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Indigo’s Next Chapter: How Canada’s Largest Bookstore Chain is Expanding Their Reach Without Increasing Headcount

“The biggest advantage of WorkForce Experience is we’ve been able to extend our reach without increasing headcount.”

Fiorina Giovinazzo

Indigo Director of Field Visual

Indigo is Canada’s largest bookstore chain with over 88 superstore locations and 88 small-format stores. In recent years, the self-described “world’s first Cultural Department Store” has improved its product offering and now sells toys, stationery, home decor, gourmet confections, electronics, and more in addition to books and music.

 

The Challenge

Indigo struggled to send directives and ensure brand consistency at each of their locations because of its dispersed workforce, each store’s unique architectural qualities and specialty fixtures, and the frequency of seasonal changeovers. Staying in touch through all the activity was also a challenge, and store visit reports on merchandising compliance grew more infrequent as the company’s store count expanded.

Indigo needed a better way to communicate, share information, assign tasks, provide feedback, and engage with visual merchandising teams.

The Solution

In 2016, Indigo’s visual team began using WorkForce Experience for communication, training, and merchandising task management with their flagship locations, C-level stores, and 400 series locations.

Since adopting the platform, Indigo has been easily able to measure merchandise validation, monitor compliance, and improve in-store execution.

“It allows us to communicate directly with each store and make sure everything looks exactly the way we want it to,” Giovinazzo said. “The level of execution and adherence to brand vision is much stronger.”

The Outcomes

Increased Visibility and Compliance

Indigo’s team can now send directives and share photos of displays, enabling them to stay compliant. This improved in-store execution and increased visibility into activities at Indigo’s most “far-flung” locations.

Improved Team Culture

WorkForce Experience helped empower Indigo’s visual merchandising team to build a more exciting and connected work environment. Store workers loved the idea of the app and teams started moving in a more creative, visual direction.

The new dynamic helped build a more passionate workforce, as each worker had a clear path with the right tools to make visual merchandising a success.

Streamlined Best Practice Sharing

In the past, it was difficult to manage hundreds of stores while tackling seasonal changeovers every 6-8 weeks. With WorkForce Experience, the Indigo team now easily shares best practices, tips, and guidelines cross departmentally; helping everyone elevate ideas together.

Real-Time Feedback

With WorkForce Experience, Indigo can get in touch with staff from anywhere, at any moment, to rectify any problems that happen at the store level. Workers can seek advice and gain feedback from advisors, managers, and team members in real time — through direct messages and group chats.

“Getting the store teams to really understand the importance of visual merchandising has been a journey, and WorkForce Experience has helped us build this community of people who are passionate about merchandising,” said Giovinazzo.

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