POS Solutions
Article | April 4, 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.
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POS Solutions
Article | March 18, 2024
Introduction
Due to the dynamic nature of the industry and the ever-evolving demands of its customers, restaurant business owners are facing a unique set of challenges. This is compelling them to streamline their operations to meet customers' rising expectations while maintaining perfect control over all aspects of their establishment.
In addition, emerging innovative technology solutions are rapidly changing the world of payment systems, and the restaurant industry is the best example of it. Today, opening a restaurant is more than just serving food and making money. It is about providing a memorable experience to the customers and retaining them. As a robust restaurant point-of-sale (POS) solution assist in delivering a better customer experience, pacing up the ordering process, and managing inventory, among others, it is gaining huge popularity in the sector.
Why Does Restaurant Need to Invest in Modern POS Systems Today?
As the trends of online food ordering at dine-in and competition in the hospitality industry continue to deepen, it is becoming imperative for restaurant owners to efficiently manage the point of sale for their eatery. Also, the growing need for faster customer food service, efficient employee scheduling, and effective inventory management is encouraging business owners to adopt innovative restaurant technologies, such as restaurant POS systems. Here are some of the main reasons restaurants should integrate modern POS solutions.
Effective Ordering Processes
The ordering process, being the nerve center for restaurants, is one such aspect that needs serious attention. As food ordering processes that take a long time can significantly hamper the customer experience and satisfaction, owners of food establishments are aiming at leveraging novel restaurant POS systems to streamline and ease the food ordering processes.
Increase Cash Flow
Optimum cash flow is the backbone of any business. If restaurants are unable to maintain enough cash flow, they will have difficulties staying in business in the long run. Since restaurants are able to serve more customers per hour with fast-paced POS technology, allowing for greater sales and increased cash flow, business owners are aiming to deploy these modern POS solutions.
Organize and Track Profit and Loss
Keeping an accurate track of the income and expenses is of great importance for understanding the financial position of the eatery and creating an effective strategy to increase its revenue. A POS system can assist business owners in preparing a settlement at the end of each day, week, and month, keeping track of the ROI, and organizing profit and loss.
Offer Security to Customers
Customers or guests are increasingly using various cashless modes for transactions, such as credit cards, online banking, and others, for making payments. With increasing instances of customer data theft, guests are increasingly concerned about their data privacy and payment credentials. Hence, several food establishments are emphasizing embracing restaurant POS software to offer enhanced security to customers.
Build Customer Database
In today's highly competitive world, engaging and retaining customers is crucial for the success of businesses, especially in the restaurant industry. As the latest POS solutions aid restaurants in enhancing customer communications and loyalty, along with improving customer relationship management by building a customer database, these solutions are increasingly being sought in the sector.
The Ending Thought
With the emergence of innovative trends in the hospitality industry and the ever-changing needs of customers, it is becoming difficult for restaurant owners to keep the customers happy and build credibility in the long run. Since modern restaurant POS systems with advanced integrated technologies, such as artificial intelligence, can assist these restaurants in overcoming these obstacles along with providing numerous advantages, including cost reduction and increased ROI, these systems are anticipated to become a necessity for restaurants in the coming years.
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POS Retail
Article | May 10, 2024
Savvy retailers partner with leading marketplace software providers to dominate the digital marketplace with unified retail. Read the article to unlock the ingredients of successful retailing.
Contents
1. Unified Retail Management: The Inducer of Selling Prowess
2. Multichannel Versus Unified Commerce in Retail
3. Unlocking Operational and POS Success with Unified Retailing
4. Top Companies Dealing in Unified Retailing Software
4.1 Tackle.io
4.2 Anchanto
4.3 Logicbroker
4.4 JungleWorks
4.5 Appscrip
4.6 NuORDER
4.7 CS-Cart
4.8 AppDirect
4.9 Convictional
4.10 Mirakl
5. Summing Up
1. Unified Retail Management: The Inducer of Selling Prowess
Unified retail management is a distinct approach to retailing that involves managing diverse retail operations, from inventory management to checkouts, through a single, integrated system. By ensuring personalized shopping experiences, offering impressive integration with POS systems and checkout options, and simplifying digital marketplace processes, the unified approach benefits B2B businesses in many ways, transforming them into true selling prowess.
