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POS Retail

Article | May 10, 2024

Retailers are rapidly adapting their businesses as covid-19 continues to hinder sales. The most successful are shifting towards online experiential retail. As a business owner, you’re probably hearing a lot of ways that small businesses can adapt to the changing times. The most common that we’ve seen are: Move your store online, or improve your online sales processes. Offer on-the-go product deals Shift product focus to hands-on usage and activities. While these are definitely great starting points, they aren’t really specific to any industry. We’ll cover different ways you can adapt your retail business using the tools from right within your Erply account. We’ll even cover examples specific to a variety of industries so you can be inspired to change up or improve your covid-19 sales strategies. The strategy: Adapting your retail business Retail adaptation can seem overwhelming at first, especially if you’ve never undergone large-scale product changes before. A good place to start to is to think: what would you want to see in a retailer during the covid-19 shutdown? Think about yourself as a consumer, not a store owner. Life might be slowing down, but it’s not coming to a standstill — you probably want to find more ways to maintain safe, healthy protocols when shopping for necessities, looking for gifts, or seeking entertainment. As a retailer, your customers will be looking to you for ways to do all of these, while also minimizing the risk of coming into contact with covid-19. There are plenty of creative ways to shift your business offerings to fit these fast-changing times. We’ll first give examples of how your existing Erply tools can be used to adapt your business, then will cover industry-specific examples. Create special deals Remember, short-term value translates into long-term customer relationships! Loyalty points Looking to boost sales without discounting your products? Try offering loyalty points at an increased rate to encourage shopper support during covid-19. Loyalty programs are a great way to encourage repeat business by incentivizing customers to repeatedly choose your store over competitors in exchange for rewards. Bundles and assemblies Product bundles and assemblies can be used to sell items together in a group. Product bundles can be used to sell large items together at a slightly discounted price or to help sell slow-moving inventory. Think subscription boxes, holiday-themed gift sets, or even items commonly purchased together. Promotions Seasonal, event-based, or brand collaborations; there’s never a bad time for a sales promotion! They’re a great way to encourage customer sales by offering enticing product discounts. Erply’s powerful promotions builder enables you to set up flat discounts, percent discounts, BOGO-type deals, and more. Price lists An alternative to promotions, price lists allow you to create highly specific discounts for any sales campaign. Price lists can target specific product groups, store locations, or even customer segments (think VIP pricing). Coupons Coupons can offer one-time, redeemable rewards. They tie into promotions, but aren’t available to every customer, only the ones who have a coupon or a coupon code. Improve customer service Customer service is more than just employee-to-customer interaction; it also includes accessibility and streamlined shopping. Buy online, pickup in-store Offer flexible, health-conscious ways for your customers to purchase products in your store. Our e-commerce options allow customers to buy products online, then purchase them in-store. Flexible retail tools mean you can offer a variety of pickup order options that suit the needs of you and your customers. Purchases can be paid in full, partially paid, or can be paid once the customer arrives for pickup. Offline mode for sales anywhere Covid-19 regulations might mean that you’re not able to sell out of your store as you normally would. Maybe you need to make sales on-the-go or from an outside location. Erply’s offline POS ensures that all sales are accounted for, even if you have no internet access. Once connection resumes, all sales data will sync up to your back office to keep your records accurate. The ability to make sales and perform basic POS actions without wifi connection means you can think up creative ways to service your customers outside of your physical store. Contactless payments Depending on your payment hardware, you may be able to accept contactless payments like NFC tap-to-pay, ApplePay, GooglePay, and SamsungPay. This allows you to offer flexible payment options for your customers, while also protecting them (and your employees) from physical contact. See if you own a contactless payment-enabled device. E-commerce for paid online classes and services Webstores are a great opportunity to boost sales when your physical store locations are closed or operating at limited capacity. Can’t sell your products in-store? Try demoing them online instead. Maybe you occasionally host in-store events. Those can be moved to the web, with an e-commerce solution to help you keep track of attendance (online passes can be sold for $0, if needed!) Right now, you can get set up with Shopify, WooCommerce, or ShopZ. Remote payments If