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
Successful business strategies depend on numerous tactics, with retail metrics being crucial among them. Retail metrics are integral in evaluating business performance, tracking growth, and developing sustainable strategies that benefit the business in the long term.
For small and medium enterprises, timely tracking of retail metrics and implementing the right business approaches have proven to increase sales, optimize operations, and keep them competitive in the marketplace. In this blog, we will discuss 12 retail metrics that every small and medium-sized business should consider to drive profitable growth.
Retail metrics refer to quantifiable data that businesses can assess to gain insight into diverse aspects, including performance, operational efficiency, employee productivity, customer satisfaction, and inventory management. These metrics can be useful in making informed decisions, identifying areas for improvement, and integrating strategies that tackle challenges.
For small businesses, key metrics span areas such as sales, operations, inventory, and customer service. Consistent evaluation of these areas provides actionable insights, including:
Sales per square foot is a critical metric used to determine the efficiency of businesses. By calculating total sales or revenue generated per square foot, businesses can estimate the accuracy and efficiency of their retail operations and strategies.
Sales per square foot can be calculated with the following formula:
Sales per square foot = Total revenue generated / Total square feet of the sales space
Sales per square foot is an efficiency indicator, where a higher result signifies greater efficiency, space utilization, and operational efficiency. This metric is more useful for brick-and-mortar stores, where measuring the performance and efficiency of physical stores is critical. By understanding the performance of store layout, businesses can address the shortcomings and develop better approaches to boost sales and maximize space productivity.
Gross Margin Return on Investment (GMROI) is a retail metric that measures the profit businesses make from the amount invested in inventory stock. In simple terms, GMROI is a measure of inventory profitability.
GMROI = Gross profit/Average inventory cost
By calculating the total profit per average inventory cost, retailers can measure the profitability of specific products in the inventory. The specificity offered by this financial metric can be beneficial in identifying the profitable products and categories in the inventory, giving retailers insight into items worth investing in.
Average Order Value (AOV) is a performance metric that indicates the average customer spend on each order within a timeframe. As the right marketing plans play a crucial role in driving sales and maximizing revenue, AOV is an indispensable tool for small-scale businesses.
AOV = Total sales revenue/Total orders
AOV, as an essential retail metric, helps businesses identify customer purchasing habits, evaluate online marketing efforts, and aid in setting goals and strategies for further growth.
While acquiring new customers is a growth indicator, customer retention is the key to understanding how well the business satisfies its existing customers. Measuring customer retention rate (CRR) provides insight into factors such as customer satisfaction and brand loyalty.
CRR = ((E-N)/S) X 100
Where:
Customer retention rate is a crucial metric that is directly related to customer loyalty and profitability. As loyal customers are more likely to return and invest in more products, retaining existing customers provides numerous benefits to the business, including:
Conversion rates are direct indicators of several factors of the business, including:
Conversion rate = (Number of sales/Number of users) x 100
A higher conversion rate reflects strong and effective business strategies that meet customer needs. On the contrary, a low conversion rate indicates areas for the business to address and improve, including inefficient customer service, inconvenient store layout, and poorly managed inventory. Regular monitoring of these metrics can help businesses make informed decisions that boost business performance.
Inventory turnover is an efficiency ratio that measures a business’s efficiency in managing its inventory. It indicates how many times a company turned over its inventory within a timeframe.
Inventory turnover = Cost of goods sold/Average value of inventory
Monitoring the inventory turnover ratio helps businesses make revised decisions in various aspects, including pricing, manufacturing, marketing, and purchasing. Furthermore, a lower inventory turnover ratio signifies weak sales, whereas a higher ratio indicates strong sales.
Running out of high-demand products can severely impact both revenue and customer satisfaction. Stockout rate is an integral inventory metric that helps businesses track how often they run out of products and fail to meet customer demand.
Stockout Rate = (Number of Stockouts / Total Sales Opportunities) x 100%
By adequately monitoring stockout trends, businesses can adjust their inventory planning and forecast demand more accurately to avoid lost sales.
Assessing foot traffic and website visits reveals several key aspects of business performance and customer engagement. These indicators signify the customer-business relationship, the effectiveness of the marketing strategies, and how well the brand performs in physical and digital storefronts.
Understanding these metrics can be beneficial in creating new approaches and enhancing existing ones to make them more effective and customer-centric. Foot traffic can be measured using manual counters, infrared sensors, cameras, or other tracking systems. Website visits can be measured using analytics tools or built-in insights.
Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) refers to the average cost a business spends to acquire a new customer. It accounts for diverse costs associated with customer acquisition, including sales, marketing, hosting, and staff costs.
CAC = MCC/CA
MCC = Total marketing cost for gaining a new customer
CA = Total customers acquired
Customer Acquisition Cost is integral for businesses to measure the value of a customer to the company. Moreover, this metric is also helpful in calculating the return on investment (ROI) from marketing and sales strategies.
By knowing your customer, understanding their needs, engaging with them early, and employing proper acquisition strategies, you can provide a positive customer experience that keeps them coming back for continued use of your services.
Although Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) is a critical performance metric, many small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) encounter difficulties in accurately calculating it. This is often due to the difficulty in distinguishing between organic and paid acquisition channels. Moreover, without tracking Customer Lifetime Value (CLV), it becomes difficult to assess whether acquisition efforts are truly profitable.
Strategic financial structuring is an important factor that ensures that the team is competitively paid while not compromising the profitability of the business. This is one reason why calculating payroll percentage becomes critical.
Payroll percentage refers to the gross revenue of the business spent on payroll.
Payroll percentage = (Actual payroll costs/Total sales revenue) x 100
Most companies aim for a payroll percentage of around 15%-30%. Finding how much of the gross revenue goes towards payroll aids small and mid-sized businesses plan, organize, and allocate revenue reasonably across different sectors. From cost control and profitability insight to benchmarking, this metric plays an integral role in evaluating operational efficiency and guiding strategic staffing choices.
Same-store sales, also known as comparable-store sales, are a financial metric that measures the revenue performance of existing stores that have been operating for a certain period, typically at least one year.
Same-store sales = [(Sales in the current year/ Sales in the previous year) – 1] x 100
Same-store sales are true performance indicators that highlight the growth of the business over a significant timeframe. A positive number in same-store sales indicates that the business has been performing well with better management practices and follows healthy consumer demand.
Sell-through rate is a retail metric that indicates the performance status of specific products in the inventory. With this data, businesses can evaluate and understand the products that are underperforming and overperforming.
Sell-Through Rate = (Number of units sold / Number of units received) x 100
Sell-through rate is a crucial indicator for businesses to derive precise approaches to stocking and inventory management. Companies can determine whether to run a marketing campaign or promotion to boost underperforming items or restock overperforming products.
Data-driven insights are an advantage for small and mid-sized businesses to keep track of their performance, identify underperforming areas, initiate steps to improve, and facilitate the stronger areas to thrive. Moreover, retail metrics help achieve business objectives by providing measurable benchmarks and aligning strategies with customer behavior and market trends.
Drive business growth through retailcloud’s comprehensive retail management solutions. Let’s turn your store into a data-powered growth engine. Book a 20-minute walkthrough and we’ll show you which metrics matter most for your type of business.
1. Why are retail metrics important for small businesses?
Retail metrics provide data-driven insights that help small businesses make informed decisions and develop effective retail strategies. These metrics are essential for tracking, analyzing, and optimizing key aspects such as sales performance, customer behavior, inventory management, and overall profitability. By understanding these areas, small businesses can identify opportunities for growth and areas needing improvement.
2. How often should I track these retail metrics?
Regular tracking of retail metrics is integral for the growth and success of retail businesses. Metrics like daily sales, foot traffic, and inventory levels are best monitored daily or weekly to make timely adjustments. Metrics such as customer retention, profit margins, and conversion rates can be reviewed monthly or quarterly for strategic planning. Consistent tracking ensures accurate insights and timely action.
3. Which metric is most important for improving profitability?
Gross Margin Return on Investment (GMROI) is one of the most important metrics for improving profitability. As it is more directly linked to profitability, GMROI is considered critical in boosting business performance.
4. Can I track these metrics without expensive software?
Yes. While advanced tools and software can simplify the process, many retail metrics can be tracked manually or using basic tools like Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets. Additionally, many basic POS (Point of Sale) systems include built-in reporting features that help track sales, inventory, and customer metrics efficiently and affordably.
5. What is the best way to start tracking retail metrics?
Start by defining your business goals, then identify the key metrics that align with those goals. Choose suitable tools and begin tracking the metrics consistently. Regular monitoring, timely analysis, and actionable insights enable small businesses to make informed decisions that drive success.
Having the right product at the right place at the right time is at the core of success in retail. It may sound simple, but the process is anything but simple. Retail organizations must satisfy customer demand while minimizing transportation and storage costs. The key to managing this lies in not being reactive and having a proactive strategy. That’s where Predictive Inventory Analytics and Management come in.
