See how one Retail Pro retailer is growing their operations and the 4 must-haves for retail expansion today.
Then – book your NRF meeting to talk with us in person about how Retail Pro can help you optimize your retail as you grow.
Author Archives: Monica Quinn
How to Unify Commerce
Last week we invited you to meet with us at NRF to discover optimized retail with Retail Pro.
Let’s count down the final weeks before NRF with tips on HOW to optimize your retail operations, in step with market trends and proven strategies of retailers using Retail Pro.
Then – book your NRF meeting to talk with us in person about how Retail Pro can help you optimize and unify your commerce profitably.
7 Retail Resolutions for 2017
As 2017 quickly approaches, here are 7 New Year’s resolutions for retailers to consider.
1
I will think of and connect all our digital and physical channels as one whole so we can unify commerce.
2
I will use our retail data to plan inventory better so customers always get what they want and I always sell down to zero.
3
I will reach higher to grow my business, whether that’s expanding my merchandise, my team, my tech, or my operations – globally.
4
I will use my retail management tech to its full capacity to automate more and operate more efficiently.
5
I will leverage mobile POS to liberate my sales staff from bondage to the cash register, and empower them to better engage our customers and sell more with hyper-relevant data insights.
6
I will attend to my most important customers better and create a smooth and consistent experience however they choose to shop with our brand.
7
I will optimize retail.
Keep your 2017 resolutions with Retail Pro
Visit Retail Pro at NRF booth #4025 Jan 15-17!
For more than a decade Retail Pro has been an NRF show-favorite. Some years were highlighted by innovation ideas, others with launches of products that are well ahead of their time.
This year, our goal is to help you settle the dust on industry hype.
Get a stop at booth 4025 on your calendar to see how with Retail Pro you can optimize your operations and profitably unify commerce.
The Next Gen Store: Achieving Omnichannel with Retail Pro®
Retail has gone through a major paradigm shift over the past few years. How stores predominantly function, with in-store and digital shopping experiences existing as separate entities, is fast becoming an outdated, inefficient model.
Innovative retailers are finding great value in treating their operations holistically and are busy implementing initiatives that add value for the shopper, improve the customer-to-brand interaction, and make products more readily available.
Now retailers have a turnkey way to build omnichannel fulfillment into their store operations with the Retail Pro retail management software platform – and we’re showing you how!
• See what retailers stand to gain from melding brick and mortar with digital
• Discover achievable, measurable ways to tackle omnichannel
• Find out how the Retail Pro and UniteU partnership can help retailers offer flexible fulfillment options like Buy Online Pickup In-Store
Going omnichannel?
Request a demo to see how you can go omnichannel with Retail Pro® today!
How to fight payment fraud in your retail store with Retail Pro® and Cayan®
As a retailer in the US, you play a major part in protecting your customers against payment fraud. But you aren’t alone in the fight. The Retail Pro and Cayan team helps you keep customer data safe.
Ensuring retail success in the post-peak era
Retailers have been pushing to extend peak seasons like Christmas to gain more sales, but modern consumers shop on their own schedule and retailers must adapt and cater to their off-season needs.
By Kerry Lemos, CEO, Retail Pro International
Christmas coming earlier every year might be a cliché for most people, but for the retail industry it’s a simple fact.
We’re already seeing retailers prepare for the festive season, identifying the key products that will be this year’s must-haves and gearing up their Christmas campaigns.
This is very much in line with the traditional retail business models built around spikes in activity brought on by peak shopping periods. With stock piled high and temporary recruits boosting numbers on the shop floor, activity can be ramped up for a few weeks before returning to normal levels.
In recent years, however, these peaks have become much less well-defined.
Take Christmas, for instance. The season now covers much more than just a few weeks. It now spans the extended period from the build-up to Thanksgiving through to Black Friday, Cyber Monday and the January sales, where some retailers might hope to do half of their annual business.
This period of retail chaos means retailers are in direct competition for the same limited number of festive shoppers for an increasing amount of time, with both shoppers’ attention and supply chains becoming squeezed.
A new world
At the same time, Christmas is no longer the only peak period retailers need to be aware of.
