Fixed Point of Sale for Retail Stores
Mobile Point of Sale & Line Busting App
Dashboard and Analytics Mobile App
Free Inventory Management App
Full Service Inventory Management App
Order Management Solution
House Accounts and Invoicing
Premium Suites Catering & Pre Order Management
Centralized Management Platform
Workforce Empowerment App
Hospitality Point of Sale App
E-Commerce Solution Platform
Table Mangement for Restaurants via Mobile or Tablet
Kitchen Display System
Seamless Sales Across All Channels
Elevating Sports & Entertainment Transactions Effortlessly
Streamlining Retail Transactions for Seamless Shopping
Optimizing Transactions for Vibrant Festival Experiences
Transforming Hospitality & Suite Service Management
Smart Inventory Management with RFID
Building Relationships, Rewarding Loyal Customers
Insights-Driven Decisions for Business Growth
Imagine this: you’re at a stadium, and everything you need—refreshments, merchandise, or tickets—is easily accessible without any hassle or delay. This streamlined experience is no accident; it’s the result of retail analytics working behind the scenes, optimizing inventory, staffing, and customer interactions to ensure efficiency and satisfaction at every level.
In the fast-paced world of retail, data has emerged as an indispensable guide to help stores understand and predict customer needs. From small, local boutiques to large-sized retail giants, all businesses move forward through such insights. It helps a business, regardless of its size and reach, to stay ahead of the competition, improve shopping experiences, and ensure that whatever is on sale is available whenever it is needed.
Retail analytics is about turning data into insights that help businesses make smarter decisions. Years ago, store owners might have based their own inventory decisions on what “felt right” or based on how things were changing seasonally. Today, every action – whether it is a customer purchasing in-store or making a social media comment about a new product – leaves behind valuable insights. For example, consider a retail shop keeping a record of a particular item’s sales frequency during the holiday season. Understanding this pattern helps the store to be ready for the next season for the product and have enough of them in stock. In the same way, web browsing can be used for recommending what products the customer may be interested in, and make shopping easier for their clients. This can be also integrated with sports stadiums to enhance the fan experience by providing all things available to them.
Today’s retail world is fiercely competitive with an utterly staggering number of choices for the customers. All this has made the retailers want to differentiate themselves from their peers and lead the game. Analytics plays an inevitable role in retail management so that stores can gain a sense of what’s important to their customer and then make shifts based on those new-found understandings. Think about a specific product that sells out every holiday season. This trend the store would find through analytics, and then the shop would order more in advance, keeping the customers happy, thereby averting lost sales. In short, retail analytics helps business organizations get one step ahead by making them proactive rather than reactive.
Here are just a few examples of how retail analytics makes a real difference for businesses:
Retail data analytics can be classified into different categories, each delivering unique insights. Descriptive analytics is the summary of past data, which may represent what was the best seller last month or some insight into recent foot traffic.
Retail analytics answers questions and gives insights that allow improvement in practically all parts of the retail business, including:
To extract maximum value from retail analytics, retailers need to keep in mind the following:
1. Maximize Customer Data: To understand what customers want, retailers must collect data from multifunctional touchpoints, including loyalty schemes and online buying behaviors, thereby providing a holistic view.
2. Use Visual Tools for Data: Complex data is not easy to get insights from. In a nutshell, insights become accessible not just for the data team with visualizations like charts and dashboards.
3. Data from other channels: Instead of viewing data as it relates to the online or in-store channel only, a complete view of the activity of a customer across all channels is achieved by combining data sources.
4. Define Key Metrics: Every retail business has its specific goals; thus, concentration on the right metrics, such as conversion rates or average purchase value, should be done to track progress.
5. Monitor KPIs: The tracking of the Key Performance Indicators helps retailers measure success and identify trends over time to adjust according to requirements.
nGauge is a real-time inventory tracking system and business analytics system of retailcloud to enable retailers to know what is happening in their businesses anytime, anywhere. From the aspects of sales or margin, tax computing or stock variation, or customer activity analysis, it provides businesses with the necessary information. Retailers can track what products are selling, customer satisfaction, and hourly sales using their mobile devices with mobile inventory management software, mInventory. The centralized cloud POS reporting solutions, console from retailcloud also provides real-time alerts for performance indicators to ensure that businesses manage their stocks, and enhance customer experiences, and operation efficiency.
Retailcloud also offers Inventory360, a cutting-edge RFID inventory tracking system for real-time, precise stock management. Manual errors are eradicated, and the process is made smooth and seamless using features like catalogue organisation, custom printing of labels, cycle counts and more. Advanced tools, including RFID receiving, transfer and adjustment, provide for reliable stock levels, as well as the Geiger Counter and comprehensive reporting utilities to give management total inventory control.
Let’s consider an instance where, a retailer at a stadium can use Inventory360 to track high-demand items during sports games, ensuring that fan-favorite merchandise is always in stock.
Retail analytics is not just a buzzword—it’s the need of the hour for any organization seeking to survive in this data-centric world. Whether it’s discovering customer preferences, managing inventory, or creating marketing campaigns targeted to customers’ preferences, analytics converts raw data into invaluable insights.
Being the leading game changer of Retail POS Software System and Services, retailcloud has a myriad of POS solutions that help make retailers quick and strategic decisions. Businesses embracing retail analytics seek not just to improve the bottom line but to gain long-term success in the ever-changing market by having closer relationships with their customers.
Premium seating areas in sports stadiums are becoming more popular than ever, changing how fans experience live events. These exclusive luxury options not only enhance comfort and enjoyment but also play a key role in shaping fan behavior and loyalty. With their elevated level of comfort, fans feel more engaged with the event, making it a standout experience compared to a typical game.
Here, we’ll take a closer look at various premium seating options available in stadiums. We will also discuss some key strategies for improving the experience for these fans. We’ll focus on the importance of innovation, personalization, and top-notch service in creating an indelible atmosphere that resonates with the transcendental sports culture.
The stadium fan experience includes every interaction a fan has with the venue during a sporting event. This premium suite wraps around all elements a fan engages with, beginning with the atmosphere, where the crowd’s energy, cheers, music, and even the aroma of food can transmute an average game into something extraordinary.
Comfortable seating is an absolute necessity. Recent surveys reveal that fans prioritize essential features such as extra legroom, padded seating, lumbar support, spatial arrangements, cushioning, and unobstructed views. There are also options for premium stadium seats equipped with adjustable recliners and charging stations.
For stadiums, hassle-free navigation is critically important and must be supported by easy access to food, beverages, merchandise, restrooms, concessions, and exits, along with expansive concourses and ramps. Improved convenience can mitigate disruptions during the events.
All of these amenities, combined with friendly interactions with staff members and fellow fans via fan zones, contests, digital engagements, and augmented reality experiences, contribute to a better stadium fan experience.
Here are some strategies that can be considered by stadiums to attract and retain fans at sporting events:
Stadiums that offer in-seat ordering have seen a significant increase in the average amount fans spend per order, often by 15-20%. This technology allows fans to conveniently order food, drinks, and merchandise without leaving their seats, which not only reduces wait times but also encourages impulse buys.
By integrating QR code ordering, fans can simply scan a code, view menu options, and place their orders directly from their mobile devices. This convenience enhances the fan experience and boosts revenue for venues by facilitating personalized add-ons and upsell options, which have been proven to increase food and beverage sales by an additional 10-15%.
Pre-order management systems streamline operations in premium seating areas by allowing fans to place orders before the event begins. Implementing such systems has been reported to reduce staffing costs by up to 20%, as fewer staff are needed to handle orders during peak periods.
This system also enables stadium kitchens to operate more efficiently by preparing orders in advance and ensuring timely delivery. Such enhancements not only allow venues to focus on delivering a superior fan experience but also simplify backend operations, as noted by several stadiums that observed a 25% increase in operational efficiency after adoption.
Personalization is crucial for making premium seating stand out. Platforms now allow venues to customize pre-order options, assign servers to specific suites, and adjust menus based on the event type, whether it’s a concert or a major sports game.
This customization ensures that premium guests receive a unique experience tailored to the occasion, leading to higher engagement and repeat visits. Venues that have utilized event-specific customization report a significant increase in guest satisfaction and loyalty metrics.
Across the industry, venues employing personalized services for their premium offerings witness higher fan satisfaction and increased loyalty. By leveraging data-driven insights, these venues can tailor services like menu items and promotional offers based on individual fan preferences.
Sending tailored offers based on past purchases or recommending items based on likely preferences enhances the connection between fans and the venue.
Offering in-seat merchandise ordering allows fans to effortlessly order exclusive team gear or limited-edition merchandise from their seats. This method makes the purchasing process convenient and attractive. In-suite delivery ensures that fans can continue enjoying the event while receiving their purchases promptly, promoting impulse buying.
Modern suite management systems empower attendants to manage orders, track open tabs, and finalize transactions directly from their mobile devices, thereby facilitating fast and personalized service. Integrating pre-orders with game-day orders in a single system improves operational efficiency and delivers an unparalleled experience for premium seating guests.
In-seat QR code ordering has proven effective in improving fan engagement and operational efficiency. Fans can scan a QR code to order without missing any action, enhancing their event experience significantly.
Beyond improving the fan experience, this technology reduces staffing requirements and streamlines operations, which has been particularly beneficial during peak event times, as observed in multiple stadiums with a documented increase in both sales and fan engagement metrics.
Equip suite management systems with advanced analytics capabilities to generate real-time reports on sales patterns, inventory levels, staff performance, and customer preferences. This data can guide business decisions, help optimize pricing strategies, and customize marketing campaigns, ultimately leading to better business outcomes.
Incorporate eco-friendly options within the suite and premium seating options such as biodegradable packaging and locally sourced food products. Promoting sustainability can not only appeal to environmentally conscious fans but also reduce waste and potentially lower operational costs.
Ensure that the ordering and delivery systems are accessible to fans with disabilities. Features like voice-activated ordering, high-contrast menus on digital devices, and wheelchair-accessible delivery options can make the service inclusive, enhancing the reputation of the venue and complying with legal accessibility requirements.
Integrate interactive elements within the app or QR code systems, such as live polls, trivia games related to the event, or opportunities to win merchandise or food upgrades. This can enhance fan engagement, making their experience more memorable and increasing their likelihood of spending more.
Include options for immediate feedback on food and service directly through the ordering platform. This enables real-time service recovery if needed and helps in maintaining high service standards. Positive reviews can be showcased to increase the credibility and attractiveness of premium seating options.
Leverage the digital platforms used for in-seat ordering to display advertisements or promotions from sponsors, creating an additional revenue stream. Tailored offers or exclusive content from sponsors can also enhance the fan experience while providing value to partners.
In the wake of health concerns, such as those highlighted by the pandemic, include features that promote safety like contactless payment and delivery, indicators of sanitized areas, or even health tips related to the event (e.g., hydration reminders during hot weather).
Using these strategies, organizations can significantly improve fan experiences, resulting in increased loyalty and future attendance.
The evolution of stadium fan experience has undergone a sea change, shifting towards a more refined, personalized service. This is particularly evident in the rise of premium suites at venues, which has raised the bar for fans’ expectations when it comes to bespoke services. No longer just a seat in the crowd, attending live events has become an immersive experience that truly caters to individual preferences.
In response to these emerging trends, SuiteSpot, an all-in-one premium seating app developed by retailcloud, an innovative omnichannel e-commerce platform, plays a key role in enhancing this experience. This comprehensive premium seating application is designed to enhance suite members’ experiences across various events, perfectly capturing the growing demand for luxury and convenience in sports management. With SuiteSpot, fans can enjoy the finer things in life while savoring every moment of the action.
SuiteSpot improves the premium suite experience in several ways:
Instead, fans can quickly purchase desired items, which are delivered right to their suite. This keeps them fully immersed in the event’s excitement without missing a beat. The sales inventory order management software from retailcloud ensures efficient fulfillment, directing orders to the appropriate store or warehouse, which streamlines the entire purchasing process.
Whether addressing concerns regarding available spaces, package offerings, or real-time availability, the app improves the fan experience and supports streamlined operations for venues of all sizes, making it an invaluable tool for effective management.
Integrating venue POS into operations enables venues to provide exceptional service that consistently meets and surpasses the expectations of discerning guests, thereby enhancing their competitive advantage in a saturated market.
SuiteSpot enables venues to deliver exceptional service that exceeds the expectations of today’s premium guests, ensuring that attendance at an event in a luxury suite is both memorable and enjoyable. This service includes convenient merchandise delivery, exceptional food, and beverages.
