Astound helps London Drugs solve warehouse, delivery, and support issues
Retail consumable outlets are coming under increasing pressure from the ecommerce sector. According to Deloitte, the delivery of some consumables—including pharmaceuticals—is “ripe for digital disruption,” driven in part by legacy platforms that make it difficult for brick-and-mortar retailers to respond effectively to the evolving marketplace.
London Drugs, a Canadian retail chain headquartered in Richmond, British Columbia, is upgrading its digital assets to meet these challenges. The company has 82 stores distributed throughout British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, and purveys pharmaceuticals, electronics, cosmetics, housewares, and some grocery items.
London Drugs was experiencing warehouse bottlenecks that were adversely affecting its ability to accommodate the increasing number of customers requesting home delivery. The company devised a solution and turned to Astound as an implementation partner.
Rather than opting for a full-scale deployment of strategic and analytic services, London Drugs adopted Astound’s suggestion for staff augmentation and an incremental approach to problem resolution. Astound provided highly targeted support—including a business analyst—to address each issue.
Astound refactored and improved an existing Salesforce Commerce Cloud (SFCC) implementation, incorporating features that included bundles, product inclusion to wish lists, and import/export services. All data and financials were stored on SFCC. Collectively, the upgrades improved company control and oversight and enhanced customer journeys and deliveries; warehouse demands eased, and consumers increasingly chose home delivery over other shipping options.