Your team really stepped up to meet the sudden flux of online shopping during COVID.
Shoppers got the benefit of omnichannel purchasing, but retailers bore the brunt of making it happen – fast, and without actually integrating ecommerce and inventory management system data.
Two years into it though, many retailers are seeing their data disparities grow with an online presence that isn’t integrated to their in-store systems. And the disparities won’t end with COVID.
Streamline omnichannel store experiences with Retail Pro Prism
In the shopper’s mind, your website reflects your store, so they look online for stock availability.
Some may complete the purchase online, but others may want to see the products in store first or pick it up as one to-do item on a longer list.
Save your customers from the poor experience of showing up at your store with the website’s promise of having the product they need – only to find that you’re out of stock.
Omnichannel is about making it easy for customers to buy from you, get their products from you, and make returns.
A shopper’s purchase journey goes through multiple stages and retailers must think through the omnichannel experience at each phase.
PRODUCT RESEARCH PHASE How do the online and in-store experiences complement each other to help shoppers get a tangible feel for the products they’re exploring?
PRODUCT PURCHASE PHASE How can we best simplify the path to purchase to win more sales and avoid losing customers due to out of stocks or poor experiences?
PRODUCT FULFILLMENT PHASE What are cost-effective ways to get customers what they’ve ordered?
PRODUCT RETURN PHASE How can we streamline the omnichannel returns experience for shoppers?
Selling online is relatively new for luxury retail but is growing quickly as technologies have allowed retailers to reflect online the personalized service lux shoppers experience in-store.
Omnichannel strategies for luxury are considering continuity of in-store and online elements in a customer’s journey to draw on strengths from either channel for a more holistic, seamless experience.
Give your sales associates quick access to a customer’s profile and shopping history in Retail Pro Prism so they can be better informed when making recommendations.
Look up inventory at other store locations to see whether they have the particular size or color the customer wants with full inventory availability visible in Retail Pro POS.
Always say YES
Digital lookbook
Use inventory images in your Retail Pro mobile POS as an endless aisle lookbook to help your customer pick out and order items you don’t carry in store.
Tie your purchasing journey and communications together across channels by integrating all your customer-facing tools on the Retail Pro POS software platform.
How much stock inaccuracy can you actually get away with in omnichannel operations?
Not much, in fact, very little. If a customer places an order online and doesn’t get it within the expected delivery window because it wasn’t in stock, odds are high that customer won’t be returning.
Likewise, if a website tells customers a product is available “in store” and it isn’t, that experience will erode customer loyalty. Understanding why those errors happen is key to preventing them.
Omnichannel operations that POS systems such as Retail Pro Prism give retailers lessens the likelihood that these scenarios that are detrimental to customer loyalty and business overall will occur by updating the inventory across channels automatically.
Challenges in the world of instantaneous omnichannel
With omnichannel fulfillment, online orders are filled from brick and mortar store locations. This type of fulfillment provides retailers tremendous flexibility: For example, customers can buy online and then pick up their orders directly from the store, or retailers can have inventory shipped from a fulfillment center to the customer.
Using stores to fill ecommerce orders offers advantages such as:
Faster delivery
Increased profit margins
Lower shipping costs
Fewer returns
Problems arise when retailers use the store to fulfill online orders but don’t account for a scenario in which a single item is sold twice: once online and then again in the store. Such sales generally happen simultaneously – or close to it.
Omnichannel encourages different order types, such as retail orders, e-commerce orders, or wholesale orders, but they all must be filled from the same inventory stock.
That’s why it’s critical to have a system that communicates with each channel, allowing seamless management of inventory and stock replenishment.
Safety Stock and Dropshipping
Safety stock is always held by traditional and ecommerce retailers to buffer against the supply of an item and its demand.
While a high safety stock level means a retailer is more likely to be able to respond to uncertainty, the carrying cost also increases. The amount of safety stock must therefore be carefully considered. Inventory management is crucial for companies to contain costs and remain profitable.
