The Container Store consolidates hardware vendors savings costs, creating greater efficiencies, all while gaining a true partner.

Business / Technology Challenge:

Although expansion plans slowed for The Container Store during the recent economic slowdown, the company had been expanding at a rate of 15 to 20% per year up through 2008. With each new store, the company focuses on maintaining the same unparalleled service and an interactive shopping experience.

Judy McGrath, IT Purchasing & Leasing Manager at The Container Store, explains that “highly efficient” POS systems are an integral part of the core customer experience at each new location. Prior to working with tekservePOS, McGrath says she purchased the equipment for each new location from a variety of different vendors, which was costly and inefficient.

How tekservePOS helped:

By consolidating The Container Store’s hardware purchasing through tekservePOS, McGrath says the company has saved both time and money. “We are achieving real economies of scale and it also saves me time having to chase after five different suppliers to see where my equipment is, and if it will arrive on time. The tekservePOS team handles all of that for us seamlessly, which has been a huge help.”

In addition to improving efficiency and increasing ROI , McGrath says tekservePOS’ guidance with new technology has helped the company to launch innovative cross-channel customer service initiatives, such as its GoShop! Click & Pickup service. The time-saving service, allows customers to shop online and pick up the item at any store. “This requires our stores to have the product ready when the customer comes in to pick it up, so we needed the right store systems to manage and deliver on this promise to our customers.”
In addition to the core services tekserve provides, McGrath says another huge benefit she receives from the relationship is the access to the information sharing she gets through tekservePOS ’ tekSESSIONS conference and peerto- peer networking. “The tekservePOS team has a huge contact list of top retail customers, which allows me to see how other companies are managing expansion and other issues. I’m able to learn how companies who are opening hundreds of stores per year handle these issues so we don’t have to reinvent the wheel.”

McGrath says the value-added benefits tekservePOS provides are just as important as the time and money she has saved by consolidating her purchasing. “tekservePOS is truly a partner. They talk to us about solving business problems, rather than just focusing on selling us more equipment.”

Background:

Headquartered in Dallas, The Container Store is the nation’s originator and leading retailer of storage and organization products offering more than 10,000 products to save customers space and time. The retailer’s second-to-none product collection is coupled with a high level of customer service and employee-first culture. The company currently has 47 locations in 23 markets across the country.