RCS - itim Group PLC - Company Update

ITIMAnnouncement

30/11/2022 07:00

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RNS Number : 9817H  itim Group PLC  30 November 2022

REACH

30 November 2022

 

itim Group plc

 

("itim" or "the Company" and together with its subsidiaries "the Group")

 

Company Update

 

itim is pleased to provide a Company update on work undertaken for its
existing and new client base.

 

Since the Company announced its results in September, itim has delivered a
number of core projects and expanded its depth of offering to its considerable
list of retail clients.

 

The Group is pleased to share some of these initiatives and the details of the
projects which the Directors believe show the depth of the software
applications the Group now has in its portfolio:

 

itim products that support customer revenue growth

 

1.    Shop local - this initiative allows a customer to pivot from shopping
the 'web warehouse' to shopping his 'local store' on the website based on
real-time stock.

2.    Rich customer database - this provides a single view of customer
across all channels. The Directors consider this to be the richest customer
database in retail, which is operationally visible in-store, on the website,
in the call-centre and linked to mobile apps. For example: A customer signs up
in store, receives an automatic sign-on on to the website and can
automatically download a mobile app showing all his engagement with the
retailer.

3.    A single sales platform across e-commerce, store and mobile - this
makes the customer experience much better by giving the 'retail' customer a
single view of the 'retailer'. itim's new sales platform now includes
e-commerce and is completely cross-channel, fulfilling the omni-channel
dream. itim is one of the few technology vendors to do so.

4.    Selling of Product Sets on the website - potential to increase
average shopping value.

5.    Subscriptions - launching subscriptions linked to 'product sets',
which has the potential to guarantee regular revenues. One customer sells
about 30,000 a year.

6.    Membership - a unique offering across e-commerce and stores. One
retailer signed up 400,000 new customers in a year adding revenue of £40m per
annum.

7.    Promotions engine - allowing seamless cross channel promotions
compared to having to try to align physical and digital channels.

8.    Vouchers - providing not only distribution of vouchers across
channels, but guaranteeing tracking of those vouchers, avoiding fraud. A good
example of how this can drive revenue is distributing vouchers for redemption
in store, bringing traffic back to stores.

9.    E-gift cards - increasing use of omni-channel gift cards, both in
support of customer service failures, but also to promote sales.

10.  Account customer - The Retail Suite ("TRS") now supports retailers
having account customers, who buy 'on account', get invoiced and sent
statements. With account customers we now support customer specific
pricing. Think of these as B2B customers or even a Buy Now Pay Later ("BNPL")
proposition.

11.  Micro-sites - because of our 'headless' e-commerce capability we believe
we can launch very quickly and cheaply micro-sites to support specific sales
channels. Examples could be clearance sites, B2B sites, collaborations with
suppliers. This idea can also be used to create a shop within a shop on the
main website.

12.  Consumer mobile app - because of our single sales platform, we can give
retailers a consumer facing mobile app, at what we consider to be very low
cost.

13.  Customer Relationship Management ("CRM") in store - essentially making
all sales whether online, mobile or in-store, attributed to the store based on
the postcode of the customer. Giving stores CRM capabilities so that they can
engage with the customers in their community.

14.  Personal shopping services in store - itim's customers tell us that
their VIP customers (usually 10% of the customer database) in most retail
brands represent 40% of sales. itim's solution is linked to the mobile app
or website, allowing consumers to chat, book appointments and get curated
ranges for them which can be driven by the marketing team or generated through
advanced AI techniques.

 

Itim products that support customer margin enhancement

 

1.    Integrated Merchandise Planning - Introducing 'line cards' and Weekly
Sales, Stock and Intake's ("WSSI") in TRS, not as separate applications but as
an integrated application working with data in the itim database.

2.    Price and Promotions Optimisation - (Profimetrics) with 27 customers
using this, we consider ourselves world experts, which has the potential to
improve margin by 1-3%.

3.    Stock Optimisation - (Profimetrics) this allows customers to better
manage stock based on sensible stock policies.

4.    Cost Optimisation - (Profimetrics) this captures supplier funding and
deals, so Itim can use them for improving profitability of promotions.

5.    Digital Supplier Collaboration & Marketplaces - itim is about to
launch the itim hub. Building on our EDI capabilities and successes, this is
a series of supplier collaboration applications, which would allow any
retailer to become more of a marketplace. Allowing for new business models
like 'consignment stock' and 'vendor managed inventory management',
'self-billing etc'.

6.    Improved Invoice Matching and Earning Income from Supplier Payments -
itim's Didos application is in 30 major retailers in the UK. The Company is
now looking on how customers can cash in on the money they can recoup from
suppliers on the back of payments and invoice discounting.

 

Ali Athar, Chief Executive, commented: "We are delighted by the considerable
breadth of offering that we provide our customers. Our full suite of
omnichannel products serves to improve revenue opportunities and optimise the
retail potential for the client. We will update the market on the progress we
have made in our January trading update."

 

Enquiries:

 

 itim Group plc                   Ali Athar, CEO      0207 598 7700

                                  Ian Hayes CFO

 WH Ireland (NOMAD & Broker)      Katy Mitchell       0207 220 1666

                                  Harry Ansell

                                  Darshan Patel

 IFC Advisory                     Graham Herring      0207 3934 6630

                                  Florence Chandler

 

 

ABOUT ITIM

itim was established in 1993 by its founder, and current Chief Executive
Officer, Ali Athar. itim was initially formed as a consulting business,
helping retailers effect operational improvement. From 1999 the Company began
to expand into the provision of proprietary software solutions and by 2004 the
Company was focused exclusively on digital technology. itim has grown both
organically and through a series of acquisitions of small, legacy retail
software systems and associated applications which itim has redeveloped to
create a fully integrated end to end Omni-channel platform.

 

 

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