Dixons Phases Out Paper

Dixons, the flagship brand for DSG International, a United Kingdom electronics retailer, is saving trees by phasing out paper invoices. In May 2006, Dixons entered a four-year agreement with OB10, a global business-to-business electronic invoicing network. The agreement calls for the electronic handling of an average of 125,000 invoices per year. E-invoicing, encouraging suppliers to submit bills electronically, reduces the cost of handling invoices for retailers while providing suppliers with more accurate payments.

The OB10 e-invoice network allows Dixons to streamline its invoice-to-pay processes with its more than 300 suppliers that sign up for the electronic invoicing option. This process is off to a fast start for Dixons. Within the first four weeks, OB10 converted enough suppliers to account for 19 percent of Dixons total invoice volume. "Paper-based processes are time consuming, inefficient and often expensive for us and our suppliers," says Ben Lewis, financial controller for the finance center of DSG International. Lewis estimates that the retailer will save approximately $60,000 by moving to electronic invoices. "It's not so much about the cash benefits, but more about labor savings and being able to have accurate data in our systems," adds Lewis. Dixons is expanding the project to include other DSG retailers within the UK and in Nordic regions.

Dixons has traditionally been a brick-and-mortar electronics retailer, with 190 outlets. With its transition to online retailing, DSG is rebranding the brick-and-mortar outlets as Curry's. DSG International chose to take Dixons online after its e-commerce operation recorded on average more than 50 percent year-on-year sales growth over the last four years.

DSG International retail and e-tail brands include PC World, Currys and Dixons.co.uk in the United Kingdom and Ireland, The Link in the UK, Elkjop in the Nordic countries, UniEuro in Italy, Kotsovolos in Greece, Electro World in central Europe, PC City in France, Spain, Italy and Sweden, and Pixmania.com across Europe.