In the UK, the growth of festivals such as Eid, Diwali and the Chinese New Year has introduced new periods that retailers may need to prepare for. Beyond these major festivals, there are other times of the year that could be seen as a peak period to some, or all, of the population, from the first day of spring to the beginning and end of the summer holidays.
What all of these periods show is that many retailers’ approach to consumers needs to change. Customers cannot be treated as a single mass who all shop at the same time, in the same way, and for the same things.
Focusing attention on a single, defined peak period is a strategy that retailers must move on from: individuals have their own approach to shopping, and as such have developed their own personal peak shopping periods.
Giving the public what they want
The question for retailers then is, how do they support these individual peak periods without losing the ability to maximize the potential of established shopping seasons?
Here are 3 actions retailers can take that will tip the odds in their favor.
Cross channels
We haven’t just seen an evolution in when people shop, but in how they shop. Customers won’t restrict their peak shopping period to simply visiting a select number of brick-and-mortar stores.
On the other hand, few consumers will do a hundred percent of their shopping online, instead welcoming the opportunity to browse for certain items in the flesh. Retailers should ensure these customers have a seamless experience, whether shopping online or in-store, with access to the same information and interactions however they purchase their products.
Ideally, a customer should be able to begin their shop in-store and complete it online, or vice versa, in a consistent, omnichannel exchange.
Map the landscape
With “peak” periods becoming more of a constant presence, it’s important that retailers understand exactly when these periods happen.
For instance, the Christmas period now begins in November and ends in January; but within this, there are individual days which show still-increased activity or relative slowdowns.
Not only this, but retailers must decide how they switch to peak periods; does activity accelerate overnight, or is there a slow build-up and deceleration to ensure they can attract shoppers who are operating on a slightly different timetable?
Build profiles
While predicting and supporting the shopping habits of every single individual is beyond the reach of retailers, they should still ensure they have categorised how their customers behave in peak periods and act accordingly.
For example, what proportion of shoppers do their holiday shopping early, and which wait until the last minute? How many spread their shopping across the whole period, and how many spend everything on one or two occasions? And when exactly do their customers flock to the store?
Using this information, retailers can build profiles of their customers and anticipate their needs throughout the year as appropriate.
By offering an omnichannel experience, mapping out the peak calendar and ensuring they have profiled their customers, retailers can ensure that they are supporting peak shopping for all their customers; whether it happens at Christmas or Candlemas.
Building your omnichannel strategy?
Discover how to simplify omnichannel with these 3 critical tips in our whitepaper!
How To Simplify Omnichannel with Inventory Management in Retail Pro®
The omnichannel expectation set by Tier 1 retailers has quickly trickled down to specialty retail and retailers everywhere are feeling the pressure to deliver. Retail Pro helps retailers simplify the inventory management across channels for omnichannel retail.
What’s wrong with omnichannel inventory management
The modern retail experience is composed (often) of several entirely different, disconnected software, so you are forced to keep disparate inventories for your e-commerce orders and your in-store sales – with all the duplication that entails.
In the very big picture, it doesn’t matter all that much if your systems are disconnected and duplicated. They still get the job done.
But if you examine the process more closely, you’ll see the pockets of chaos you keep tolerating when you segregate your channels, the collective negative impact of which compounds when extended year over year.
Inefficiencies in replenishment
Extraneous steps in the workflow
Underutilized resources
Gross inventory and labor duplication
And it hinders you from making more intelligent use of your inventory across the enterprise – especially later in the season, when you might be faced with stock outs (lost sales) and overstocks (unprofitable markdowns).
Stop retail chaos
Omnichannel in its most practical sense is intended to stop retail chaos like this through the simplification and streamlining of retail processes and technologies.
Connecting your back office inventory, e-commerce, POS (and etc.!) systems in the Retail Pro Prism platform gives you unified visibility into your operations and performance, and simplifies data sharing – so you can make data-driven optimizations and achieve benefits like these:
- Shopper autonomy Empower shoppers to look up, order, or purchase available store inventory online or at another location
- Reduced shipping costs Allow customers to pick up or return online purchases in-store or at satellite locations
- Increased inventory turn Rebalance inventory across the enterprise and fulfill online orders from the nearest store instead of from the warehouse
With all your technologies connected in Retail Pro Prism, you can then deliver the inventory visibility your customers expect from omnichannel.
