to fragrances, footwear and eyewear. For more information, visit www.tedbaker.com.

About Cegid
Cegid Group is a leading international enterprise management and vertical software solutions provider, with a turnover of €249.6M in 2010, 2,000 employees and 400,000 users world-wide. Combining international expertise and reach, the company has offices in Milton Keynes, Paris, Barcelona, Madrid, Milan, New York, Casablanca, Shenzhen, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Tokyo and a network of resellers throughout the world supporting our customer's international expansion.

Delivering solutions and services to improve our customer's performance and development, our expertise extends from vertical business solutions (retail, manufacturing & industry, hospitality, services, wholesale, CPAs, associations, Public sector) to "enterprise-wide" solutions (finance & accounting, tax, performance management, human resources/payroll). Cegid's solutions are also available "on demand" based on a SaaS deployment model and address the needs of companies of all sizes.

About Cegid Retail
Yourcegid Retail is proven to improve the productivity, performance and profitability of speciality retailers. The Yourcegid Retail portfolio includes merchandise planning, forecasting, sourcing and production, supply chain, multichannel merchandise management, EPOS and store management, CRM and loyalty and reporting. Over 1,000 retailers and 20,000 stores in 70 countries are using Yourcegid Retail to drive their business forward.

SOURCE: Ted Baker