Over 66% of all software spending in retail is now focused on the concept of unified commerce.
[Source: Research and Markets]
With the apparent shift toward unified retail management, businesses adopting this approach today hold a competitive edge in the market. A single, integrated system comprising marketplace optimization tools helps them streamline operations, enhance productivity, reduce manual work, and gain greater visibility into their activities.
2. Multichannel Versus Unified Commerce in Retail
Representing different strategies in the retail sector, both multichannel and unified retail management approaches aim to offer customers an exceptional shopping experience, enhancing loyalty and satisfaction. While multichannel retail management involves maintaining and managing diverse sales channels, a unified approach combines them to ensure a uniform customer experience across all touchpoints.
A prominent distinction between the two is their respective points of focus. Notably, the unified approach focuses on rendering consistent customer experiences, while the multichannel approach aims to ensure a harmonious appearance of the brand. Yet, unlike the complex infrastructure that the multichannel platform entails, a unified retail management software consolidates all retail operations on a single platform, overcoming operational inefficiencies and data inconsistencies that can emerge in the former approach. The simplicity of the unified software further ushers in the desired agility in operations and decision-making prowess. Significantly, with features like consolidated platforms and real-time data synchronization, which are hard to find in a multichannel platform, unified commerce software limits the chances of discrepancies and errors, elevating business growth and profits.
3. Unlocking Operational and POS Success with Unified Retailing
As customer expectations shift and the retail environment matures, businesses worldwide are increasingly implementing unified retail management for enhanced POS strategies and peak financial gains. This transition ensures that separate channels don’t usher in frustrations with inconsistencies in customer experiences. Importantly, with online marketplace optimization tools for unified retailing, B2B businesses further stand to bridge potential gaps, unlocking operational and POS excellence, marked by:
● High Operational Efficiency
Unified retail management systems streamline various retail operations, including merchandising, marketing, and customer relations, combining different aspects of retailing to reduce manual work and increase overall operational efficiency. It further improves inventory management and ensures that overstock situations at POS are averted.
● Process Simplification for Better Customer Experiences
Whether it is simplifying crucial processes such as easy returns or ensuring seamless transactions via faster checkout and payment options, unified retail management builds trust and loyalty among customers by rendering them hassle-free experiences across all digital marketplaces and touchpoints.
● Integrated POS and Effortless Checkouts
In a unified approach, efficient transaction processing is made possible by effortlessly integrating the POS system with inventory management. This allows real-time updates of inventory levels and integrated reporting for better decision-making. It also lets businesses add effective self-checkout options, encouraging higher purchases and seamless checkout experiences.
● Better Insights and Visibility
With unified retail management systems, retailers gain greater visibility into their operations, as data and analytics are centralized. This centralization enables them to optimize POS strategies and view real-time information on variables like sales performance, customer behaviors, and stock levels.
● Personalized Selling
Unified retail management systems easily consolidate customer data from different sources into a single, centralized database, allowing for personalized selling. They also enable B2B businesses to implement dynamic pricing, offer tailored recommendations at POS, and carry out targeted promotions based on such data, cultivating stronger customer relationships and overcoming inconsistencies.
Companies that grow faster drive 40 percent more of their revenue from personalization than their slow-growing counterparts.
[Source: McKinsey]
● Cost Saving
Despite the initial investment, a transition to unified retailing promises marketplace optimization tools, which increase cost efficiency, curtail manual errors, and reduce the costs associated with handling separate channels and systems.
● E-commerce Integration
Unified retail management software easily integrates with e-commerce platforms. It allows retailers to manage online storefronts, align data across different channels, and process online orders, ensuring smooth functioning and optimum profits.
● Omnichannel Capabilities
With a unified approach, retailers could further organize omnichannel marketing campaigns, providing consistent offers, pricing, and messages across multiple touchpoints. This would also ensure customers get personalized recommendations at POS and promotions, regardless of their chosen channel.
