Myer equips store staff with iPads

Department store Myer is preparing to embark on a trial of iPads in its stores ahead of a wider rollout nationally over the coming months.

The company will equip a handful of its metropolitan stores - understood to be Sydney and Melbourne - with an initial batch of iPads over the coming weeks in preparation for a wider rollout of 1200 of the tablet devices over the remainder of the year.

The trial period has no designated time frame and is being run mainly to iron out kinks and respond to user feedback ahead of the wider national rollout to Myer’s 66 Australian stores.

Myer floor staff will be able to access the company’s merchandising and order management systems to offer customers in-store ordering of stock, click and collect options, and delivery options. Myer staff will also be able to access store fulfillment capabilities. 

The enterprise application running on the iPad was developed internally by Myer’s IT team. Staff will be able to access the stock systems via existing in-store wi-fi. 

Myer is the latest in a line of retailers to deploy iPads to floor staff. The department chain joins the likes of Woolworths, Coles, Kathmandu, General Pants, and Millers and Crossroads owner Speciality Fashion Group to test a mobile approach on the shopfloor.

Kathmandu last year trialled iPads in its Chapel St, Melbourne store, to give customers the ability to buy products not available in-store online.

Coles is testing iPads and iPhones with its store managers to get them out of the office and onto the shop floor - an issue Woolworths similarly confronted with iPads in 2012. The company gave iPads to its almost 900 store managers to cut down on time wasted on back-office tasks. 

The owner of Millers, Crossroads and other brands including City Chic and Rivers -  Speciality Fashion Group - gave its 4500 in-store staff iPads running Google’s suite of collaboration tools last year to replace its old fax machine-based method of communication. 

Late last year, fashion chain General Pants rolled out iPad-based kiosks to allow shoppers to select music to play in-store, shop online, interact with other kiosk and social media users and get assistance.