SuiteSpot is a user-friendly application built for suite management. Whether in stadiums or concert venues, this easy-to-use and user-friendly premium seating and suite management app offers a stress-free experience for both the owners and guests. The efficient pre-ordering system enables guests to submit and oversee orders prior to events effortlessly.
Understanding user preferences based on data analytics and perhaps previous orders, the app customizes services and hence increases guest satisfaction. SuiteSpot also provides real-time order tracking and seamless communication between suite attendants and the back office, resulting in increased efficiency and faster service.
Through automated order management, SuiteSpot reduces manual tasks and operational costs while ensuring quick service. It offers tailored guest interactions, simple ordering through user-friendly interfaces, and secure payment options for a seamless experience.
Likewise, SuiteSpot enhances suite operations with personalized menus, detailed reports, and simple integration with other apps, ensuring smooth transactions and valuable insights for every event.
Premium seating areas in sports stadiums play a key role in shaping fan behavior and loyalty, enhancing the game-day experience. This change is driven by improved comfort, social interaction, exclusive amenities, technology integration, and the building of long-term relationships.
As sports venues respond to evolving fan expectations, it’s highly important to understand these louds and softs to create engaging environments that attract a diverse audience. Investing in premium seating and using tools like SuiteSpots from retailcloud enables fans to connect with live events, appealing to both traditional fans and newer generations looking for unique social experiences. Stadiums can use real-time inventory tracking systems like nGauge and customer relationship management (CRM) systems to increase loyalty while increasing revenue.
The future of sports entertainment lies in creating inclusive environments where every fan feels valued and connected to the game. For more information on premium seating and how retail POS software suites and services from retailcloud can influence fan behavior, contact us today.
The convenience offered by RFID and Barcode technology within contactless payment frameworks is revolutionizing not just the shopping experience, but also inventory management practices across the retail sector.
Think of a seamless shopping experience where customers walk in, pick up items, and exit without waiting in line. Their accounts are automatically charged through contactless payment. This easiness is getting closer with advanced technologies like RFID and barcodes, which not only streamline the checkout process but also enhance inventory management.
In this blog, we will delve deeper into these technologies to understand their applications, advantages, and why many businesses view RFID as the superior choice for optimizing retail inventory processes.
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is a cutting-edge technology that uses radio waves to identify and track objects. It has found widespread application in numerous industries and operates across three main frequencies: low, high, and ultra-high, each tailored for specific uses ranging from inventory management to tracking large assets.
We have seen what is an RFID scanner. It uses electromagnetic fields to identify and track tags attached to objects. The system includes three main components: an RFID reader (or interrogator), an antenna, and RFID tags.
When the reader emits radio waves, the tags respond by transmitting their unique identification numbers. This communication can occur over varying distances, depending on the type of tag used, facilitating real-time tracking and monitoring of inventory.
The main types of RFID tags are:
RFID technology has revolutionized inventory management by offering a variety of powerful applications. Businesses can monitor inventory levels in real-time, cutting down on stockouts and stack overflow. Automated inventory counts do away with manual scanning, saving time, and labor costs. Also, its enhanced security features prevent theft and misplacement. Many have successfully rolled out RFID, demonstrating their effectiveness in improving efficiency and accuracy.
Putting RFID to use helps businesses easily locate specific items within warehouses, zero in on inventory trends, and maintain regulatory compliance. It provides detailed visibility into the supply chain, enabling automated reordering, and streamlined returns. Using these applications, businesses can significantly improve their inventory management processes, resulting in increased efficiency, reduced costs, and better customer experiences.
Furthermore, the integration of RFID with other systems helps retail data analytics and smarter decision-making processes, thus optimizing the overall supply chain operations.
Barcodes have become integral to modern commerce, enabling efficient inventory management, streamlined checkout processes, and better tracking of goods throughout the supply chain. They are visual representations of data, encoded as a series of lines, spaces, and sometimes letters or numbers. These lines can be scanned and read by machines.
A barcode scanner decodes the pattern and translates the information into digital data, which computer systems can use to perform a multitude of tasks. These codes are used in various industries for tracking products, managing inventory, and facilitating transactions at points of sale, making them a crucial component in the efficiency of global trade and logistics.
Barcodes are optical representations of data that consist of parallel lines (1D) or squares (2D). They can be scanned using optical devices such as barcode scanners or smartphones. When scanned, these devices interpret the patterns into readable information about products or items. This system streamlines inventory management and eases the checkout process in stores, making transactions quicker and more efficient.
The most common types of bardines are 1D (one-dimensional) and 2D (two-dimensional).
Popular examples of 1D barcodes include the Universal Product Code (UPC), European Article Number (EAN), Code 128, and Code 39.
They can support up to 7089 characters on a single label and are often used for applications like mobile ticketing. Data Matrix codes and QR codes, which can be scanned by smartphones, are examples of 2D barcodes.
Barcodes have significantly transformed inventory management by enabling automating tracking, improving accuracy, and speeding up processes. They enable real-time updates of stock levels, which helps prevent both overstocking and stockouts. Also, barcodes reduce human error by automating data collection and aid in the tracking of products throughout the supply chain. This results in simplified operations, optimized logistics, and effective coordination within the supply chain.
In the retail sector, barcodes speed up checkout processes and make the handling of returns more efficient. In warehouse settings, they simplify the retrieval of items and the management of storage, notably improving operational efficiency and reducing errors in order fulfillment. The integration of barcodes across inventory management systems underscores their quintessential role in amplifying operational productivity and precision across industries.
Below is a table showing the key differences between RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) and barcodes:
In analyzing RFID vs barcode, both are used to track and identify items, but they operate in distinct ways. RFID utilizes radio waves to communicate between a tag, which contains a microchip and antenna, and a reader. This enables RFID tags to store and retrieve large amounts of data directly. In contrast, barcodes are visual patterns scanned to access information from a separate database.
The choice between RFID and barcodes depends on the application requirements. RFID is ideal for automation and frequent data updates, making it suitable for supply chain management and asset tracking. Barcodes, with their simplicity and lower cost, are better suited for retail, libraries, and ticketing.
RFID technology offers significant advantages over traditional barcodes in inventory management. While barcodes are cost-effective for many businesses, RFID excels in high-volume settings due to its ability to simultaneously scan multiple items, increasing speed and accuracy while reducing labor costs.
Some of the RFID advantages include real-time tracking, better accuracy, faster data collection, enhanced security, increased durability, scalability, and flexibility. These advantages make RFID the right choice for businesses looking to improve their inventory management processes.
Studies show RFID significantly boosts performance metrics. For example, research from Auburn University found that RFID improved inventory accuracy from 65% to 95%, reduced out-of-stocks by 50%, and increased sales by 5%. Similarly, the University of Arkansas reported a reduction in inventory carrying costs by up to 40% and out-of-stocks by 60%, with sales increasing by 18%. These findings illustrate that RFID solutions can have a significant impact on the bottom line of retail businesses.
It is well known that barcodes and RFID play an important role in inventory management. Barcodes offer a cost-effective solution for many businesses, but RFID technology stands out as the superior choice for organizations that operate in high-volume environments and prefer higher operational efficiency.
Using RFID systems, retailers can conduct inventory counts efficiently and accurately without having to perform manual tallies, which leads to a significant reduction in stock discrepancies.
Organizations must carefully evaluate their specific needs and select appropriate technologies to optimize their inventory management strategies and fully capitalize on these advantages.
The Inventory 360, RFID Inventory Tracking System from retailcloud offers distinct advantages in this context, including streamlined catalog management, precise stock control, and efficient label printing. Using this comprehensive software, audit processes can be simplified, discrepancies can be minimized, and accurate stock levels can be maintained easily.
Likewise, businesses utilizing RFID technology to track and manage tools and equipment can significantly enhance precision and operational efficiency, thereby positioning themselves as competitive entities within the ever-evolving landscape.
Ready to incorporate these benefits into your business? Get ready to join hands with retailcloud. Our team of professionals is dedicated to providing goal-driven retail POS software suites and services across various industries, including retail, sports, and entertainment. Let us help you streamline your inventory management with tailored RFID solutions that help you make informed decisions.
In the digital landscape of today, businesses strive to stay ahead of the competition by embracing innovative marketing strategies. While email campaigns and social media advertising have long dominated the digital marketing platforms, SMS marketing has been overlooked as a marketing campaign . SMS marketing presents a unique opportunity for businesses to connect with their target audience directly through text messages. These text messages can be used to drive traffic to a business’s website. Businesses can include a link to their website in their text messages. This will allow customers to easily visit the website, learn more about the business, and play a pivotal role in driving organic traffic, improving website visibility, and ultimately boosting your online presence.
According to the following statistics, for every 100 text messages sent:
These statistics are much higher than any other marketing campaigns as SMS marketing is personal, timely ,quick and optional.
Collect and analyze customer history: To send targeted text messages, retailers need to know what the customer has purchased in the past or which store they have visited. This history tells you about the customer preferences to leverage and increase conversion rate.
Opt-in and opt-out options: Give customers the option to opt-in or opt out of receiving SMS messages from your retail business. This empowers them to control their communication preferences and ensures that you’re targeting individuals who genuinely want to hear from you. Make the opt-in process seamless and straightforward, and respect customers’ choices to foster trust and loyalty.
Keep your messages precise and include a CTA(call to action): Text messages with CTA should be short and precise to encourage customer engagement an example of CTA will be “ Limited time offer- shop today and get 10% off on your purchase”
Use a variety of messages: SMS marketing is not just about promotional offers but these messages can be reminders to use up loyalty points, birthday wishes or just a hello message to remind customers about your business.
Track your results: It is important to track the results of your SMS marketing campaigns so that you can see what is working and what is not. This will help you improve your campaigns over time to increase engagement and conversion rates.
Customer history can be used to create more targeted and personalized SMS marketing campaigns. By understanding what the customers’ preferences are. Retailers can send them more relevant suggestions and timely messages that are more likely to be opened, clicked on, and converted.
For example, if a customer has previously purchased a dress from your store, you could send them a text message with a special offer on a new dress or matching shoes that you just received in stock. Or, if a customer has recently viewed a product on your website, you could send them a text message with a reminder to complete their purchase. Here are some statistics on why you should use customer history for your text marketing:
The most effective and sustainable way to collect customer history is by using a cutting-edge Point of Sales solution, retailcloud POS solution offers an SMS marketing platform that can help you create and send effective SMS marketing campaigns. retailcloud’s SMS marketing platform includes features such as:
With retailcloud solutions you can even personalize text messages further by offering customer loyalty points for their birthday and also have the ability to see customer responses and respond to them to strengthen customer relationships. With Retailcloud, you can create and send effective SMS marketing campaigns that will help you reach your target audience, increase sales, and boost customer engagement.
SMS marketing is a powerful tool that can be used to reach a wide audience, increase sales, and boost customer engagement. By leveraging customer preferences and integrating them into your SMS campaigns, you can create highly targeted and personalized messages that are more likely to be successful.
Additionally, SMS marketing campaigns can generate user engagement and social signals. When customers receive a compelling SMS offer, they may share it with friends or on social media platforms, thereby increasing brand visibility and potentially attracting new customers. These social signals can positively influence your SEO rankings, as search engines consider them as indicators of brand authority and popularity.
“70% of the customer’s journey is based on how the customer feels they are being treated” (McKinsey). But how do you figure out how a customer feels after they’ve shopped with you? How do you gauge their satisfaction? You get feedback.
Customer feedback is a vital tool for small businesses. It helps them connect with their customers, gain insight into what’s working and what isn’t, and identify areas where they can improve.
Customer feedback allows small businesses to learn about their audience and tailor their products and services to meet their needs.
This leads to higher levels of engagement, satisfaction, loyalty, and repeat purchases — all of which contribute to growth.
“According to Survey Monkey research, 85% of customers will like to give their feedback when their experience went good with the brand or company, and 81% will give feedback when their experience went bad”.
Customer satisfaction surveys typically ask questions related to how likely a customer is to recommend a business based on their experience
Happy customers are looking for ways to tell others about their experience with a company. They’re more likely to buy from you again and recommend your business to others — which can lead to increased sales over time. According to Forbes, “companies that are customer-centric are 60% more profitable than companies that are not”.
“89% of consumers are more likely to make another purchase after a positive customer service experience” (Salesforce Research). It’s important to keep your existing customers happy so they continue doing business with you instead of leaving for other options. Furthermore, “68% of consumers say they are willing to pay more for products and services from a brand known to offer good customer service experiences” (HubSpot).
For all businesses, especially those just starting out, the impact of bad customer experience can be devastating. The loss of a single customer is more than just the loss of one sale; it’s the loss of an entire lifetime of revenue.
