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
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.
Preference Marketing is a very effective strategy to drive engagement and increase lifetime value with all of your customers. When a business markets specific products and promotions to specific customers based on their purchase history, loyalty, and more, a customer is more likely to make a purchase. And they will come back for more by being shown products according to their taste and liking.
retailcloud CRM allows you to manage your customers and makes it very easy to market to them by keeping records of the personal information and purchase history. And with marketing campaigns, you can communicate with your customers more effectively by notifying them about new products, promotions, and more!
With the CRM builder, you can create profiles with relevant personal information to track sales and purchase history by customer, and associate them within a frequency-based category or static group.
Learn about your customers: Think…Purchase History, Loyalty History, and Segments, Groups, or Clubs!
Being able to categorize your customers can give you a better understanding of their preferences and shopping habits so that you can deliver a more personalized shopping experience to them.
Text message marketing is a great alternative to some of the more traditional forms of digital marketing. It’s a seamless way to engage and connect with your customers through the device most of us are on for hours each day.
Now with all the insightful customer data you have at your fingertips, you can engage with your customers on a personal level and successfully connect with them to encourage more purchases and drive their interest in your business. When you notify your customers about products or prices they like, they will want to take advantage of them!
Think about their PREFERENCES…
-Frequently purchased items
-Purchase value
-Purchase volume
Think about how you want to engage and connect with your customers…
-Email and SMS marketing
-Products, promotions, etc.
-Customer groups, clubs, designations
Preference marketing increases customer lifetime value and profits. By sending personalized offers, you provide the most relevant promotions to your customers, driving sales and increasing revenue. Using retailcloud CRM and marketing campaigns with SMS messaging, you have full control over your business from your POS!
Unified commerce is an advanced retail strategy that integrates all sales channels and customer touchpoints into a single, centralized platform. This approach allows businesses to deliver a seamless and consistent experience across physical stores, online platforms, mobile apps, and customer service interactions.
Unlike omnichannel, which focuses on connecting different channels, unified commerce centralizes data and operations in real-time, providing businesses with a complete view of customer behavior, inventory, and sales performance. This unified system improves customer experiences, streamlines operations, and enables more efficient decision-making and personalized marketing.
Build an end-to-end digital commerce strategy across your online and offline channels that drives growth for your business. Enable a unified approach for working with partners, licensors and suppliers to deliver a consistent experience for consumers as they move through the world of retail. With unified commerce, you can capture customer interactions across the many touch points of your business, and aggregate them in a centralized environment. You’ll be able to see shopper behavior patterns, build a deeper understanding of shoppers and consumers, and serve them better across all your channels.
Omnichannel has become a major competitive advantage, but unified commerce goes far beyond traditional Omnichannel. The difference between Omnichannel and unified commerce is that Omnichannel retailing consists of siloed, unconnected systems and channels, whereas unified commerce connects all back end systems with customer-facing channels in a manner where critical data can pass between these systems, in real time, and still ensure the truth.
As a leader in omnichannel retail solutions, retailcloud help you connect with customers and drive growth throughout the year. With our unified commerce software platform, you can create a business that gives your customers greater choice, while offering you a single platform to manage all of your store locations, websites and channels. Unified commerce helps you track your performance across channels and regions so you can make more informed business decisions, and better prepare for future change.
With unified commerce, you’ll have one view of every customer and every transaction. You can better understand the relationship between your customers and your products, identify what they most want to buy and when they want it, and deliver services that are uniquely suited to their needs. You can also establish one payment system that lives underneath the entire experience, making check-out quick and seamless whether customers are shopping in stores or online. Most customers don’t think about separate channels when they shop. They think about their needs, the brands that meet them, and how you make doing business with you relevant and easy. This means transactions should happen seamlessly across channels, regardless of the device or location from which customers start.
Unified commerce integrates all customer-facing and backend systems via a centralized platform, making it possible to scale your business, regardless of channel or region. This reduces the time and resources spent managing multiple providers, improves operational efficiencies, and makes it possible to capture consolidated data insights across multiple touchpoints. By unifying payments from every channel into a single platform, you can identify and link shoppers across channels, helping you better fulfill cross-channel purchases. Learn how opening a store affects your ecommerce sales in the same area, or see how an in-app loyalty program affects in-store purchases.
Customers inevitably want more from their favorite online retailers. They want quick and easy ways to shop, but still feel like they’re interacting with a real person if they need to contact customer service. And when it comes time for home delivery, customers don’t just want the items to be delivered, they expect an awesome experience every time. Usually, the more options your customers have, the better off they’ll be, which is why unified commerce puts consumers in control of multiple shopping destinations.
Unified commerce ensures that your customers can interact with your brand consistently and without friction, regardless of how or where they shop. Customers expect speed, convenience, personalization and more. Unified commerce enables businesses to stay focused on delivering great experiences across all channels, while gaining deep insights into customer behavior which enables them to serve their customers better and drive increased sales.
As a business leader, you’re looking to grow your company in both the present and the future. Unified commerce presents a unique opportunity to streamline global growth and culture across your organization, while ensuring all of your teams share the same digital tools. Unified Commerce represents an exciting opportunity to streamline global growth and serve your customers better. A unified commerce program will help you simplify processes, create a cohesive brand experience, and improve customer engagement across every device.
Start up businesses on a unified commerce platform exceed customer expectations, and save the merchant from having multiple third party apps and payments. retailcloud provides the best retail POS solution for any business looking to eliminate single channels and unify them to fall under one platform.
Schedule your demo today at: https://retailcloud.com/contact-us/
“If there was ever a time for brands and businesses to integrate services across numerous digital platforms (touchpoints) to better satisfy customers’ constantly-changing wants and demands, it is now.”
The Head (frontend)
When a client opens an app or a web runner, engages with an audio voice adjunct, an AR or VR operation, a chatbot, or indeed a game, he’s interacting with the head aka the UI ( stoner interface). The specific system of commerce is inapplicable, as what matters for businesses and brands are the platform guests use to interact with your service and the need for a head in each platform out there.
The Body (backend)
Computing needs to be done in the background along with, data analysis, and data arrangements and, principally, that’s what the body does. As the functional subcaste of the digital service being rendered, it manages the data ( storehouse and processing). Guests don’t get to interact with the body, because it stays inaccessible
The Neck (API)
The Neck (API, application programming interface) serves as the link between what the client sees and interacts with and the data the business or brand gets and organizes in the backend. In other words, the neck is the multi-platform processor acclimatized to help process data between the frontend and backend quickly.