● A True Competitive Advantage
From enhanced flexibility and customer experience to robust security and supply chain resilience, the unified approach renders a true competitive advantage to retailers, enabling them to become industry leaders and grow their customer base effectively.
4. Top Companies Dealing in Unified Retailing Software
With business optimization at the core, leading marketplace software providers are empowering businesses to attain success with the unified retailing approach.
Here’s a list of the top companies that are rendering forward-looking unified retail solutions to businesses:
4.1 Tackle.io
Founded by industry veterans, Tackle.io is a unified retail software provider that aims to simplify B2B software retail processes. Considering the present-day cloud era, Tackle.io offers an impressive platform to businesses, rendering them high earnings potential from cloud marketplaces and allowing them to launch products quickly without wide-ranging engineering resources.
Offering a comprehensive Cloud GTM platform, Tackle.io aims to support various aspects of cloud-generated revenue for enterprise-level businesses, including co-selling and marketplace integration. It employs a data-driven approach to enhance customer satisfaction and increase profits. Significantly, its easy integration with hyperscale cloud ecosystems simplifies partner collaborations and automates co-selling workflows.
4.2 Anchanto
Facilitating online sales and shipping for retailers, brands, and logistics companies, Anchanto is a notable unified retail management software provider headquartered in Singapore. The company offers a comprehensive technology stack to businesses and streamlines their retail operations through solid integration capabilities, data analytics, post-purchase services, etc., enabling them to achieve operational excellence.
The company boasts advanced SaaS technology to offer retailers scalability, cost-effectiveness, and regular updates. Furthermore, with impressive integration with more than 150 POS systems, global marketplaces, ERPs, and web stores, Anchanto allows for real-time data access and enhanced decision-making. Correspondingly, it renders customized solutions to 3PL businesses and eliminates customers’ WISMO queries, ensuring high customer loyalty.
4.3 Logicbrocker
Logicbroker is a leading multi-vendor commerce solution provider that links trading partners seamlessly, regardless of their integration methods. Offering a wide range of products, the company helps retailers enhance their brand presence by fostering connections and managing operations. Predominantly, the solution provider serves mid-market and enterprise manufacturers and retailers in different industries, including consumer electronics, health and wellness, home improvement, etc.
The company’s distinct product onboarding center cuts down manual tasks, while its dropshipping solution helps retailers widen their product range without requiring additional warehousing space. Furthermore, with tools for more straightforward payment processing, split payments, dispute resolution, visibility, and control, the solution provider supports business development, ensuring security and regulatory compliance, including CCPA, SOC, and GDPR standards.
4.4 JungleWorks
JungleWorks is a notable unified retailing software provider that renders no-code solutions to businesses wishing to manage hyperlocal operations like on-demand delivery or home services. It offers various solutions for faultless on-demand operations of companies of all sizes, from establishing online marketplaces to facilitating transactions and managing logistics.
The company aims to help on-demand service providers foster enhanced customer engagement through personalized marketing campaigns and omnichannel capabilities. It streamlines fleet operations, ensuring robust vehicle tracking and monitoring of real-time driver activities. It also provides headless e-commerce solutions, enabling businesses to leverage limitless API-driven integrations and customization options.
4.5 Appscrip
Powering mobile-first business models, Appscrip is a technology solution provider that caters to diverse businesses such as social, on-demand, shopping, messaging, discovery, etc., facilitating their technology management and modernizing their businesses through augmented reality, IoT, and telematics. With scalable, aesthetically appealing mobile apps, the solution provider is helping retailers expand their businesses by focusing on their products and ensuring high customer satisfaction.
Correspondingly, the comprehensive solution provider offers end-to-end IT and development services to retailers, helping businesses through the whole product development cycle, from ideation to implementation. Furthermore, with its specialization in mobile-first models, dedicated POD teams, and impressive tech stack, it prioritizes user experiences, enabling businesses to launch their products rapidly, scale their businesses, and ensure high customer engagement through an intuitive interface.