The biggest drawback of a bad customer experience is the damage it does to your brand. Customers who have had poor experiences with your business are unlikely to recommend you or buy from you again. This means that they will not promote your brand through word-of-mouth marketing or online reviews and ratings. In a survey conducted by Khoros, “65% of customers said they have changed to a different brand because of a poor experience”.
In addition to hurting your ability to attract new customers, negative reviews can also make existing customers leave for another company that offers better service. According to Zendesk, “after more than one bad experience, around 80% of consumers say they would rather do business with a competitor”.
“72% of companies believe they can use analytics reports to improve the customer experience” (Deloitte). Feedback analytics are an effective way to measure and improve customer experience. Every business can use data from customer feedback and surveys to drive profits and grow.
Here’s How:
1. Improve your customer experience with NPS surveys
2. Measure satisfaction with CSAT (Customer Satisfaction) surveys
3. Use NPS data to make strategic business decisions
retailcloud’s platform, combined with its cloud-based pos systems, allows business owners to directly engage with their customers by sending them surveys via email and text receipts. They can personalize their messages and prompt customers to give specific feedback.
Data on customers can be very beneficial to businesses and can help them in giving the customer exactly what they want with their products and services. “According to Genesys, 9 out of 10 customers give values to a company having knowledge of their previous purchase and preference”.
Customer feedback is a powerful tool that businesses should embrace to foster growth and success. By actively listening to customers, analyzing their feedback, and acting upon it, companies can drive positive change, improve customer satisfaction, and differentiate themselves from competitors. Remember, customer feedback is a continuous process, and businesses that prioritize it will not only survive but thrive in an increasingly customer-centric marketplace. So, listen, learn, and evolve to create remarkable experiences that leave a lasting impression on your customers.
With retailcloud, business owners can access customer data and feedback from anywhere, utilizing their retail cloud POS system. It has never been easier to view CSAT, NPS as well as customer preferences, and make informed business decisions.
The new rules in Major League Baseball aimed at shortening average game times can have several impacts on merchandising and concession sales at stadiums: MLB revealed the pitch clocks have shaved an average of 26 minutes a game to 2 hours and 36 minutes. The following are some of the ways that game day sales have been impacted.
Reduced sales volume: With shorter game times, fans will spend less time in the stadium, which could lead to fewer opportunities for them to purchase merchandise and concessions. This may result in a decrease in overall sales volume.
Shift in spending patterns: As fans adapt to the new game duration, they may alter their spending habits. For example, they might make quicker purchases before the game or during breaks, rather than casually browsing and buying items throughout the game. This could lead to increased sales in specific periods, such as pre-game or between innings.
Focus on efficiency: With a shift in buying habits, stadium operators can increase the efficiency of their merchandising and concession operations with sports and entertainment POS systems. This could include streamlining product offerings or offering item of the day promotions, optimizing staffing, and adopting technology to speed up transactions.
Changes in pricing: Stadiums may adjust their pricing strategies to compensate for the potential decrease in sales volume. This could involve offering discounts or promotions to encourage fans to spend more in a shorter time frame, or even increasing prices to maintain revenue levels.
Increased emphasis on fan experience: To keep fans engaged and spending during shorter games, stadiums may invest more in enhancing the overall fan experience with premium suites in seating. This could include offering unique or limited-edition merchandise, creating innovative food and beverage options, or providing interactive experiences that encourage fans to visit concession stands and merchandise outlets.
Off-stadium sales: Teams and stadiums might also increase their focus on online and off-stadium sales channels to offset potential losses from decreased in-stadium sales. This could involve improving their online stores, offering exclusive online deals, or partnering with local retailers for co-branded merchandise.
Ultimately, the impact of the new rules on merchandising and concession sales at a stadium will depend on how well teams and stadium operators adapt to the changes and implement strategies to maintain or increase sales in the new environment. Improving the fan experience with improved checkout efficiency, allowing fans to return to their seats will be paramount.
To speed up transaction times in merchandising at stadiums and improve the overall fan experience, there are several technologies that can be adopted:
RFID technology: Integrating RFID tags into merchandise and using RFID scanners at the point of sale can expedite the checkout process by instantly updating inventory and allowing for quicker transactions.
Mobile ordering apps: Fans can use their smartphones to pre-order and pay for merchandise, allowing them to skip lines and simply pick up their items at designated locations or have them delivered to their seats.
Self-service kiosks: Equipped with touchscreens and payment processing systems, these kiosks enable fans to quickly place orders and pay for merchandise without waiting in line at traditional counters.
Automated inventory management: Smart inventory systems can help ensure merchandise is always in stock and readily available, reducing wait times for items to be retrieved from storage.
In-seat merchandise: Installing small vending machines or merchandise storage lockers near seating areas can allow fans to quickly purchase items without leaving their seats.
Digital wallets: By creating a digital wallet or a stadium-specific currency, fans can preload money onto their accounts for faster transactions at merchandise stands.
Queue management: Implementing queue management systems, like virtual queuing or line-monitoring apps, can help distribute customers evenly among available service points and reduce wait times. Giving fas access to approximate wait times at different stands can also help them plan their purchasing trips
Augmented reality (AR) shopping: AR can allow fans to virtually try on merchandise and make purchases from their seats, eliminating the need to visit a physical store or stand.
By adopting these technologies, stadiums can create a more efficient merchandising experience for fans, allowing them to spend less time waiting in line and more time enjoying the event.
Determining the Item of the day sales can be complicated, ideally they should create an urgency for fans to buy a specific item without cannibalizing existing sales, you can follow a systematic approach that leverages data and considers various factors. Here’s an algorithm to help you identify the “Item of the Day” for each game:
Collect data: Gather historical sales data for all items in your inventory. Ideally, you should have data for the past few seasons to better understand sales trends and customer preferences. Also, take note of any special events or promotions that might have influenced sales.
Determine item popularity: Calculate the average sales per game for each item. Rank them according to their popularity. This will help you identify the items that are selling well and those that need a boost.
Identify slow-moving items: From the ranked list, identify items that have a low sales volume per game and could benefit from being the “Item of the Day.”
Factor in seasonality and trends: Consider the time of the year, special events, or other trends that might affect item popularity. For example, if your team has a rivalry game coming up, you might want to promote items related to that rivalry.
Create a non-repeating schedule: Once you have identified a pool of items that can be featured as the “Item of the Day,” create a schedule for the 81 home games that ensures no item is repeated.
Set a discount strategy: Determine the discount percentage or pricing strategy for each “Item of the Day.” You might want to offer a higher discount for slow-moving items or lower discounts for more popular items to avoid cannibalizing sales.
Monitor and adjust: Track the sales performance of the “Item of the Day” and compare it with historical sales data. If you notice any negative impact on overall sales, adjust your strategy accordingly.
Quickbooks desktop alternatives are more essential as businesses evolve. While QuickBooks Desktop has long been a trusted tool for accounting, many companies now seek flexible, cloud-based solutions that provide greater accessibility and collaboration options. With the growing trend towards remote work, cloud accounting software enables teams to access financial data securely from anywhere, eliminating the need for local installations and maintenance. Additionally, some businesses find that QuickBooks Desktop lacks industry-specific features or scalability options as they grow, leading them to explore other platforms that offer specialized functionalities.Alternative accounting software can also provide a more budget-friendly option for small businesses or freelancers who need streamlined features without the higher costs. Consequently, there’s a strong demand for QuickBooks Desktop alternatives that offer robust, scalable, and mobile-friendly accounting solutions to meet today’s dynamic business needs. retailcloud’s ZeroPOS is an all in one point of sale software that has been designed with today’s retailers in mind. Conduct and manage all aspects of your business with the one, easy to use system. retailcloud gives you less to worry about and more time to spend growing your business.
-Processor-agnostic Solution with Dual Pricing Capability
-Multiple Support Channels i.e. Phone, Chat and Email
-Intuitive Cashier Experience
-Multiple Tender Options and Tap Pay
-Robust Inventory Management
-Powerful CRM with In-house Loyalty and Gift Cards
-Dynamic Employee Management
-Muli-location Capabilities
-Insightful Reporting
-Mobile App and Clienteling Toolkit
-Cloud-based Back Office with Real-time Updates
ZeroPOS, a cloud based pos system, is a full suite of management tools that streamlines payment processing, inventory management, and other business operations. Integration to QuickBooks Online allows you to manage your finances with ease.
ZeroPOS pushes all data to QuickBooks Online as transactions are processed throughout the day. This allows you to view sales activity in QuickBooks and effectively gauge your business’ performance based on accurate financial reconciliation.
With ZeroPOS you have a full suite of inventory management in one system. From purchase orders, to receiving, selling and adjusting, you can track where your inventory is at all times. Integrated with QuickBooks Online, you can make more informed decisions with your inventory management and increase profits.
Tracking your profits and losses, as well as your invoices and house accounts has never been easier with ZeroPOS and QuickBooks. Streamline your accounting activities and record-keeping!
retailcloud’s integration with QuickBooks Online makes it the ideal cloud POS solution for those who have worked with QuickBooks Desktop POS. As QuickBooks moves to discontinue their POS, retailcloud is proud to offer a turnkey solution that allows merchants to gain sales reporting, simplify inventory management, and accurately track income and expenses: allowing them to take advantage of the accounting and financial management tools in QuickBooks Online.
Customer service is one of the most important factors in the success of the retail business. Positive customer service will contribute to the overall growth of a business. Improving customer service can help a business grow, increase sales and profits, and lower operating costs.
Businesses that deliver poor customer service often have unhappy customers who will not return or recommend them to others. That means they also have lower chances for expanding their business by word-of-mouth marketing. Moreover, the price businesses must pay for poor performance is actually high since they don’t get repeat visits from their customers and consequently lose out on opportunities to make more money through repeat purchases.
Here are 7 ways to improve your retail customer service:
Customers are the experts of their own needs and they know the best way to solve those needs. Make sure you listen to what they have to say and then work on fixing those problems.
Aim to satisfy your customers as best as you can by getting their satisfaction surveys to see what you are doing right or wrong, then make changes accordingly.
When your customers have any questions or concerns, it is very important that you keep them informed about the progress of their orders. If you cannot respond immediately, assure them that you will get back to them soon.
To improve the customer service of your retail business, make sure your employees are trained on how to deliver outstanding customer service. Make sure they include what to say, how to say it, and what not to say in their training program.
Creating a positive first impression will help set the scene for building trust with new customers or clients with whom you are working towards building long-term relationships. The key is that it must be consistent throughout the company’s operation.
Personalized service builds a good foundation of customer loyalty. This is especially true when it comes to retaining your existing customers and acquiring new ones. Consider each customer as an individual with a set of unique needs and wants that will determine the way you work with them.
You can use technology, such as online ordering systems, to improve your customer service operations and increase efficiency. Online shopping has been increasing in popularity these days, so it is important to keep things simple and easy for the customers while they shop online or over the phone. Make sure you have a website that represents your brand values and vision.
Without professional help and smart tools, it is almost impossible to improve customer service. A little investment in the right tools can help you to take your business to a whole new level. Giving your customers the needed information and service is the only way to make things better for your business and the customers.
No one is unaffected by the impact of the COVID-19 slowdown/shutdown. We are all in this together to make it through financially, physically and emotionally. Small businesses are hit particularly hard. With small businesses accounting for employing over 48% of all workers, the shutdown has the bigger impact on this group.
The following are ways for small businesses to help weather the crisis as well as ways that consumers can pitch in and help
Offer online sales through your website, Facebook Store and Instagram Store. If you have one or more social media profiles, start posting. Take photos of products, videos of the store or update posts and get your information out there and let your customers know you are still active and how they can purchase from you.
Offering gift cards allow your customers to support your business by providing much needed cash now and continued support for the future.
If you have the ability to use a video conferencing software, do so. You can connect and sell to customers via webcam and ship directly to their home.
Buy now to use later or better yet, buy a gift card to give as a gift to a person who is working extra hard during this time, such as a health care worker, grocery store clerk or is in emergency services
Call your favorite stores to see if they are taking phone orders or purchase online to support your favorite business. This will help them and you get cool new stuff.
Many restaurants are now offering deliveries or pick ups. Call your favorite restaurant to see what your options are or order from them online
People are still working, so tipping extra will not only help them financially but also boost their morale. They are working extra hard and this will show your appreciation to them.
Do you have a social media account? Reblog, retweet, or send out props to your favorite stores to give them a boost. Liking, commenting and reblogging will help get them noticed.
Consider this as a donation at this time. It will help the business during a time of little to no income. You can help them out by not rushing to cancel and keep it open so it will be ready as soon as you’re able to go back.