Similar to how slow service often results in poor restaurant reviews and fewer future customers when a customer sits down to eat at a restaurant, slow site speed can lead to poor search engine rankings, lower overall site traffic, and negative user experiences.
Site Load Speed Matters!!
Here is a look at how site speed affects conversion rates;
According to a study conducted by Google/Deloitte; Improving your load time by 0.1s, boosts conversion rates by 8%
Another survey by bytes.co clearly says 56% of customers abandon websites that take more than 3 seconds to load
&
20% users will never return to a website after a bad load time experience
Yet one more hammer on the nail was when amazon came up with a stunning piece of statistic that said A slow down of just 1 second of amazon.com would cost $1.6 billion in sales each year
First and foremost, a headless content management system will assist you in getting your content to where it needs to go. For an eCommerce business, this means delivering your products, product videos, and blog posts to any new or emerging channel.
Prepare to sell through Alexa Skills, digital signage, progressive web apps, and even touchscreens in our vehicles!
The best part is that you don’t have to re-architect your platform to publish across channels if you use a natively headless commerce platform like Core dna. It’s all part of the same comprehensive, future-proof package.
Every few weeks, major commerce brands that use a traditional platform release an update. In comparison to Amazon, which deploys updates every 11.7 seconds on average, they reduce both the number and duration of outages.
You can deploy rapid updates without affecting your back-end system with a headless commerce platform. And you can easily adapt your front-end to keep up with the rapid pace of consumer technology.
When a front-end system is loosely coupled with the back-end, you don’t have to update the entire system; only a portion of it needs to be updated. As a result, you’ll be able to deliver what your customers want faster while still remaining competitive.
You can experiment with different templates and approaches once you have a headless commerce system in place. For example, while running the same front-end search, you could try out a different back-end search solution.
As a result, headless commerce enables you to run continuous tests and optimization cycles, allowing you to gain a better understanding of your customers while learning at a faster rate than most retailers.
To sum up, headless commerce is the way of the future, and getting on board is the best option for brands and businesses.
One of the most difficult aspects of being a retailer is inventory management. It is, however, one of the most crucial aspect. It’s impossible to understand your company’s financial situation unless you have a good understanding of how much your inventory is worth.
Retailers can build an accurate picture of how much their inventory costs them over time by performing regular inventory valuations — and how the value of this asset affects their tax obligations and profitability.
In this post, we will define inventory valuation and the various inventory valuation methods that retailers can use for inventory accounting.
The majority of merchants will have a significant amount of capital invested in their inventory (particularly if they use a Just in Case [JIC] inventory management approach), so knowing the worth of your present assets and how they affect your profitability is critical.
Inventory valuation is an important aspect of inventory accounting that allows you to determine the worth of unsold inventory. Understanding inventory value is crucial when generating end-of-year financial accounts for cash flow and tax purposes, among other things.
In conclusion, inventory valuation is used to determine your total gross profits, which are influenced by your total cost of goods sold (COGS). This will either inflate or deflate your profits, depending on how your inventory is priced and the cost flow assumption you apply.
To properly value your inventory, you must account for all costs associated with acquiring and preparing goods for sale, as well as the purchase price (excluding indirect costs such as marketing or administration). This includes the following:
Understanding the value of your inventory goods will help you make future purchasing decisions and establish whether your present inventory management strategy is effective. To help control changes in the market rate of your inventory, there are a variety of inventory valuation methods available, albeit the most appropriate strategy will depend on the type of your organization
COGS is a term that refers to the cost of goods sold. Depending on which inventory valuation technique your retail business employs, COGS will vary.
The less you can assign to the cost of goods sold, the higher the closing inventory valuation. This is why it’s critical to ensure that you’re appropriately pricing your inventory, otherwise your entire profitability will suffer.
Making the best markdowns/restocking decisions. You need to know how much your inventory costs you in order to price your products appropriately and make a decent profit margin. This has an impact on markdown decisions, especially if you have surplus inventory that needs to be sold before depreciation sets in. You may calculate your business’s minimum profit margin by using the correct inventory valuation method.
It’s crucial to understand the difference between using an inventory valuation method for accounting and using it as an inventory system. For example, in order to employ FIFO for inventory valuation, a company does not have to sell things on a first-in, first-out basis.
Choosing the best inventory valuation method for your retail firm is dependent on a number of criteria, including:
Inventory is one of the most important parts of the jigsaw when it comes to running a business, and it’s crucial that you adopt the correct valuation plan to help your company expand and profit. You may acquire a strong handle on your business’s profitability and be better by employing one of the four inventory valuation methods discussed above. When it comes to making important decisions about your brand’s future, you should be well-informed.
Retail is a tough business and hiring the right people to help you meet your goals is seemingly impossible. It can feel like there’s a revolving door in retail where everyone is always looking for their next job opportunity. Employees are looking for more than just a paycheck — they’re looking to be engaged, productive, and happy on the job. This article will discuss 10 tips that any retailer can use when hiring new employees.
Section: 1. Hire for attitude and train for skill
What should you look for when hiring retail workers? Experts advise you to keep an eye out for people who are (or have been):
It’s a tall order, but many of these characteristics overlap, so finding people who exhibit a few of these attitudes may not be as difficult as you think.
Section: 2. Go beyond traditional interviews
Now that we’ve identified the qualities to look for when hiring, let’s talk about how you can bring these qualities to the surface in your candidates. People tend to put their best foot forward during formal interviews, so determining whether someone truly possesses the right attitudes can be difficult.
Going beyond traditional interview processes and getting a little creative with how you vet candidates is a good way around this. Here are some suggestions:
Section: 3. Strengthen your online presence
Top performers are always doing their homework, so make sure they like what they find when they Google your business. Make sure your website and social media accounts are well-designed and contain sufficient information about your company.
Go to Glassdoor.com and complete your company profile if you haven’t already. Include photos and as much information as possible. Read the reviews that your employees (past and present) have written about your company. If you notice some negative reviews, discuss them with your team and see what you can do.
Before bringing on new employees, it’s best to resolve any internal issues first. The last thing you want to do is invite people in.
Section: 4. Hire your biggest fans
Look for candidates who show a genuine interest in your brand. Brand ambassadors have a lot of clout, and your customers will notice!
Plus, because they are likely already familiar with your company’s culture and product line, onboarding will be easier.
See if you can apply this strategy to your own company. If you’re looking for new employees, reach out to your customers and fans to see if they’d like to work for you.