Dropshipping, where a store doesn’t keep the products it sells in stock, can help alleviate out-of-stock scenarios. Orders are passed to their suppliers, which pack and ship orders directly to customers.
Dropshipping eliminates the middleman and reduces the timeline to delivery. If a retailer has limited stock in-store to fill online orders, it can use dropshipping from its suppliers to deliver orders seamlessly to customer.
Research indicates that dropshipping in omnichannel leads to increased revenue as well: Inventory is handled by suppliers or manufacturers, freeing up shelf and floor space at retail and eliminating costly holding expenses.
Omnichannel fulfillment helps retailers provide customers the best service at the best prices. That’s a potent combination that leads to loyalty at a brand’s digital as well as real-world outlets.
With Retail Pro Prism, you have access to omnichannel operations that become more and more necessary with every year, and to every integration your business might need for existing or new sectors of your operations along the way.
Optimizing the omnichannel experience in your stores? Let’s talk.
Ecommerce got an enormous boost during the last 18 months, as shoppers’ health-related concerns ramped up online sales as they took to shopping from the safety of their homes. But with vaccinations rising and people feeling more confident in being able to safely leave their homes, customers are headed back to brick and mortars.
However, customers’ expectations have been heightened during the past 18 months.
In August, Mastercard Spending Pulse reported that U.S. retail sales excluding automotive and gasoline increased 8.1% year-over-year, and 7.7% compared with August 2019.
Clearly, customers still want an in-store experience for certain items.
Retail Pro Prism is a modern and easy to use POS software and retail management system that makes the last impression, at the point of purchase – the most consistent thing across the board – an easy, flexible interaction.
Using Retail Pro Prism on mobile devices enables your sales associates to complete a sale at any spot in your store, making for a more personal and meaningful exchange.
Omnichannel Expectations and Inventory
However, they also want some of the retail enhancements that came about due to COVID protocols. For example, customers want to find stock availability in store when on a retailer’s website. Driving out to the store without inventory knowledge is unnecessary and frustrating.
Having omnichannel operations that allow customers to purchase items on their own terms is key to gaining their loyalty. Retail Pro Prism sets up retailers for omnichannel operations they can personalize to their own business needs.
Receiving inventory information is the ticket to admission customers want.
Enhanced inventory visibility allows associates to know where any product is at any time, and also provides the customer with real-time inventory views across all store outlets.
With Retail Pro Prism POS associates have visibility across stores and channels, and can go further in helping customers if they’re unable to find a certain color or size in one store.
Inventory Visibility Benefits for All
While associates can see stock location within warehouses and the supply chain, customers can use the insight to determine the best available fulfillment option of their orders, including-ship to-store, BOPIS, curbside pickup, or delivery.
Why do customers prefer in-store purchasing then, when an online purchase is in many ways easier? Because customers want:
Immediate fulfillment
To verify the product is what it appears to be – dimensions, color, etc.
To support local merchants
According to enVista’s 2019 survey, 67% of consumers consider inventory visibility across stores, online and mobile is an important service to offer. An optimized supply chain and POS solution are imperative to obtain accurate physical inventory counts that reconcile with the data that reflects what’s on the floor.
Innovations and Customer Experience
Having enjoyed the innovations retailers came up with to entice and satisfy customers during the lockdown, shoppers are eager to continue – and enjoy enhancements to — many of the new conveniences.
As retailers recover from the restrictive lockdowns of the past year, sales associates are focused on delivering a superior customer experience.
That includes providing real-time product availability to avoid the disappointment of customers arriving at the physical store who find that the website’s promise of product availability was not kept.
Omnichannel inventory management eliminates any hesitation consumers have around the purchase relating to stock levels, timing and convenience, enabling customers to purchase with confidence.
Going to the
2022 Retail Technology Show?
26-27 April 2022 | Olympia, London | Stand 6e28
About Pinnaca Retail & IT Solutions
Founded in 2015, Pinnaca Retail & IT Solutions is a family-run business offering retail solutions, specialist management consultancy and IT services. Our company is UK based, with offices in London, and a client base across the globe.