you’re offering curbside pickup or phone orders, you can charge customers remotely through your payment processor. This can be done for curbside pickup phone orders, deliveries, or other unique payment processes that you might be implementing. Right now, customers using Global Payments (formally TSYS, Cayan) as their payment processor have access to theGenius Vault to charge customers remotely. Recurring billing If you’re setting up subscription services, you might want to set up recurring billing in your Erply account. Recurring billing automatically creates product invoices at set increments, which can be billed for any predetermined length of time. Erply does the hard work for you so you can focus on servicing your customers. Industry-specific retail adaptation ideas Below, we’ll list some industry-specific ideas on how you can adapt your retail business to the changing times. Be sure to check out all of the sections, even if an industry does not match your business, you might gain inspiration on how certain ideas can be adapted to your specific store! Most, if not all of these ideas can be implemented online or in-store. Be sure to contact our team if you need e-commerce set up on your Erply account, Remember, although people are spending more time indoors, those numbers will decrease as states open up and as the weather improves. Try to envision how your products can be used outdoors or during seasonal events while still adhering to social distancing policies. Fireworks stores Areas particularly affected by stay-at-home orders are seeing an increase in one-off fireworks usage, This will, of course, only increase as the weather warms up and we inch closer to summer holidays. Recommend setting up fireworks bundles to encourage sales, to new and existing customers. Starter packs can be used to help sell slower moving items and introduce new audiences to your store.. Depending on your state’s fireworks regulations, you might also want to set up subscription boxes, or a “fireworks of the month” bundle. Customers can pick up a box each month or sign up for delivery. Both options can take advantage of contactless payments or recurring billing. Finally, don’t forget to take advantage of promotions and coupons during those summer holidays to increase sales! Gardening stores Quarantined or not, your green-thumbed customers will still be looking for your expertise on plant care and gardening tips. We recommend providing online gardening classes with Q&A sessions. These can be paid for in your online store, which may also encourage customers to make additional online purposes. You also can set up bundle and assembly products in your Erply account to create planter kits or herb sets. Some gardening stores have been offering creative options too, such as a paint your own planter kit. Sports stores Sporting events might be cancelled, but that doesn’t mean your customers won’t have a need for your merchandise in the future. Warm weather encourages at-home practice, even if full on competitions are off the table. Now is a great time to take advantage of sales and coupons to keep inventory moving in preparation for season reopenings. These can come bundled with online training classes that give customers tips and tricks for different sport techniques, stretches, etc. Online video game sporting alternatives, like NBA 2K and FIFA, can be used to keep your customers engaged with your brand. Try partnering with local schools or recreational leagues to form online brackets, then charge online entry fees for players looking to participate. Arts and crafts shops The arts have seen a huge boom during state-wide quarantines. From therapeutic activities to creating artwork that supports good causes, such as Healthcare Heros or Rainbow Hunt, there’s a place for craft shops in every home. You might also want to consider bundling items that can be used to create drive-by signage. Online classes or video tutorials are a popular indoor activity that you can sell to your customers through an online webshop. Maybe your shop hosted paint and sip nights. You can either take these to the web, or provide customers with resources and ideas to host their own. Apparel stores Did you know that the color red is the hardest color to capture on photo and video? As more and more people adjust to working from home, promotions and coupons can be used to highlight webcam-friendly clothing and accessories. If you want to take on a more hands-on response to covid-19, you can try to repurpose inventory items to create protective face masks. What’s more, you can offer online classes on how to transform different clothing items into face masks. All of the above can be done using a basic e-commerce platform! Beauty brands Wellness is a huge focus during these coronavirus times, which means you can attract new customers by offering different wellness-themed bundles and packages. You may want to set up subscription boxes using Erply’s recurring billing tools. Brainstorm creative ideas for your products, such as webcam beauty tips for women and men. Bonus points if you can partner with actual customers or a local influencer and work a creative social hashtag to build a sense of community. You can even use coupon codes to encourage more of these sales, and commission an influencer from right within Erply.

