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Why managing inventory the right way matters?

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Technology has completely transformed the way people make purchases. From online marketplaces to brick-and-mortar stores, retailers tend to implement innovative measures to better cater to the needs of customers. 

They incorporate promotion planning, customer analytics, and mobile payments to enhance the shopping experience. But, one thing that forms the backbone of retailing is somehow neglected in the entire retail chain. Yes, we are talking about inventory.

Managing inventory is not just a single task encompassing certain limited activities; it is a process that involves some complex calculations such as sell through rate, inventory turnover ratio, GMROI among others. 

It is an uphill task to perform the aforementioned calculations, which in turn makes it difficult for retailers to manage their inventory. Retailers require a tool that bridges the gap between brick-and-mortar stores and marketplaces, and provides them with a single, simple, and holistic view of the inventory.

One such powerful tool is ETP Connect – a robust, multifunctional, and comprehensive tool that connects the brick-and-mortar stores with the ecommerce sites and marketplaces. It provides real time updates to the stores and head office of the retailers about the purchases being made both offline and online. 

Whenever a purchase is made through website or marketplaces, ETP Connect routes the information to the head office, where the designated authority can view the immediate effect on the inventory in real time.

Also, since retailers get access to real time data, it simplifies their task of computing complex inventory calculations, thus enabling them to take timely decisions to further speed up their entire retailing process. The effects of this are manifested in the form of satisfactory customer experiences and a robust bottom line.

ETP Connect is a one stop solution for leading retailers to end their inventory management woes, by enabling them to better plan their business strategies. It also allows retailers to have a unified view of customers, endless aisle, and features such as Click and Collect, and Click and Deliver. 

Put an end to all your retail woes by implementing a futuristic and powerful ETP Connect and embrace the omni-channel transformation the right way.

Also Read : Retail And The Importance Of Integration

ETP Group: Omni-channel Retail Solutions assist retailers to surge ahead of the competition

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ETP has recently been recognized as one of the Top 20 Most Promising Retail Solution providers in India for 2017 by CIO Review.

Consumer shopping behavior has changed drastically with the influx of technology in retail. The digital age of retail has begun to compete with the brick-and-mortar traffic but the future of retail is unified commerce, which is about creating a seamless experience both online and in-store. There has been a pressing need for omni-channel strategies that can seamlessly orchestrate customer experiences across multiple touchpoints including brick and mortar store environments, smart phone connectivity, and online sales. To deliver a unified brand-customer relationship, ETP has developed an omni-channel retail solution, ETP V5 with features such as Click and Collect, Click and Deliver, Endless Aisle, holistic view of the inventory and single view of the customer.

Based out of Singapore, ETP is an Omni-channel Retail Solutions company operating in 22 countries across Asia Pacific, India and the Middle East. “Our software solution covers areas such as omni-channel POS, mobility, CRM, marketing and promotion campaigns, procurement, warehousing, distribution, omni-channel analytics and omni-channel connect”, states Naresh Ahuja, Chairman & CEO, ETP Group.

Read more below.

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ETP amongst the 25 Most Promising Retail Solutions Providers – 2017: APAC CIOOutlook

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ETP Group, a leading provider of Omni-channel Retail Solutions in Asia, India and the Middle East is honored to be amongst the 25 Most Promising Retail Solutions Providers – 2017, as presented by the editorial board at APAC CIOOutlook. The key points of consideration while compiling this carefully selected list of new age retail solutions providers were their expertise, innovation and the ability to provide the right intel and resources to implement a scalable, cost-effective and easy to implement retail solution.

ETP apac-cio-outlook

ETP is specifically focused on brick and mortar retailers as well as online retailers, and in fact is the change agent for the convergence of the two. ETP’s Omni-channel Retail Solution – ETP V5 serves large retailers for their enterprise class requirements of scalability, security, compliance and high performance. “We are very happy to be recognized at this moment in time for our leadership in the retail industry, when we are helping retailers transform from traditional brick and mortar models to a fully omni-channel model and embrace the new age consumer”, says Naresh Ahuja, Chairman and CEO, ETP International.

ETP is an Omni-channel Retail Solutions company headquartered in Singapore, driving change in Asia Pacific, India and the Middle East. ETP’s software includes Omni-channel POS, Mobility, CRM, Marketing and Promotion Campaigns, Procurement, Warehousing, Distribution, Omni-channel Analytics and Omni-channel Connect. ETP V5 is used to serve customers across 22 countries and thousands of stores for over 500 brands.

ETP is enabling brick and mortar retailers to embrace omni-channel commerce and drive their brand-customer relationships in a unified manner with features such as Click and Collect, Click and Deliver, Endless Aisle, a holistic view of the inventory and a single view of the customer. ETP helps its customers get it right in omni-channel retail.

ETP enables Indian retailers with GST-ready Omni-channel Software

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said the consensus on Goods and Services Tax (GST) will go down in history as a great illustration of cooperative federalism, adding that the landmark legislation reflects the spirit of “one nation, one aspiration, one determination”.

ETP is proud to announce its commitment to the GST initiative of the Indian Government by enabling its customers to be GST ready across thousands of stores in India on 1st July 2017.