We work with all levels of business to define and develop strategies focused on our clients’ needs and objectives. Our tailored solutions are developed and optimised to fulfil your key business demands.
Over time we have added to our 20 years’ experience in the field and built up a team of experts, with a wide range of experience and in-depth knowledge, who are eager to help your business succeed and grow.
About DataScan Retail Systems
Datascan Retail Systems are a leading UK and European supplier of solutions to the retail sector, from small businesses through to mid-tier and international enterprises. We have vast experience in the analysis and design of retail IT and the implementation of EPOS and Stock Control Systems and provide all the services required to plan, implement and maintain an effective Retail Management System. We are committed to match the Retail Pro System to the exact needs of the retailer, utilising our development, training and help desk teams.
About RIOT
RIOT is turning traditional RFID solutions for retail on their head with RIOT Insight. Insight is RIOT’s real-time inventory accuracy service offered as a simple but powerful add-on to a retailer’s existing systems. 100% inventory accuracy to support Omni-channel is now yours on demand.
About PAR
PAR Technology Corporation provides industry leading software and hardware solutions that are always there when you need them but never in your way.
State of the Art Point of Sale Systems.
Tablets and Portable Devices.
About XRetail
XRETAIL is a Global leader in Unified Commerce solutions, with a prime mission to empower enterprise retailers by helping to boost their sales and retain their clients. Through state-of-the-art technologies, integrations, and solutions, the XRETAIL platform creates unified sales channels including eCommerce, Mobile commerce, and Social commerce. XRETAIL’s Cloud-based platform creates seamless end-to-end solutions allowing enterprise retailers to blend brick-and-mortar and digital retailing into one unified platform, with notably enhanced customer experience both online and offline.
About Loqate
Combining leading technology with the richest data, Loqate provides several solutions to help bring businesses across the globe closer to their customers:
Address Validation A faster, easier way to capture and verify addresses in real-time for your online forms and checkouts.
Email validation Increase email delivery rates, boost customer marketing and reduce bogus registration when you verify email addresses upfront.
Mobile & phone validation Take the guesswork out of reaching customers. Capture the right phone number, mobile or landline at the point of entry.
Data maintenance The foundation of any customer management strategy, Loqate’s cleansing and maintenance software helps build lasting customer relationships.
Building a clientele is tough. It requires understanding who the customer is, what their tastes are and how to serve them: a simple plan, but not easy to execute. A retailer needs inventory tools that luckily, omnichannel POS and retail management platform Retail Pro Prism provides, to efficiently accomplish this feat.
Sometimes, customers aren’t sure of what they want, and when they guess incorrectly, the dreaded return process begins.
The global COVID-19 pandemic has caused many retailers to institute extended return periods that go beyond the traditional 30-day window. And, with many brick and mortar stores operating at reduced schedules, many shoppers turned toward ecommerce for everything from toilet paper to jigsaw puzzles to exercise clothing.
But with that change came an increase in returns, particularly with clothing, because online shoppers can’t be certain of fit and quality.
Making it easy for customers to not only find products but to also make returns if necessary, creates a frictionless experience that shoppers are comfortable repeating. An easy return process for customers doesn’t mean the same for retailers.
With Retail Pro Prism, e-Commerce and POS at every location can be seamlessly integrated to the Retail Pro platform 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.
Providing ease-of-doing-business is a way to improve loyalty, because customers can purchase knowing the return process will be hassle free.
Retailer’s Challenges in Simplifying Returns
Creating a smooth, simple customer experience is, ironically, somewhat complicated.
The omnichannel shopper’s journey starts with the product research phase either online or, for those wanting a tangible experience, in-store.
The item might be purchased at that time or later, through the same – or different – channel. Finally, the product fulfillment phase includes several options: in-store pickup, home delivery shipped from the online or physical store or from the warehouse; a drop shipment directly from the vendor; or ship to store from the warehouse or another store.
Those logistics are transparent to the customer who, in most case, wants the product immediately or within a day or two. And then, sometimes, the product just isn’t right, and a return is initiated.