POS Solutions, Ecommerce Merchandising

Article | June 7, 2024

Running a small business requires a tight eye on profits. More than likely, you will face scenarios in which you incur higher transaction fees you didn’t expect and could have avoided in the first place. Knowing how to navigate processing fees is a key part of your success. Whether you run a single location, a multi-location business, or even a mobile business, avoiding unnecessary fees should be part of the game plan. Unfortunately, less-than-reputable POS providers are out there, and understanding fees associated with taking payment from customers isn’t easy, but knowing what to look for will help. In this article, we cover fees to keep an eye on and how to save more on your processing fees. How To Avoid Paying Unnecessary Credit Card Processing Fees Unfortunately, if you want to accept credit and debit cards as a form of payment in your business, you’re going to experience processing fees. The financial benefits outweigh the transaction costs, but you can still save some money on your POS system and credit card processing. Negotiate Your Processing Fees The reason it can be so hard to understand the actual cost of processing fees is that many merchant service providers bury fees in the fine print, and these fees can come back to haunt you. In general, the more upfront a company is about all its charges, the more trustworthy and reliable they are because they have nothing to hide, and typically those rates will be fair. But it also helps to keep an eye on certain aspects of a contract. You can then negotiate them or repackage services to boost your profits. Transaction Fees: Choose The Right Plan When setting up your contract, you are given the option of a range of credit card pricing plans. Here are three of the most common pricing models. Interchange Plus Fee Pricing This option offers different transaction rates for different card types, bank issuers, methods of transactions, and more. By understanding these fees when processing transactions, you can benefit financially by encouraging the usage of certain cards or procedures that are least costly. Tiered Pricing In this scenario, you are charged different rates for different tiers created by your provider. It’s important to evaluate this option carefully because most transactions can fall into a less favorable tier rate. Flat-fee Structure Pricing This fee allows for one charge for card-present (CP) transactions and another for card-not-present (CNP) transactions, regardless of card type. This predictable, one-rate pricing model is easy to follow, allowing you to encourage a lower cents-per-transaction option and formulate special pricing deals. However flat-rate can sometimes come out as more expensive than interchange-plus pricing. How To Avoid Monthly PCI Compliance Charges A semi-regular fee many merchants run into is not falling in line with PCI Compliant in how they handle payment information. Being PCI compliant means maintaining important standards for customer data protection, and it is taken seriously. Compliance is required for major credit cards such as Visa and Mastercard and is becoming more popular as businesses continue to shift to online sales. Rule enforcement is most often the responsibility of payment processing companies. Your provider will charge you two fees: a PCI compliance fee – which is once a year – and a PCI non-compliance fee – which occurs every month you have not completed your yearly PCI Compliance audit. Providers are free to charge however much they like for each service, and it can range anywhere between $30-$99 a month. Monthly charges are done both directly or indirectly via higher monthly fees, processing rates, or both. In some cases, the charges begin months after originally signing up with the processors hoping you won’t keep a close eye on all your ongoing processing fees. As a merchant service provider, we at BNG Point-Of-Sale have a long and reliable history in helping our customers practice PCI Compliance within their business and avoid non-compliance fees. PCI Compliance is necessary and it does require some work by the processors, so the charges aren’t a hoax, but there are some ways to keep costs down: You can take on the responsibility of PCI Compliance yourself and forgo the processor’s fee; however, you will be on your own if issues arise. In today’s world of increasing e-commerce, it’s not recommended. You can prevent the risk of non-compliance fees by working with companies that handle compliance internally. If they (not you) are the source of customer purchasing data, they are automatically in charge of it. Square and PayPal are examples of companies that handle all PCI Compliance, and we often account for these services when onboarding our customers and annually remind them to follow PCI Compliance. At first glance, it may appear you are not charged by these companies for compliance and non-compliance, but in reality, compliance is still built into the standard fee for service; you just won’t see it specified. Still, you won’t be responsible for non-compliance fees since they own the data and are fully responsible for it. The amount of compliance required of your business depends on how you take in payment and store customer data. Since processors have numerous clients and prefer not to get specific about it, they may charge a basic fee to cover most issues. This means you could be overpaying, so it’s a good area to evaluate this price of the packaged service vs. when it is priced individually. There may be companies that don’t charge for compliance, but they are rare and may be suspect. In most cases, any free compliance is covered with higher fees in other areas. How To Avoid Chargeback Fees Chargeback fees should be avoided since they are more expensive than traditional transaction fees – especially if you are categorized as a “high risk” client. The first step is to avoid chargebacks in the first place. Chargebacks can be the result of sales errors by you and your team, a misunderstanding by the customer, or the result of identity theft. Here are some ways to combat each. Reduce Transaction Errors Know when to stop a transaction. If an error occurs, push the cancel/hold button inside the transaction. If you are unable to do this, the transaction has already been claimed by the processing company. Accurately process credits as credits and sales as sales. Receive an Authorization Approval Code (AAC) before running a transaction. Before batching your credit card processing at the end of the day, review all charges to verify all charges are correct and not duplicated. Keeping this as an active daily routine can prevent costly mistakes. Ensure shipped items arrive to the customer to avoid disputes. Select the “ship product to billing address” to alleviate data error. Keep Records Of Voids Provide records to your customer of any proof of voids and include companion documentation for any disputes showing details of each purchase. Decrease Risk Of Theft If your processor charges more for card-not-present transactions, which most do, it’s because the risk of theft is higher. By requiring a driver’s license and signature and doing manually keyed-in card payments in person rather than over the phone, you lower the risk and enjoy lower charges per transaction. Try to avoid non-qualified processing (when a card isn’t present or keyed or is missing billing information.) This type of processing is considered a high-risk factor, and processors charge accordingly. When Possible, Run Orders On Debit Cards Debit cards are considered a lower risk than credit cards and, in turn, the transaction rates are quite a bit less. This has mostly to do with the fact the purchase is a direct bank-to-bank transaction, but other factors make a difference such as PIN verification and signature requirements, bringing these purchases into a lower risk category. And typically the rates hold. You will still experience rate differences among debit cards related to how the purchases are conducted and who the issuing bank is. Special incentives such as loyalty programs for debit card users help to easily boost profits. A Final Thought On Keeping Processing Fees Low As you can see, several variables can affect your processing rates. From fines to the pricing model your merchant service provider recommends, there’s a lot to consider. As tempting as it can be to just try and find the cheapest option, be careful going with the lowest bidder. Remember, all POS and payment processing providers have to make some money to cover the costs of support their merchants. If you choose a processor with incredibly low fees, you run the risk of getting what you pay for when it comes to supporting your business. If you’re not sure if you’re overpaying on your processing fees and want a free analysis, let our team review your current monthly statements and we’ll let you know if you’re getting a good deal or not.

