Since Android made a foray into Tablet space in 2011 we have had opportunity to release hundreds or versions for retailcloud TabPOS. One of the challenge have always been to match TabPOS to our Enterprise Windows Point of sale system and allow customers to use it for their heavy processing situations. Some of the reasons why we held back on features were due to lack of hardware support and backing from provider when it mattered most for our customers.

Elo introduced next gen iSeries platform in 2015  and we extended our existing partnership with Elo to iSeries and Paypoint platforms. Their world class hardware & support  has helped us navigate through these challenges and we have chosen it as our recommended hardware for  serious business. Some of the outstanding features why we decided to choose Elo’s platform are

• Truly Commercial Hardware – Elo’s are the built to last and perform. They have been the best we have seen so far this the Android segment for a commercial grade . Elo’s iSeries and paypoint has customization module to extend beyond basic
• All in one solutions as well as Modular Solutions which can fit into different business situations.
• Eloview – A true support centric MDM which can be used to deploy apps across thousands of devices at the same time.
• Partner relationship – This is something we have seen where Elo beats its competitors. Elo’s team stand behind their product and thus any customer issues are addressed is the fastest possible way

We have come a long way since then and in last 2 years we have accelerated our pace . retaicloud’s android TabPOS currently features some of the best solutions for any Android Point of solution out there

• Multi Location and warehouse support
• Simple and Advanced checkout workflows
• Customizable Quickbooks for Cashiers
• Catalog Management & eCommerce site.
• Full Inventory management Suite
• Supply chain workflows
• Report and dashboard package with 50 + reports
• Appointment Scheduling & Customer Check in apps.
• Bring your payment processor
• Customer Tracking, Loyalty Programs & Integration to email marketing.  
• and Many More…

Beyond our Tablet Point of Sale we have extended our Android apps to business solutions such as

                 

Today retailcloud’s & Elo solutions are used in Sport Arenas, Grocery Shop, Convenience stores, Liquor Stores, Salons, Apparel.

We are showcasing retailcloud and Elo solutions at @NRFBigshow #NRF2018 . Visit us at booth #3662 . Mention this blog to get a special offer on retailcloud and Elo bundle

Learn more about @retailcloud here

Learn more about @elo here

Inventory Management is the heart of retailers effort to manage their assets. It can be disastrous if they are not approached properly. A lot of retailers rely on the tools mainly on their point of sale systems or retail management systems. In some cases point of sale do not provide what they wanted or they tend to rely on other third party tools to manage these assets. You can simply rely on a spreadsheet or a  very complex enterprise grade systems which gives tons of options ( a lot of time it comes with increased complexity ) or it can be like the tools which retailcloud provides which balances simplicity and usability. 

Ultimately it should focus on

• Inventory Visibility
• Increase Sales & Turnover

Here are 5 ways to make Inventory Management easy

1. Organize your products with proper meta data.
2. Use inventory management tools which fit your needs.
3. Incorporate inventory management business process into your workflow.
4. Vigilant about your inventory.
5. Measure and Forecast.

Organize your products with proper Meta data.

This is one of the key first step to have a clean inventory. This is important not only for management but for visibility & discovery.

• Arrange the product into right classification such Department, Category , Subcategory. 
• Tag the product with as many attributes as possible such Ex: Style, Size, Color, Brand , Season etc.
• Have a very SEO friendly name or description.
• Have a detailed extended description.
• Have a beautiful image to the product.

Once you have a good organisation of the product, it is always easy to look into your inventory and sort, filter through your product whichever software or tools you may use.

Right Inventory Management Tools

Right tools are important for the job. Inventory management doesn’t just end with adding or updating product , counting product. So it is important to have the right tool for the job. retailcloud provide various tools on POS, Web and mobile which can be chosen for your convenience . For some mobile may be convenient and it may be desktop for others.

A few examples of tools which may help

• Product Management tools like retailcloud web forms, mINventory mobile app
• Inventory Transaction Management tools like Inventory Manager, POS Inventory Module, CAS Web portal inventory management module. 
• Bulk import for inventory Management
• Purchase order utilities.

Incorporate Inventory Management business process to your workflow

It is always good to have good business process tied to your retail management. This can be when an inventory is brought into the location, moved between locations or if you have to account for damages. If you do not have any of these processes or not used to any of these don’t worry we have built workflows right into retailcloud tools so that you don’t have to do the heavy lifting.

