With the help of Bluebird’s EF500 touch mobile computer, the French headquartered home improvement and gardening retailer, Leroy Merlin, has been able to significantly increase visibility of its inventory, enabling store associates to spend more time engaging with customers. The company is one of the major home improvement retailers in France, selling anything from small screws to kitchen systems. It serves several countries throughout Europe, Asia, South America and Africa.

Leroy Merlin employees were having to manage in excess of 30,000 different items every day. With old VoIP communication and text-based visibility, they couldn’t get proper data nor engage with customers effectively. Moreover, today’s smart consumers prefer rapid and accurate services in order to make quick purchasing decisions so, Leroy Merlin decided to address how to improve productivity while, at the same time, increase customer satisfaction.

It was especially keen to improve its technical equipment to increase its competitiveness. It was looking for a trusted trouble-shooter that was not just a device provider but also a supplier of professional guidance, full technical backup, large scale deployment, and enterprise-grade customisation. 

Bluebird was given the opportunity and has enabled Leroy Merlin to integrate new systems through a more comprehensive technical approach. Its EF500 touch mobile computer stands out in comparison to models from global competitors. From the outset of the project to the final deployment, Bluebird effectively provided Leroy Merlin with an industry-specific solution and supportive management.

It presented clear directions on how Leroy Merlin could achieve what it wanted, as well as providing them with the latest touch mobile computers, the EF500s. With tailored technical support, Leroy Merlin was able to reduce the initialisation period of integrating the whole inventory management system and save on investments, which minimised the total cost of ownership (TCO). 

Around 5,000 Bluebird EF500s have been deployed in 125 Leroy Merlin stores so staff are now equipped with powerful tools, combined with the latest Android 5.x, which supports vital enterprise applications. As a result, these features enable associates to save a great deal of time, focus on their own jobs, and engage with customers more. The sharper visibility and real-time network performance of the EF500 creates optimal workflow and enables employees to complete more tasks such as instant barcode scanning, price-checking and the ability to print labels.