Multi-site retail fashion operator
Retail fashion operator
Strong territorial presence and a distributed logistics infrastructure.
A retail fashion company with more than 550 stores distributed across the country. The organisation is supported by 3 main sites dedicated to headquarters and logistics, with a critical need to guarantee operational continuity across a complex, fragmented territorial footprint.
Sector
Retail fashion
Revenue
National mid-market segment
Headquarters
Nationwide
The industry scenario
According to the Cybersecurity & Data Protection Observatory of the Politecnico di Milano (2025), dedicated MPLS networks with isolation of sensitive traffic remain the most reliable safeguard for protecting retail payment systems, reducing the risk of a data breach by up to 78% compared with shared connectivity.
Osservatorio Cybersecurity & Data Protection, Politecnico di Milano · 2025
Challenge
Operational continuity over a fragmented network
According to the Omnichannel Retail Observatory of the Politecnico di Milano (2025), 73% of Italian fashion retailers suffered at least one significant interruption of their POS services during the previous year, with an average impact of €4,200 per hour of downtime. The growing complexity of multi-site infrastructures and the decentralised management of IT systems are the main drivers of operational vulnerability, particularly for chains with more than 100 stores.
Areas of intervention
The retail operator faced four critical areas: the lack of reliable central connectivity for its distributed stores, the exposure of payment transactions to service interruptions, the complexity of technically managing scattered infrastructures, and the inability to guarantee uniform service levels across the different sites.
Fragmented connectivity and bottlenecks
The stores were connected through uncoordinated local infrastructures, with inconsistent access and no centralised control. This caused delays in accessing business applications and made it impossible to balance network loads.
Reliability of critical transactions
The lines dedicated to payment systems lacked protection and isolation from general traffic. Any connectivity disruption directly affected the store’s operational capacity.
Decentralised operations management
The absence of centralised monitoring and remote diagnostics forced the IT team to intervene manually at each site — long resolution times and poor visibility over the state of the national network.
Scalability and uniform service
The existing architecture did not allow new sites to be added with the same quality standards, creating parallel management streams and increasing operational complexity.
Solutions
Nationwide MPLS infrastructure and multi-access connectivity for widespread operational continuity
Retelit designed and implemented a managed network infrastructure that interconnects more than 550 stores and the central sites nationwide, combining optical fibre access (FTTC/FTTH), a dedicated router per store and integrated Wi-Fi connectivity. The network ensures isolation and constant monitoring of the critical traffic relating to payment systems.
Services activated and technologies
Network infrastructure
Nationwide MPLS with combined FTTC/FTTH access
Centralised interconnection of all retail and administrative sites through a managed MPLS network, with optical fibre access at differentiated speeds per store. Each site is equipped with a dedicated access router and Wi-Fi connectivity for point-of-sale terminals and devices, eliminating the bottlenecks caused by fragmented local infrastructures.
Protection of critical traffic
Isolation and monitoring of POS traffic
The traffic relating to payment systems travels over dedicated routes with constant monitoring and protection through logical isolation on the managed network. Connectivity to the payment platforms is controlled and tracked, reducing operational risks and ensuring transaction continuity even under network congestion.
Operations management
Centralised monitoring and end-to-end managed support
Retelit provides integrated operations management with 24×7 monitoring of the network status, the per-store connections and the critical traffic. Managed support reduces the operational load on the internal IT team, enabling remote resolution of anomalies and centralised visibility across the entire distributed infrastructure.
Results
Operational and business results
The nationwide infrastructure enabled the centralisation of IT services and guaranteed the reliability of critical transactions at retail scale.
Centralised access to business applications from every store, eliminating the bottlenecks caused by fragmented local infrastructures and improving operational speed.
A significant reduction in connectivity disruptions affecting POS transactions and store operations, thanks to a monitored, reliable MPLS infrastructure.
Protection of sensitive data traffic through a dedicated network and isolation of payment traffic, with constant control of critical flows and compliance with security requirements.
Simplification of operations management through centralised monitoring and remote handling of anomalies, reducing the load on the internal IT team and resolution times.
A replicable approach for your sector
IT centralisation and transactional reliability in distributed retail
Discover how to structure a nationwide network infrastructure that supports critical operations and reduces management complexity across multiple stores.
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