Example of a few workflow process are

1. Inventory Receiving process to a locations ( Store Inventory , Warehouse Inventory )
2. Inventory Transfers between Locations
3. Inventory Reconciliation &  Cycle Counts
4. Purchase Order Management

If you have a custom workflow you can achieve this by leveraging our API’s . Check with us how we can help you to improve your inventory management  

Vigilant about your Inventory

It is always good to extra set of eyes to know what is going on with your inventory . The smart way to do is through notifications, alerts and approval management process

Retailers that participated in the 2016 NRSS say that employee/internal theft amounted to 35.8 percent of inventory shrink in 2015. The report also found that the average loss of dishonest employee cases dropped from $1,546.83 to $1,233.77

Source : losspreventionmedia.com

retailcloud provides various alerts for tools for configuring the alerts at various roles and a permission based feature activation.

• Alerts for product Management for any addition of modification
• Alerts for Inventory process or count updates ( ex: if someone manually adjust a sku to a certain inventory level )
• Approval process for Inventory Adjustment & Transfers
• Role based access for various Inventory management functions

In addition to this a more Actionable alerts like below will provide better insights to their inventory

• Overstocked & Under Stocked Reports
• Inventory below threshold

Measure and Forecast

Last but not the least measure your inventory or use tools which provide insights about inventory. Any of the above mentioned ways are not relevant if you don’t measure and have a good idea about how you should sell your existing inventory. 

retailcloud provide various tools to get you insights. Some of the amazing tools are

1. nGuage – A KPI mobile app focuses just on the indicators which matters for retailers
2. Dashboard – Back Office and in app dashboard on your POS.
3. Attribute Analysis Report – Show how your products perform by meta data.
4. Overstock & under stocked report.

Checkout experience is a key part of shopping experience for a consumer. You might have seen occasions where a customers get disappointed with a very bad experience and thus get reflected in the reviews.  Checkout experience for an in store shopping is mainly driven by the cashiers ability to handle the transaction engaging, smooth and fast .

According to study from Harris poll & Digimarc 88% Of U.S. Consumers Want A Faster Checkout Experience

“Checkout is the last opportunity a retailer has to make a positive impression on a shopper,” said Larry Logan, CMO of Digimarc. “Asking customers to endure a lengthy wait to process and pay for their order can spoil what may have otherwise been an enjoyable shopping experience.”

Recently one of the retailcloud’s customer specifically touched on this topic asked these questions before signing up for an enterprise license

1. Can retailcloud POS handle checkout really fast ? Like adding 100+ items in a 1 minute .
2. How about if every order is average of 40 – 50 items ? Will it slow eventually ?
3. Will the pos freezes up if there is a problem with servers in cloud ?
4. Will everything stop if the internet goes down and will it can it recover back. 

Based on our extensive experience in Large Sports & Entertainment events, we were positive about #3, #4 and semi confident on #1 & #2  and we put it up for stress test with the customer’s team. The test was based up with 30 – 40 cashiers just banging the checkout process as fast as possible. The outcome was very positive and we ended up executing the event successfully.  

The customer’s team was very smart in identifying their potential operational problem ( which a lot of people don’t ) identify based on their prior experience and they had crafted their business requirements to that. One of they key thing which was passive through this process was “ How easy was it to train a cashier “

They key things which makes a better experience for a cashier is

1. Accessibility of the most commonly used features
2. Navigation between screens
3. Touch Targets & Readability
4. How easy i can get help if i needed

retailcloud POS solutions focuses on all these areas and address this based on the users feedback we receive from the ground. On an average it takes 3 – 5 minutes for a cashier to learn 80 % of the cashier functions on retailcloud screens. This is one of the reason when Sport Arenas , Large Events, Outlet Sale events becomes a successful programs where you have to train 100’s on cashiers in different shifts.

Another factor which helps checkout experience to have MSIB ( More Stuffs in Bag ) is how you engage with customer.  A few things can dramatically increases the experience are

1. Recommend a product with ease to a customer based on what they bought
2. Know your customer & buying patterns through their CRM History
3. Engage them to your brand or store through Loyalty Programs.