Donate what you can to local food banks and pantries to help your neighborhood. Give as much as you can to help those that have little to nothing.
Call your favorite store to see if there is anything you can do to help. There are some small businesses that have crowdsourcing where you can directly donate to help them and their employees. It never hurts to ask how you can help.
During this trying time, let’s take the time to help out our neighbors and local businesses. A little extra care now will help with recovery once we are back to our everyday lives.
At retailcloud we love lists; our support team keeps a list of all features that are requested by users, our partner team keeps a list of what is important to our partners and our product team keeps yet another one on what are key industry drivers.
Recently our AI and analytics team was playing with some models to mash up all the data and see what features should be developed based on these three lists as well as what could have the greatest impact on our customer’s bottom line.
If you have been following our blogs you will see that we, and our industry, have been talking a lot about the impact of customer retention and building brand loyalty and experiences, and so while a feedback and rating system was not on our product roadmap we were not altogether surprised that our AI modeling told us that an application where customers could provide instant feedback to merchants, AND where merchants had tools and insights to make customers into fans made sense.
And so feedbk (pronounced feedback) was born; feedbk is a real time rating application that allows merchants to easily obtain feedback from their customers at the Point of Sale. It keeps track of 3 metrics for a retailer;
This feedback is automatically combined with segmentation which is critical in allowing operators to immediately identify problem areas and rectify them; it is also able to provide retailers with the ability to gauge opportunity costs that are related to such issues. feedbk operates entirely on the retailcloud platform so it can provide operators with actionable analytics on how to increase units per transaction, identify ideal product mixes, and in general, identify their most valuable customers.
It’s just version 1.0, but we are excited about feedbk and the machine learning opportunities that come from it. We believe that it is the first of many pragmatic analytic solutions from our AI team that will allow small and mid size retailers to quickly access where their staff can best focus their efforts.
To understand your customers, customer feedback is important. Companies that listen to their customers have the tools to succeed – You’ve heard this many times and you have probably even given it consideration for your business. But what’s missing is a solid explanation. You’ve heard that customer feedback is crucial to your business grow, but the how’s and why’s are what I’ll try to help clarify for you.
Here are seven reasons why a customer feedback rating is important to the success of your business
You know your product, every variation, size, color, style, feature and you have educated your team hundreds of times. Unfortunately, your passion may not allow you to see the imperfections. It is important to know what appeals to your customers, as well as what was subpar and why. Listen to your customers and provide the products that they desire.
Listening to your customer feedback makes your customers feel involved and valued. When customers feel listened to, they positively connect with your brand and direct their good experience back to you, which makes them a part of your business family and ensures return visits.
Word of mouth advertising is very successful, and referrals are the most effective, free way of advertising. These most often come from friends and family and are often the most convincing recommendations. Always remember to strive for positive feedback, if you want to gain customers through recommendations.
You can always sell something once, but the true test is getting the customer to return over and over. Feedback is helpful in providing some of the finer details that encourage the recurring business. Is maybe free shipping, same day alterations, polite/educated support team, user friendly website which is the key to solidifying the customer relationship.
Especially nowadays, with competition down the street and on line, its essential to tackle a problem or misunderstanding immediately. With the bandwidth of social media, a bad comment can do far reaching harm to your business.
Seek out a rating system can has the capability to alert you to negative feedback immediately – before your customer has left the store. Allowing the customer to share the unhappy experience and providing you with the opportunity to rectify the issue immediately.
As a consumer, one of the first things you do when looking up a business or product is to read online reviews. Make sure that you have reviews available to draw in the new business, and further more, make sure that the reviews are positive. Asking your customers for their feedback in store will allow you to react before it appears online.
Actively soliciting feedback from your customers and reacting to their opinions creates a relationship that makes the buying process more personal. The customer perceives the business as being run by friendly people that care about their experience, instead of just a company that sells product.
As you see, eliciting feedback from your customers is important and can be very beneficial to your business, as it helps you get to know your customers better, increases their engagement and loyalty and brings in new customers. As it turns out, customer feedback is quite important!
As part of the retailcloud sales team, at least 2-3 times a week I speak with a business owner who tells me that their biggest issue is staying on top of the cash flow; in fact a not to uncommon statement is that we just had a great month but I don’t know where the money went.
Managing your Cash Flow and effectively converting inventory into cash are the most important things that small business operators do. With that in mind I thought I would put together a very high level post on some basic practices on cash flow management. If you want some complexity we have other posts on managing cash flow, GMROI and sales to stock and cash to sales ratios that can take you to the next level but this for the basics.
Let’s begin by taking that money and putting it into some piles
Paying Sales Tax – this is often overlooked, but start first by running your sales tax settlement reports and put that aside for the tax man – there is no getting around that. While you are doing that, make sure that the amount you are reserving is in line with what your sales are – often items are not properly set up in your system and you may have neglected to collect the correct taxes.
Paying your Employees – Look at your time clock reports and forecast what you need to pay your employees, remember to carefully set aside withholding amounts and any other employer contributions. These are monies that you don’t want flowing into your operating accounts.
Keep your doors Open – Know what your fixed costs are (Rent, Utilities, Business Operation Fees) and prorate them so you are setting aside enough to cover these fixed expenses. Having accurate projections will allow you to forecast what your minimum sales are on a daily basis to cover overhead.
Replacing your Inventory – Finally set aside enough to replace your inventory, if you are buying on account you will need to pay your vendors and if you are paying on delivery you need to keep your items stocked at optimum levels. While doing this, consider what you stock on hand is and determine if you are better off investing in complementary products. Have a look at our posts on Increasing per Unit Sales.
See what’s left over – This is for you if there is not enough to go around, you only have a few choices
These are 4 simple checkpoints – having these good practices will help you build a strong and profitable business. The majority of business failures occur due to poor cash management.
The key to retail success is having a plan you can implement, reducing the variables and executing the plan to perfection! Ok So you knew that already, but how do you go about doing that.
Since you are reading this, I will assume you are part of the 20% of retailers that have put processes in place to monitor your expenses, manage your inventory levels and are reviewing your product mix and performance.
You might even be part of the 20% of the 20% that has implemented a CRM that tracks customer preferences and is aware of slippage activity; if you are just doing loyalty that’s not good enough.
So you are now part of the 20% of the 20%, now what – how do you get to be 20% of the 20% of the 20% that is executing to perfection. Let’s look at one of the simplest ways to get there.
Put another way :
80% of all small business are content with opening the doors and waiting for customers to come in – when they do they focus on selling them what they have and meeting whatever needs they ca,
20% of them are looking at their product mix and managing their costs and inventory levels on a regular basis – They are aware of a key KPI’s and are looking for ways to increase margin and ROI.
20% of that 20% (4% of all merchants) are taking it a step further they have implemented a CRM and have launched an online commerce store – they work hard at trying to increase their foot traffic, focusing on marketing, making their inventory visible and doing what they can to match their stock levels to customer preference.
The difference makers – the ones who seem to have all the luck the 20% of the 20% of the 20% (thats .8% or 80 out of a 1000 businesses) are focused on doing more with what they have – seems simple but often misunderstood it’s focusing your energy and efforts on where they make a difference. Make every action count! What does that mean.
How many customers come in and how many are buying – if for example 10 out of every 50 customers who come in buy something, focus on what it takes to get that to 11 – that immediately reflects a 20% increase in sales. Are they looking for sizes, color or product you don’t have – can you meet those needs using retailcloud’s endless aisle or predictive reordering to ensure you have the right mix? Does your clienteling system allow you to suggest substitute products?
Yes again you are right everyone says that , but what kind of insight does your POS system give you on similar customers, are you using machine intelligence to recommend items based on what customers have selected as well as what that customer has previously purchased? If your average units per transaction are 1.67 and you get 1 out of every 5 customers to buy one more item this could result in a 12% increase in sales.
Look at what how many customers are coming back and how often, does your POS system allow you to reach out to them with targeted offers (promos or experiences) to drive them back – the better you know your customers the more effective experience based marketing is; say for instance you know they love UnderArmour shoes, invite them back for an early preview of the new shoe line; or if they like a certain wine – allow them to reserve part of that allocation before it comes in – (use the retailcloud prepaid feature). Utilize the valuable information in your customer preference profiles. If you can increase your customer retention by 10% this again would have a huge impact on your bottom line.
So what does it take to be the 20% of the 20% of the 20% – it’s the little details; while your competition is using a scrambling approach you can focus on the details and successfully execute a winning strategy.
retail Key performance Indicators ( KPI ) in combination of recommendation & pragmatics analytics are key to solve sales challenges retail companies are facing. If you would like to learn more about the how you can improve your retail performance bookmark our blog and keep watching this space.
Liquor store POS (Point of Sale Systems) is an important tool to make sure operations runs smooth and seamless. Store managers have a great deal of responsibility to make sure that everything from catalog, inventory, and customer experience are handled flawlessly. As a software provider for numerous liquor stores across the country and talking to several business owners & store managers we have identified some of the most common aspects one should consider for a liquor store inventory management and point of sale system.
A Liquor Store POS (Point of Sale) system helps businesses streamline their operations, improve customer service, and enhance profitability. By integrating sales, inventory management, and customer data, a POS system allows liquor store owners to efficiently track sales in real time, manage stock levels, and prevent inventory shortages or overstocking. It automates the process of updating inventory with each sale, reducing human error and saving time. Additionally, a POS system enables businesses to offer loyalty programs, discounts, and promotions, enhancing customer satisfaction and retention. Reporting features within the system allow business owners to track sales trends, monitor profit margins, and make informed decisions to optimize pricing and product offerings. Moreover, the system often integrates with accounting software, making financial management easier and more accurate. Overall, a liquor store POS system is an essential tool for improving operational efficiency, boosting sales, increasing UPT and providing a better customer experience.
These 12 features are generally classified into these functional areas.
When a liquor store adopts a modern point of sale system, one of the challenges they have is how to load the product catalog. In some instances, the store hasn’t tracked products and inventory in the past, moving from a legacy cash register or simply starting a business from a buyout. A key problem in all of the above cases is lack of product tracking through an automated system. Retailcloud’s global catalog with over 50K liquor products allows an user to adopt the system seamlessly and get up and running in no time.
It is not an easy job to track inventory for all the products when you have a busy season and when your focus should be to sell more. Retailcloud inventory management module tracks the products across your business right from issuing purchase orders , receiving into the stores and managing inventory automatically into your location when you sell. Every business owner we have talked to has mentioned that accurate inventory tracking is one of the top 3 priorities they have with a new point of sale system.
With the variety of options within the liquor catalog management, one of the common struggles that liquor store managers have is how should they enter cases and packs into the system. Can I buy by the case and sell individually and get an accurate inventory? The solution to do this effectively is to have different units of measure available allowing for accurate reporting of inventory regardless of how you sell it.
Cash discounting has been one of the most sought out features in recent times. This allows the business owner to manage the payment processing cost more effectively in creative ways. The retailcloud system allows merchants to setup cash discounts, rebates for certain payments types and print on receipts.
Experts who advise liquor store operations says that the best way to have a profitable liquor store is to keep track of your profit goals. To effectively keep track of the profit it is important for a store to have tools to manage the cost of inventory and thus by reporting it back to you across your business. Many cost management systems do not provide accurate cost of good sold data. I have seen systems that update all items in inventory to the current cost price wreaking havoc on managing true cost of goods. A system which effectively calculate the weighted average cost and provide you with effective profit margins and KPI is very important. Retailcloud’s cost management and nGauge analytics platform provides these insights without additional plugins or 3rd party softwares.
Multiple employees are very common in liquor stores and having the tools to manage their sales as well as providing security against theft and abuse of the system . Have unique log ins and password/pin entry is a key necessity. Knowing which employee is ringing up the sale as well as limiting access for non key employees are among the features needed.
As a business owner one of the challenges faced is the level or access which can be provided to different employees and temporary staff. Well defined roles in the system with commonly accessed features and ability to promote or demote certain function is very handy in liquor store multi employee situations. Retailcloud POS provides unlimited users access across 10 different roles.
Age and ID verifications are important when you have mix and match of a variety of products. Automated prompts of Age and ID verification allows the cashiers verify the customers for the ID based on product category or scan on the Code Scanner for programmable beeps.
Ability to access the reports anywhere is one thing which every system should have in the 21st century. The global access to Sales and Inventory reporting anywhere anytime is key for business owners to analyze their business / profit strategies at their own time.
Irrespective of any type of business, one thing retailers across the globe will agree on is that they need ways to engage with their customers. One of the most common ways to do this is offering promotions and loyalty programs. Starting with simple discounts which can be announced through your weekly mailer or reward your most visited customers with loyalty programs can be useful tools to ensure that your customers think of your business first.
