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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Today’s email which was the 5th of the series, and continued on yesterday’s theme of building customer awareness. It had a post on how to raise customer awareness of my brand by having “billboards” in their wallets and inbox.  

The POS solution has a gift card program, where in addition to the standard cards with my logo, you can also have customers buy and sell gift cards using mail, text and even facebook. I liked this and it made me think of how I had been neglecting my facebook business page.  I looked over the gift card company’s agreement and it seemed pretty simple, there were no monthly fees and i was able to order a 100 gift cards which I did.  The gift card company would contact me on how to activate the text and facebook ordering, and they were also able to put my cards in their online store for anyone to buy.  Seemed worthwhile as I only paid them if someone bought a card and a transaction fee when the redeemed. I was also able to use the send by facebook feature for promotions to attract new customers.

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Got email 2 in the 10 email series and today it suggested I add any customer data into the system, as well as turn on built in features to add customers to the mailing list. This would allow me to generate mailchimp campaigns on demand.

I had customer lists on constant contact, mailchimp, an excel spreadsheet and a note pad. I started by downloading the lists from constant contact and mailchimp after which I entered the names and email addresses from my note pad onto the excel sheet.  The chat support asked me to share the files with them, and after looking at it determined it was  more involved process to combine the data so they asked me to open a ticket and they would create a file for me that I could then import. Which I did.

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On Day 2, I received an email from retailcoud telling me that I had 10 days of white glove support and how to schedule an appointment to make sure of it. It also listed the free inventory tools that were available in their app store specifically mInventory and Inventory Manager.

Since I knew I still had to add items that were missing from my list and mInventory seemed like a good option, I downloaded it and installed it on my phone. There is only an Android version which was fine with me. I scanned a few items and was able to add them into the database, sometimes it prepopulated the information on the missing items with available descriptions and prices and other times no data was available and I had to enter it myself. This looked like it was working well, so we downloaded it on two other phones as well and began scanning the whole store. One cashier was also checking items directly on the POS and adding them there if they were not imported from the QB file.

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Once I opened and received my retailcloud welcome email, I went to the management portal as it recommended to update my default settings. I entered my store information and sales tax rate for the store. I imagine that this will all show up on the POS receipts.

Next, I exported the data from my current system and checked the UPC numbers and noticed that some of the numbers were much smaller than others, in looking further, I realized that the leading zeros were not being exported from QB. I got on retailcloud chat to see if there was a way to get them and they told me not to worry about it as they had a flag to append leading zeros in their solution.

“Already loving the retail made simple concept.”

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An exciting journey begins with Zero POS and Star mPOP

Finally, a winning POS combination that everyone can use!

Zero POS and Star mPOP flexible powerful and beautiful!

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Zero POS was designed to be the ideal merchant solution, beautifully designed, simple to implement, simple to use and priced perfectly. All that was missing was a hardware solution that matched its principles and ideals; and then suddenly Zero saw mPOP; it was love at first site.

What’s a mPOP you ask?

Its an an all-in-one POS Solution! Star Micronic’s mPOP is to POS what combination VCR TV’s were to the 90’s! Still thinking about what that means? The mPOP is a combined cash drawer, printer and tablet POS hub. Its sleek, streamlined look is refreshing in a world of clunky, noisy, cash drawers that take up valuable counter space. Best of all it is designed, manufactured and supported by Star, a company with a long history in providing reliable hardware solutions to retailers. Pair this station with a Samsung tablet and retailcloud tabPOS software and you have yourself an updated point of sale location that is bound to satisfy any retailer.

The back-story

When we first saw Star’s mPOP solution in their early development stage we were impressed by its footprint, look and potential affordable price point. From that time it was a constant commitment from Star’s Product team , their belief in retailcloud solutions and follow up which got things exciting. We were also able to get our hands on an early pre-production version which was important for us to build and test for viability.

Affordable

The Integration of Zero POS with mPOP is important because Zero POS is the only solution which offers a full fledged mobile POS Solution for such a great price; zero dollars per month for the software.

Simple Set Up

The setup for an existing or new customer is completed in 4 easy steps:

– Sign Up for ZeroPOS & get ready with your account (5 min)

– Turn on your mPOP Hardware (under 1 sec)

– Pair the mPOP hardware in bluetooth settings (under 1 min)

– Choose the paired bluetooth mpop in the Zero POS hardware settings (under 2 min)

Who Would Best Benefit:

– QSR or espresso bar type environment when you want to pair it with many Start Printers (LAN)

– Clienteling scenarios to allow associates on the floor with tablets to communicate both the customer and with the mPOP at the cash wrap

Tablet VS. Desktop

Pros to a tablet solution:

– The looks – These have a techy modern look that suggest your business embraces cutting edge technology. Customers love seeing new technology especially in small mom and pop type stores.

– Customer Impact – Shoppers feel like they get more value while shopping at a small store that has a fancy point of purchase. There’s -something special about a place that can maintain its character but also stay modern with their business side matters.

– Smaller footprint – Less clutter on your counter always looks good.

– Full featured – Tablet applications include all the features small and midsize retailers need.

Cons to a tablet solution:

– Screen size limitations – If you are looking for a large display, desktop solutions have better options.

– Lower memory capacity – Applications will not be as robust.

– Sacrifice performance – You should limit use of other applications on tablets to optimize performance.

– Fewer portals to attach peripheral devices

– High Volume traffic business may find that the desktop is able to process quicker

You don’t need to have a big computer on your counter to make it seem like you have a top of the line point of sale. mPOP only takes up a fraction of your counter space and paired with retailcloud, has a full lineup of features. Consider what features you need today as well as what you will need as your business grows. This will help decide what hardware solution is best for your business.. mPOP and Zero POS prove that you can deliver reliability, power, design and efficiency at a price retailers will love.

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