Section: 5. Highlight your company values
Putting your values on display aids in attracting the best candidates. So, talk about the causes you care about. Communicate what makes your company stand out and what it stands for.
Section: 6. Be realistic about the job
Both you and the applicant will be able to determine if they’re a good fit for the job if you paint an accurate picture of your company and the position. So, while it may be tempting to only talk about your store’s positive aspects, don’t oversell the job or misrepresent your business. Be open and honest about the job’s requirements and your expectations.
Section: 7. Motivate your current employees
Encourage your employees to assist you in hiring more people. Your current employees are familiar with the requirements of the position. They have a vested interest in bringing in people who will lighten rather than add to the workload.
Birds of a feather, as the cliché goes, flock together, so they are very likely to know others who are similar to them. As a result, you should consider the recommendation of the employee when considering the person they’re recommending.
Section: 8. Implement 24/7 hiring—aided by technology
The job market in retail is more competitive than it has ever been. Hourly and front-line workers have resigned due to health and safety concerns raised by the pandemic. Furthermore, employee expectations have skyrocketed, and candidates have more options than ever before.
As a result, retailers must make an extra effort to find and hire employees. Part of that entails being on the lookout for new candidates 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
But what does it mean to be “always on”? Use technology, in a nutshell.
By allowing you to schedule and conduct interviews more efficiently, video platforms help you streamline the hiring process. Recruiters are aided by solutions such as chatbots and AI-powered tools when conducting online or SMS-based interviews.
You can also use natural language processing and machine learning to display job interviews in front of potential candidates as they browse social media sites. The company is also sending notifications to people who “like” their page.
These tools and tactics enable retailers to automate steps in the recruitment and effectively get in front of potential employees at the right time.
Section: 9. Establish some system for employee performance
Developing a performance system for employees is one of the most effective ways for retailers to attract and retain the best people.
It’s a transparent tool for setting performance expectations that can be used at any point during a person’s career, from the interview to promotion. This clarity also provides a unified framework for store owners and employees, which is beneficial to teams of all sizes.
Develop rules of conduct, procedures, or employees, if you haven’t already, and document them for easy reference when hiring and evaluating your team.
Section: 10. Be a multi-channel recruiter
Today’s retailers operate in a competitive environment that necessitates foresight as well as online and social savvy. If you want to attract candidates who possess those characteristics, you should look beyond traditional channels like job boards.
Social media is well-known for its effectiveness as a recruiting tool. For example, LinkedIn has several talent solutions that can help you find, vet, and contact candidates.
While Facebook and Twitter aren’t specifically designed for recruiting, they can help you find new hires. Make a special careers tab on your Facebook page where your fans can browse and apply for jobs and use Twitter to spread the word about your openings.
Takeaway: A thorough and effective hiring process is the key to finding great employees for your retail store.
Upselling and cross-selling are some marketing trends businesses use to boost their revenue. For small businesses, strategies are crucial to improving their sales. However, there are several negative comments about cross-selling and upselling, such as pushy salespeople, irrelevant sales pitches, and unethical sales strategies. In reality, as a salesperson, it is our job to understand if the additional products can help our clients. Then, present it to them so they can see the value in adding to their purchase.
To help you boost your revenue and increase UPT, it is important to use marketing strategies, such as upselling and cross-selling. But how would you know when to apply them? Would you be able to increase your revenue through these strategies? Let’s find out more about upselling and cross-selling and the effective ways to use them.
Cross-selling means suggesting a product relevant to the one the client is having. For instance, a shopper is buying a purse, and you recommend a matching wallet. Meanwhile, upselling means offering a version of the product that is more expensive, thinking that the shopper wants to upgrade the item. If done correctly, both strategies can increase your sales while helping customers at the same time.
When it comes to upselling and cross-selling, doing it right and at the right place and time are the keys. If you upsell a product or service that is not relevant or you are selling in a pushy manner, you are more likely to fail in converting the customer or, worse, lose the original sale.
As a salesperson, your objective is to increase the revenue, regardless of how you do it. In upselling and cross-selling, it is vital that you have a strategy for a successful sale.
For a successful upsell and cross-sell in retail, here are some tactics that can help you.
If you are trying to persuade customers to buy more items or upgrade their products, it is apparent that you want to gain more benefits for your business. But you have to keep in mind that customers are unsure whether not or to make a bigger purchase if they don’t think they will benefit from the deal.
This means, aside from your own profit, you also have to give value to customers to persuade them to buy more.
If you think that your deal will bring value to you and your customers, you have to show all the benefits your customer can get. This will convince your customer to buy a related item or upgrade products.
Some of the benefits you can offer your customers are a discount voucher, a loyal card, an extended warranty, or reward points.
Consider the Rule of 3
When upselling, find out if you can apply the “Rule of 3”. This means providing the shopper with three options for their items, and this is more likely to boost their order’s value.
These options are:
The requested product is an item the shopper is looking for. An alternative product is an item that is a little better with a higher cost.
And lastly, the dream product is considered the best option with much better quality and highest cost among the three choices.
Among the three products, the dream product is most likely to be bought by shoppers. Giving your customers three choices allows them to choose.
This method is often used in upselling.
Once you have mastered the technique of upselling and cross-selling, this can definitely boost the revenue of your business. This will encourage your customers to buy more products or expensive items.
And now, purchasing an item does not only happen in physical stores. Customers also buy products and services online on which they can pay for the item in some ways, such as card payments or electronic payments.
As a salesperson, it is crucial that you have knowledge about point of sale (POS) and how this works.
Point of sale or POS is where a customer pays for the goods and services he gets. It is also an essential focus for salespeople as customers tend to purchase high-margin products at these strategic locations.
When a customer selects items from stands or checks out online, they are at the point of sale. Using efficient point of sale lending software helps the business to make more sales.
A POS lending software allows offering loans at the point of purchase to allow customers to purchase products or services themselves. Just like consumer lending, POS financing works with credit cards, installment loans, and in-store loyalty cards.
People consider taking a POS loan when purchasing an item that they cannot afford, such as cars, furniture, or kitchen appliances. Thanks to the development of technology, POS financing has developed recently and made online lending possible.
The market provides instant mobile and online loan opportunities supported with clear repayment terms before taking out loans. This allows borrowers to take out loans from their smartphones at the point of sale of any retailed immediately and pay for the items.
And this has become the most preferred POS solution for retail as it is convenient and fast.