Customer engagement strategies varies from time to time. Purchase history and customer engagement drives those strategies. Ability to see the sales history and sales analysis helps businesses to better and more effectively engage with customers. VIP Clubs or Demographic based promotions are likely to improve the customer visits.
Most liquor store staff interacts on POS one way or other. Without additional software or subscription, the business owners can track employee time within the POS which is a very useful way to track the attendance. Attendance can be monitored remotely or overridden by supervisors as needed.
Checkout out retailcloud’s Liquor Store Point of Sale Features list here to learn more
Let me start by says that a product return isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Based on a six-year study from the University of North Carolina’s Flagler Business School, the study looked at the return rates from various companies. And it turns out that there’s actually a “sweet spot” that equates to higher profits per customer sales. One company was found to have a magic number of 13 percent!
But a product return may not go the way merchants want. As reported in The Wall Street Journal, that same research showed numbers that were greater than this percentage actually decreased profits. And it signaled deeper, structural problems within the company itself. It could be a strict return policy or poor record keeping from accounting. Either way, these problems can lead to dissatisfied customers, increased chargebacks and much more.
I’d like to provide four simple tips that should help your business prevent excessive returns
Allow your customers to fully experience your merchandise. Touching, Tasting, Feeling – your customers can make a more informed decision, which will minimize returns.
Many times such returns are the result of a retailer carrying a product that doesn’t have the features customers demand. They may still buy it, but the end result will typically be a return.
The best way to find out what the customers want is to ask them. Salespeople will also have great insight as to what customers are asking for that a store isn’t carrying. Paying attention to the responses and acting on them will help minimize returned merchandise. Keeping tabs on the competition can also be useful.
“With tight payrolls and a large turnover of associates, displays are more important than ever before,” says Tom Hebrock, vice president of retail services at Stuart and Associates in Brentwood, Tenn. “This is what the customer relies on if they can’t get employee assistance in the store.”
Displays need to have consistent information for one type of product. The sign also needs to include accessories that are needed but not included so the customer doesn’t get home expecting what’s not there.
Informative displays will also help store personnel communicate the benefits and features of the products they are selling. While it would be nice for associates to memorize every feature of every product, the expectation is unrealistic, and detailed displays will assist them in selling.
Follow these tips to prevent excessive returns so that you can operate in the Sweet Spot of customer returns.
In retail location matters, and brick and mortar retailers spend a lot of time and resources in getting new customers to walk in their stores, but that is just the beginning; keeping customers coming back is the key to operating a successful retail operation. Here are some tips on how to do that
Let’s start here, keep reminding them where they are – have associates greet them by using your store name “ Welcome to (store name); Can I help you find something?” Remind them where they are whenever possible – Thank you for shopping at (store name); try to use shopping bags, digital receipts where your store name is prominently displayed. Whenever possible use preprinted hangtags or if you don’t want to invest in them – try a stamp or sticker with your name and logo.
Here is a low-cost value add for your customers, have associates be aware of surprising customers with random acts of kindness (I don’t mean give away free product or discounts) – taking time to carefully package items, spending a little more time to make sure the customer experience is curated for the customer.
Provide accurate information to the customer or product availability. Give associates the tools to know what’s in stock, what’s on the way in and when it can be expected. Pay particular attention to your product mix and train your associates on complimentary and replacement product.
Loyalty and club programs (especially experienced based ones) are the cornerstone of retail – Club programs can range from simple pricing discounts like grocery stores offer or experience-based ones that many airlines focus on. One of my favorite example of a club program is a neighborhood restaurant who has a point system for visits and once you get to a certain level – they guarantee you a table anytime – I’ve seen them set up temporarily set up tables for their top customers even when fully sold out – I’m sure that those customers feel the restaurant always value their relationship.
Last but by no means least
Consumers want easy access to their favorite stores, have an online site that has accurate information on products and inventory levels (ideally connected to your inventory system) and tied to your POS (so customers have one view into all their activity). This allows customers to view product, make purchases and even process returns at their convenience.
Keep the shopping process simple yet enriching is what will keep them coming back. Keep reminding the customer where they are (frequency of impression is real) and have your associates stay focused on providing a quality experience. These are some simple yet inexpensive ways in driving return activity.
Today’s perfect grocery store point of sale and retail management solution is full-featured, speedy, and reliable. Supermarkets need a POS solution that is seamless, running on grocery POS software that is fully connected to the rest of the store. From a single lane, multi lane, or many locations the POS solution needs to grow with the business and provide the tools for success.
The grocery store needs significantly more than a cash registers that prints receipts and holds cash. The perfect POS system addresses inventory, loyalty, analytics, and accounting. Grocery stores carry tens of thousands of products: fruits and vegetables, meats, breads, and dairy. Keeping track of product volume and sales data will maximize profit and help avoid spoilage, shrink, and stock-outs.
A strong POS system will streamline supermarket operations, cut costs, grow grocer’s profits, and maximize efficiency.
In looking at a POS solution, consider these key features:
Important to consider is the POS provider. Look for software upgrades and enhancements to be included in your monthly POS license fee, this can save you hundreds, if not thousands annually. Understand their merchant support, are they available during your peak hours. Are ou provided with training during your critical early days with the new software. And dont forget track record, are they comfortable with understanding the needs of the grocery store merchant and have the features to help your business thrive.
To begin with – Get to really know your customer!
If you are using a POS management software like retailcloud, you can get an in-depth understanding of your customer preferences, what their ideal product mix is, what their tendencies are, maybe even who their favorite employees are
Having this type of insight will allow you to create a more customer centric approach to your emails, ultimately improving your conversion rates and allowing you to target your product mix more specifically for your customers.
Online retailers gather every bit of customer data, their clicks what they looked at what they bought and what they abandoned, this may overwhelm you if you are not collecting any data today but time is on your side- start with a 3 simple things to get you started
These are just basic steps, if you are already using your retail CRM and would like a more indepth discussion on how to use preference marketing to drive additional sales (especially add-ons) email me at jordan@retailcloud.com.
According to a recent infographic from Community Merchants USA, 66 percent of all point-of-sales (POS) transactions are done with plastic – credit, debit, or gift cards. As we all know, there are VISA/MC and association fees that must be paid by the retailers to accept credit cards. A major trend in many industries is to pass on the expense to the customer at the time of the sales transaction. Tacking a small percent onto each sale, can result in a significant savings for the business.
Are Cash Discounts right for you and your customers? Here are pros and cons that can help you decide.
Reduce Fees – Obviously, the biggest pro is reducing or eliminating card processing fees associated with accepting credit cards. If you don’t process cards, you don’t have to pay for the service.
Easier to implement and explain than a credit card surcharge – Another way some merchants pay for card processing is to assess a surcharge on products bought with a credit card. There is sometimes push back. For instance, it’s illegal to add a card processing surcharge in 11 states. Implementing a cash discount, though, is legal everywhere. And it’s pretty easy to explain that all items in the store are priced with a built-in service fee, but that the fee is deducted if you pay with cash.
Encourages cash payments – Although many people prefer credit cards, a cash discount may encourage a customer to use cash instead of a card for their purchase. These means less time between the sale and when you have access to the funds. There is no processing time or wait period for cash in your hand. Plus you eliminate some fraud exposure.
Reduce chargebacks – With fewer people using cards in your store, it’s likely the number of chargebacks will also decrease. If this has been a problem for your business, this decrease may actually help reduce the card fees you do pay, because you’d be perceived as less of a risk.
Some customers may not carry cash – Lots of people simply don’t carry cash anymore. Expecting to use ApplePay, some shop armed with just their phone. And if a customer is opposed to making a purchase without getting a discount, they may walk out without buying anything. You could experience a drop in sales volume.
Conspicuous signage – To offer cash discounts, you must post what the law refers to as “conspicuous signage” throughout your place of business to let customers know they can receive a discount if they pay by cash or gift card rather than using a credit card. Also, while expressed as a discount and not as a fee, some customers may view the posted “offer” in a negative light.
Implementation – To be compliant with a cash discount program, your receipts must clearly reflect that there is a service charge on items and that that service charge was removed for a cash payment. That means revising your POS system software. Plus you’ll want to be sure you follow any changes in the laws around cash discounts in the future to avoid any penalties.
Potential Drop in Sales – Studies have show that consumers spend more when using their credit cards. If cash appears to be a more attractive option in terms of managing credit card processing fees, be aware that it could end up discouraging and depressing your overall sales results.
If you chose to implement a cash discount program, make sure you go into it with your eyes open. Follow the rules closely to avoid issues and penalties, and be sure to evaluate the success of the program against any declines in sales you may experience to be sure the program is working for you.
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
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
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
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The sleekly designed Poynt Smart Terminal with it’s built in EMV reader and Interactive Customer Display makes it easy for small retailers to step up from their calculator registers into something that provides them with flexibility and integrations into todays must have retail solutions.
Poynt users of all sizes will have a couple of decisions to make in deciding if Register or Skycraft POS best meets their needs. This post will help navigate the waters and simplify the decision.
Both apps have the ability to create user pages to easily layout items making them easy to find, and both also support line item and order level discounts, coupons and fees, as well as the ability to set tax levels based on the item. Register has a limit of 500 SKUs per catalog so if you have more than that you will need to move up to Skycraft POS which has unlimited SKU’s.
With Skycraft POS in addition to the features mentioned above you also get category management features that allow you to run margin and performance reports by up to 3 classifications and 5 attributes. Leaving lots of room for growth. The inventory management module is also quite comprehensive allowing you to easily identify categories that are impacting your net margins.
There is also a built in CRM list builder app to easily get and launch marketing campaigns, a loyalty program to offer club pricing, discounts on merchandise to your most valuable customers as well as Time & Attendence with time sheet management. These together with Sales Tax Settlement reporting and Barcode Label printing are the most popular features on Skycraft Point of Sale App.
Other benefits of the Skycraft application is that you can add Advance Orders for online ordering with delivery or pick up in Store, you can also connect your Poynt to Windows and Android POS devices on retailcloud and there are phone apps for cycle counting and other inventory functions. You can also connect to retailcloud online and launch an ecommerce store within minutes.
Regardless of which application you select you cant go wrong with your new Poynt Smart Terminal.
If you are not considering using the Poynt to get one view of your transactions, inventory and customers, there are some other apps (most of these features are already included or available in Skycraft POS) you may want to also consider
Let me know if you have any questions or feedbacks on the apps recommended here. You can reach me on twitter @retailmadesimpl or post your comments below
You are looking for ways to attract customers and do all you can to make sure that they come back again and again. One surefire way to entice their repeat business is by offering incentives through a loyalty program. Loyalty programs can be structured in many different ways and the different programs succeed for different industries.
Here are the top customer loyalty programs with pros and cons of each, so you can select the program that best fits your business type to attract your customer’s repeat visits.
1. LOYALTY POINT PROGRAMS
Loyalty роіnt programs let customers accumulate points thаt thеу саn rеdееm fоr rеwаrdѕ оr free рrоduсtѕ/ѕеrvісеѕ. This type of loyalty program is ѕо easy tо set up thаt 73% оf loyalty рrоgrаmѕ are points based, making thіѕ the mоѕt рорulаr tуре оf loyalty рrоgrаm bу fаr.
A lоt оf buѕіnеѕѕеѕ ѕtrugglе tо get сuѕtоmеrѕ in thе dооr. If thаt’ѕ a problem that’s keeping уоu up late аt night, rеfеrrаl mаrkеtіng саn hеlр. And уоu can take thаt to the mаx wіth роіntѕ bаѕеd loyalty рrоgrаmѕ.
Not аll points are tied tо money trаnѕасtіоnѕ – some may bе earned from ѕосіаl sharing, еmаіlѕ, or оthеr асtіоnѕ сuѕtоmеrѕ tаkе tо drіvе trаffіс tо уоur store. In fасt, your loyalty рrоgrаm ѕhоuldn’t bе рurеlу trаnѕасtіоn-bаѕеd. Gеt уоur bеѕt сuѕtоmеrѕ tо send уоu mоrе buѕіnеѕѕ аnd rеwаrd thеm fоr helping уоu.
Pоіntѕ рrоgrаmѕ аrе the most рорulаr lоуаltу рrоgrаmѕ. Thеу’rе еаѕу to uѕе and can encourage ѕресіfіс consumer bеhаvіоrѕ.
Prоѕ
Cons
Who does this Loyalty Program appeal to
Thаnkѕ tо thе еаѕе оf uѕе аnd сuѕtоmіzаbіlіtу оf роіntѕ рrоgrаmѕ, thеу’rе реrfесt fоr most businesses, regardless of ѕіzе оr tаrgеt market.
