Media
Shop Direct kickstarts development of Alder Hey app with £210,000 fundraising
October 11, 2016
Colleagues at Shop Direct have raised £210,000 in just 12 months to support the development of a new digital app for Alder Hey Children’s Hospital.
In September 2015, the 4,700-strong team at Shop Direct voted for Alder Hey Children’s Charity as its charitable partner of the year for 2015/16. Since then, colleagues across the etail giant’s sites in Liverpool and Manchester have undertaken a variety of fundraising activities, from climbing mountains, singing, running, cycling, abseiling, playing ‘beat the goalie’ and completing their own version of The Biggest Loser, smashing their initial target of £200,000.
Members of Shop Direct’s multi-award winning ecommerce team have also been working with Alder Hey’s innovation team to develop the app – the first of its kind in the country – providing expert insight and advice on design, development and personalisation. The shared vision of the Alder Hey and Shop Direct teams is to revolutionise the patient experience by harnessing the power of consumer technology to help patients be better informed, calmer, more entertained and, as a result, healthier.
ICE, a Wirral-based behaviour change organization, has now begun work to develop the app, which will include a digital map enabling patients to explore and familiarise themselves with the hospital and their ward before they visit the hospital. Users will be able to find out everything they need to know before their visit, from where to park to what to pack and what their rooms will look like. The app will also feature games, providing entertainment and much-needed distraction for patients to reduce anxiety while they wait. A rewards scheme will also be used to encourage healthy lifestyle choices.
Ultimately, Alder Hey’s aim for the digital hospital programme is to further develop the app and join all of this to a secure patient information system, which will hold key information about the patient, such as their likes, dislikes and specific needs. This will remove the need for families to repeatedly provide the same information at every visit and ensure that they receive a more personalised service. The app is expected to launch in 2017.
Alex Baldock, group CEO at Shop Direct, said:
“Alder Hey is a charity that’s been close to our hearts at Shop Direct for a long time and I was delighted when our colleagues voted last year to support the development of the Digital Alder Hey app. We’re proud of our heritage in the North West and it was important to us to select a charity that has a significant impact in our local communities. Alder Hey does that and then some.
“I couldn’t be prouder of the effort everyone at Shop Direct has put in to raise £210,000 over the last 12 months. Our colleagues’ ambition, passion and commitment has surpassed even our own expectations. As a team, we’re pleased that we’ve also been able to provide digital skills and expertise to help Alder Hey develop the app and get the project off the ground. We look forward to continuing our strategic partnership with Alder Hey on this important project, which will make such a difference to so many children and families across the North West, and to seeing the final product next year.”
Iain Hennessey, consultant paediatric surgeon and clinical lead for innovation at Alder Hey, said:
“Shop Direct has in common with Alder Hey a drive to innovate and do things differently, which has made them the perfect partner for us in developing our digital hospital vision. Together, we’ve been exploring how we can apply Shop Direct’s digital retail expertise to the hospital environment to create our own online ‘shop front’ for Alder Hey. We’ve also been overwhelmed by the engagement of the entire Shop Direct team in smashing their £200,000 target for our children’s charity, which will go such a long way to enable us to make the Digital Alder Hey app a reality.
“Thank you to everyone at Shop Direct from all of us at Alder Hey. We couldn���t have achieved what we have without your expert advice and fundraising. You are our heroes.”
ENDS
CONTACT INFORMATION
Shop Direct
Lauren Young
0844 292 3986
Dave Lafferty
0844 292 2738
ABOUT SHOP DIRECT
Shop Direct is the UK’s second largest pureplay digital retailer, with annual sales of almost £1.9 billion. Our digital department store brands are Very.co.uk, Littlewoods.com, VeryExclusive.co.uk and LittlewoodsIreland.ie. We receive an average of more than 1.2 million website visits every day, with 62% of online sales completed on mobile devices.
We exist to make good things easily accessible to more people. With our department store range of famous brands, market-leading ecommerce and technology capabilities and unique financial services products offering flexible ways to pay, we’re well placed to deliver on that promise.
We sell more than 1,300 famous brands, including big name labels and our own exclusive brands. We have four million customers and deliver 49 million products every year. Our free click and collect service, Collect+, delivers to 5,800 stores across the country, increasing ease and convenience for customers.
Throwing our collective weight behind one cause per year is part of Shop Direct’s wider CSR strategy, with our 4,700 colleagues selecting a different charity project to support annually via a business-wide vote. Each of the projects is North West-based and digitally-focused, enabling us to boost our fundraising with time, expertise and skills to deliver maximum impact in our local communities. In 2016/17, the team at Shop Direct is fundraising to digitally equip a new, state-of-the-art children’s hospice for Claire House.
For more information on Shop Direct, visit www.shopdirect.com or follow us on Twitter at @ShopDirect.