To increase the sale of your business, it is important to choose a strategy that will work for your store. Upselling and cross-selling can be significantly helpful to your business; however, you have to consider thoroughly while implementing it for your store.
In upselling and cross-selling, remember that you should provide customer value, ensure they see provided value, and give them options. This will not only increase the revenue of your business but also help customers by introducing products that they may need.
Therefore, the key to successful upselling and cross-selling is understanding your customers’ value and providing them options that meet all their needs.
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.
Restaurants have higher numbers of employees and customers than small businesses. It requires operating a business in various locations — whether owned or franchised — to manage their schedules and work shifts simultaneously. To operate a restaurant, the business owner should possess great managerial, accounting, human resources, marketing and HR administration skills in addition to the ability to make delicious food.
Modifiers are a great way to add more details on an order, such as desired side dishes or preferred cooking temperature. They can be added to orders in the Modifier section, which you access by clicking on the Shopping Cart menu and selecting Modify Orders.
Sales Per Employee Ratio aims at understanding the productivity of the employees. This ratio basically helps in keeping track of the relationship between a company’s number of salespersons and their total revenues, and even makes it easier to payout tips to the correct employee as well.
You want your POS system to have kitchen routing so that your order gets sent to the right station, this is especially important if you want certain orders to be sent to the bar or to the kitchen. It streamlines the order preparation process and makes things simpler for your staff.
Being able to split checks is a feature that you need so that your restaurant can offer different ways to make payments.This can range from splitting the bill between multiple cards or splitting amounts between cash and card. You want a point of sale that offers as many flexible payment options as possible so that you can cater and appeal to more customers.
Being able to generate tip reports and receive tips on glass is an important feature that you need from your POS system. This allows you to keep a record of the tips received by your employees at the end of their shift, and you are aware of who to pay it out to. It is good to know and keep track of your tips so that your business is not scrambling during tax season.
If you have different menu items available at certain times, at different prices, or if you have Happy Hour, having a time-based menu is a very helpful feature. This is especially helpful for your employees so that they don’t have to manually enter the appropriate prices when they are set to change.
In order to maximize your profits, you have to build an online presence as well. People nowadays are taking convenience into account so offering guests the ability to place their orders online and get it delivered to their doorstep is a huge deciding factor on whether or not they will take their business to your restaurant.
Online ordering integration is an important feature that you must have if you already have an online ordering website. There are online ordering solutions like retailcloud’s, that can even route online orders to the kitchen display screen or to a kitchen printer so that you can immediately start preparing the order.We can help you find the right solution for your restaurant, shoot us an email at sales@retailcloud.com and we can get you started on the right track!
No matter the size of your business, you need to make sure your POS system offers everything you need. In this article, we’re going to highlight some of the best POS system features out there.
Time and attendance is a way to verify that your employees are working at the hours they are paid for. It helps in the calculation of employee payroll and to prevent absenteeism. Managing time and attendance manually, though, can be challenging without an integrated solution.
With retailcloud, there is no limit to the number of products you can have. Nor do you pay any additional fees for adding a large number of products in your store. Instead, you pay the same fixed monthly fee you would have paid even if you had just 10 or 20 products. This way, it doesn’t cost more to have many products rather than only a few. You’ll also never be charged an extra fee for having a large number of products like other eCommerce solutions do.
A loyalty program is a business tool that gives you an advantage by encouraging customers to shop with you more frequently. This form of marketing encourages customers to remain loyal to your business and use the services or products that your store or restaurant has to offer. Loyalty programs have proven to be successful when implemented correctly. They are often used in retail or restaurants, but they can also help corporations and even non-profits.
If you have a retail business, chances are there’s inventory involved. You need to know what came in, what’s going out and exactly where it is at all times. Barcode scanning can ensure that everything is accounted for and managed effectively throughout your entire organization. It also helps in printing barcodes for your items so that you can easily scan it without having to manually enter the price or SKU numbers.
Discounts and promos are never a bad idea when it comes to marketing your store. It’s one of the most effective ways to bring in new customers, save money on your marketing budget and help you cash in on more sales. It’s also quite straightforward to implement and provides your customers an incentive which makes it a no-brainer for most retail businesses out there. Choosing a POS system that can offer flexible discounts would be a great choice.
Having a product variance and matrix is important so that you can store information about your products. It is a great feature for better inventory management so that you can input and classify by attributes or categories.
Having Quickpick buttons on your POS are important so that you can quickly add non-scannable items to the customers’ cart. Items that are too large, too small, or best sellers are great items to have their own quick pick buttons.
Online shopping is bigger than ever so having an online presence is very important for a business. You would want to choose a point of sale software that has online integration so that your sales are updated in real time and reflect your inventory accurately. Offering shipping and curbside pickup options are also ways to easily boost your sales since more people are choosing the most convenient shopping options now and more and more stores are adapting as well.
There are more features that would certainly help you run your business more efficiently, we can help you with that! Shoot us an email and connect with one of our POS experts today.
Layaway is a popular option for many retailers that want to sell more items to their customers. According to a recent survey, over ¾ of the people agreed that layaway was very important for large-ticket purchases. They liked this option because it allowed them to avoid borrowing money from credit cards, since the large purchase items could be paid off in installments.
What is Layaway?
Layaway is a program through which shoppers can reserve items that aren’t immediately available at the time of purchase, paying a set amount over a period of time until they pay off the item. If a customer fails to pay off the full price of an item by the end of the term, then it is usually either forfeited, and storage and other costs are incurred.
When deciding on a layaway plan, ensure you balance several factors. First, layaway duration should be proportional with storage needs. Next, the costs associated with layaway must also be considered: it could lead to losses in your margins. Lastly, consider allowing customers to place both sale items and non-sale items on layaway; but carefully consider that service fees may need to be collected. Overall, understand that there are state laws regulating these types of plans.
Why is offering Layaway beneficial?
Layaway programs provide customers with a unique option to shop—they can have what they want, when they want it. By providing layaway options, retailers are able to increase revenue and improve the overall customer experience. Let’s take a closer look at the benefits it offers:
No interest charges make layaway cheaper than using a credit card. That is always the better option than swiping a card that has high interest rates, with a layaway option they can make smaller payments without paying extra.
Installments are a great alternative to offering a store credit card or credit plan because offering different payment options makes your business look generous and trustworthy.
Since offering installment payments are attractive to consumers, it will help in your brand’s image as well as making your products more affordable for more people. Offering different types of promotions or incentives such as gifts with purchase to people who spend a certain amount or purchase a certain item at your store can also be a great way to boost your customers’ spending.