4.6 NuORDER
Lightspeed, a leading B2B platform provider, offers the NuORDER solution to businesses, which carries the right ingredients for retailing success. The comprehensive NuORDER software promises users compelling features like integrated payment solutions and virtual showrooms, simplifying wholesale transactions for brands and retailers worldwide. Acquired by Lightspeed in 2021, the software further facilitates automated workflows and data-driven decisions for B2B selling with integrations with over 120 POS systems, ERP, and PLM. Moreover, through its impressive attributes, NuORDER streamlines retail operations, allowing retailers to optimize inventory allocation, view unified catalogs, and work with teams across diverse brands and stores.
The company’s strong suit lies in its ability to facilitate data-driven decision-making, allowing error reduction, enhanced control, and better business outcomes. With the platform’s easy compatibility with chain stores, department stores, and online retailers, NuORDER renders solutions for diverse retail environments, increasing order efficiency and fine-tuning range plans across all stores and departments.
4.7 CS-Cart
CS-Cart is a leading e-commerce software that provides businesses with a self-hosted multivendor solution. Its open-source architecture allows retailers to customize and scale their e-commerce websites and caters to SMEs and enterprises. The solution has distinct features like payment dependencies and vendor-to-admin payments, which renders an excellent POS experience.
Furthermore, the company offers tools for automating tasks, handling marketplace workflows, optimizing order processing and product management, and simplifying seller onboarding, which boost sales and augment retail operations. The company also provides easy integration with over 70 payment gateways and diverse payment options, implements comprehensive security measures, and ensures compliance with industry standards like GDPR and PCI DSS.
4.8 AppDirect
Headquartered in San Francisco, AppDirect is a cutting-edge B2B subscription commerce platform provider that connects technology advisors, businesses, and providers to simplify retail processes associated with technology solutions. Correspondingly, the company aims to help enterprises collaborate successfully and gain high efficiency in the B2B technology sector.
Notably, AppDirect's software offers multiple features to retailers, including a custom cloud marketplace, advanced merchandising tools, fast checkouts with diverse payment options, industry-specific solutions, and a catalog of over 300 pre-integrated SaaS and IaaS providers, which ensure tailored online marketplaces for businesses for enhanced customer experience and strong brand presence.
4.9 Convictional
Recognized as a leading modern dropship platform provider, Convictional helps established retailers launch new dropship, cross-selling, and marketplace programs. With advanced tools for marketplace dominance, robust vendor management, and integration capabilities, it allows retailers to onboard and dropship with various brands, ensuring quicker assortment growth, limited onboarding time, and increased online sales.
Convictional further allows retailers to expand their product range quickly without manual efforts and ensure smart decisions through data-driven insights. The company’s software boasts impressive collaboration tools, encouraging transparency and establishing a win-win situation for retailers and suppliers. Its impressive attributes also include automated payouts with flexible payment options, making for smooth invoicing and greater customer convenience.
4.10 Mirakl
Founded in 2012, Mirakl is a leading technology partner promising digital growth to businesses worldwide through its innovative features. The company offers unmatched expertise and assistance to retailers through its comprehensive solutions for all operations, from implementation to development. With the ability to manage millions of API calls, SKUs, and stock updates, Mirakl promises retailers seamless digital business advancements and optimum profits.
The company further boasts an impressive retail media experience, enabling businesses to monetize their platforms through targeted advertising. From launching platform businesses to maximizing product ranges, Mirakl effectively empowers enterprises to enhance their digital presence through impressive marketplace and dropship solutions. It also renders tailored solutions to industry-specific retailers, including fashion, grocery, health and beauty, and so on.
5. Summing Up
Unified retail management promises B2B businesses the ability to outperform competitors in the market, serving as a driving force behind enhanced selling competencies. From ensuring excellent customer experiences to streamlining operations and enabling data-driven decision-making, the marketplace software platform for unified retail empowers businesses by increasing their efficiencies, reducing costs, and helping them meet their business goals. Importantly, with the retail sector quickly transforming, companies investing in unified retail management software firmly set themselves up for sustained growth and business excellence in the digital marketplace.
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