Know Thy Customers

If embracing new technologies wasn’t enough of a challenge, today’s marketplace presents an increasingly difficult challenge to provide the right service to the consumers that shop within them. Given the penchant for being constantly connected, the consumers of today are more informed today than any previous generation, and therefore are requiring a different approach when it comes to ‘closing’ the proverbial sale. The retailer is faced with a consumer that is often more informed about a given product than most of the staff within the stores they are shopping.

Understanding and knowing our customers is key to moving forward in retail. This seems like common sense, however, being something that we take for granted it is very easy to become complacent about this simple fact. The old adage, “I ‘know’ my customers!” only holds true if you bottom line backs up that statement. Do you really know them? Do you know what they are saying about this season’s lines? Do you know what they are saying about your store? Do you know where they are having all of these discussions? If not, the time to begin finding out is now, and the answer lies within Social Media!

Social media isn’t just a buzz-word any longer. When was the last time you heard a media spot that didn’t mention Twitter or Facebook? Social Media is one of the key manners in which consumers are being driven toward the latest trends and the latest sales on the hot items. These communication forums are commonplace and it is all but assumed that you as a retailer have some means of working within them. Whether you are using it to build a community or extend and expand your loyalty programs it should be high your list of importance this year.

Simply put, retail isn’t immune to this cultural and communication shift. Embracing twitter, Facebook, or any of the other common social media avenues is key to maintaining the relationship between the retailer and the technology savvy consumer. It will help us build and foster the idea of a community around your stores, and ultimately drive the consumer to purchase the “OMG” item from your store over the retailer who isn’t participating.

At this year’s NRF ‘Customer Centricity’ did not stop at the lines drawn around Social Media. Much was discussed on the power of making the consumer feel like they are part of the whole retail process. As most of us are consumers ourselves it is not too difficult to understand the importance of feeling like we are not just a number on a bottom line when we are shopping. It is critical a retailer has as much detail about their customers as possible. Knowing what they have purchased previously, what trends they are partial to, or simply when they were last in is key to making them feel needed and more importantly like they matter – They are the center of retail.

The consumers of today do not always adhere to the traditional methods of marketing and sales strategies. We must adapt. We must change and begin to embrace the technologies available to us to mold the customer experience back to one where the consumer feels they are part of the process akin to that of the shopping experiences of the ‘50s era or the old-world marketplaces. Technology used in the right doses and manner will make the transitions to this new era of retail a painless one.

Retail Mobility

Hot on the heels of RFID, is the drive for all things mobile in retail. Mobile is hot. Mobile is sexy. We live our lives around mobile devices. So, it makes perfect sense that our consumer-driven lifestyles would dictate that those mobile devices could be used in retail.

Mobile Point of Sale is the new thin-client.

Retailers in their drive to provide the ultimate shopping experience are mandating that their retail management systems operate in a mobile capacity. The consumer’s daily utilization of mobile devices is driving this mandate at a staggering rate. Smaller alternatives to the monolithic POS systems we have all become used to over the years are popping up at every corner, but they are still not “Mobile”.

To be truly mobile with respect to retail, the retailer needs to be able to bring the POS system to the customer and not be bound by a rat’s nest of wiring typically found under the counters, counters which in a mobile retail environment can be used for better purposes like product display. Advances in wireless technology, decreased wireless network costs, and utilization of long-established methodologies of thin-client means a POS system can be delivered with lighter system requirements, ultimately lowering the hard costs for the retailer and allowing them to interface with their customers on a much more intimate level.

Mobile retailing isn’t just limited in its use as a replacement for the wired POS systems in today’s B&M stores. Mobile consumerism is also driving the need for “mobile” retailing. Consumers of today are heavily driven by their abilities to gather information quickly and purchase with minimal fuss. Mobile allows them the freedom to purchase from nearly anywhere at any time. For this reason it’s equally important that retailers consider how “mobile” can server their needs outside their B&M stores.

New methods of marketing to the modern consumer are cropping up daily. Companies like Wishpond (www.wishpond.com), are delivering new ways for consumers to locate products in nearby stores. Leveraging mobile platforms with these technologies is empowering the retailer to reach out to nearby consumers with coupons and targeted sales drawing those consumers to their B&M or web-based store fronts.

The possibilities of mobile retailing are virtually endless and only limited by how quickly we can integrate the mobile philosophy into the retailing environment. It’s an exciting time for retailers to say the least, and fulfilling this niche is paramount to maintaining the consumer relationship.

Next week – the trend report that is all about the consumer – Know Thy Customer.

In the wake of the global economic woes of the recent years, it is all but expected the retailer will need to adapt to a new consumer and refocus to push through and maintain their businesses. The modus operandi of today’s retailer needs to be shaken up.

Each year our industry is treated to the latest and greatest in technology and retail trends from industry leaders at the National Retail Federation’s annual “Big Show”. 2011 was no different with the NRF putting on the 100th anniversary of the Big Show.

One could write a novella to cover all of the products and technology which are showcased at NRF to improve the retailer’s abilities to service their customers well. Unfortunately we don’t have the space for all of those ones and zeros. Instead we found three key trends to have been echoed unanimously across the sea of technology and products, improving the management of merchandise in one’s store(s), leveraging today’s mobile platforms, and most importantly Customer Centricity.

RFID Managed Inventory

The single most important requirement of every retailer is simple – Sell! Without goods to sell retail is pretty much non-existent. Therefore, knowing how much stock you have and more importantly where that stock is becomes extremely important in day-to-day operations. The adoption of the retail management system has made handling this task much simpler when compared to the inventory management methods of yesteryear. Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is the next game changing tool for the management of a retailer’s inventory.