Predictive Inventory Management forecasts future demand using Data Analytics, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Machine Learning (ML). These tools are used to analyze sales history, current market trends, seasonal changes, economic factors, and other variables so that retailers can make informed decisions. Unlike traditional methods, predictive analytics embraces real-time data to improve accuracy and responsiveness. This helps remove the guesswork and allows for informed decision-making for purchasing, storing, and distributing inventory.
Predictive inventory management offers several crucial benefits over traditional inventory management methods. Let’s take a look at them.
A clear understanding of the data requirements, the right software, and tools is a crucial requirement for any business planning to implement a predictive inventory model. Let us take you through the important aspects to keep in mind.
This is self-explanatory. Predictive models need ample amounts of quality data to work effectively. This includes historical data on sales, how the seasons affect sales trends, promotional periods and activities, market conditions, and any other factor that can impact the demand for the product. Only with clear and comprehensive data can a predictive model generate accurate forecasts.
In this fast-evolving technological environment, it is important to ensure real-time data. This will be particularly beneficial when there is an unexpected surge or drop in demand. It would also allow your business to react quickly and minimize losses and missed chances.
Another area you should consider investing in is the incorporation of external data sources into your predictive model. Changing climate conditions and industry trends are two examples of external data that can influence customer demand in a significant manner. Predictive models work best when they have larger volumes of data. However, you must ensure that the data is of high quality, consistent, and free from errors or biases. Having a rigorous data validation and cleaning process is essential to ensure that the data is accurate and useful.
There are many predictive analytics tools available in the market. However, choosing the right tool and software for your business will decide how effective your predictive inventory management strategy will be. A few key aspects you should consider when selecting the right software and tool are the ease of integration with existing systems, the capacity to handle data volume, and any specific features that your business requires to succeed. These specific features are what make a predictive analytics tool shine, as it will directly complement the unique requirements of your business. Look for tools that offer real-time analytics, data visualization, and a user-friendly interface.
The user-friendliness of the tool ensures a smooth experience, which will help those who lack deep technical knowledge and expertise. More staff members who have a better understanding of data and act accordingly will benefit your business and customers.
Data visualization allows you to easily understand complex data and will make it easier to make sense of the data and take appropriate action. This, in turn, leads to faster and better business decisions.
No matter which tool or software you choose, ensure adequate training and support. There will always be a learning curve in adapting to a new structure and system. The right training and support and training will help your staff understand the tools and operate them properly. This, in turn, increases the acceptance of the tool and the accuracy of output.
Having a keen understanding of fluctuations in demand and the uncertainties in the supply chain is crucial when it comes to predictive inventory management. Every business has its own unique set of challenges and problems. Let’s take a look at a few common factors that you must take into account.
Unexpected delays, disruptions caused by weather or global events, and even problems with the supplier, etc can all tremendously affect inventory levels. In severe cases, such incidents can cause huge losses, which would take years for a business to recover from, or in extreme cases, go bankrupt.
Inflation, changes in tax rates, and fluctuations in exchange rates are a few of the very common factors that can significantly influence inventory levels. Inflation must be considered the most important and obvious of the lot as it can significantly impact the cost of raw materials, which in turn increases production costs and results in a higher cost for the final product. Moreover, inflation can have a significant impact on fuel and other related costs, which can complicate things further. Predictive models need to take these things into consideration.
Technology has been evolving so rapidly that it has changed the way consumers behave, including what, where, when, and how to buy. Digital marketing, e-commerce, and mobile commerce can cause sudden shifts in product demand. Predictive models should be adaptable enough to incorporate these technical trends and their impact on customer demand forecasts accurately.
Like any system, predictive inventory management also has best practices you can follow to ensure better control over inventory, increased customer satisfaction, and, most importantly, cost savings. Let’s discuss them in detail.
Improving the accuracy of your demand forecasts through the utilization of various forecasting techniques can result in optimized inventory levels. A diverse approach that uses multiple techniques can give you a holistic view of the industry. Such an approach would lead to more accurate predictions thanks to the diverse sets of data.
One crucial part of any business is balancing the cost of inventory and customer satisfaction. Predictive analytics can provide accurate insight into the optimal inventory levels to meet or exceed customer demand while minimizing holding costs so that you get the best of both worlds.
