Specsavers Digital Transformation Project Puts Tech At The Heart Of ‘Everything’

British optical retailers Specsavers has partnered with Fujitsu in a £17.6 million deal to transform its in-store technology across 1,179 European branches.

The aim of the deal is to enhance both the customer experience and the employee environment, enabling Specsavers to make better use of customer data and empower employees to improve their service as well as track orders and incidents.

The partnership will also use technology to help reduce delivery costs and will include heightened security measures to protect against an ever-developing threat landscape.

Digital push

“We are more than just about selling glasses; we want to change lives for the better,” said Specsavers’ global CIO Phil Pavitt. “To do that we need to continuously adapt how we best serve customers. With Fujitsu, we are excited to be partnering with a company that shares our passion for putting the customer first.”

Speaking to Silicon, Pavitt explained how the deal is part of a bigger digital transformation strategy currently taking place at Specsavers. European and UK stores have been running on infrastructure and platforms that simply “weren’t fit for purpose in the long term”, so the company is transitioning to a modern set of platforms to assure its digital future.

“We are re-platforming every singly part of specsavers,” he said. “We’re in the middle of a huge three-year revolution that will put technology at the heart of everything we do.”

This “huge regeneration of technology” touches every part of the business, from developing a new e-commerce platform to updating the supply chain, logistics and of course in-store.

This transformation will ultimately enable Specsavers to roll out new optical services quicker than ever, including CGI renditions which are set to become available to customers this summer.

“We are known for our in store customer experience and everyone talks about the fun tech, but it has to run on something,” Pavitt said. “Now technology is at the heart of what we want to do and we needed a modern partner to do that.”

Rupal Karia, managing director of retail and hospitality in the UK and Ireland for Fujitsu added that the deal will “help Specsavers digitise its business, making Specsavers more agile, without compromising on security.”

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