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
SMS marketing is a powerful tool that can be used to reach a wide audience, increase sales, and boost customer engagement.. 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.
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.
Omnichannel and multi-channel are two distinct approaches to marketing and customer engagement, each focusing on connecting with customers through multiple platforms. The primary difference lies in their level of integration and the customer experience they aim to deliver.
Adopting an omni-channel approach in your marketing, sales, and service strategies has plenty of benefits. It helps you build a unified customer experience and streamline data collection, which makes it easier to generate high-quality leads, close deals faster, and deliver the best possible customer service.
The term multi-channel refers to several different channels working independently from one another. For example, a company may use email to send out newsletters while simultaneously running an AdWords campaign and posting on social media. The success of each channel is measured separately as well. Multi-channel also means that customers may have an experience with multiple channels at once.
Omni-channel refers to all channels working together in harmony to provide a seamless customer experience. The goal for companies using omni-channel is to deliver a consistent message across all channels.
The terms omni-channel and multi-channel are often used interchangeably, but there is a big difference between the two. Multi channel marketing refers to using multiple channels or platforms. You may be using email marketing to nurture leads, social media ads to drive traffic to your site, and a chatbot on your website to answer questions and provide support services. These are all different channels that you are using, but there is no integration between them. They operate independently of each other.
Omni-channel is the strategy of using multiple channels to deliver a consistent brand experience to customers. Multi-channel, on the other hand, is a way to describe the interconnectedness of customer interactions with brands across different touchpoints. These touchpoints include mobile marketing, engaging social media campaigns, and a well-designed website. All omni-channel experiences will use these channels, but not all multi-channel experiences are considered omni-channel.
There are a ton of benefits to using omni-channel and multi-channel:
Cater to more customers
This is a customer-centric approach that’s focused on the experience. It means you’re not just creating a strategy for a single channel, but instead, one that will work across multiple channels. This means you need to be present wherever your customer is present. Your customers can be at home on the couch, at work in the break room, or out and about at a local store. As they move from one place to another, they can still find you there, too.
The retail experience is about to undergo a major shift as consumers are going to be able to shop anywhere, anytime. Consumers want a unified shopping experience when they’re ready to make a purchase, and will expect their favorite brands to offer a consistent shopping experience across multiple platforms and channels. By offering a seamless service across multiple channels you’ll be able to attract more customers, but also build a stronger relationship with them, making it easier for them to buy from you again and again.
Omnichannel ecommerce is about creating a seamless and consistent experience for the customer across all channels, both digital and physical. The key to a successful omnichannel strategy is consistency in delivering the same personalized experience to customers across all touchpoints and channels.
Multi-channel is about offering your customers options when it comes to how they want to interact with your brand. Enabling customers to contact you through multiple channels such as the phone, email, or social media, or allowing them to purchase products through your website, mobile app or in-store. Multi-channel allows customers to get in touch with you on their own terms.
With the rise of ecommerce and new channels, an Omnichannel POS Solutions has become imperative for retailers. It’s a system that allows direct sellers to provide customers with an integrated shopping experience that crosses multiple physical and digital channels. This is the future of retail customer experience.Don’t know where to start? Contact our team info@retailcloud.com to get your own omnichannel solution.
Although retailers are increasingly using the digital channel to reach consumers, they’re not closing their physical stores—which is where an integrated solution comes in. New technology makes it possible to shift digital and physical inventory seamlessly and deliver a seamless buying experience to shoppers.
What’s more, an integrated solution can help you streamline your back- and front-of-house operations. An omnichannel sales system will help you expand your market reach and keep items moving through your distribution channels. Some business owners and marketing managers are daunted by the prospects of trying to reach out to customers using multiple channels and media, but an omni-literate strategy can change all that.
Many online shoppers would rather have products delivered than picked up locally, but only a small percentage of eCommerce retailers offer same-day delivery and most retailers are missing out on the opportunity to deliver quickly.
Most of us are busy and don’t have time to run all over town, so we’re getting more and more of our stuff delivered right to our doorsteps. But if you want to gain the highest possible number of loyal customers, you need to offer flexible pickup and delivery options so that you are able to cater to more customers!
Retailers have a big challenge ahead as a lack of workers could make it harder to keep up with increased demand. To make sure they can handle more customers, many retailers are turning to technology to do some menial tasks as they try to find ways to reduce their cost.
