The organiser of the Tour de France is using real-time mobile retail technology to maximise merchandising sales.

Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO), which also organises sporting events such as the Davis Cup and the Paris-Dakar rally, sells goods from temporary mobile shops that follow the Tour as competitors race over 21 stages during July.

ASO is using Colombus Ret@il Mobile wireless software and ruggedised hardware from technology provider VcsTimeless, following successful trials last year.

The real-time software links with ASO's head office.

'Before we got the mobile retail solution we had old-school systems,' said Jeremy Botton, ASO marketing manager. 'We had no real-time information systems and would have to count stock manually at the beginning of the day and again at the end.'

ASO is using the equipment in five mobile shops, which move daily with the Tour, to manage all stock replenishment needs and merchandise sales. And Botton says sales have increased.

'Every day I can check the results of sales. And I have contact with the product manager in head office, who can analyse what is selling and advise me to push one merchandising promotion as opposed to another,' he said.

'Since using the system on the Tour de France, we have registered an eight per cent increase in sales and a 40 per cent increase in productivity.'

Touch-screen tills can be plugged into any mains power source. They switch to generator power in the event of outages or in particularly remote locations.

Shop staff can use mobile phones within range of the till to gain wireless access to the point-of-sale software and connectivity to head office stock allocation, replenishment and merchandising systems.

Botton says the technology has allowed the organisation to use barcode technology to speed up transactions through the tills, as well as to make stock-taking easier and to exchange real-time information with head office.

ASO will also use the retail technology software in conjunction with mobile shops at its other sporting events.