This will be only successful if the checkout experience is less painful for the cashier and consumer. While Checkout experience is evolving there are also other aspects which can be looked into it such as

1. Kiosk based checkout 
2. Self checkout areas
3. In app or mobile checkout . Checkout Express checkout which retailcloud is partnered with
4. Innovative Payment Experiences

Overall time and usability matters for both employees and consumers and we believe in making that experience as smooth as possible . If you would like to learn more about retailcloud plans and features visit here 

retailcloud monthly plans start from $0 and If you would like to signup for an account click here 

A layaway program is a kind of a plan where the consumer pays for merchandise in parts. The consumer will not take the merchandise home with them until the full payments are made. This is an advantage to consumers, instead of buying on credit and the price being higher because of the interest. The store will hold the merchandise while at the same time keeping a record of how the customer is paying for it. Once they make full payments, the company releases the merchandise for them, and the customer takes the delivery. One advantage of a layaway program is that there is an assurance that the chosen merchandise will be in stock and ready for delivery when the item is fully paid for. This can come as an advantage to consumers who buy merchandise that runs out of stock quickly, and they don’t have the money to buy it instantly.

For a layaway program to work efficiently, the business must have a good layaway point of sale. The POS system will keep a record of how many customers are paying for their layaway programs and how they are paying them. Remember a customer can shop for different items in the business and at the same time he has a layaway plan for an individual item in the same business. A layaway program is beneficial to both the retailer and the customer.

The POS software should be able to keep track of the stock that customers are paying layaway programs for. The POS system should calculate the amount of stock remaining based on the data of the customers paying layaway programs. If the stock that is remaining can only fit the layaway program customers, the POS system will alert you that there is going to be a low stock condition and make the order for more stock. A good layaway point of sale should not sell stock that is already on the layaway plan. This is because the customer is expecting to find the stock in place after making full payments of the item.

Layaway programs help businesses compete by installing trust in their customers. The customer is always assured that the item they are paying for will be waiting for them in stock after they finish paying. This way the customers are more likely to be shopping in the same place to keep in check with their layaway programs. When a customer goes for shopping, they will always remember the store they made a deal with in a layaway program and they will have the feeling of honoring the store by visiting more often.

A layaway program is kept in track by the layaway point of sale. If you have an inadequate and ineffective POS system, your layaway program will fail terribly. Acquire a good point of sale system that will keep track of the layaway programs payments and coordinate that with the stock. The program is an advantage to most of the retailers in that it allows them to offer products to low-income customers. The customer will consider this like a savings plans where they will not fail to pay when the time comes.

Posted by Melvin Bright a guest blogger

Lеt’s fасе іt, rеtаіlеrs аrе busу. Ѕо busу іn fасt, thаt mаnу dоn’t make thе tіmе tо run rероrts аnd аnаlуzе thеіr busіnеss’s реrfоrmаnсе.

Тhіs іs а bіg mіstаkе, but іt’s nоt hаrd tо fіх. Runnіng rероrts dоеsn’t hаvе tо bе а hugе tіmе соmmіtmеnt еvеrу dау, wееk, оr mоnth. Іt dоеs hоwеvеr hаvе tо bе dоnе on a regular basis. Іf уоu’rе nоt runnіng rероrts аnd аnаlуzіng уоur busіnеss, уоu’rе аlmоst сеrtаіnlу wаstіng tіmе, mоnеу, аnd lоsіng sаlеs.

Ѕо, whаt rероrts shоuld уоu bе runnіng? Тhе trісk іs tо іdеntіfу thе mоst rеlеvаnt раrts оf уоur busіnеss tо уоur рrоfіtаbіlіtу, аnd tо analyze а fеw Κеу Реrfоrmаnсе Іndісаtоrs (ΚРІ) thаt wіll gіvе уоu а сlеаr рісturе оf уоur busіnеss’s реrfоrmаnсе wіthоut hаvіng tо plod thrоugh tоns оf dаtа.

Κеу Реrfоrmаnсе Іndісаtоrs аrе quаntіfіаblе mеаsurеmеnts, аgrееd tо bеfоrеhаnd, thаt rеflесt thе сrіtісаl suссеss fасtоrs оf a business. Тhеу wіll dіffеr dереndіng оn thе industry.

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