It was the British restaurant, food, hotel and teashop chain, J Lyons & Co., who first saw the potential for use of the computer in retail.
Between 1947 and 1963, the company manufactured and sold a range of LEO (Lyons Electronic Office) computers. This development was happening far ahead of similar efforts in America or elsewhere.
The LEO computer, built in 1951, was designed by Dr John Pilkerton and John Simmons to handle the company’s accounts and logistics. In 1963, the LEO business merged with English Electric’s computer interests to form the English Electric LEO.
Before computers entered retail, the store manager was in charge of manually arranging the purchasing and selling the merchandise. He would decide what items to keep in stock, how much they should sell for, who to employ, and how much to pay them.
In the 1960s, computers in retail began to be used to manage customer data and expedite accounting processes, just as the Lyons group had done in the first instance. Credit cards were beginning to be used more frequently, and cash registers and calculators were also speeding up the checkout process for customers.
Walmart, and other discount stores such as Kmart and Target, were early adopters of computer technology and by the mid-1980s and early 1990s small shops had computers. They all used ‘inventory control computing’ systems to keep track of what goods the store had and to let them know when items should be restocked. Computer software systems also helped manage the employee payrolls and day-to-day accounts.
The turnaround time for stocking systems improved significantly and more customers were processed through checkouts, more swiftly.
By 1993, Walmart computer systems had satellite links, allowing stores to send orders to suppliers by these satellite links.
Contribution to Retail History
The computer revolutionized every aspect of retailing from warehouse to the front of the store to Headquarters enabling more efficient and sophisticated applications and management of every aspect of operations. The computer enabled global expansion and has now become the disrupter to traditional brick and mortar as e-commerce has skyrocketed and put retail in the palm of every consumer’s hand.