While inventory visibility is often thought of as useful for marketing products and pre-sales activities, it can be helpful for “smart returns.”
Returns and Inventory Visibility
Visibility can help managers at physical locations “see” where products are, and move them between stores according to customer demand.
In a return scenario, a retailer has a connected network of inventory visibility, and an understanding of predicted demand. When customers initiate returns, a shipping label is generated but instead of the shipment getting sent back to a warehouse, it is shipped to a retail location where there is demand for the product.
Accurate stock counts make the most efficient use of existing inventory and provide valuable insight about trending products. Technology such as RFID helps retailers quickly and affordably track inventory, and avoid human errors that occur with manual counting processes.
Inventory disparities can cost retailers money in lost sales or the added expense of keeping too much inventory in stock. Unified data processes are critical for proper order management, fulfillment and restocking of returned items.
Retail Pro has partnered with RIOT to offer easy integration at an affordable price, which hasn’t been attainable in the past. Among its many benefits, with RIOT for Retail Pro you can increase stock accuracy to 98%+ to better support online sales and pickup in store, and reduce stock management labor costs associated with restocking, receiving, etc.
Going to the
2022 Retail Technology Show?
26-27 April 2022 | Olympia, London | Stand 6e28
About Pinnaca Retail & IT Solutions
Founded in 2015, Pinnaca Retail & IT Solutions is a family-run business offering retail solutions, specialist management consultancy and IT services. Our company is UK based, with offices in London, and a client base across the globe.
We work with all levels of business to define and develop strategies focused on our clients’ needs and objectives. Our tailored solutions are developed and optimised to fulfil your key business demands.
Over time we have added to our 20 years’ experience in the field and built up a team of experts, with a wide range of experience and in-depth knowledge, who are eager to help your business succeed and grow.
About DataScan Retail Systems
Datascan Retail Systems are a leading UK and European supplier of solutions to the retail sector, from small businesses through to mid-tier and international enterprises. We have vast experience in the analysis and design of retail IT and the implementation of EPOS and Stock Control Systems and provide all the services required to plan, implement and maintain an effective Retail Management System. We are committed to match the Retail Pro System to the exact needs of the retailer, utilising our development, training and help desk teams.
About RIOT
RIOT is turning traditional RFID solutions for retail on their head with RIOT Insight. Insight is RIOT’s real-time inventory accuracy service offered as a simple but powerful add-on to a retailer’s existing systems. 100% inventory accuracy to support Omni-channel is now yours on demand.
About PAR
PAR Technology Corporation provides industry leading software and hardware solutions that are always there when you need them but never in your way.
State of the Art Point of Sale Systems.
Tablets and Portable Devices.
About XRetail
XRETAIL is a Global leader in Unified Commerce solutions, with a prime mission to empower enterprise retailers by helping to boost their sales and retain their clients. Through state-of-the-art technologies, integrations, and solutions, the XRETAIL platform creates unified sales channels including eCommerce, Mobile commerce, and Social commerce. XRETAIL’s Cloud-based platform creates seamless end-to-end solutions allowing enterprise retailers to blend brick-and-mortar and digital retailing into one unified platform, with notably enhanced customer experience both online and offline.
About Loqate
Combining leading technology with the richest data, Loqate provides several solutions to help bring businesses across the globe closer to their customers:
Address Validation A faster, easier way to capture and verify addresses in real-time for your online forms and checkouts.
Email validation Increase email delivery rates, boost customer marketing and reduce bogus registration when you verify email addresses upfront.
Mobile & phone validation Take the guesswork out of reaching customers. Capture the right phone number, mobile or landline at the point of entry.
Data maintenance The foundation of any customer management strategy, Loqate’s cleansing and maintenance software helps build lasting customer relationships.
With the drastic shift in consumer spending and behavior during the pandemic, customer experience is on the line.
A new report from AppCard and Retail Pro shows the strong financial and customer retention results of retailers using AppCard together with Retail Pro POS who adopted proactive, personalized marketing strategies to stay connected with their shoppers during the pandemic.