There are plenty of different online payment programs available in the last few years with fintech companies offering interest free payments with increased limits after customers pay on time after a certain amount of time which has been proven to be an effective method to increase sales for businesses. Offering your own payment plan is a great way to keep all of your profits instead of losing a percentage to third party payment companies.
In today’s economy, offering a layaway option can help your business stand out from the competition as well as provide your customers with more payment options.
Customer service is one of the most important factors in the success of the retail business. Positive customer service will contribute to the overall growth of a business. Improving customer service can help a business grow, increase sales and profits, and lower operating costs.
Businesses that deliver poor customer service often have unhappy customers who will not return or recommend them to others. That means they also have lower chances for expanding their business by word-of-mouth marketing. Moreover, the price businesses must pay for poor performance is actually high since they don’t get repeat visits from their customers and consequently lose out on opportunities to make more money through repeat purchases.
Here are 7 ways to improve your retail customer service:
Customers are the experts of their own needs and they know the best way to solve those needs. Make sure you listen to what they have to say and then work on fixing those problems.
Aim to satisfy your customers as best as you can by getting their satisfaction surveys to see what you are doing right or wrong, then make changes accordingly.
When your customers have any questions or concerns, it is very important that you keep them informed about the progress of their orders. If you cannot respond immediately, assure them that you will get back to them soon.
To improve the customer service of your retail business, make sure your employees are trained on how to deliver outstanding customer service. Make sure they include what to say, how to say it, and what not to say in their training program.
Creating a positive first impression will help set the scene for building trust with new customers or clients with whom you are working towards building long-term relationships. The key is that it must be consistent throughout the company’s operation.
Personalized service builds a good foundation of customer loyalty. This is especially true when it comes to retaining your existing customers and acquiring new ones. Consider each customer as an individual with a set of unique needs and wants that will determine the way you work with them.
You can use technology, such as online ordering systems, to improve your customer service operations and increase efficiency. Online shopping has been increasing in popularity these days, so it is important to keep things simple and easy for the customers while they shop online or over the phone. Make sure you have a website that represents your brand values and vision.
Without professional help and smart tools, it is almost impossible to improve customer service. A little investment in the right tools can help you to take your business to a whole new level. Giving your customers the needed information and service is the only way to make things better for your business and the customers.
Each year, over $1 trillion worth of goods and services are shipped by businesses across the globe with help of different order fulfillment technologies and strategies.
But not all companies can afford to hire a call center or follow up on every order manually. This problem is especially severe for growing e-commerce companies and smaller brick-and-mortar stores. As a result, many owners turn to humans who work at home as virtual assistants (VA). These operatives answer customer calls or handle orders that come into their inboxes via email or automated voice system; however, there’s one simple step they often neglect: little things like storing the information about each order in your database.
Instead of sticking to these traditional methods of order fulfillment, retail stores should consider the latest and improved solutions. The use of affordable online ordering solutions and many other advanced solutions can make the whole process a lot more efficient and easier. Here are a few steps that retail stores should implement for easier online order fulfillment:
There is one thing that most modern order fulfillment systems have in common: better and faster communication with customers. With these solutions, each retailer can build its own website and integrate it with the most popular online shopping carts and inventory management systems. They can even make it open for mobile devices, thus making the whole process of order fulfillment easier and more pleasant for the customers.
Many online retail companies still stick to traditional ways of showing off their products to customers by posting them on a website or sending brochures in mailboxes. They do not realize that every new customer is an opportunity to expand your business and generate more sales. Instead of wasting time and effort on paper, coupons, and other marketing materials, online retailers should integrate a fully automated voice system in their ordering software.
Customers love being informed about their order’s progress, but many retail stores have not yet adopted this idea. Instead of using a traditional desktop solution that sends an email to the customer when an order is placed, online shops can choose automatic notification systems that send text messages or show notifications on mobile devices within seconds after a customer enters their credit card details or selects a delivery method. The convenience provided by this technology makes users feel less rushed and generate more sales for companies.
By making these simple changes online retailers can increase their sales and cut down their costs. There is a lot to discover about improving the eCommerce order fulfilling process. It’s time for the retail store managers to adopt the new trends and strategies that can boost the business. Apart from these steps, don’t forget the shipping fees because 61% of the online shoppers abandon the shopping carts due to higher shipment charges and delivery fees.
Getting your business ready for the upcoming holiday sales seems like the most daunting task for the majority of retail merchants. The lack of agile business management systems makes it impossible for them to make the required changes without affecting the whole business operation. No one can predict the sales analytics for 2021 for the Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals.
Since we are still in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, most of this year’s holiday sales will come from online purchases. A great way to ensure smooth transactions is by streamlining your online ordering process. There are many tools available out there that can successfully help retailers do so with Apps like OrderUp, an easy to implement fulfillment solution app plugged into retailcloud’s commerce ecosystem.
The integration of this smart tool ensures that your system is capable of handling curbside or in-store pickup. This approach can help your business to ensure smooth flow of orders and deliveries on the upcoming holiday sale events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2021.
Apart from this business approach, here are a few major things that every business should consider in preparing for Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2021:
Start early so that you have more time to test everything such as how you will handle fulfilling a larger volume of customers and orders. Having enough time to study the market and prepare for the increase in sales you will be getting from will help you to ease the shopping experience for your customers.
Integrating online sales towards the Black Friday and Cyber Monday success of your business. Online sales can help you reach more customers and increase your profits so this is a very important step.
Create loyal customers through customized rewards programs, with up to three tiers of rewards, and targeted promotions based on customer purchase history.
Give special pricing & discounts exclusively to loyal customers. Customers love discounts and having club pricing makes them feel special and motivates them to shop more with your store.
Update your website with high-resolution images. Ignoring the visuals of your online store is the biggest mistake here. If you are offering sales and discounts then let the customers know about it and make sure they are visible right when they get to your website. There is no better way to advertise your deals than having a dedicated banner on the home page!
To stay ahead in this technology-driven world, it is important to work with the best agencies. If you are looking for an agency that can help your business get ahead in this hi-tech world, check out eCommerce solutions for retailers where you can harness the true power of the digital world for your business.
There are different other ways to improve the online game of your business. From social media marketing to the right integration of powerful tools, there are many business aspects where your retail merchants need to focus on to tackle the high demand of the products on the sale events.
