DigiPoS Retail Blade ‘Hits the Spot’ with Specialty Chain Teavana

Teavana is a national chain of boutiques specializing in high quality selections of loose leaf tea and related tea service products. Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, Teavana has seen tremendous growth since opening in 1997, expanding to 120 stores in 2009. This is due to demand for its unique brand of mall-based locations serving up a wide variety of tea products.

When Teavana began their search for new POS systems for their highly successful rapidly expanding chain, maintenance and serviceability were key priorities when considering their options. They were finding their existing IBM SurePOS systems were difficult and costly to service, so when IT Manager David Eshelman discovered the DigiPoS Retail Blade, he immediately saw it offered an opportunity to take more control over support and maintenance.

“We needed a hardware platform that didn’t require specialized knowledge for maintenance and support. After testing a demo unit for a month, I knew the Retail Blade fit our needs. It cost half as much as our previous platform, performance increased greatly and maintenance/support became much less of a burden” said Eshelman.

Since they began their rollout of the Retail Blade systems, the experience has been described as “smooth”, especially over the demanding holiday season where Teavana actually reduced high demand tech support calls to IT staff. Despite opening 26 new stores last year, they have only added 1 help desk technician to their team. This is due to the Retail Blade architecture which allows them to employ local outside contractors to service their stores quickly, taking into consideration the simplified experience of locating, servicing or replacing the power supply, hard drive, or mother board.

Thrilled with how the new systems were functioning, Teavana jumped at the chance to further enhance their service model by adding Retail Blade “first aid kits” which is essentially a spare pool in strategic locations for added peace of mind, covering all their bases for maximum store uptime.

They have also discovered reliability improvements in their software since making the transition, allowing them to keep their existing solution, eliminating the need to invest in a new software package.
Teavana’s Controller and VP of Information Technology, Mike Wallace has some advice for other retailers looking to upgrade their systems:

“Look at all the options available out there, don’t limit your organization to just the traditional mainstream suppliers. Take the time to evaluate how you plan to maintain your stores and if you want to have more control over costs. We found that DigiPoS actually want to design systems that are more open and flexible, where the true benefits are absorbed by the retailer, rather than being locked into long term vendor contracts. Our exceptional satisfaction level with DigiPoS shows that they go far beyond being just a vendor; they are a true solution partner dedicated to providing systems that really fit our needs.”

DigiPoS is also supplying market-leading peripherals which include the Epson T88iv receipt printer, Datalogic Mobile Quickscan, and Microsoft Windows XP Pro.