2. Sреnd Programs
In spend рrоgrаmѕ, customers get lоуаltу сrеdіt fоr thе аmоunt thеу ѕреnd аt your buѕіnеѕѕ. Yоu саn uѕе ѕіmіlаr dіѕсоuntѕ wіthоut an upfront еmаіl capture to kеер customers соmіng bасk, but you’d lose out оn a lot оf valuable information (and a captive аudіеnсе!). This kіnd of рrоgrаm is very еаѕу to understand, create, аnd maintain. They’re аn еffесtіvе way tо сut your сhurn rаtе аnd іnсrеаѕе transaction amounts.
Spend programs аrе a great орtіоn for еnсоurаgіng іnсrеаѕеd transaction vаluеѕ аnd rеduсіng high сhurn rаtе. Thе ѕіmрlісіtу mаkеѕ it еаѕіеr to get сuѕtоmеrѕ tо ѕіgn uр.
Cоnѕ
Spend programs are a grеаt орtіоn for rеtаіlеrѕ in fаѕt fаѕhіоn оr other, ѕіmіlаr іnduѕtrіеѕ thаt rely оn a hіgh numbеr оf trаnѕасtіоnѕ and rеtаіl рrоduсtѕ wіth high mаrkuр.
3. Tiered Prоgrаmѕ
An іmрrоvеd vеrѕіоn оf роіntѕ рrоgrаmѕ, tіеrеd loyalty programs gіvе сuѕtоmеrѕ rewards bаѕеd оn dіffеrеnt lеvеlѕ оf ѕреndіng оr роіntѕ. Tiered Loyalty is grоwіng ԛuісklу іn popularity bесаuѕе thе program саn bе highly tаrgеtеd аnd сuѕtоmіzеd еаѕіlу, аnd сuѕtоmеr ѕеgmеntѕ саn be tаrgеt рrе аnd post-payment. In some tіеrеd рrоgrаmѕ, сuѕtоmеrѕ are оffеrеd gіftѕ, free рrоduсtѕ/ѕеrvісеѕ, рrіvіlеgеѕ, or exclusive рrоduсtѕ.
Nееd to сut your churn rаtе, ѕаvе оn уоur lоуаltу рrоgrаm expenses, аnd tаrgеt ѕресіfіс ѕеgmеntѕ or асtіоnѕ? Spend loyalty programs might bе thе rіght ѕоlutіоn – еѕресіаllу іf you’re іn the luxurу mаrkеt.
Tіеrеd рrоgrаmѕ аrе great сhоісеѕ fоr е-соmmеrсе ѕеrvісе рrоvіdеrѕ, luxurу rеtаіlеrѕ, аnd companies іn thе trаvеl аnd hоѕріtаlіtу іnduѕtrу.
4. Paid Prоgrаmѕ
Paid loyalty рrоgrаmѕ рrоvіdе аn еxсluѕіvе fееl bу іnсоrроrаtіng a mоnthlу or уеаrlу fее that mеmbеrѕ рау fоr ассеѕѕ tо ѕресіаl ѕеrvісеѕ, dіѕсоuntѕ, or unique орроrtunіtіеѕ. Althоugh the сuѕtоmеrѕ thеѕе рrоgrаmѕ drаw mау require mоrе соddlіng, thе іnсrеаѕеd trаnѕасtіоn vаluе іѕ ѕubѕtаntіаl. Thе program’s bаrrіеr to еntrу drаwѕ рrоѕресtѕ furthеr іntо your mаrkеtіng funnеl, аnd provides an іnсеntіvе tо continue mаkіng рurсhаѕеѕ оn your ѕіtе.
A fee tо join is the hаllmаrk оf thіѕ lоуаltу рrоgrаm, аnd it’s a twо-еdgеd ѕwоrd. It gіvеѕ уоu the сhаnсе tо сultіvаtе an extra rеvеnuе stream, hіghеr trаnѕасtіоn values, аnd hіghlу-tаrgеtеd саmраіgnѕ, but the value may not bе арраrеnt to all customers.
Pros
Paid рrоgrаmѕ are реrfесt fоr larger rеtаіlеrѕ, аnd аlѕо mаkе a ѕmаrt pick for luxury product аnd ѕеrvісе ѕіtеѕ. Information businesses саn аlѕо mаkе gооd uѕе оf thіѕ lоуаltу program model.
5. Punсh Programs
Onе оf thе ѕіmрlеѕt and оldеѕt loyalty program dеѕіgnѕ, рunсh рrоgrаmѕ are extremely popular in brick аnd mоrtаr buѕіnеѕѕеѕ, but thеіr аdорtіоn in е-соmmеrсе isn’t аѕ рrеvаlеnt. The іdеа bеhіnd punch саrdѕ іѕ thаt сuѕtоmеrѕ аrе rеwаrdеd fоr рurсhаѕіng a particular рrоduсt оr ѕеrvісе wіth “рunсhеѕ.” One punch is gіvеn реr purchase. Aftеr a ѕеt numbеr оf punches аrе collected, thеу receive a product оr ѕеrvісе оf еԛuаl оr lеѕѕеr vаluе frее оf сhаrgе.
Punсh рrоgrаmѕ are іntuіtіvе, еаѕу tо uѕе аnd track, and low cost. Unfortunately, thеу tеnd tо be targets for frаud, thоugh. If you саn integrate the punch program into your POS system, this would eliminate the fraudulent punch cards. As you are able to trасk уоur сuѕtоmеrѕ buying habits and frequency, the integrated punch program makes a great орtіоn fоr a easy to implement and understand loyalty рrоgrаm.
A grеаt сhоісе fоr nеw lоуаltу рrоgrаmѕ in the café and Quick Serve Restaurant industries. Ideal fоr еxреrіеnсе-bаѕеd іnduѕtrіеѕ like travel, although thеу wоrk wеll with соnѕumеr gооdѕ thаt аrе hіgh value and high соnѕumрtіоn, too.
This is the first in a series of blogs about loyalty programs to help you make sense of all of the options that are available to you and guide you through the myriad of programs. The series will cover business benefits of customer loyalty programs, tips for launching your loyalty program, as well as measuring the effectiveness of the program you implement.
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
Here are 5 ways to make Inventory Management easy
This is one of the key first step to have a clean inventory. This is important not only for management but for visibility & discovery.
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 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
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
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
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
retailcloud provides various alerts for tools for configuring the alerts at various roles and a permission based feature activation.
In addition to this a more Actionable alerts like below will provide better insights to their inventory
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
A lot has been written about drawing new customers and retaining your existing customer base. Statistics show that it is wiser to emphasize your efforts on retaining existing customers, as it’s 6 to 7 times more expensive to attract new customers than to keep existing customers. That being said, you probably have underutilized tools, that you are already paying for, that can help you reach new customers that will love your products.
You want to grow your business not only through catering to your existing customer base but reaching all those potential customers out there. There are a number of paths to explore with ways of attracting new customers into your store.
You are the eyes and ears of how to make your business succeeds in your community. You know the demographics of who your products will interest. Explore beyond the obvious and expand to new avenues that potentially could expose additional consumers to your store that may not have even thought of you as a viable option.
You need to think about how best to reach this audience. Give this some thought, so that you can tailor your marketing to best reach the consumers most likely to respond, seek you out and enjoy the buying experience at your store.
There are numerous ways to market to your targeted buyers, ranging from elaborate marketing tools to flyers plastered on car windows. Look at the systems that you have in place to leverage the features that you may already have and that you may not be using to their fullest.
Once you have the marketing campaign in full swing, you want to have real time data to assess the success of your program and then can pivot to increase effectiveness. You’ll want to know which marketing campaign is bring in the new customers and what kind of shoppers are they. What are their Units per Transaction and other Key Performance Indicators, are they repeat customers once they discover your business, in general how did your marketing campaign increase the bottom line.
Whatever you have put in place to reach your new consumers, it needs to be user friendly so that you can easily modify the parameters to get the results desired. A complex third party application that requires expensive development to alter may not only take too long to change, but may also come with a price tag that does not work for you.
I recommend looking no further than your POS system for advanced marketing tools. Partner with a POS company that can help you get seen by the consumers you are trying to reach.
What to ask your POS Provider to explain:
These tools should be available on your POS system and are often underutilized as merchants think that they need to look elsewhere for these solutions and often hire a third party when it’s already provided on their POS. Your POS, not only helps with sales and tracking inventory, but uses your customer data and integrations to give you incredible market reach.
Is mobile an effective sales channel for retail?
Given that Forrester states consumers have spent $60 billion from mobile phones in 2016 alone and have influenced over $1 trillion dollars in brick and mortar sales, that question may have to be marked “Answered and Resolved!”
No doubt you have seen the various posts on the demise of bricks and mortar retail over the past few months; however, there are some conflicting stats. Accenture surveyed nearly 10,000 consumers and found that while social media is the most preferred method of purchasing for millennials and post millennials, for 77% of them, bricks and mortar were preferred.
This being a generation that has spent their entire life depending on smartphones, its inevitable that devices play a key role in finding product, comparing prices, looking for reviews and promotions; so let’s look at the top things they are doing on their devices
Where brick and mortar retail excels is in its ability to provide superior brand engagement to consumers – there is a personal authentic experience that cannot be replicated in online sales; however, giving consumers transparency to the inventory and experience from their mobile devices is a key component of this process.
Gen Z consumers are typically looking to start the shopping experience before they even walk into the store, they want a high level of engagement on the store floor but a frictionless easy checkout process. Ideally, surveys show most of them would prefer checkout directly from the devices (Amazon & Walmart are already making inroads in this capability).
While online will continue to grow, I believe that traditional brick and mortars refusal to provide their consumers a mobile interaction channel is really what will ultimately be more of a detriment than the online boom. What their customers want is the ability to provide a high engagement experience that incorporates the online and offline experience in one seamless process. Mobile will continue to be the key in enabling that process
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
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
retailcloud TabletPOS
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.
retailcloud Windows POS
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
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
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
Units Per Transaction (UPT) is a key performance indicator in retail that measures the average number of items a customer buys in a single transaction. It provides insights into customer purchasing behavior, highlighting how effectively a store encourages shoppers to add multiple items to their baskets. A higher UPT indicates a successful upsell or cross-sell strategy, as customers are purchasing more items per visit.
Retailers often track UPT to assess sales associate effectiveness, optimize store layout, and develop promotional tactics aimed at increasing sales volume. Understanding and boosting UPT is crucial for maximizing revenue and improving overall store profitability in the competitive retail landscape. Increasing your units per transaction is often what determines success versus failure for the small to mid size retailer. How best to do this hinges primarily on understanding and engaging with your customers. This article identifies key practices to increase your units per transaction covering different aspects of your interaction with your customers.
Selling more is a direct reflection of you and your staff. Placement and signage are only so effective. The key is engaging with your customers starting with the interaction from your sales personnel on the floor. They are the first point of interaction a customer will have with your business. Besides hiring sales associates with experience and providing training, now they need the tools for retail management solutions. This not only will build the trust and result in additional add ons being purchased but also increase return visits.
Units per transaction (UPT), also known in another name as items per customer (IPC), is a sales especially in the retail sales sector to measure the average number of items that customers are purchasing in any given transaction. The higher the UPT, when the customers purchase more items for every visit. Increasing UPT is an excellent way for a retailer to increase sales using existing traffic.
Units Per Transaction (UPT) is determined by dividing the total quantity of items sold by the total number of transactions.
For example, if a retail store has the following sales data for a week:
Then, UPT = 450 / 75 = 6
This means that, on average, customers buy six items per transaction at this store.
Drop the “Would you like a … (scarf to go with your sweater)”, customer are so tuned to this that they have the “No thanks” formed before you have completed the sentence.
Try suggesting
Notice that these techniques do not ask the customer to buy the product but instead the sales associate is asking if they have tried, noticed, or been told about the item. The phases are conversational and encourage the customer to consider the option brought forth by the sales associate.
Cross-selling, upselling, and recommending add-ons are powerful strategies to enhance the customer’s shopping experience. It’s essential that salespeople are skilled and experienced in making thoughtful suggestions that add value for the customer. These techniques are most effective when a salesperson establishes a genuine connection by approaching and engaging the customer sincerely. Through attentive listening and understanding of the customer’s needs, they can provide tailored recommendations that benefit the customer and improve the overall shopping experience.
This is a prime opportunity to solidify your relationship with the customers. It’s no longer enough to complete the transaction, bag the merchandise and politely say good bye. You have a captive audience from your customer and one final opportunity to increase your units per transaction (UPT)and ensure a repeat customer.