Black Friday and Cyber Monday can be exceptionally good events for your business if you know how to manage things properly. Consumer spending rates are at the peak at these events so retail merchants need to equip their businesses with the right tools and solutions and retailcloud products can help you to make it happen.
Now that you have set yourself up for success by following all of the recommendations from Day 1 and Day 2, it is onto Day 3. Today you will begin the counting process, one of the most important steps of a successful inventory. Following these simple steps will help you in completing your inventory correctly and efficiently. Make sure you schedule a time to do this when the store is slow or closed – if doing it while closed, it’s best to section off areas as they are being counted – so you are not selling items from the counted inventory.
What to do on Day 3
Using the mInventory app you will need to go to Inventory counts and start a new project. It is best practice to name the project based on the locations you are counting.
Once you have created the project it is time to start scanning. The scanning can be done two ways. The first method is to scan every item individually, this will be the most accurate way to scan as it will make sure you are counting similar items as the correct UPC. The second method would be to scan the item once and then type in the total count for that item. If you do have similar items with different UPC you will need to make sure that you separate them before attempting to scan your inventory with this method.
Once your whole section is counted you will export the project and email it to your manager.
The manager will receive all exported project files which will contain the details of who counted each section and what was counted.
After all projects have been consolidated, the manager will compare these counts to the current quantity on hand using an IBR from the CAS Portal to find any large discrepancies.
These large discrepancies will then need to be recounted to verify that all pieces have been accounted for.
As a best practice, you can randomly select products and recount them – assuming there is no variance, you can be confident of the counts. If you see substantial variances, you may want to determine if the errors were with one counter or section and expand the recounts accordingly. Some stores keep counting until all items have been verified (the same count appears twice). The comfort you have with inventory counts is not decided in the annual count – it’s typically achieved in periodic cycle counts.
Review all the adjustment reports and confirm the count once you are satisfied that you have an accurate count.
In the next blog, we will discuss best practices in analyzing your inventory and maintaining accuracy of your stock levels throughout the year. For more details on Key Performance Indicators you can read our blog post on Retail Math.
Hopefully you have had a chance to get through all the Day 1 Activities, to review here is a list; don’t be tempted to skip through the steps in the interest of saving time today as it will result in a lot of extra time being spent on the count day to reconcile the inventory. You will be pleased to know that Day 2 is much easier than Day 1, but equally important to a smooth count.
What to do on Day 2
Have your team download and familiarize themselves with mInventory, especially the section on Inventory Counts. Make sure that each team member has their own user name and password and can log into the app; if passwords need to be reset or user created you should do so now using nGauge or the CAS Portal
On Day 1, your team would have organized the product and checked for damages, during the course of doing that they might have run across items that did not have barcode labels, this would be a good time to print those and resticker the product; if you are using CAS to print the labels you can use roll or Avery labels on your laser printer (money saving tip) or you can use Label.It for more printing styles and options.
Tomorrow is day 3, we will go through the best counting practices.Don’t forget to share your feedback and don’t forget to subscribe so you can see the next post, or you can join us on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.
It’s that time of the year!
No, I am not talking about New Year’s resolutions – I am talking about getting your inventory done and putting in some best practices to keep your investment in inventory efficient year round.
I will be posting 5 blogs that will get you ready for your annual inventory counts – the first 3 will be to break down the activities you do to prepare for the counts and the last 2 will be on the best practices that you can implement to keep inventory managed year round. You may have already had a chance to read about how to do ABC Cycle Counts by Justin McCollom from our Major Market Team, which discusses the importance of having good inventory management to support your Online Ordering/eCommerce sites. My approach over the next 3 posts is to take you through a more granular list based process. So don’t forget to subscribe to new blog posts over on the right panel.
So let’s get into the tasks – this is really meant to be a checklist that you can share with your team, and since many of you reading this will be retailcloud customers, I will occasionally refer to specific processes within the CAS Portal.
What to do on Day 1
Almost done!
From the back of the house perspective you have accomplished a lot today, and built a foundation of success for your full inventory count.
Start organizing the inventory in the store so that it will be easy to count, have your team prepare a floor map by Department or Category of where the product is and to begin to place it. If your store is not organized and ready to be counted, then this is a good place to start getting it prepped for inventory and gather like items together.
While organizing, take some time and look out for damaged items, these should be inspected and discounted or adjusted out of inventory as needed. Good luck, please share your feedback and don’t forget to subscribe so you can see the next post – if you don’t want to subscribe, you can join us on Facebook or Twitter.
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.
The fact that retail is no longer just about product is not a secret, that it is all about engagement is not a surprise, that customers expect a unified experience is natural; but how retailers should pivot and aggregate all this data into one view remains a mystery and keeps many small and mid sized operators up at night. This has created a pressure on businesses to revisit their online strategies even those whose primary focus is their local market.
“It’s like watching an accident in slow motion, you know you got to do something but the question is what and how and for how much”
There are many sources of data to consider but let’s focus on a few simple yet meaningful places to start with. Before we get started, let’s talk a little bit about tracking or customer preferences; while no doubt most consumers do not want their every activity tracked and stored, they do not mind doing so if they can receive something of benefit and the data is stored securely. Think about how willingly we allow the cell providers to track our every movement so long as they know exactly where we are when we need directions.
To begin aggregating this data you need to start with a reliable CRM software. Ideally this is will be built into your POS application as that will solve the instore piece of it, assuming that it has the functionality of a CRM software.
In Store POS sales activity is the easiest and simplest to do; does your POS provide robust segmentation so you can classify your products into departments and categories, as well as flexibility in creating item attributes (in apparel for example size, color, style, season, brand) and does it provide you with flexibility in creating customer groupings across all channels, so you can group customers based on initial channel of the relationship or other groupings. Remember that there has to be some benefit for a customer to provide you this detail and loyalty programs are the most common, however perhaps more effective has been club pricing (like in grocery stores) or access to premium experiences (like with airlines or hotels). As you design this pick the one that works best for you.
Get our free “How to design your Loyalty program” ebook
Other benefits can be more lenient refund policy to know customers or a more restrictive return policy to anonymous transactions.
Getting your store online with insight to up to date product availability will provide you with a trove of data; encouraging customer to quickly register and login to get special pricing also rewards and encourages customers for sharing their data with you.
Customer expect to connect with their favorite retailers on their terms; when they are available and from the devices of their choice. As a result retailers are experiencing a lot of pressure to deploy online stores; unfortunately too many do this as a reactionary move and not part of a strategic move.
