Morleys Stores Group
How Morleys Transformed with Futura
Morleys Stores Group is an independently owned chain of department stores based in London. The company operates eight stores in total, seven in Greater London and one in Berkshire: its flagship store, the historic Elys, Wimbledon, Morleys of Brixton, Tooting, and Bexleyheath, Selby’s in Holloway, Pearsons Enfield, Roomes Fashion & Home in Upminster, and Camp Hopson in Newbury.
All stores offer a complete retail experience under one roof, specialising in high-quality beauty products, womens fashion, menswear, children’s toys and clothing, furniture, homeware, and cookware. The group employs more than 750 staff.
For the past 15 years, the company has worked with Futura Retail Solutions and our hardware partner ADVANTECH-AURES.
Over this time, Futura has helped Morleys overhaul its retail operations with a modern, fully integrated POS and retail management system. As well as implementing end-to-end software solutions covering POS, CRM, inventory and customer loyalty scheme, Futura has installed more than 250 ADVANTECH-AURES tills across the eight stores.
Morleys were the first retailer to implement Futura’s Squirrel Loyalty Card solution at its Bexleyheath store, signing up over 9,000 customers in the first 15 days.
Expanding Capabilities
“We first started working with Morleys in 2008 when we rolled out tills to the Elys, Wimbledon store,” said Tina Royall, Marketing Director at Futura. “This is also where their head office is located, and we implemented Futura software into their HO systems for buying, stock management, and reporting.”
Tina explained that the primary objective of that initial project was to move Elys from a financial stock system to a unit stock management system. “At this point, they used financial stock management rather than knowing exactly what items had been sold and what they had available. So, we worked with them to get all their items captured on the system, introducing barcodes on all goods, and gradually moved them to a new method of purchasing and stock handling.”
This transition opened the door for the company to undertake more detailed sales analysis and improve understanding of sales patterns, helping to increase sales and improve margins while reducing stock levels.
Over time, these solutions were extended beyond the Elys store to the rest of the group’s department stores. More recently, Futura has worked with Morleys to introduce their Squirrel customer loyalty scheme and integrate its in-store POS with its Shopify digital store.
Number one pick for hardware reliability
Another major project Futura undertook in 2021 was to standardise all the POS terminals across the eight stores. Futura had first introduced ADVANTECH-AURES (formerly AURES) hardware back in 2008 when it installed 54 Odysse tills as part of the Elys store project. Over the intervening years, a number of YUNO tills were installed at other stores. But many sales points were still running even older till hardware.
Dave Abbott joined Morleys as Head of IT in 2020. The move to align all POS hardware across the whole estate was one of the first big projects he was involved in.
“We already had AURES YUNOs in three stores, so they were a natural choice,” said Dave. “After implementation, we had 250 YUNOs across the eight stores.”
Dave says the biggest benefit he has seen is the drastic reduction in support tickets since the YUNOs were rolled out. “We’re probably down to less than 10 support tickets being issued per week now,” he said. “For 250 tills being run across eight stores, that’s pretty amazing. I think we’ve had one unit that actually needed to be repaired in three years”.
“From a cost-quality perspective, the A+A terminals represent great value compared to other POS hardware I’ve worked with in the past. Another benefit is that they are a clean design and compact, they look great in the store, and they allow for more efficient cable management and more efficient use of space.”
Tina explained that reliability is one of the main reasons Futura recommends ADVANTECH-AURES equipment to clients as their number one POS hardware pick. “Since we switched to A+A as our key partner, the amount of hardware issues we deal with has dropped dramatically,” she said. “Their systems are extremely robust and reliable and therefore perfect for retail, as well as being aesthetically pleasing”.
“The price point is very reasonable and the three-year warranty is exceptionally good value. Again, great for a sector that can’t wait for repairs.”
Speed, quality and consistency
Dave added that exceptional reliability and speed of service are key aspects of Morleys’ partnership with Futura.
Morleys Brixton
“They recently carried out our first full system upgrade in several years,” he said. “The process was practically seamless. We had 12 go-live issues, all resolved in an average of 30 minutes.”
“Futura is a great fit for the size of our business and for our ambitions moving forward. They are very diligent in development and we benefit from consistency in the sense that it’s the same people picking up the phones and speaking with us. They know our systems well and that allows them to work at speed and with high quality.”
Through Futura Retail Solutions, Morleys Stores Group has successfully modernised its POS, inventory, CRM, and customer loyalty systems, integrated its digital and physical stores, and enhanced operational efficiency across its entire estate.
The company continues to leverage Futura’s expertise in retail technology, ensuring that its stores remain agile, customer-focused, and future-ready.
Key functionality driving growth at Morleys Stores Group
- Intuitive Touch screen EPOS
- Single view of stock, sales and customers across all locations and channels
- Shopify plug-in providing seamless customer journey
- Streamlined stock allocations and merchandise planning
- Business Intelligence reporting for all channels
- Automatic re-ordering of core lines
- Branded digital receipts & giftcards
- Successful Customer Rewards program, instore and online