There is no one-time fix for predictive models. They require continuous learning and adaptation to help your business with maximum effectiveness. Periodically reviewing and refining the model is mandatory for it to account for all the changes in consumer behavior, market conditions, changes in how your business operates, and even feedback from different departments within the business.
It is quality over quantity. Even though predictive models thrive with large volumes of data, their quality must never be compromised. No matter how much the volume, poor-quality data will result in poor predictions. To avoid such difficulties, prioritize cleaning validation and consolidation of data before entering them into the system.
With 15 years of experience in the field of predictive inventory management, retailcloud offers end-to-end inventory management solutions that can streamline inventory, boost accuracy, and provide your team with real-time insights. The inventory management suite from retailcloud offers real-time racking, automated replenishment, enhanced accuracy, and seamless integration. We also offer a very robust mobile application that streamlines product management and lets you complete all essential inventory functions on the go. Contact retailcould today for the best Predictive Inventory Analytics solutions for your unique business needs.
1. How is predictive analytics used in retail?
Predictive analytics in retail improves demand forecasting, inventory management, and supply chain efficiency, ensuring products are available at the right time and price while reducing costs.
2. What is the role of predictive analytics in inventory management? It leverages historical data and machine learning to predict demand, preventing overstock or stockouts, cutting costs, and enhancing customer satisfaction.
3. How does predictive analytics enhance supply chain management? It enables accurate demand forecasting, automates inventory orders, optimizes resources, reduces lead times, and minimizes delays.
Keeping up with the latest technological developments and e-commerce trends requires a consistent approach to ensuring customer satisfaction and a seamless shopping experience. This is when the concept of omnichannel commerce becomes relevant. By integrating different channels, the benefits of this business strategy are immense and deliver convenience and flexibility. In this blog, let us explore the key concept behind omnichannel commerce, its benefits, and the right way to derive an omnichannel strategy.
Omnichannel commerce is a business strategy that integrates multiple channels to create a convenient user experience, tailored to meet customer requirements efficiently. This multi-faceted approach unifies diverse channels, be it mobile devices, laptops, or the actual brick-and-mortar stores, and creates a continuum in sales, characterized by consistency and flexibility.
Omnichannel POS Solutions enables seamless customer interactions across multiple channels simultaneously. For instance, omnichannel commerce makes it possible for customers to select their desired product in one channel, be it your website, and choose to resume the transaction process at a different channel at a different time, all hassle-free, seamless, and continuous. This cross-channel continuity is just one among the several features of this strategy to ensure a cohesive and personalized user experience.
E-commerce has brought in an array of marketing strategies, each offering unique modes of selling and avenues for businesses to communicate with customers. Single-channel, multichannel and omnichannel commerce are all part of this business strategy with distinct objectives and advantages. Let us understand the key differences between these three terms.
As the name suggests, single-channel commerce involves sales through only one channel, such as a physical store, website, or social media. The entire purchasing process takes place through the same channel. The main advantage of this approach is cost efficiency, as managing a single channel keeps expenses low and simplifies maintenance. However, its primary drawback is its limited reach, as it does not cater to customers who prefer to shop on diverse platforms.
Multichannel commerce integrates sales across various online and offline channels, including brick-and-mortar stores, websites, apps, and social media. By engaging with customers through multiple channels, this strategy provides businesses with greater reach and visibility. Additionally, it allows businesses to test and develop targeted strategies for customers based on their preferred platforms.
Both omnichannel commerce and unified commerce aim to improve customer experiences across multiple sales and communication channels, but they differ in integration, execution, and customer engagement strategies.
Omnichannel commerce delivers a seamless customer experience across all channels, such as physical stores, online platforms, mobile apps, and social media. Each channel operates independently but communicates with others to create a cohesive customer journey.
Unified commerce takes omnichannel to the next level by integrating all channels and backend systems (like inventory, sales, and customer data) into a single platform. It ensures real-time data sharing and a truly seamless experience.
Although omnichannel commerce involves various elements across different channels, it works as a connected and coordinated process. By storing, analyzing, and utilizing the data from previous interactions, users are guided toward their desired results.
Through the synchronization of various platforms, businesses can leverage customer data and ensure that other aspects like inventory, services, and other business operations are all connected in real-time. For instance, omnichannel commerce allows customers to search for their desired products at an online store, check for their availability in nearby stores, and choose to purchase them either in-store or via home delivery. The synchronization of these multiple steps across different channels works together to deliver a comprehensive customer experience.