Three areas where retailers say they will most benefit from automated technology are: streamlining the way they manage orders, running customer loyalty programs, and communicating with customers. Retailers who want to hire more employees should consider investing in software that helps automate these tasks.
If you’re a retailer, it’s important to make a good impression on your customers by providing an excellent selection of products in your store and creating opportunities for shoppers to connect with you online.
Today, the number of shoppers who shop online are in a steady incline so establishing an online presence and maintaining a local presence is key. E-commerce is a powerful tool for retailers, who can benefit from the reach and convenience that Internet sales provide.
As social media becomes the primary place for consumers to shop, retailers are increasingly selling through channels such as Instagram and Pinterest. Retailers are bringing together multiple sales channels to stay competitive in today’s evolving retail landscape.
Social shopping trends show no signs of slowing down, Facebook and Instagram continue to be the most lucrative platforms for retailers to sell on. As consumers continue to connect with brands and retailers on their favorite social media platforms, more retailers are turning to those platforms in order to drive inevitable increases in sales.
retailcloud is pioneering omnichannel order management solutions that provides businesses of all sizes access to tablet, windows and phone solutions with API integration to ERP and ecommerce systems. retailcloud provides retailers a way to increase sales, better manage inventory, collect valuable data on the shopping habits of their customers and much more. The system is scalable and grows with your business. Interested in knowing more about retailcloud’s solutions? You may contact us directly at sales@retailcloud.com
Setting up a point of sale system, or POS, is something that most people in retail or any brick-and-mortar company will do at some point. POS systems are one of the most basic parts of any business and have become essential to seamless transactions.
But it has changed through the years to adapt to evolving trends in business and commerce.
Particularly, the rise of digital and e-commerce changed the landscape of point-of-sale systems. POS software now has to adapt to the growing digitization of business practices and technologies. Sometimes, it might not be that easy.
Still, we need to move with the changes if we want our businesses to stay efficient and relevant in this new era of technology.
Point-of-sales software should generally be straightforward, but much like any solution, it can come with a few hiccups. Let’s discuss some of the most common POS software challenges today and how to overcome them.
Before learning how to set up a POS system and maximize it, we first need to choose the right system for the business. Choosing the best fit for your operations is a crucial decision to avoid headaches switching systems too often. While it’s not a crime to change POS software every year or so, it can become quite inefficient at some point.
To get the best system for your context, research is your best friend. Get up to three options that fit your business best and make a comparison.
Not all POS systems are created equal. Sometimes the best solution for another business might not be the best for you. Know what your non-negotiables are in terms of feature, pricing, and support, and decide based on your contingent needs and requirements.
Mobile POS systems are slowly becoming the norm. The volume of mobile POS transactions was expected to reach US$2,466,606 in 2021.
Traditional POS systems were bulky, and they only stayed in one location. If that system gets broken, it’s difficult to gain its data back.
Using a mobile system that can connect with a tablet or phone has all kinds of benefits. Personnel can carry the POS system around and bring them to the customer instead of having the customer come to a counter. It also takes up less space and weighs less, which could provide some flexibility to our employees.
Given that mobile retail is up like never before, it might be good to consider switching to a mobile POS system. However, mobile devices do have their downsides. For instance, they’re easier to steal or misplace. To avoid this, policies should be in place to steward the hardware better. Have a safe place to store the POS system to avoid theft— somewhere out of sight and preferably with a fastening or enclosure.
Part of any POS implementation checklist should be security. And that shouldn’t only include the physical security of the hardware but also the data and digital aspects too.
Cybersecurity is becoming a prevalent form of crime in today’s digital era. Identity theft, data breaches, and malicious hacking are becoming more of a threat.
To avoid any data or cybersecurity threats, business owners and retailers should always choose a POS system with basic security features, such as data encryption and two-step verification. Use complex passwords for logins and enable any pin number setups where possible. There’s no such thing as “overkill” when it comes to data security.
Integrating day-to-day sales and transactions with marketing campaigns is a must for smooth business operations to avoid confusion and customer concerns. One of the basic POS features every retailer should require in a system is a promotion and offer tracker. It’s always best practice to connect promotions with POS systems. Find a system that has an in-build promotions tracker. This feature will take care of applying any discounts or offers to ensure that they’re tracked accordingly for accounting and inventory purposes, which leads to the next challenge that business owners and retailers face with POS systems.