RFID has been in use for many years, and is common place in many industries. The transportation industries have been using RFID since the mid 90’s, and most recently the banking industries have adopted RFID for point of service payments. In general though, the costs associated with its use have limited the markets where RFID can be used effectively.

In 2010, however, RFID has seen a major resurgence. The formation of an international standard, decreased cost for the equipment and tags necessary, and reliability of nearly 99.9% has made RFID technology a reality for all retailers. Retail giants like Macy’s, Wal-Mart, and The Gap are actively working to make RFID the way merchandise is handled within their store operations.

The implementation and use of RFID will drive inventory accuracy to levels never before seen by the retailers across the globe. At the NRF Big Show Peter Sachse, CMO of Macy’s Inc. and Chairman and CEO of Macy’s.com, praised RFID for taking inventory accuracy from 60-70% to nearly 95% in its locations which have implemented RFID for inventory management. Given increases of this magnitude, the ROI, it sells itself.

Retail is ready for RFID. Make sure you are as well.

Stay tuned for part 2, on Mobile Trends

Retail Pro’s flagship retail management software product, Version 9.2, extends its global leadership as both a store management and point of sale solution, combined with multi-national headquarters management, merchandising, inventory management, customer relationship and consolidation capabilities.  While the robust feature set in Retail Pro is well established, Retail Pro International, LLC. continues to invest heavily in R&D as evidenced in their latest release: R3.

Retail Pro Version 9.2 R3 enhances a wide range of areas within the product, including overall performance and ease-of-use improvements. However, this is not just a maintenance release – it includes a host of features the diverse Retail Pro customer base can readily exploit.

The features begin with enhancements to customer management, including faster customer lookups and results sorting, along with better allocation, assignment and communication capabilities between regions and districts. Users are also now able to selectively define which fields are required vs. optional. The inventory management area has also been enhanced with additional security features and an improved physical inventory counting process.

In support of Retail Pro’s advanced capabilities for managing complex corporate structures and organizational hierarchies (including franchises), the intercompany transfer area has been enhanced. Retail Pro is also well known for its ability to accommodate a wide variety of external system integrations and advanced reporting and analytics. The new DataStor product allows these extensions to operate at maximum efficiency through affordable and seamless integration with a standalone instance of the Retail Pro database.

Retail Pro’s extensive fraud control and overall operational visibility have also been enhanced with advanced database auditing and added security for certain transactions and operations (adjustment memo reasons, UPC creation, serial type assignment and others).

Retail Pro version 9.2 R3 also adds three new links to popular accounting systems, along with a next generation integrated high-performance payment processing engine, and support for a variety of additional peripheral devices. In addition, an improved licensing capability enables specific features to be licensed so that alliance partners can more readily extend the Retail Pro suite to address industry specific vertical markets.

Finally, the already extensive reporting suite included with Retail Pro has been extended and enhanced.

Individually, these enhancements are all exciting; together, they’re a testimony to Retail Pro’s forward thinking leadership and commitment to ongoing product R&D investment.

For more information, please see: http://www.retailpro.com/RequestMoreInformation.php

Retail Pro International, LLC (RPI) is committed to providing the highest quality products and support for our Retail Pro resellers and customers. This includes support for the latest editions of Microsoft’s Windows operating systems, including Windows 7™. As new Retail Pro products are released, RPI will continue to make appropriate announcements and publish updates to ensure compatibility with the latest generations of the Windows operating systems.

What does Windows 7 compatibility mean for Retail Pro?
Windows 7 compatibility is defined as the ability to install/load and operate the Retail Pro core product (Small Business, Merchant, Global, Global Enterprise, and DataStor) on a computer running the Windows 7 operating system.

Which Retail Pro solutions are Windows 7 compatible?
The Retail Pro 9 suite of products (version 9.2 R2 and later), including Small Business, Global, Global Enterprise, and DataStor editions are compatible with Windows 7 Professional, both 32 bit and 64 bit editions.

The Retail Pro 8 suite of products (version 8.6 and later), including Shop, Small Business, and Merchant editions are compatible with Windows 7 Professional 32 bit Edition. Windows 7 Professional 64 bit Edition is not supported for use with the Retail Pro 8 products. Compatibility issues which are concretely found to be caused through the use of RP8 and Windows 7 Professional 32 bit Edition (as validated by RPI) will be considered for remedy by RPI. In some cases a fix may not be possible within Retail Pro 8 platform, in which case Retail Pro 9 should be considered for use as an alternative.

It is important to note that some ancillary tools based on legacy development platforms may not have been tested for compatibility with Windows 7. In these cases the ancillary tools are provided on an as-is basis.

RPI does not recommend the use of, nor support the use of Microsoft’s Windows Home Premium or Home Basic editions with either Retail Pro 9 or 8.

Important Note: Not all hardware drivers are Windows 7 compatible, and in some cases drivers which are Windows 7 compatible are not 64 bit compatible. It is the customer’s responsibility to verify that all software and hardware devices being used with their Retail Pro products are Windows 7 compatible or 64 bit compatible when a 64 bit operating system is being utilized. Under no circumstance will Retail Pro International, LLC be responsible for 3rd party software applications and/or hardware components that are not Windows 7 and/or 64 bit compliant.

Do I need to upgrade my Retail Pro software to be compatible with Windows 7?
Only Retail Pro 9.2 R2 and Retail Pro 8.6 or later releases are considered Windows 7 compatible. A Retail Pro release prior to these versions will need to be updated to support the Windows 7 operating system.

How do I upgrade my Retail Pro software to be compatible with Windows 7?
Upgrading your Retail Pro software is a simple process, but it does require active software assurance. We highly recommend you consult your authorized Retail Pro Reseller to determine the best migration path to make your Retail Pro software Windows 7 compatible.

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