It is commonplace for customers to go to sites and get real time access to products and their availabilities from any device. Just think about the increase in “some product” stores near me searches in Google. Does your store appear with images that accurately represent the product and the quantities; as inventory is added or depleted from your POS system is your online store reflecting it. Does your Retail CRM aggregate customer and transactional data no matter where it happens? Does it make it available to online and offline stores easily.
Sounds complicated but it’s not, in fact any POS, Cart and CRM solution that you are using should be able to do this as a matter of fact, without much work on your end.
It’s true that most small and mid-sized operators are not doing future planning beyond the next order; however your retail CRM should be able to generate reports based on classification and attributes to not just determine what to buy buy for whom to buy it for.
In retailcloud for example our Grow and Pro users can filter product to 3 classifications and 5 attributes to determine with a fair amount of accuracy who is likely to buy new product; or to include a discount modeling to see who is likely to buy overstocked product. Your retail crm should help you minimize your investment in inventory at a product level which should free up investment in complementary inventory to increase units per transactions. Having a CRM that just stores the data is pointless, how can you utilize the crm to create personalized offers to customers, and to plan stock levels to meet your customer needs.
Retail CRM is a must have for retailers today, it does more than just give you a historical perspective of your transactional data; it should establish the relationships between the variables that affect sales and revenue; such as product mix, availability, trends etc.
Ideally it should provide tools to drive revenue growth, such as identifying tailored upsell opportunities or other methods to increase units per transaction, while helping identifying ideal product mix using overstocked and understocked algorithms.
Most crucially it should serve you all the information in a clear easy to digest and use manner , so all your operators have to do is act.
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.
We all know that a good retail POS system is hard to find. Yes, there are hundreds of solutions, but none of them really guarantees a full, quality and reliable service and functionality. There are several parameters that need to be overlooked and analyzed before selecting one final POS system solution.
The great point of sale software enables adding and handling of thousands of inventory items. On top of that, these items need to managed in multiple locations of the stores in order to achieve the goals. Be sure these two features are included in the POS system as they are crucial for any small business.
Another key feature of the ideal POS system is the ability to return defective or damaged products. These situations are frequent and having a software that can smoothly and automatically update these occurrences is a must.
Employee management is really important for small businesses. That is why the reliable, full-featured and quality POS system must include employee management. Ideally there needs to be an ability to track the working hours of the employees and possibly the progress of each task or project.
The order management of the point of sale software needs to be full-featured and versatile. This means that the ability to regulate multiple vendors, orders and stock levels need to be included and organized in an intuitive way. It also needs to include great calculation and analysis possibility and ability to create special orders directly into the purchase orders.
When you buy a POS software, the selling features need to be specially analyzed. The great software solutions, usually automate the process and simply enable you to follow the situation. Usually, the great POS software will integrate with automated promotions and enhance sales on a predefined time frame. The store functions and layout also need to be simplified and to include integration with barcode scanners, cash drawers and other important sell items. Which leads us to the next question.
Usually the companies that provide such software offer hardware products to completely secure you with a total package. Thus, you must look for the price and quality of these items. Don’t be fooled, the software can be affordable and cheap, but the hardware may be costly.
Smartphone and tablet point of sale can enable you access to your store and business from anywhere. They are great for progressing on the go and managing the things much better. However, problems can occur at any time, so when you search for the great POS, customer support is a must-have!
Finally, when you select 1-2 or two solutions, do a thorough online reputation research. Search for user reviews on Captera or other similar software review websites. Also, check the social media accounts of the software and find some feedback there. If all of the previous steps are done, you can be sure that you have the perfect POS system for your business.
A point of sale system is the lifeline of small business operations. A Point of Sale system used to be a very expensive and serious undertaking for a business to get this sort of system. But today that has changed thanks to advances in technology almost everyone can acquire and set up their POS systems very quickly. Today, small businesses don’t have to depend on the stand alone terminals to handle point of sale transactions. There is software in the market that can turn your computer or tablet into a point of sale terminal and it is easy and most of this software is free. Remember that having a good point of sale system means that you can get better insights into your business, and it can also help you keep track of what your customers prefer which in turn will help you boost sales magnificently. The best POS system should be affordable and easy to use. It should be integrated such that it can do more than just accept payments and process sales.
A good POS system must have an inventory management system or an inventory program. This will help you take a good look at your stock anytime you need it without having to go to the store. It should record how much of the stock is in the store and depending on the sales data; it should be able to estimate the period which that stock will last. Anytime the stock runs low, the point of sales system should alert you that you need to acquire more stock as soon as possible. The inventory management system should be up to date all the time to avoid issues of failure. Remember if an inventory management system fails, there is a risk of your retail business going out of stock without your knowledge. For the small business retailer, the inventory management system is not complicated and it is very easy to keep up with at all times.
Your retail business should always be safe stock wise if you are using a point of sale management system. The inventory program should look at the historical data of sales and use it to predict when a low stock condition might hit your retail business. It should also be able to create orders for replenishment on low stock conditions. Remember the point of sale might not be so complex as to send an order to the supplier directly. However, it will print out an order request for you asking you to order more stock before a particular time.
A retail business is best run by a point of sale management system. Don’t let your business run on the traditional stand-alone terminals. A POS system is a tool that will increase your sales revenue. Also based on the kind of system it is and how integrated the system is, it should be able to help you market the business increasing the number of customers.
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?
Everyday, consumers are constantly on the look-out for products that are new and sometimes old. With this in mind, merchants have to consistently update their inventory. This can be an extremely tedious task, especially if there are products going in and out of the store daily.
Managing inventory can be quite laborious, especially for small business owners as they would have to keep track of their products through maybe excel sheets. This can be quite exhausting since the merchant could be dealing with the inflow and outflow of products all at once. Organization of inventory is of ultimate significance because it helps calculate and keep track of the numerous point of sales that occur in a single day.
Keeping track of inventory for any small business retailer is a large single investment. Inventory management is crucial for small business POS because it helps the user understand which of their products are selling and which are not. With proper inventory management, the operator is allowed to keep their investment in a product at a minimum while providing a large range of options to their customer. Aside from keeping track of what products are selling and which are not, the merchant can also keep an eye out on the current retail trends at their POS. This can definitely aid in strategizing their small business more.
Currently, in order to help inventory management come at an ease for small business merchants, there are inventory softwares available, especially through the cloud. Using cloud inventory management software allows operators to see what is selling through multiple sources, such as in their brick & mortar stores, their web stores and mobile applications. Through this, users are able to manage and analyze their product mix from any location by using a secure software that can only be accessed by themselves!