Dealing with inventory management can be an arduous task without the help of tools and systems. The key to saving time and getting more accurate results in inventory counting and management is to ditch manual systems and automate it. POS systems can actually be a great way to streamline this process. Most, if not all, of the best POS systems today have an inventory management feature that helps log product inventory and update it as sales go out.
For any business with product inventory, the temptation is to skip this feature in your point-of-sale systems. But doing so is doing your business and employees a huge disservice. Inventory management can help save a lot of time from manually tracking product stocks. It also removes any errors that could lead to deadweight loss and sales discrepancies. Set up your inventory tracker and integrate them with your inventory systems to keep a better account of product stocks.
In this day and age ruled by big data, businesses need to learn to leverage data and analytics to make better business decisions. The numbers don’t lie, and they can help point out what’s working and what’s not. Data around sales, purchase returns, customer feedback, and so on can provide valuable insight to help businesses delight customers and improve business metrics. Leverage your POS system’s data and analytics by using them as benchmarks in strategy meetings and planning sessions.
E-retail sales are now hitting $4.2 trillion worldwide. So it only makes sense that POS systems should integrate with e-commerce platforms. Seamless integrations to an online shop will allow POS software to automatically gather and track sales data, order details, and fulfillment requirements in one platform.
This way, it becomes easier for staff to stay on top of orders, given that all transactions land on one platform instead of two. This integration also makes it possible to make comparisons between brick-and-mortar performance with online ones.
Recently, POS systems have also started integrating with live chat software to streamline customer service and feedback channels with point-of-sale tools. This integration allows businesses to respond more proactively to complaints and concerns for faster resolution.
Customer support is a vital part of business growth and operations. It helps extend the customer lifetime value by ensuring long-term trust-based relationships with clients. Leveraging on any software, systems, or features that can help improve customer insight and feedback gathering can equip businesses with the necessary information to build those long-lasting business relationships.
The far majority of businesses today still use on-site POS systems. But up to 28% of retailers said that they would be switching to retail cloud-based POS software in the near future. Accordingly, your business might want to consider learning how to implement a POS system on a cloud-based solution as it provides an array of other benefits and advantages to your business like flexibility, data access from anywhere, and seamless communication between POS systems from multiple sites.
All this to say, point-of-sales is changing fast along with the needs, priorities, and challenges that businesses today face. We need to be on the lookout for where e-commerce and business solutions will be going this 2022 and beyond to stay ahead of the innovation curve. Doing that will keep your business relevant and competent in the immediate and beyond.
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.
1. Embrace the data – Quality Data Will Replace Big Data , Have your POS data start working to provide you with information on lagging lines and to start matching product to customers more effectively.
2. Embrace the tech – The discussion has been resolved; Consumers do prefer shopping via mobile in store and out of the store. The POS has extended to the customer phone, and it’s easy for SMB to respond.
3. Embrace your online presence – Digital shopping can be a destination, and with the dropping cost of ecommerce, online insight to product and inventory is a must have.
4. Embrace customer engagement – Reset your customer service culture, train associates to provide quality in-store engagement and use your customer preferences and inventory data to provide relevant engagement through social media.
5. Don’t fear the unknown – It’s about a seamless customer journey. In store experiences and loyalty will get more relevant, the brick and mortar experience will become the secret weapon against big online.
6. Don’t fear payment providers – Payment solutions are becoming more competitive and innovative, the entry barriers to provide multiple payment options are being lowered as consumers demand more options.
7. Embrace Retail as a Service – It’s more than just carrying inventory and selling the product – customers expect more and suppliers want to do more. Endless aisle, pop-up stores within stores and customer preference data will all lead to a more curated retail experience for the consumer.
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
Today we are announcing the General availability of PAX A920 Mobile All in one Smart Terminal with retailcloud’s point of sale solution. Last April we had launched the PAX E500 Smart Terminal. As we outlined in that post PAX commitment on suite of smart terminals has enabled us to launch more in the series.
PAX A920 Smart terminal is an all-in-one payment processing terminal with retailcloud’s full fledged point of sale and inventory management. PAX A920 is sleek, fast and secure.