Deliver on the omnichannel expectation
Your customers have learned to expect little conveniences like being able to go on your website to look up whether a particular item is in stock at the store nearby and reserve or purchase it.
Little customer-facing conveniences like that can actually require a major operational upheaval, depending on the state of your inventory and whether you can tie your e-commerce to your inventory management software.
With Retail Pro Prism, you can do that. e-Commerce and POS at every location can be seamlessly integrated to the Retail Pro platform (whether you use the native applications or opt for other software of your choice), so they can share transactional data in real time (or whatever interval is optimal for your operations) with the inventory management tools in Retail Pro.
This ensures that your inventory data is up to date when a shopper is looking for a particular product at your store. You won’t have to ask your customers to wait while you go get a different device to look up the inventory information. You can easily look up whether you have that item in stock from any device you use for your everyday operations, including iPod, iPad, Windows, Android, laptop, and desktop – because all of the same features are accessible on every device, even from the POS.
You can also see whether your other store locations have the particular item your shopper is searching for. With Send Sale transaction is Retail Pro Prism, you can record a sale at one store and fulfill the transaction at a different store that has available inventory, so you save every sale and your customer leaves satisfied.
With Send Sale transaction is Retail Pro Prism, you can record a sale at one store and fulfill the transaction at a different store that has available inventory, so you save every sale and your customer leaves satisfied.
Reconcile digital and physical inventory counts
To offer customers this kind of visibility into what you have in stock, it’s critical for you to be on top of your physical inventory. Retail Pro Prism helps you keep accurate counts of your physical inventory and determine whether any loss has occurred.
- Confirm your inventory on a store-wide or warehouse-wide scale, or on a bin or shelf
- Record physical counts data by scanning barcodes, RFID tags, or manually typing item identifiers
- Use current On Hand inventory values as start quantities in your physical inventory file
- Identify and review discrepancies easily with a separate Discrepancies list
Retail Pro Prism helps you keep accurate counts of your physical inventory and determine whether any loss has occurred.
With your inventory levels confirmed in Retail Pro Prism, you can increase in-store fulfillment accuracy for online orders being picked from your store shelves, and improve replenishment rates.
Sporting goods and apparel retailer Massey’s Outfitters uses Retail Pro to keep lower inventory. They rebalance their goods between stores and send directly from the vendor via integrated dropship rather than pulling from the warehouse. Warehouse-based replenishment for web sales accounts for only 25 – 50%, resulting in significant efficiency gains.
Inventory accuracy is foundational to every omnichannel strategy. Take control of your inventory today with complete visibility in Retail Pro Prism.
Discover omnichannel simplicity
Want to see how you can simplify omnichannel inventory management with Retail Pro Prism? Learn more in this brochure or request your free consultation today!
Middle East report: Omnichannel obstacles
The ecommerce market in the Middle East and North Africa is valued at $15b
Sarah Algethami, Gulf News Staff Reporter
Retail Pro International’s Rammohan Nair accepting the Partner Award from University of Dubai – presented by the VC, KHDA Chairman and the Indian Counsel General.
Dubai: The retail industry in the UAE is slow to adopt ecommerce, according to industry experts.
Many retailers are not embracing ecommerce for a number of reasons, such as challenges in delivering goods and being discouraged by the failure of other companies in setting up ecommerce sites, said Rammohan Nair, Director of Strategic Accounts for the Middle East and India at Retail Pro, a global retail management software company. Nair was the moderator for a recent round table discussion with Middle East retail visionaries regarding directions for omnichannel customer experience.
“The addressing system that we have in Dubai is not easy… also, there have been players in the market that have had high expectations but did not meet them. There are bad experiences that have deterred people,” he said on the sidelines of an event organised by Smart Stores Expo in Dubai on Monday.
He also pointed out that some franchisees in the country are not allowed to set up an ecommerce site.