The customer is generally relaxed and impulse items are easier to sell. Your POS may have custom tailored recommended items prompts, similar to your Amazon on line purchasing experience. Ask your retail POS software solutions provider to add this vital feature, if available.
Does your POS has customer history, this provides another opportunity to reach your customer on a personal level. By mentioning recent purchases, the sales associate can remind the customer that they may need to replenish the purchase or have a related product that enhances their experience with the original purchase. This type of personal interaction is reminds customers as to why they still shop in the traditional brick and mortar shops.
Focusing on a particular product line, or area for a week or a month can also help generate add on business. Sales Associates are motivated to recommend these items and the internal contest keeps it fun for the employees. Your POS Solutions should be able to track sales by employee so you can update your employees as the contest runs.
This blog covers a number of techniques to improve your UPT, but wouldn’t it be great to tie it all together with matrix so that you can see how effective these improvements are to your success. Focus on Key Performance Indicators (KPI) to track from a retail store perspective. Your POS System will provide reports and/or a mobile app so that you have immediate access and can tweak your approach to get the desired effect.
These positive sales experiences all hinge on your salespeople being able to build solid customer relationships built on authenticity. Your goal is for your sales associates to be seen as trusted advisors to your customers. Sales isn’t an art, it’s a science. Teach your sales associates the basics and with continued mentoring will tweak and develop their authentic approach. Use the tool provided by your POS system to give your employees access to the knowledge about your customers to further build that relationship.
A customer who is enjoying their experience in your brick and mortar store is easier to upsell and more likely to buy add-ons. That’s what raises your UPT – not promotions and discounts that might increase units sold but destroy overall profitability.
The fact that retail is no longer just about product is not a secret, that it is all about engagement is not a surprise, that customers expect a unified experience is natural; but how retailers should pivot and aggregate all this data into one view remains a mystery and keeps many small and mid sized operators up at night. This has created a pressure on businesses to revisit their online strategies even those whose primary focus is their local market.
“It’s like watching an accident in slow motion, you know you got to do something but the question is what and how and for how much”
There are many sources of data to consider but let’s focus on a few simple yet meaningful places to start with. Before we get started, let’s talk a little bit about tracking or customer preferences; while no doubt most consumers do not want their every activity tracked and stored, they do not mind doing so if they can receive something of benefit and the data is stored securely. Think about how willingly we allow the cell providers to track our every movement so long as they know exactly where we are when we need directions.
To begin aggregating this data you need to start with a reliable CRM software. Ideally this is will be built into your POS application as that will solve the instore piece of it, assuming that it has the functionality of a CRM software.
In Store POS sales activity is the easiest and simplest to do; does your POS provide robust segmentation so you can classify your products into departments and categories, as well as flexibility in creating item attributes (in apparel for example size, color, style, season, brand) and does it provide you with flexibility in creating customer groupings across all channels, so you can group customers based on initial channel of the relationship or other groupings. Remember that there has to be some benefit for a customer to provide you this detail and loyalty programs are the most common, however perhaps more effective has been club pricing (like in grocery stores) or access to premium experiences (like with airlines or hotels). As you design this pick the one that works best for you.
Get our free “How to design your Loyalty program” ebook
Other benefits can be more lenient refund policy to know customers or a more restrictive return policy to anonymous transactions.
Getting your store online with insight to up to date product availability will provide you with a trove of data; encouraging customer to quickly register and login to get special pricing also rewards and encourages customers for sharing their data with you.
Customer expect to connect with their favorite retailers on their terms; when they are available and from the devices of their choice. As a result retailers are experiencing a lot of pressure to deploy online stores; unfortunately too many do this as a reactionary move and not part of a strategic move.
It is commonplace for customers to go to sites and get real time access to products and their availabilities from any device. Just think about the increase in “some product” stores near me searches in Google. Does your store appear with images that accurately represent the product and the quantities; as inventory is added or depleted from your POS system is your online store reflecting it. Does your Retail CRM aggregate customer and transactional data no matter where it happens? Does it make it available to online and offline stores easily.
Sounds complicated but it’s not, in fact any POS, Cart and CRM solution that you are using should be able to do this as a matter of fact, without much work on your end.
It’s true that most small and mid-sized operators are not doing future planning beyond the next order; however your retail CRM should be able to generate reports based on classification and attributes to not just determine what to buy buy for whom to buy it for.
In retailcloud for example our Grow and Pro users can filter product to 3 classifications and 5 attributes to determine with a fair amount of accuracy who is likely to buy new product; or to include a discount modeling to see who is likely to buy overstocked product. Your retail crm should help you minimize your investment in inventory at a product level which should free up investment in complementary inventory to increase units per transactions. Having a CRM that just stores the data is pointless, how can you utilize the crm to create personalized offers to customers, and to plan stock levels to meet your customer needs.
Retail CRM is a must have for retailers today, it does more than just give you a historical perspective of your transactional data; it should establish the relationships between the variables that affect sales and revenue; such as product mix, availability, trends etc.
Ideally it should provide tools to drive revenue growth, such as identifying tailored upsell opportunities or other methods to increase units per transaction, while helping identifying ideal product mix using overstocked and understocked algorithms.
Most crucially it should serve you all the information in a clear easy to digest and use manner , so all your operators have to do is act.
Building successful business is on every business owners mind. Increasing market share and customer loyalty is a retailer’s primary goal. The more customer’s satisfaction the more their customer loyalty, the more customers shop in their store and the more likely increase of sales and profits. Consumers, however, have different choices as to what they purchase and to whom they purchase it from. They may choose either catalog, retail store or the internet.
Customer satisfaction is used to measure how products and services provided by the retailer meet or surpass customer’s expectation. It is an important aspect of your business because it provides you with a metric that you can use to improve your business hence improving your profits and business growth. These are the four top reasons why customer satisfaction is so important for your business.
Customer’s satisfaction will determine if a customer will make a purchase in the future or not. A satisfied customer can be your potential advocates who can preach to other people about your company, products, and services. You can safely expect them to make back with their friends and make repeat purchases at the same time introducing their friends.
Business is a competitive marketplace where you compete for customers. Customer satisfaction should be your key differentiator. Companies who provide amazing customer experiences create a conducive environment where customer satisfaction is high and advocacy is plenty.
Customer satisfaction plays a huge role on how much revenue your customer will contribute to your business. Successful businesses understand the importance of customer satisfaction, they understand that if you increase your customer satisfaction rate, you increase your marketing dollar returns. Satisfied customers contribute to more revenue than a somewhat satisfied customer.
It costs you more time to acquire new customers than retaining the already existing customers. Acquiring customers cost a lot of money. Your company spends thousands in marketing to get customer attention, nurturing them and leading them into sales. You save a lot more on customer retention. Customer satisfaction leads to customer loyalty.
Customer satisfaction plays a huge role in the success of your business. Not only does it increase revenue or used as a differentiation key point, but it’s a leading indicator to identify an unhappy customer and measure your other customer loyalty. Customer loyalty has significant implications for retailers and small businesses.
That is an amazing statistic, online marketing accounts for 8% of total retail sales while still driving online commerce companies like Amazon to a market cap of close to 400 billion only behind Apple, Google, Microsoft and Berkshire Hathaway.
Technology is the what is driving this change, there is nothing quite like having a supercomputer in the palm of your hand to empower you to connect to any retailer or to find the product you are looking for. Anywhere and Anytime!
While Amazon and large retailers have had a jump start, technology has even the playing field for small retailers; they now have a chance to allow consumers to discover their product and offer the same global access to these products.
However global access is not the only or even the primary reason to get online, Millennials have expressed a clear desire to get back in stores, they want access to store data and availabilities on their phones, technology drives their entire shopping experience. To compete for the spending dollars of this fast growing segment you have to be where they are making decisions
Everyone loves lists; so here is my list of the Top 4 reasons you should have an online presence;
This is one of the fastest growing type of searches. Looking for shoes, just type in shoe stores near me in a chrome browser and see where consumers are being driven to? Try it yourself, when the local listings come up which one are you likely to click on, the ones that show address and phone number or the ones that have product websites.
Consumers can very easily see what product you carry and what is available in your stores. With easy search capabilities they can search for any product based on their size or see all color style and size choices available for pick up today in your store.
Connecting your online store to your brick and mortar makes it easy to buy or exchange product from anyplace. Connected commerce allows you to easily grow not only to an online store but to easily support and integrate all the new distribution options available in social media commerce. Remember you have to be able to show your product where consumers are buying it.
Deploying a web store and connecting it to your physical inventory is no longer complicated, a few simple clicks and you are up and running. For example the retailcloud web store product can deploy an online store that is fully integrated into your customer lists and inventory within a few minutes; using the launch email feature you can also trigger an email to everyone in your database telling them about the store; convenient, connected and simple. It’s why online shopping is only just scratching the surface.
The digital world is growing so is everything in businesses including giving receipts to customers. Retailers are doing things differently, they are providing digital receipts to their customer instead of the common paper option. These are clearly not the kind of receipts that many people are used to, but they can be sent to customers by retailers through email. What does this do to retailers and their customers?
More and more people are taking advantage of receiving receipts via email. Customers prefer digital over paper receipts, meaning customers would purposely buy from a retailer who provides digital receipts. They don’t have to worry about losing the receipt, handling and storing because digital files are much easier to store and retrieve when needed.
For retailer providing digital receipts save them money and help them do business in an eco-friendly way. It gives the perception of tech-savvy, especially when dealing with Millennials.
People love choice and convenience. These are the two main traits of digital receipts. In the retail arena, digital receipts are now beginning to be accepted by customers in different businesses notably banking. If banking sectors see the need of converting from paper receipts to digital, you should too. It’s convenient for many customers and also the choice they prefer.
Some people still prefer paper receipts because they are concerned about privacy when using the digital platform. Shoppers are not free to give their email addresses for digital receipts and believe you won’t misuse their personal information. Don’t assume your customer won’t want e-receipts, they are just concerned about their privacy. It’s upon the retailer to assure their customer about their privacy. Be transparent about what you do with your customer’s data and they are more likely to accept bad go for e-receipts when they see what’s in them.
A Receipt is not just an email or piece of paper, it’s a way of communicating. This powerful communication tool should be used to add value of your products and services to keep customers coming back whether it’s in store or online. Instead of using discount cards or coupons why don’t you upgrade to digital receipts and keep your customers coming back?
Digital is transforming business, the best way to keep the pace and bridge the gap between both the retailer’s side and customers is by offering e-receipts, it’s an easier option.
retailcloud premium receipt
After starting a small business, you want nothing but growth. Growth is brought about by happy customers who will come back again and this time with a friend. Point of sale software has seen many small business owners succeed. This is because it makes work easy for you in through the analysis of the retail trends of your business. As such, you can track the records of your customers.
POS software will track the retail trends of your customers. With the POS system, you will never have stock outs. The POS software has inventory control programs that will notify you or your employees once the reorder level of a product comes. Most small business owners will stock up the shops with their preferred product stocks rather than preferred customer products. Point of sale software helps you by giving you reports on what products are fast movers for which customers. This helps you to make more informed decisions when restocking.
POS software will track your customer’s data to see the most preferred methods of payment for your customer. Once you open a small business, you might be having cash as the major form of payment in your business. However, you need to accommodate those customers who cannot pay in cash. There are other different methods of payment such as credit and debit cards, checks and other forms of payment. As a small business owner, use your POS system to track methods of payments of your customers to ensure that they are always available.
A good POS system will help you track who your best customers are and what they like. With the customer’s purchase history report available at the cash register. As such, the owner of a small business will be able to notify their customers when restocking of their favorite products has been made. POS System also helps in the quick query with a barcode scan on the availability of a product as the customer is inquiring.
Good point of sale software will help increase sales in your small business. This is achieved through improvement of customers experience in your business. One of the most important aspects of sales improvement in business is giving customers what they want and need. With a POS system, you can quickly collect and keep track of customer preferences and buy history. You can also include details like the customer personal taste, allergies, aversions and other information. This information helps the business better their target markets when campaigning and up sell at the point of sale. It also helps to cater offerings to individuals or groups of customers to improve the customer experience.
POS software helps you to track the most loyal customers. It also gives you the degree of loyalty and therefore leaves you more informed on how to maximize your profits with these customers. It classifies the customers who have the most impact on the point of sale, those who are likely to come back, and those who are not worthy of the time and effort to pursue. Combine all this with loyalty programs, rewards, and gift cards all built into your POS system and you will have a return customer powerhouse.
What is layaway?