Watch this webinar from Retail Pro and AppCard for an inside look at:
The pandemic-time impact of loyalty engagement on three different retail verticals — apparel, cosmetics and footwear
Top personalization and targeted points redemption strategies that are driving results now
How you can advance key metrics like sales, average ticket, new shoppers generated, points earned, and points redeemed
About AppCard®
AppCard is a personalized marketing and rewards platform that uses smart data capture and machine learning to analyze, target, and engage with customers. AppCard is fully integrated with Retail Pro, so shoppers automatically get rewards for their purchases after every transaction. Using AppCard’s marketing tools, retailers can leverage SKU-level purchase information to deliver highly targeted offers via email, SMS/text message, or push notification.
The struggle is real for customers hoping to take some of the legwork out of shopping by researching products online before heading to a store – only to make the drive and discover the product they decided on isn’t available, as it is in omnichannel experiences they have at other stores.
For retailers, such deflating experiences can mean a loss of loyal customers as well as a damaged reputation.
As shoppers become more strapped for leisure time and less willing to browse for hours just for fun, connecting a physical and digital store experience is increasingly critical for retail longevity.
It’s all about what some refer to as Retail FOMO: That is, customers’ fear of missing out on things they want, and retailers’ fear of missing a sale.
Here are 6 ways you can connect your physical and digital store experiences with Retail Pro Prism POS and retail management software to remove some of the friction shoppers are experiencing while retailers are building their omnichannel strategies.
1. Show in-store stock availability online
Research suggests that roughly a quarter of customers won’t visit a store if they aren’t sure what they are looking for is available. In addition, more than half will leave a store disappointed if they can’t find the item they had in mind.
One way to avoid that is by showing customers stock availability online. That way e-window shoppers can be assured that what they are looking for is available when they visit.
And, in the unfortunate case that a particular item is sold moments before a shopper arrives, enabling in-store ordering for free home delivery is one way to compensate the customer.
Retail Pro Prism has accessible APIs and hundreds of Plugins and integrations on the Retail Pro App Market to help retailers connect their ecommerce with inventory information in Retail Pro.
The ability to straightforwardly integrate any technology retailers already use (or might choose to use in the future) gives retailers control over decisions like which platform will be the data master through which they’ll reference and report on stock availability and needs across all their store locations, including ecommerce.
2. Show off your full selection with endless aisle
Endless aisle can accommodate retailers that, often because of a small physical footprint, can’t stock a wide range of products.
The technology lets customers virtually browse or order a wide range of products that are either out of stock or not sold in-store and have them shipped to the store or their home.
Because Retail Pro Prism is browser-based software and not solely a mobile or desktop app, retailers can run Retail Pro both on their desktop computer or laptop at the till – or on an iPad or other mobile device so that sales associates can access inventory information when helping customers on the sales floor.
So when a product is not available at this store, sales associates can easily show customers the item images for the product they want and place an order for them, saving the sale.
In addition to providing a better customer experience, providing inventory information drives customers into stores, opening the door to additional purchases.
Impulse buys are more common for shoppers at brick-and-mortar retailers, because those stores can influence customer shopping experiences by tailoring layout and staffing decisions based on their clientele.
According to A.T. Kearney, 40 percent of customers make unplanned purchases at physical stores and spend more money, compared to 25 percent of online shoppers.
4. Reward their loyalty across channels
Aligning physical and digital stores also means ensuring that shopping benefits are equivalent.
Loyalty rewards should be earned in the same manner, for example, and coupons should be valid online and in-person. Being a rewards member should be the ultimate frictionless experience.
Using an integrated loyalty platform like AppCard or OptCulture with Retail Pro Prism not only saves your associates and customers time at checkout when handling loyalty, but also ties in the POS transaction data with your loyalty platform so you can run campaigns based on actual purchase data.
Despite the best intentions of retailers and customers, sometimes merchandise must be returned. How a retailer handles this onerous process with the customer is reflective of its overall commitment to customer service.