“The big retailers are franchisees and certain franchisee business agreements don’t allow the franchisee to have their own ecommerce sites,” he said, adding that while consumers in the UAE are buying more online, many still prefer to shop at brick and mortar stores.
“Traditionally here, shopping malls have been a place that people visit… visiting a shopping mall in this part of the world is a part of everyone’s life,” he said.
Colin Beaton, managing director of Limelight Creative Services, a retail consultancy in Dubai, said that consumers’ concerns about cyber security is another reason why retailers are slow to adopt ecommerce.
“The UAE is an early adopter of technology for consumer goods. Ecommerce [adoption] is slower here than in some countries,” he said.
The ecommerce market in the Middle East and North Africa is valued at $15 billion, according to Nair. The number of ecommerce users in the region is 90 million and only 15 per cent of businesses have an online presence, he said.
“In the GCC [Gulf Cooperation Council] … half of internet users purchase something on the web at least once [a month],” he added.
On his outlook for the local retail industry, Nair said that brick and mortar “is here to stay” and that ecommerce will still be “complimentary to the shopping experience.”
“[Ecommerce ] is where people learn more about a product or where should they go and buy it,” he said.
Reposted from Gulf News
Welcome to modern retail: Retail Pro Prism 1.4 is here!
Retail Pro International is pleased to announce the availability of Retail Pro Prism 1.4!
Retail Pro Prism’s unmatched flexibility gives you complete control over how you build the omnichannel retail experience for your brand.
- Retail with any business model – corporate chains, franchise, shop-in-shop, kiosks, etc.
- Choose the hardware and database that best fits your environment and budget
- Deploy your choice of iOS, Windows, Android, and even mini devices
- Integrate every retail tool you use to create your distinct brand experience
Through no small amount of blood, sweat and tears, we have put together a big release for Retail Pro Prism. Okay maybe no blood, but there had to be a hangnail here or there and certainly a few finger cramps. Suffice to say, the team has put a lot of effort into bringing some exciting new features and functionality and maybe stepped on a few bugs here and there as well.
Highlights in this release include…
New Promotions Module
Retail Pro Prism gives you incredible flexibility and creativity in the application of promotions at POS – even more so than Retail Pro 9!
It includes several easy templates based on popular promotion types. When creating a promotion, you just select the template that most closely matches the type of promotion you want to create. The template determines which fields will be available in the UI. Using the provided templates, you can create an almost unlimited variety of promotions.
| Template Type | Description |
|---|---|
| Item | Applies a discount amount, percentage, or a specific price to one or more items that meet the promo’s validation rules. |
| Quantity | Applies a discount amount, percentage, or a specific price to the items that meet the filter criteria are listed at the specified quantity. |
| Tiered | Applies a different discount depending on the subtotal. Typically, the greater the subtotal, the greater the discount applied. For example, spending $50 earns a 10% discount; spending $100 earns a 15% discount; spending $150 earns a 20% discount. |
| Rolling | Similar to tiered promotion, except the discounts are based on the quantity purchased. For example, buying 3 units earns a 10% discount; buying 5 earns a 15% discount; buying 15 earns a 20% discount. |
| Pack | Assigns a specific price to a group of items. |
| BOGO | Applies a discount to one or more units of the items specified in the Reward Rules. |
| Transaction | Applies a discount amount or percentage to the transaction subtotal. |
| Coupon | Create a promotion that award customers with one or more coupon codes when the validation rules are met. The coupon codes can then be used to validate other. (e.g. Item or Quantity) promotions. |
| Custom | All options are available. Note: This promotion type should only be used after you have become comfortable working with the other types. |
Transfers
Retail Pro Prism now has a new Transfers module that enables you to create transfer slips to move merchandise from one store to another. Transfers are especially useful when one store has an abundance of inventory and another store has a shortage. By transferring the merchandise, retailers can avoid having to place a new order for more merchandise and manage their inventory smarter.
We’ve also made many other exciting improvements, including:
- Initialization and Communication Improvements
- COD/Charge
- Enhanced Accumulated Discounting
…and much more!
Ready for modern retail?
For a free needs assessment to see how you can accomplish your retail strategy better with Retail Pro Prism, talk to your Retail Pro Business Partner or request a consultation today!
