Back in the 1990s, UK witnessed the foundation of Eurostop, a company offering complete EPOS and retail software solution.
Cut to 2019, the organization progressed rapidly to become a major force in the industry, offering solutions to many fashion, footwear, jewelry, and general merchandise retailers.
Eurostop’s experience and understanding of these retail sectors has enabled the organization to develop well established systems that allow its customers to manage their merchandise and business processes with efficiency and ease. In the last decade, Eurostop has successfully expanded into Asia, and established offices in Shanghai, Xiamen, Singapore and Hong Kong. These offices cater to the Asia Pacific market and help to service its global customer base.
When Dreams Come True
While growing up in Malaysia, Richard Loh the CEO of Eurostop dreamed of becoming an entrepreneur. At the age of 18, he joined the Graduate Trainee Programme at Bata Shoes, progressed to store manager, area manager and to head office as a merchandiser. Richard credits his retail training for the discipline in later life that enabled him to successfully develop and build his own business.
In 1970, Richard left Malacca for the UK where at Lady at Lord John, he rose to Merchandise Director within three years. Realizing the importance of IT, Richard then joined Honeywell Bull as a retail consultant. Here, his energy and passion enabled him to build relationships with colleagues that were to join him to make Eurostop the company it is today.
Harnessing the Power of Clever Tech
Richard firmly believes in remaining agile and adapting to changing consumer behavior and trends in order to remain relevant, all the while providing a consistent core service, which is based on accurate data and stock. Eurostop is now looking at clever use of technology to enhance the in-store experience, using tech and data to provide an on demand, mobile service for consumers.
Eurostop’s newest disruptive technology is an in-store consumer shopping app called MyShoppr™. This consumer app was designed to merge offline and online seamlessly, embracing the trend for mobile shopping with the physical bricks and mortar experience. Another key development is the real time fulfillment capabilities of the Eurostop solution, where retailers can fulfill orders from any location within the business, ensuring that customers receive their orders swiftly.
Richard’s experience and enthusiasm for the retail sector, and the challenges that it faces, has shaped Eurostop’s success. Strategy is a mix of listening to customers, and looking at the wider market, to develop well-established systems to streamline the management of merchandise and business processes. It’s about putting the consumers’ experiences first and foremost.
Lessons Learnt while Staying at the Forefront
Richard has worked with multiple Tier 1 retailers over the years, and understands that a positive customer experience underpins every successful sale – evident today by Eurostop’s own business development and philosophy. With the blistering pace of technological advancements, Richard continues to keep Eurostop at the forefront of the market with his drive and enthusiasm, currently focusing on mobile technology and omni-channel.
Richard is also actively involved in leading the firm’s expanding operation in China where Eurostop’s largest customer, the sports brand Anta Sportswear, has more than 12,000 retail stores. Having achieved many of his goals, Richard now goes out of his way to give others opportunities and help them fulfill their potential.
Picture of the Future
When it comes to the future, Eurostop listens to its customers, industry commentators and Richard has some strong opinions of his own, as to where the future of retail lies. Keeping an open mind as to what is possible is the key to maintain and develop any business, and the same is true for retail. Eurostop will continue to explore the possibilities of new technology, by always asking; ‘How can this make the customer experience better?’
Also, the organization’s integrated suite of software is constantly developing, and as a long-standing retail systems provider, Eurostop is well placed to support its retail partners as they grow, with the experience and infrastructure to support their expansion both locally and globally.
Client’s Feedback
“The Eurostop team did a great job working with our other third party vendors to get the seamless customer experience. Everything works more smoothly, transactions are faster and customer service is improved. They are a truly collaborative vendor and never shy away from their responsibilities. Their approach has always been ‘how can we fix that or make that happen?’ We really do trust Eurostop to look after our business,”– M&S International
“Eurostop has made replenishment and fulfilment seamless. The automatic requests save us so much time, we can share stock easily across the warehouse and stores, and fulfil customer orders much faster. The resulting commercial success with our multichannel business is one of the key reasons why we won Drapers Independent Award.”– Base Fashion