“Together we provide a best-of-breed approach for garden centres”
Point of Sale supplier Davidson Richards has focused on the garden industry for many years. They now supply more than eighty garden centres in the United Kingdom. “That has grown since the 1980s. We realised that garden centres are not single retailers. They sell so many different products, from plants to clothing, garden furniture and even ponds. So, as a POS supplier, if you can handle garden centres, you can handle anything", says Keith Bateman, co-CEO at Davidson Richards. This interview is part of our whitepaper 'Challenging times ask for online solutions'. Do you want to read more inspiring interviews? Download the full whitepaper.
Service
They consider it very important to build long term relationships with their customers. “We provide a full service to our customers. This includes electronic point of sale (EPoS) and retail management solutions. We also offer financial accountancy solutions. From start to finish, the whole process includes initial discussions, consultancy, training, implementation, development and constant support.
Opportunities
Over ten years ago, they started developing OpSuite, Davidson Richards' own POS system. “We saw the benefits that working in the Cloud could have for our customers, but also for us as a supplier. This eliminates the need for on-site updates to the customer's site and makes it fully scalable. The Cloud offers many possibilities for updates, freedom of access and of course also for data security.”
Partner
For a long time, Garden Connect wanted to team up with Davidson Richards, but they were reluctant. “We were somewhat dubious and declined, since Garden Connect also works with other EPoS providers. Until in 2019, one of our mutual customers, Frosts Garden Centres, asked us to collaborate and provide an integrated solution. We were literally thrown together! We then realised that Garden Connect is really good at what they do. Our companies are very similar in their culture and approach. We're not just sales people, we're developers and know what's behind the product. That is also the case for Garden Connect and we work very well together, providing a truly best-of-breed approach for garden centres."
The collaboration between Garden Connect and Davidson Richards has grown steadily over the past year. It all started with their first collaboration in 2019. After this, both started working on a full integration between the Garden Connect platform and the OpSuite POS system. "This allows garden centres to streamline their online sales and provides consumers with a personalised experience, both online and offline.”
OpSuite App
Last year, the partnership was expanded with the OpSuite App, powered by Garden Connect. “It is an application in which all our services come together. The app has three different functions; Loyalty, Scan & Go and Hospitality. It uses the real-time data that is available to our customers in the OpSuite POS system. We are very proud of what we have achieved together and we are looking forward to a bright future.”
