Keeping Up with Retail Technology to Increase Profits and Customer Satisfaction

Evolving technology is constantly altering the landscape of retail business. When headlines pointed out that a major chain of convenience stores spent $500 million dollars upgrading their
point of sale technology, many smaller chains wondered what the big boys had that they didn't.

From its first crude 1948 form, it took decades of development to move barcode technology from a need in the retail industry to its present near universal form.

Today new technologies appear from nowhere all the time, and those who fall behind lose their competitive edge in efficiency, customer satisfaction, and profitability.

Point of sale (POS) software technology came along and revolutionized the retail industry, opening doors to enhanced customer satisfaction and improved profitability. New applications appeared, each offering a solution to a problem that had plagued a retailer, and promising an
undreamed of opportunity to simplify, expand, or automate some part of a business operation.

This  technological  explosion  required retailers  to  either  face  a  dizzying  array  of advances that looked flashy but neither applied to their  specific  needs  nor  integrated  into  their existing  technology,  or  to  work  with  a  company with  superior  expertise  in  matching  new  POS technology to client needs and in providing unexcelled customer service.

Those who lagged behind in the technology race risked losing their competitive edge. Those who chose the wrong technology were stalled by headaches, wasting human and capital resources on cookie-cutter applications that didn t match real needs, or were too complex, or so unreliable they fell into disuse.

As competition stiffened, profit margins shrank, and a qualified workforce became harder to find and retain, POS decisions became critical. If a retailer didn t have the latest and best solutions, a rival would, and capture part of his market share in the process.

Since the mid-1990 s, the retail industry has seen some impressive changes in the use of technology to enhance profit. This included cash register tapes, bar-coding, and electronic POS solutions providing invaluable data.

Utilizing the right POS applications can set a small to midsize retailer up to compete with the big boys, if not in economy of scale, in streamlining and enhancing a business allowing it to offer customers the kind of personalized care that brings them back again and again.

To stay competitive, retailers have turned to retail technology to capture and analyze data to improve operations and customer experiences.

A POS solution now needs to be flexible to cater to the ever-changing requirements, whether it relates to new hardware or new software functionality. Therefore, making the right POS decisions could make the difference between stability and expansion, and going under.

POS transactions establish core retail data and data gathered at the POS drives a retailer's business, monitoring financial returns and providing information necessary for inventory management, merchandising planning and allocation, supply chain management, sales and marketing, and customer service.

Day-to-day profitability relies on results facilitated by a retail system such as:
 

• Accurate buying
• Less inventory expense
• Loyal customers
• Repeat traffic
• Enhanced security
• Smooth POS and customer service
• Reduced paperwork

A POS system can increase efficiency, improve inventory control, provide fast and accurate data gathering, analysis, and reporting, reduce over or under buying, facilitate optimal efficiency and economy in shipping and receiving, insure accurate accounting, and a host of other capabilities.

To be effective, POS technology must match the current needs of the company that will use it in a way that will inspire system users to take every advantage that the system has to offer. It will expand as the company expands, easily add desirable functionality, and integrate with existing systems.

Moreover, retailers typically rely on certain hardware to support their business and retail operations for several years. Therefore, the costs and benefits of POS must be clearly delineated in order to help retailers when they are making decisions on technology spending.