Digilock® is a global leader in delivering high-performance electronic locks and locker-security solutions that use patented technology on either a keypad or an RFID interface. Digilock’s ADA-compliant locks are offered in several architectural finishes, locking interfaces, functionalities, and security platforms and seamlessly integrate to any personal storage fixture and case good while their lockers deliver design, durability, and security through the comprehensive selection of door types, frame features, and storage configurations, always secured with locks by Digilock. Its commitment to providing superior customer support and responsiveness to market demands enables Digilock to be recognized as the industry influencer.
Every aspect of environment and operation impacts the experience that a retail facility provides. With a precision focus on style, ease-of-use, and lock management, Digilock enhances this experience with sleek and stylish security solutions.
How to Expand without Compromising Security
Digilock’s goal is to make security simplified®, blending science with the artistry that transforms the user experience. Digilock is seen in nearly all high-end locker rooms around the world, offering security and elegance that customers demand. The company also customizes products to fit a wide variety of applications across a multitude of diverse industries. Following is a case study that proves how the industry leader and the original manufacturer of electronic locker locks establishes the highest standards for unparalleled security solutions for locker rooms and personal storage areas.
La Maison Simons: Creativity, Architecture, Art
La Maison Simons is a popular Canadian fashion and home decor retailer that uniquely pairs its private-label fashion with higher-priced designers. After 175 years, La Maison Simons (simons.ca) is making a major aggressive expansion push in at least eight Canadian cities in the next four years.
“We had a vision of what we wanted to accomplish and be able to do in terms of design and innovation in retail, and I felt that we had to enlarge,” CEO Peter Simons said in a phone interview to The Canadian Press. Its new West Edmonton Mall store earned the Retail Store of the Year award from Chain Store Age for its innovative design, bright colors, and avant-garde fitting rooms that feature social-media-connected screens and a lighting installation that evokes the Northern Lights.
Recently, La Maison Simons opened its tenth location–an 80,000-square-foot store at Les Promenades Gatineau. CEO Peter Simons realizes that “it’s definitely a very competitive, dynamic market, with a new equilibrium forming between electronic sales and bricks-and-mortar.” To stand out from the crowd, he put a strong emphasis on creating unique experiences both for customers and for employees. As in all new La Maison Simons stores, in the effort to enrich the community and to support the artists, it features a one-of-a-kind art installation. “We’re trying to create a unique proposition that fits in, that offers something different. We’re going to do it through our store environments and also through social and interpersonal experience,” said Simons in an interview with The Montreal Gazette.
When the company is so focused on art and style and is so open to innovation, it comes as no surprise that its management strives to be consistent and wants to invest in improving its store appearance and functionality not only in the front but also in the back, in the store employee area.
The company has over 2,000 employees, and the issue of securing their personal items and belongings was solved easily with the installation of Digilock electronic locks—a perfect shared-use keyless security solution, operated with the input of a user-selected four-digit code. The retail store provides a readily accessible solution for its employees when they are able to secure their lockers for the duration of their shifts. After the locker has been opened and vacated by the previous employee, it becomes available for the next employee. In case of emergency, management simply uses a patented electronic “manager key” to easily access the locker with a single touch. This complete innovative line of keyless security solutions saves both money and time and requires minimal maintenance while contributing to loss prevention efforts with the auditable feature.
Robert Pretto, security and LP director at La Maison Simons, has chosen Digilock since 2012 to supply digital locks for all Simons stores’ employee locker rooms. Simons has been using the Digilock products for several years now and appreciates the value and the quality that Digilock provides. The main benefits of the product are its simplicity and proven reliability. Store management said, “We are happy with this effective solution for managing lockers and will continue to use the product in our new stores”
The company is proud of its superior customer service and is inclined to invest into enhancing user experience. In two years, all employees will have iPads to access information about products and to instantly deliver answers to customer’s inquiries. “Local shoppers unfamiliar with Simons can expect a family feel across the chain,” said Robert Mackalski, a brand expert and faculty lecturer at McGill University.
Retail analyst Randy Harris of Trendex believes Simons’ gradual expansion will make it a “national powerhouse” in the Canadian apparel market. “We’re trying to hold on to this belief in creativity and architecture and art,” Simons pointed out in his interview with Carol Toller from Canadian Business magazine. With such a thorough approach to style, art, customer service, and sophisticated loss prevention solutions, no doubt this retailer is going to win the hearts of consumers.
Why Digilock?
Founded in 1981 and headquartered in California with sales offices in the Netherlands and Hong Kong, Digilock continues to innovate since it delivered the first electronic lock for personal storage in 1992. Combining security with simplicity, locks by Digilock operate with a patented electronic manager key for a credible management system that significantly enhances productivity and reduces cost. Delivered fully assembled and ready to use, lockers by Digilock provide a turn-key personal storage system. To this day, Digilock remains the number one preferred manufacturer of high-performance security simplified® solutions for all industries.
Photos courtesy of La Maison Simons store management.