Ecommerce Merchandising

Article | March 18, 2024

While retail has faced its fair share of challenges over the last two years, the pandemic has also provided an opportunity for a long-overdue great retail reset, which could help many retailers move into a more stable—and profitable—position. To get there, you must balance short-term challenges with long-term commitments and transformational thinking. For nearly two years, predictions about the future of retail have appeared pessimistic, and retail headlines for 2022 don't look much better: empty store shelves, over one million unfilled retail jobs1, and surging inflation. However, these headwinds have resulted in some positive outcomes: retailers have been forced to re-examine legacy systems and strategies that have shaped the industry for years. To reap long-term and long-lasting benefits, retailers should continue down the remediation path they started at the start of the pandemic in 2022. Indeed, the next 12 months’ present opportunities to restructure obsolete supply chains, rightsize inventory management, review pricing, rebalance promotional cadences, and reinvent the physical store for the digital age. This will almost certainly necessitate entirely new ways of thinking and long-term commitments from retailers, but these efforts have the potential to forever change the way retailers do business. That future begins today by addressing short-term retail challenges with a long-term perspective. Three retail industry priorities and trends The resulting data, when combined with insights from 15 Deloitte retail subject-matter specialists, client work, and prior research, provides a snapshot of strategies and investment plans that help inform the industry's future. Reimagine the workforce Supply chain resiliency Digital revolution Retailers face significant challenges that will almost certainly outlast the pandemic, but there are also unexpected opportunities that can help them prepare for future disruptions. Retailers should embrace the current disruption and commit to a future pivot. To learn more, download our complete 2022 retail industry outlook.

Article | April 16, 2020

A retail POS system is a system that includes customer display, barcode scanner, receipt printer, cash drawer, monitor, computer, and debit/credit card reader. POS systems offer the functionalities of CRM to interact with the customers or integration with an existing CRM system, sending of email & text messages, loyalty reward program, updating contact records, and functions for setting an appointment.