Let us explore an example that illustrates the process of an omnichannel customer experience. Imagine you see an advertisement for the latest trending shirt on your way to the office. You have been planning to purchase this for some time, so you decide to browse the product online. You discover that they have a nearby store and choose to reserve the product for in-store pickup. At the store, you try it on and decide to purchase it. This simple example demonstrates how omnichannel commerce connects multiple channels, enabling seamless transition and ensuring a unified experience for the customer.
As top brands compete to offer seamless, personalized experiences, customers increasingly expect the same level of convenience from all businesses. Omnichannel retailing is essential because it provides a unified experience across various touchpoints, from online shopping to in-store visits. This integration not only meets customer expectations but also strengthens brand loyalty by ensuring interactions are consistent and accessible. By adopting an omnichannel approach, brands can enhance engagement through timely and personalized interactions that ultimately drive higher conversion rates. In short, omnichannel retailing helps businesses connect with their audiences wherever they are, whenever they’re ready to engage.
Omnichannel commerce is a strong sales strategy that boosts businesses, drives sales, and strengthens customer loyalty. Here are some of the advantages of an omnichannel commerce strategy that benefits both businesses and customers.
Bringing a shift from a single-channel to an omnichannel strategy is the best way to take your business to the next level. With proper planning and a customer-centric approach, the effort and resources required for implementation will be worthwhile in the long run. Here is how you can create the right omnichannel strategy to skyrocket your business and establish a successful brand identity.
As the world witnesses the importance and growing relevance of technology in numerous fields, the future of omnichannel strategy in retail is so demanding. From the days when even online shopping was a distant dream to the present, where nearly everything seems possible, it is undoubtedly a reality that omnichannel retailing will play a major role in shaping the future of businesses.
With no turning back, businesses should keep up with the latest trends, understand customer behavior, and explore the future of omnichannel commerce to thrive in the competitive era. Here are some key developments expected in the future of omnichannel marketing.
From integrating customer touchpoints to driving sales and traffic, the immense potential of omnichannel commerce offers businesses the ultimate growth opportunity. Investing in omnichannel commerce strengthens your business and ensures its relevance amidst the changing trends in consumer behavior and technology. By ensuring a seamless and personalized experience, retailcloud’s omnichannel POS solutions offer advanced ways for businesses to sell smarter and deliver a connected experience.
The omnichannel approach by retailcloud offers an integrated system that connects in-store, online, and mobile sales channels, delivering a seamless customer experience across multiple touchpoints. Here are key aspects of retailcloud’s omnichannel capabilities:
This seamless integration helps businesses offer a unified shopping experience, building customer loyalty and boosting revenue across multiple channels. By connecting in-store and online sales through streamlined operations, retailcloud delivers powerful benefits to businesses of all sizes. Schedule a demo with us today and discover how our retail POS solutions can boost your business and drive growth.
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.
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.
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.
Brick and mortar or physical stores are still the way to get start a small business for a lot of communities across the country. A lot of these business have ambitious plans to build their store and expand it beyond their first location. However seldom think about how to get beyond brick and mortar. Today’s digital world require you to go beyond your instore strategies. This post outlines some quick ways you can adopt beyond brick and mortar
This is the quick way you can expand your channel. The easiest way is to start an online store and have start selling there . Modern retail software allows you to start online store with a few clicks without any server cost of huge maintenance. You can either use your existing site or provision a new website to do this.
Pro Tip : Use a smaller web address even if you have a long business name . This is way to remember
Online store these days are not just for online shipments. You can have Buy online and pickup instore strategies without any additional cost. These are sometimes very useful for busy shoppers where they can get orders picked up same day. BOPIS also offers Pay online or Pay in store capabilities.
Social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchats have become an essential part of people’s life. They also offer ways you can sell products. When you take a nice picture of your products, get your likes and if you can have your customers buy directly from that picture it would be awesome. This is what these social platform enables with commerce.
According to hootsuite here are some statistics about Instagram . If your business targets any of these demographics you know that it is right time to get into the Instagram commerce
How can you sell beyond your store, online store social media ?. The answer is market places. Everyone knows that amazon is the biggest online seller of eCommerce products. Did you know that you can also sell through amazon marketplace. Moreover did you know that you can have the products displayed across all the channels and have a single inventory view.
retailcloud online provides capability to give your instore into another dimension with and set of channels with a single Inventory view. You can sell products in store, online, facebook , instagram and marketplaces through retailcloud online.
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
Learn more about @elo here
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
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
This website uses cookies to improve your experience, analyze our traffic, and personalize our marketing. By continuing to use this website, you consent to the use of cookies.