Lush

Offering a fresh and innovative range of bath and shower products and cosmetics, Lush was founded in 1994 and now has more than 370 stores around the world and an extensive mail order business. With 88 retail outlets across the UK, customer experience at the check-out is a vital business consideration.

Ringing the changes

Although Lush was already using a broadband network to link up its EPOS (Electronic Point of Sale) systems, this wasn't robust or fast enough to handle Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) payments, so it was forced to use an ordinary phone line for credit card transactions. This was an extremely slow process, and with growing numbers of customers the company needed an IP-based network solution that would be able to handle this and cut down till waiting times.

Lush also required a solution that would help it to meet PCI Security Standards Council requirements, which stipulate that a customer’s data for credit card payments must be secure. Finally, the company wanted to not only reduce the burden of management on its IT team but also to flexibly accommodate future developments to help it make the most of its infrastructure.

Next-generation solution

Vodat International are providing a fully managed multiprotocol label switching network (MPLS) across all of Lush’s UK and Ireland stores. A 2MB SDSL connection to Lush’s headquarters and ADSL connections to each store contribute to an advanced, reliable network solution with built-in PCI compliance and that supports EFT payments for all of its customers.

In addition, the ADSL routers are provided with a PSTN back-up facility, so in the unlikely event of an ADSL failure then the routers will switch to a PSTN service, allowing business-critical services to continue.

As a PCI-compliant provider, Vodat International was recommended to Lush by a supplier. During the tender process Vodat International submitted one of the most competitive submissions with strong customer references. Chris Risbey, Retail Systems Manager at Lush, comments: “With their combined retail sector and next-generation network expertise, Vodat International impressed us with the depth of their knowledge and their ability to demonstrate how we can integrate new applications onto the network.”

Speed and flexibility

Despite being extremely cost-effective, this next-generation solution delivers a high level of robustness and reliability, allowing Lush to reduce transaction processing times – in many cases from 40-50 seconds with the old system, compared to less than 10 seconds with the new one. This has an enormous impact on the customer’s in-store experience and is particularly important in the hectic run-up to Christmas.

As a fully managed solution, the burden of running the network is transferred away from Lush’s in-house team, freeing up resources to focus on the company’s core business. Since the network is proactively monitored 24/7, Vodat International can begin to tackle any issues immediately and often before the customer is aware of them, rather than waiting for a fault to be reported.

The solution has a high degree of flexibility, allowing Lush to add new stores to the network quickly and increase bandwidth as it is needed. There is also scope for new applications and services such as VoIP to be added to the system to help improve company communications and decrease costs. Lush also now has the option to introduce Vodat International’s Virtual Back Office application, to deliver an intranet, workflow and messaging system to its stores.

Chris Risbey comments on working with Vodat International: “I was really pleased with the smooth rollout of the solution. We are delighted with the dramatically improved customer service and greater flexibility that the new solution gives us.”

To find out more about managed Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) networks, PSTN, EPOS networks and Vodat's next generation network (NGN) solutions with built in PCI compliance for retailers in the UK, please call Vodat International on 0161 406 1820 or contact us by e-mail.