Many retailers used this feature to attract customer instead of discount, and in many cases, it is indeed a great option. When a product is on a layaway, your customers can pay in smaller increments. These payments can go from 8-12 weeks and are a great way to get new customers and make them returning customers if you respect the layaway process.
How it can work better than discounting
First of all you wouldn’t use the revenue you usually give when discounting. Second of all, payments over few months are attractive to customers as they can get expensive products and are most likely to buy your products that are higher priced.
Additionally, if you have a good point of sale system, with layaway point of sale features included, it is much easier to manage these products and organize the layaway process. With a good POS system, they can be easily tracked and registered in your sales.
Customers satisfaction is also bigger because there isn’t any interest in layaway, like there is in their credit cards. So, in a way it is a two-way street, you benefit because you won’t lose money giving various discounts for your products, and customers can plan and spread their payments to fit their budget.
Layaway is a great option for businesses that sell products that cost more than $200 or $300, or simply products that require bigger portion of the family budgets. Instead of discounts, offering any type of product on layaway will increase the sales potential.
Another great option for using layaways instead of discounting is that it will spare you from many unpleasant situations that can create a bad image around your store. Often, retailers, are making desperate moves and giving false or extremely small discount just to get new customers. These attempts often are ending bad and many customers just start to have bad opinion about the business utilizing these types of bad discounts.
Maybe the best combination is using both discounting and layaway. Huge retailers like Wallmart and ToysRUs are already using layaways for a reason, they are seeing much more profit and revenue with the use of layaways.
Layaway point of sale
Although our POS software includes the layaway feature, not all POS systems have it. Usually, the layaway is included in the inventory settings of the POS systems. The layaway option is given after a product is purchased. When you manage the invoice of a certain product you’ve sold, there should be options that you can manage and one of them is layaway. When you select layaway, the product will be put in that category and you will be all set. POS System that includes layaway can give you great revenue and management option.
Change is the only permanent thing that brings along improvement, though quite hard to accept for most people. However, it is inevitable especially when you clearly know it will be beneficial to you and especially your business. When starting a small business, you require POS software that will improve your customer service. The customer is king, and therefore we need to keep them happy. The point of sale system your small business can help you improve your customer service in the following ways:
POS software provides a detailed real-time account of sales for all customers.
This will allow you, as the business owner, to analyze which customers purchase what products and in what quantities. This helps you to be able to offer discounts to their clients. Also, you can access customer trends or history and reports of their transactions,
Give your customers what they want
The primary component of excellent customer service is giving the customer the product that they want. It is important to know the reorder level in your small business to avoid stock outs. The POS software will always notify you when you hit the reorder level. It will also help you to see the products that are fast movers to avoid the dead stock, which are a waste of time, space, and money. With a cloud-based system, you can run numerous reports that highlight the top selling items. This will help you to make wise decisions, which will keep your customers happy.
The point of sale for small businesses improves levels of efficiency
POS software allows you to spend less time on paperwork, sales record keeping, accounting, and inventory management, as well as managing such programs as marketing and special advertising. This helps you focus more on your customers. It ensures that you have enough time to handle your customer complaints and concerns efficiently and as quickly as possible.
Improved speed
A long queue is not exactly what your clients want. The sight of 5-6 people waiting to check out is enough to make a customer run for the door. A reliable POS software will minimize the time customers spend at the register and will eliminate human error by employees. Small business owners can organize menu items on their computers based on the category and make ‘hot keys’. Slow transactions or inventory errors will no longer be an issue. POS software providers now offer integrated barcode scanning which increases speed and efficiency. This method eliminates manual entry and gives fast transactions. This keeps your customers happy as you generate more profits.
Flexible payment options
It is important for small businesses to have several flexible payment methods. The days of carrying huge sums of cash have since expired. Luckily, the point of sale for small businesses has made it easier than ever, for business owners to accept just about any payment method. These include; checks, cash, credit card, gift cards EMV chip cards and apple pay. Customers will be happy with all these payment methods and will always come to your business.
Today, getting customers is very hard for most companies, but keeping them is very easy. Customer loyalty mainly focuses on incentives to your current customer base so as to make more purchases. This kind of interaction is aimed at building trust and the desire in the customers to maintain a relationship with you. Most companies today achieve this through customer loyalty programs.
Competition among businesses today has led to most companies putting in real energy and effort to maintain a consistent customer base. A great product does not mean that the customers will come back for more unless you gain the customer’s loyalty. Below are some effective ways to building customer loyalty.
All these are just some of the effective ways that will ensure you build customer loyalty to your business. The success of any business can be determined by the size of the customer base and building customer loyalty gives you a large customer base that the business needs.
The best way to retain your customers is by having a loyalty program. A loyalty program is a kind of a rewards program that is offered by a company to the customers who make frequent purchases. The loyalty program can reward the customer either by free merchandise, coupons, rewards and even some advance released products which other customers would not get. Customers automatically get more value from businesses that they are loyal to as compared to the one stop shops. A loyalty program should work for both the company and the customer. It should not be biased such that only the customer is benefiting from the program, and it is not profitable to the company.
One good reason why loyalty programs work for small businesses is that they use a loyalty point of sale system. This is POS software awards the customer automatically every time they reach a certain level in the royalty programs. Remember a loyalty program has an absolute limit of purchases that a customer should reach for them to be rewarded. The point of sale system will automatically record the number of times that the customer has visited the business and the purchases done during those visits. Sometimes the customer might have difficulties keeping up with the loyalty program, but the point of sale system makes it easier.
POS system help increase the business revenue by raising the visit frequency of a customer and the amount they spend per visit. It does this by offering an attractive reward structure and as well as attractive points per visit. For a small business with a good POS system, it’s very easy to term transactions into relationships with their customers. The more you get the customer to come back and spend on your store, the more you get to know them as individuals. This way the small business learns to treat their customers as individuals by knowing their tastes and preferences. This is easier for small businesses because it is not hard to keep up with a group of customers in your surrounding as opposed to the large companies where customers come from different places making it hard to keep up with them.
A small business with good POS software can sell the idea of a loyalty program to customers in a much better way. The POS will keep the record of the customer’s transactions based on each visit. When the customer reaches the rewards level, the small business can even reward the customer using cash. This is because the POS software keeps track of the transactions of the loyalty program per customer. A small business will reward the customer with free merchandise and also cash. A cash reward might seem risky for the business, but it is not if the business has good POS software. This would be harder for big business because of the complexity of their POS. The small business can keep a good loyalty point of sale system that will be profitable to them and also to the customer. The business will be able to retain and even call back some of its inactive customers. This way they increase sales revenue significantly.
Having a small retail business can be overwhelming if you have a traditional stand-alone point of sale terminal. A retail business can be more profitable if one is using a point of sale system. The system will be able to manage the stock, handle purchases, place orders when the stock is about to get replenished and so forth. The time when buying POS hardware was hard for small retail businesses is far gone. Thanks to advance in technology, there is free POS software that is readily available for businesses. It is very easy to acquire a point of sale system today at a low price. If you have a tablet, you can download free POS software and install it on your device. You can even have a tablet point of sale system. This is POS software that is installed on a tablet.
The right thing with the tablet point of sale is that your staff can approach customers where they are. They don’t have to wait for customers at the terminal. The staff can assist the customer in making a decision about an individual item and then make a purchase for it directly where they are. This will ultimately increase sales. According to a study, customers are more likely to buy an item when they are making a decision on whether to purchase the item or not. It is easier to convince them to purchase the item before they move from where the item is.
Small businesses should be concerned about the kind of POS hardware and software they are using. The best inventory software will alert you before the stock runs out. This way you can place an order and still have stock to sell before the order arrives. There are free POS systems which are very integrated. They will keep historical data on sales and estimate when there is likely to be a low stock condition. This kind of system can also place an order for certain inventory just in case it runs out.
If you are a small business retailer, make sure that you get the best POS hardware and software there is in the market. This will increase the sales revenue for your business in an amazing way. The POS can manage your business, and this makes things easier for you and your staff. Remember taking stock and keeping track of it is the most time consuming and labor intensive job. It is one of the most important things in a retail business. Having too much stock or too little stock is risky for the business. However, this will not be a problem if you have the best inventory software in your point of sale system.
Small retail businesses should be more concerned about how well they manage their stock and how safe they are from running out of stock. The retail business should also be concerned about gaining trust with their customers. The customers will be more confident when entering their credit card details at a point of sale system rather than a person’s mobile phone. If you are a small business retail owner, invest in a good POS system and you will have an easy time while managing your business
Often the butt of jokes, CVS Pharmacy has always had a ridiculously long printed receipt. They recently announced that they will be offering digital receipts to their reward members (and in the process save thousands of trees).
In an era when in many cases customers are even digitizing their payment and loyalty cards, the notion of a printed receipt is becoming obsolete. Especially a printed receipt that is so long and crowded with information it becomes a source of jokes for late night TV hosts. CVS is taking what should be a universal step of allowing customers to opt out of printed receipts, at least if they are committed enough to join a loyalty program. After all, loyalty programs are supposed to make the shopping experience better, not more burdensome.” DAN BERTHIAUME, Chain Store Age.
Many customers prefer the digital receipt so that it cannot get lost if needed for a future return of merchandise and ease of check out. Retailers look for ways to enhance the customer experience and offering digital receipts is just one additional way to accomplish this.
An added advantage to offering digital receipts is that you are building your customer database, as you now have your customer’s email address. This will allow you to deploy targeted marketing based on your customers buying habits and further enhance their experience with your store, as you cater to their purchasing needs.
Digital receipts have always been a standard feature of retailcloud’s POS products and retailers have been enjoying the benefits for years. The feature is easy to implement (check the box to enable on your device) and use (the cashier is prompted for digital receipt at the end of the transaction).
Going one step further, is the Enhanced Digital Receipt (shown) available on any retailcloud device as an Add On Feature. Not only does the customer have sales transaction information, they also have recommended items that are aimed specifically towards the customer. This Enhanced Receipt allows for a review of the products and further engages the customer with your business and your product line. If used with the retailcloud eCommerce integration, click on a recommended item to easily make another sale.
skedool the Scheduling Tool
We Listen
We listen to our customers for feedback, new improvements and criticism. We wanted to start 2016 with a bang by giving customers what they want. This is how we decided to develop an app for the most sought out feature in Q4 2015. So skedool was born, although there is another story on how we named it and you can read it here.
What is It?
A scheduling tool that is great for businesses who schedule their appointments and sales; from hair salons to auto repair. It is a quick and easy application to access and start using.
Simple to Use/ Simple to Implement
A one stop shop for creating and managing appointments. skedool is a Web-based scheduling application that businesses can access anywhere. All you need is internet to login and create appointments for your customers. From the available filters, you choose which appointments to display. You have the flexibility to display the schedule for the day with all employees or by customer. You can schedule, change and cancel appointments. You can even assign employees to customers at their request.
“Last week I was managing all my appointments through a combination of paper, online calendars and memory. Needless to say it got confusing fast. To confirm an appointment, I had to play a game of telephone!”
Integrated
No more is the need for a third party calendar that will never integrate with your POS. skedool is integrated with your back-office so employees and customers are already in the system. This tool is available from your tablet POS, Desktop POS or via URL.
Beautiful
An intuitive, one-page layout.
Key features
Nobody is too cool for skedool! Add skedool to your retailcloud account and it is available for all locations for one low monthly fee.
The sales team spent months successfully pushing for the product, the business team did the market evaluation and analysis, wrote and rewrote the requirements, crafted the user stories, the design ninjas wire-framed the screen, and built prototypes and collected customer feedback. Then the engineering team got their hands on it; APIs were developed, code was written, testing was done, another round of merchant validation and then a small live test. They said it was ready for delivery; but was it?
The product had no name nor icon for the retailcloud marketplace; the easy work had been done, but the heavy lifting was just beginning. This is where the brand brains got together; the name needed to meet the retailcloud brand and naming guidelines; come up with something as clever, as pun-ish (is that a word?) as n-gauge; our dashboard, engagement KPI application.
What were the guidelines you ask? “A unique, descriptive, made up word or a real word with a twist, ideally a verb, and could be said out loud. Looks cool written down and evokes an emotion.”
That’s it! Simple. Not like writing lines of code.
So after much deliberation the list of names were reduced to 5:
Then icons and imagery were created for the names, and for days we said the names out loud; got some feedback from some sales partners and finally skedool emerged as the winner. It was the name that was highly rated as unique yet descriptive, was fun to say out loud and looked cool written down. We hope you like it because we have gotten very used to it.
As far as imagery, we went through several renditions before selecting something simple, suggestive that showcased the fun to say name. Go ahead, say it out loud!
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