With retailcloud’s Terminal on PAX A920 you can now manage your sales, engage with your customers, accept payments & print your receipts. It is a beautiful looking device which can be snapped into your pocket and use it whenever you need it.
Some of the key features & benefits of the retaicloud’s smart terminal are
PAX a920 is an engineering marvel with sleek design and comes with a HD tablet color display and integrated thermal printer . The printer is designed in such a way that it is not bulky but still fit a decent size paper roll into it. PAX A920 comes with Integrated Printer, Payment device and a high speed barcode scanner. Optional Dock is available to charge as well
retailcloud’s Software turn the A920 into a full featured point of sale software with customer engagement and cloud access. Print your detailed reports within the device or have it accessed through our cloud portal.
With the option to connect via Wifi or your cell phone provider you can take your point of sale to any location or if you need mobility for your business.
Manage your inventory for single location or multi location with retailcloud A920. Inventory is managed automatically as the products are sold from your stores.
A920 can accept all modern secure payment technologies such as EMV, MSR and Tap Payment.
Ability to do Cash Discounts, Surcharge or just add fee automatically when you make a sale is key for a lot or merchant to keep the business cost under control. Retailcloud terminal software allows the business owners to do this efficiently and display it on receipt.
If you are a business owner and exploring about mobile point of sale or adding another point of sale for your roadshows PAX A920 Smart Terminal is right choice to get started. Click the order now button to contact us if you want to learn more on how PAX A920 can be a solution for your store
It is important that business owners are presented with business tools and hardware which fits their needs. While there are plenty of Android based Point of sale out in the market, there was still void in the space mainly the integration with secured payment integration. PAX’s bold step to fill that void with a suite of smart terminals from 4” screen size to 15” is in that direction.
We are announcing the retailcloud full features Point of sale on PAX E500 terminal. E500 is a sturdy terminal in its own class which can handle your point of sale operations, inventory management, payments and customer engagement in a secured way.
With E500 you can now downsize the Point of sale hardware but still get and advanced solution. PAX E500 comes with 8” touch screen, 3” customer facing screen, Integrated EMV payment terminal, NFC Payments, Integrated 3 inch printer, Extension ports to connect extra peripherals
Here are some other benefits of using retailcloud POS on PAX e500
PAX E500 is All in one terminal with Printer, Tablet, Payment device in single unit. It is built with high quality hardware and have gone through rigorous certifications for the payment industry. PAX E500 comes with high quality & solid performance, equipped with multiple peripherals ports, large paper roll, technologies of auto-brightness setting, magic SR and grease proofing enabling smooth touch of screen.
retailcloud’s Point of sale app on E500 provisioned through the Paxstore is one of the only Full Fledged POS software available for E500. It has
Accepting payment have evolved over a period of time. EMV is gained traction and store owners feel short when they don’t accept Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay or Alipay. Pax e500 can accept
The Solution is PCI Certified and compliant to the Payment Standard defined by the industry.
PAX E500 with retailcloud is easy to setup and get going. If you are interested in the program please contact us where we can help you order, setup your terminal and train to modernize your store operations.
3 Must have POS feature for Pet Stores
You own a Pet Store. It may be a specialty pet store, it may be large multi lane and multi location, it may be a straight forward pet shop. Regardless, you have specific needs based on your merchandise and customer expectations. You need a POS solution that understands pet stores and successfully addresses the needs.
I’m not going to discuss the multitude of features that are needed by many or most retail businesses. I want to focus on what makes your POS needs unique.
The POS needs to be able to sell items in decimal places and return inventory levels in decimal places for accurate accountability.
Pet owners and your competing pet stores expect and appreciate creative sale techniques. Your POS solution needs to be able to offer a range of promotions, from buy one get one, to quantity discounts, and Club Pricing. Discounts should have automatic date ranges so when the sale ends, the cashier discount is no longer applied and its not left up to the cashier to decide.
It would be great to have disclaimers automatically print on the customer’s receipt on specific items or categories of items It may be a category – Live Puppies, where you would like the return policy to be very different from when you sell 10 lbs of Kibble. Select a POS system that allows you to print a specific disclaim on specific items. Better yet, add a signature line, so that the owner has proof that the customer understands the policy.
Embrace the unique POS needs of the Pet Store Industry and look for the tools that help you success.