One of the key aspects of retail cloud POS and inventory programs is to provide small business retailers with customer data that was inputted at the time the POS was established. Its secure inventory management software is able to collect customer data as well as everyday store activities that create an impact at small businesses. After collecting this information, the merchant can determine how he or she can better improve their sales and know what the current retail trend is.
Inventory management programs are critical for POS. If you are still managing inventory manually or through excel sheets, it is time for a new upgrade as times are certainly changing just as the inventory for your business.
Posted by Melvin Bright a guest blogger
Lеt’s fасе іt, rеtаіlеrs аrе busу. Ѕо busу іn fасt, thаt mаnу dоn’t make thе tіmе tо run rероrts аnd аnаlуzе thеіr busіnеss’s реrfоrmаnсе.
Тhіs іs а bіg mіstаkе, but іt’s nоt hаrd tо fіх. Runnіng rероrts dоеsn’t hаvе tо bе а hugе tіmе соmmіtmеnt еvеrу dау, wееk, оr mоnth. Іt dоеs hоwеvеr hаvе tо bе dоnе on a regular basis. Іf уоu’rе nоt runnіng rероrts аnd аnаlуzіng уоur busіnеss, уоu’rе аlmоst сеrtаіnlу wаstіng tіmе, mоnеу, аnd lоsіng sаlеs.
Ѕо, whаt rероrts shоuld уоu bе runnіng? Тhе trісk іs tо іdеntіfу thе mоst rеlеvаnt раrts оf уоur busіnеss tо уоur рrоfіtаbіlіtу, аnd tо analyze а fеw Κеу Реrfоrmаnсе Іndісаtоrs (ΚРІ) thаt wіll gіvе уоu а сlеаr рісturе оf уоur busіnеss’s реrfоrmаnсе wіthоut hаvіng tо plod thrоugh tоns оf dаtа.
Κеу Реrfоrmаnсе Іndісаtоrs аrе quаntіfіаblе mеаsurеmеnts, аgrееd tо bеfоrеhаnd, thаt rеflесt thе сrіtісаl suссеss fасtоrs оf a business. Тhеу wіll dіffеr dереndіng оn thе industry.
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I have been using the new POS now for a couple of days and the front end operations have been going well; today I focused on understanding the reports that came with Zero POS.
There are 18 reports that come with Zero POS in 6 different groupings (Sales, Inventory, Customers, Employee , Transactions, Warehouse), using my old system I was able to see sales reporting and SKU level sales activity data, but I was not able to get any data that provided me high level reporting. I wanted to see how the new reporting would help me make better day to day decisions on inventory and cash management.
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Our article, published in CIO Magazine November 2015
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According to various research reports, revenue from global retail PointOfSale (POS) terminals is growing at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR)of 13.37 percent. Such significant escalation indicates the growing acceptance of multichannel sales strategies including ecommerce, online advertising, and online product information, specifications, and comparisons. Despite the proliferation of latest POS technologies, “not every solution provider can effectively convert raw data into realtime actionable analytics,” begins Kevin Colaco, Founder and CEO, retailcloud. “Today’s highly evolved retailers seek an advanced POS solution that not only helps in sales enablement, but builds great customer experiences.”With these new touchpoints multiplying along path to purchase, the retail industry requires a dedicated partner capable of harmonizing the demands of both retailers and consumers. Fulfilling all of these requirements is retailcloud—a company that offers cloud-based POS solutions to enable Small and Medium Business (SMB)retailers increase sales, better managing inventory, and collect valuable data on customers’ shopping habits. “We specialize in blending cuttingedge technology with massive amounts of data to provide superior customer experiences,” says Colaco.
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The company offers three different POS applications that run on desktops, tablets, and smartphones. Apart from advocating flexibility to operate on disparate devices, the company’s applications could be used either on the floor or at the counter. “The presence of a cart with complete clienteling options makes our application absolutely useful,” expresses Colaco. Additionally, the applications are supported by Central Administrative Server (CAS),a powerful browser based portal which stores and consolidates the complete information of a merchant’s enterprise. The information includes data from distinct areas such as inventory, purchasing, consumer habits, and reporting functions. Besides these functionalities, CAS also possesses the ability to manage supply chain and predictive reordering practices of the firm. “The ability of our POS solutions to offer actionable information assists sales associates to improve operations and drive campaigns for low performing products,” explains Colaco.
Download the PDF of this Article
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Besides boosting sales operations, retailcloud leverages its domain expertise to mitigate the impediments faced by midsize businesses. “Most of the regular and medium size traders are bogged down by under performing Units Per Transaction (UPT),” remarks Colaco. retailcloud alleviates the challenge by providing realtime curated data to salespersons. “Our POS solutions provide relevant data at the point of sale and capacitate sales associates with improved margins, refined product mix, and increased UTP,” states Colaco.
Assisting the retail industry in similar ways, the company provides a holistic solution that facilitates an enterprise to launch a webstore with just a few clicks. The online store is subsequently connected to retailcloud’s backend server to garner realtime insights into stock levels. Such consistent support enables retail enterprises to update and manage inventory in a streamlined manner.
The company draws on its broad industry experience and hundreds of successful implementations to recommend retail enterprises with next best actions. Driven by its proficiency, the company has helped several customers thrive in their business environments. For instance, an online store capitalized on the prowess of retailcloud to increase their sales. “Our integrated POS solutions enabled the client to accumulate entire information in one centralized server and achieve real time actionable analytics,” extols Colaco. retailcloud plans to expand its geographical footprint by opening offices in five different continents. In addition, the company seeks to strengthen their global network by building dedicated partnerships in the retail arena. With such determined focus, retailcloud will continue to offer POS solutions that will ultimately results in promoting great customer experiences. “We believe in the power of customer relationship, as it turns browsers into buyers, and buyers into repeat customers,” Colaco ends on a strong note.
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A few months back we started deploying EMV devices and naturally most of our existing customers and new customers prefer to buy the future proof devices and started the transition. Since then one of the most sought features was to allow them to swipe gift cards on EMV terminals. TabPOS application is being updated and Gift Card Swipe feature on the EMV devices will be available for customers starting next week.
On the other hand if you do not use gift cards and would like to use start accepting giftcard in your store during this holiday season please contact support@retailcloud.com or visit here for more details.
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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…)
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