By working through the kinks for in-store returns of online purchases, retailers can offer their shoppers a less stressful initial purchasing experience, because they are assured that if they are unsatisfied, returning is a simple process.
Because all inventory items (whether online or in-store) would have been created in Retail Pro Prism and then used to populate a retailer’s online inventory when integrated, retailers will be able to accept the online inventory without the backend hassle of accounting for online versus in-store purchase origin.
Once the item is returned, it can be assimilated into the physical store inventory, accounted for and ready to be resold.
6. Help your store staff get to know your omnichannel shoppers
When a customer begins a journey online, or has a history of shopping through a retailer’s online channel, that data can and should be used to personalize the in-store shopping experience.
By analyzing and connecting transactional data from their Retail Pro POS into one holistic view, retailers can learn how often a customer shops, what they purchased, where they are from, how much they spend across different channels, and whether they are new or repeat buyers.
That can help inform associates in the physical store as they engage with shoppers, as well as help form future decisions for an omnichannel product and customer engagement strategy, especially when retailers use an integrated business intelligence and visual analytics solution with the rich data they collect at the Retail Pro Prism point of sale.
The information conduit flows both ways now, not just as a funnel into one channel or another, so retailers can fix broken customer journeys and convert more sales, improve efficiency and increase loyalty.
Bringing both worlds together – digital and physical – will mean some parts of the journey will still have bumps along the way.
But addressing the operational challenges in each of these areas will help retailers smooth some of the friction that arises as they build their omnichannel strategy.
Going to the
2022 Retail Technology Show?
26-27 April 2022 | Olympia, London | Stand 6e28
About Pinnaca Retail & IT Solutions
Founded in 2015, Pinnaca Retail & IT Solutions is a family-run business offering retail solutions, specialist management consultancy and IT services. Our company is UK based, with offices in London, and a client base across the globe.
We work with all levels of business to define and develop strategies focused on our clients’ needs and objectives. Our tailored solutions are developed and optimised to fulfil your key business demands.
Over time we have added to our 20 years’ experience in the field and built up a team of experts, with a wide range of experience and in-depth knowledge, who are eager to help your business succeed and grow.
About DataScan Retail Systems
Datascan Retail Systems are a leading UK and European supplier of solutions to the retail sector, from small businesses through to mid-tier and international enterprises. We have vast experience in the analysis and design of retail IT and the implementation of EPOS and Stock Control Systems and provide all the services required to plan, implement and maintain an effective Retail Management System. We are committed to match the Retail Pro System to the exact needs of the retailer, utilising our development, training and help desk teams.
About RIOT
RIOT is turning traditional RFID solutions for retail on their head with RIOT Insight. Insight is RIOT’s real-time inventory accuracy service offered as a simple but powerful add-on to a retailer’s existing systems. 100% inventory accuracy to support Omni-channel is now yours on demand.
About PAR
PAR Technology Corporation provides industry leading software and hardware solutions that are always there when you need them but never in your way.
State of the Art Point of Sale Systems.
Tablets and Portable Devices.
About XRetail
XRETAIL is a Global leader in Unified Commerce solutions, with a prime mission to empower enterprise retailers by helping to boost their sales and retain their clients. Through state-of-the-art technologies, integrations, and solutions, the XRETAIL platform creates unified sales channels including eCommerce, Mobile commerce, and Social commerce. XRETAIL’s Cloud-based platform creates seamless end-to-end solutions allowing enterprise retailers to blend brick-and-mortar and digital retailing into one unified platform, with notably enhanced customer experience both online and offline.
About Loqate
Combining leading technology with the richest data, Loqate provides several solutions to help bring businesses across the globe closer to their customers:
Address Validation A faster, easier way to capture and verify addresses in real-time for your online forms and checkouts.
Email validation Increase email delivery rates, boost customer marketing and reduce bogus registration when you verify email addresses upfront.
Mobile & phone validation Take the guesswork out of reaching customers. Capture the right phone number, mobile or landline at the point of entry.
Data maintenance The foundation of any customer management strategy, Loqate’s cleansing and maintenance software helps build lasting customer relationships.