It’s never too late to teach an old dog new tricks 🙂 .
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
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
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
93% of all online experiences begin with a search engine
97% of all consumers search for local business online
It’s no wonder that in a recent Constant Contact survey, the majority of small businesses (SMBs) said it was “important for them to be found on major search sites, local search apps and directory sites.”
Local independent retailers who want to draw local consumers need to appear in the Google Snack Pack, which is a listing of the top 3 local business based on seo. Consumers typically do not look beyond these top 3 listings and perceive them as the best matches. For that reason, it’s crucial for local independent retailers to work on getting into the top 3.
As a SMB retailer who may not have a team, or a budget, to engage in local seo here are some things that you can do to connect your retail business to the cloud and improve your position.
Claim your Google My Business page. Make sure that your business name is descriptive and includes your business category. Make sure your phone number, address and website is correctly listed (if you don’t have a website; more on that later).
Make sure that your social profiles are all up to date and actively managed, verify that the business information on your social media pages, matches the google my business information.
Manage your reviews on yelp and similar sites, thank those that give you good reviews it encourages others and respond to those who give you negative ones.
Get your website up, show product in stock with good descriptions. Most POS companies (including the free ones listed here) have integrations to allow you to quickly and easily launch an e-commerce site and display your product. Good descriptions are a seo goldmine.
These are just some quick tips to start you on the road to building your local seo. Imagine being at the coffee shop and doing a search for “shoe stores near me”. Would it make a difference to you to be in the top 3 results?
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!
Seems like every industry serving retailers has a disrupter that is using Zero pricing from Cell Providers Tax Services to Web Services and everyone in between. This blog is meant to look at POS solutions that are available for Zero. (more…)
The Pierian Mountains are in current day Macedonia and legend has it that they were sacred to the Muses, who were the personification of knowledge and the goddesses of inspiration. What you may ask does that have to do with KPI‘s, It has everything to do with it and let me begin by quoting the first two lines of “An Essay in Critism” by Alexander Pope
““A little learning is a dangerous thing
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring:”
As in the water from the Pierian Spring, if you are going to drink from the KPI spring, make sure you drink deep. While shortly I will share with you my “favorite” KPI, I must stress the importance of taking a holistic approach to using KPI’s. Generally one KPI itself should be used to pose questions that will then be augmented or debunked with the use of others, and only after consuming several drinks from various KPIS’s should you plan your course of action. (more…)
Every retailer was well aware of EMV and the liability shift, but a funny thing happened on the way to Oct 2015, Apple Pay caused a sensation pumping life into the NFC market and Google Wallet and SoftCard. It also caused retailers of all size to become open to jumping the technology rail and pay attention to what I think will be the most important development for retail in 2015. Adopting various tech to create highly curated engagements with consumers.
EMV will drive investment and new tech solution adoptions – Retailers know about EMV and the have accepted the inevitability of having to invest 6.75 trillion dollars to upgrade 15 million plus devices according to Javelin, now thanks to Apple Pay they are looking to have this investment not just meet the EMV requirement but also to meet future trends in payment and retail.
Payments, mobile & engagement will become focal on the sales floor – Retailers have seen that clienteling and payments on the floor work, and will continue to move towards that trend. Providing sales clerks with customer data and analytics as well as allowing them to service and close out transactions will continue to grow. It is likely that we will see in store self checkout experiences directly from consumer mobile devices.
Loyalty moves from points to experience optimization – Points have become so passe, no longer are they seen as perks but something that is expected; to build loyalty retailers will start moving to providing curated experiences to reward their customers. Here again we will see retailers become more willing to adopt technology to allow consumers to engage with retailer and their inventory at a SKU level directly from mobile device; within the store and outside it.
With data becoming more readily available to SMB retailers, Beacons will make further inroads to facilitate a more relevant engagement between retailer and customer.
As we see most of this will be used to elevate customer experiences by allowing customers to engage retailers in a highly relevant way in whatever platform they select be it digital or in person. In some respects we will be going Back to the Future where retail sales were all about personal marketing and sales associates knowing the customer. As Gen Z’ers begin to supplant Millennials and Baby Boomers in the marketplace, retailers must make sure that their engagement initiatives can impact and build brand loyalty with this new group that places a premium on highly curated experiences
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