A multinational software company of Indian origin, ETP International is specifically focused on brick and mortar as well as online retailers, and in fact is the change agent for the convergence of the two. ETP has aligned its India version to this major change in the way trade is done in India. “GST will have a significant impact in integrating the country and driving the engine of commerce upwards and onwards. We are very excited with this bold move by the Indian Government and have dedicated significant resources in helping our customers to be aligned with GST”, says Naresh Ahuja, Chairman and CEO, ETP International.

ETP’s Omni-channel Retail Solution – ETP V5 serves large retailers for their enterprise class requirements of scalability, security, compliance and high performance. Market leaders like Titan, Benetton, Metro Shoes, Bose, DLF, Spice and many others are ETP’s valued customers.

ETP is an Omni-channel Retail Software company headquartered in Singapore, driving change in Asia Pacific, India and the Middle East. ETP’s software includes Omni-channel POS, Mobility, CRM, Marketing and Promotion Campaigns, Procurement, Warehousing, Distribution, Omni-channel Analytics Omni-channel Connect. ETP V5 is used to serve customers across 22 countries and thousands of stores for over 500 brands.

ETP is enabling brick and mortar retailers to embrace omni-channel commerce and drive their brands and customer relationships in a unified manner with features such as Click and Collect, Click and Deliver, Endless Aisle, and a holistic view of the inventory and of the customer. ETP helps its customers get it right in omni-channel retail.

Putting AI in Retail

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The human brain is more than just an organ – it is a complex system that helps humans to analyze information and take simplified decisions in various situations. But it cannot always gauge all the possible outcomes of a decision and hence our decision-making ability gets limited in certain circumstances. But what we cannot achieve with the powerof our brain is today being achieved by applying Artificial Intelligence (AI). It is much more than neural networks and complex algorithms; it involves enabling machines to take appropriate decisions in all possible circumstances.

With the huge amount of data being transmitted from electronic devices every day, it becomes imperative for the data-driven organizations to collect and identify a pattern in them. But, what exactly could be the advantage of collecting and analyzing data? Well, to predict the future it is necessary to understand the past and the present.

One of the biggest beneficiaries of Artificial Intelligence is physical retail. It is facing immense competition from e-Commerce portals, which not only provide user-friendly shopping experiences but also come up with relevant suggestions for future purchases. The need of the hour for physical retailers, therefore, is to revamp their business processes and come up with innovative measures to provide a more than satisfying customer experience along with an efficient stock management strategy. Artificial Intelligence (AI) can help achieve both. Here is a brief overview of how AI can help drive transformation in physical retail.

  1. Collecting relevant data: Data collection forms the backbone of AI. According to some of the industry stalwarts, “there can be no direct leap to artificial intelligence if substantial and relevant data is not being collected”. Most of the physical retailers lack the indigenous technology to collect and process large chunks of data by themselves. But that should not be considered as a hindrance to AI as there are efficient retail solutions like ETP V5 that can help them collect and process relevant and authentic data.
  2. Personalization: AI can be thought of as a complex algorithm that consists of all possible ‘if-then’ conditions. These conditions can be identified in various ways such as shopping cart analysis, payment preferences and surveys among others. The analysis performed can be used for managing product assortment, customer-specific promotions, and other loyalty programs. Personalization will ensure repeat footfall, which in turn will ensure a healthy bottom line.
  3. Supply chain and inventory management: If a retailer is able to collect relevant data, it becomes easier to maintain a healthy supply chain along with an efficient inventory management system. If the retailer wishes to sell the right product to the right customer at the right time and place, managing inventory across all channels becomes most important. This is indeed a mammoth task that can be eased out using an efficient Omni-channel Retail Solution like ETP V5 which can identify hidden patterns in the customer’s buying behavior and provide relevant suggestions to maintain the right inventory. Maintaining and managing supply chain and inventory are the backbone of a profitable retail venture.

AI has started revolutionizing the way in which physical retailers go about taking business decisions and with the enhancement of customer’s technical abilities, it can be safely claimed that AI will play an important role in the future of retail.

Is GST better than VAT?

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The Government of India recently decided to do away with multiple taxes on goods and services by implementing a single tax – the GST, the revenue generated from which is shared between the Central and the State Government. Prior to GST, there were a number of different indirect taxes, the Value Added Tax (VAT) being the most prominent amongst them. VAT could been seen on almost every invoice, which has now been replaced by CGST and SGST thus making people wonder if GST is same as VAT. But GST is completely different from VAT and it is very important to have a clear picture of the distinction between the two.

  1. GST, as the name suggests is incurred on both the goods and the services where as VAT was implemented only on the goods. To take care of the tax on services, previously the government had Service Tax. Thus, one wouldn’t have had to pay VAT while booking railway tickets; instead he/she would have paid Service Tax based on the government guidelines. The government has now combined both of the aforementioned taxes into one – GST.
  2. GST unlike VAT doesn’t have a cascading effect. Prior to GST implementation, the retailers were required to pay VAT as soon as some value is added to the product. For instance, manufacturing a product caused value addition and the VAT was incurred on the entire value. Similarly once the product is ready and is being labeled for final consumption/usage, a retailer would have again incurred VAT. This use to cause a spike in tax burden for everyone in the retail chain. GST, unlike VAT enables retailers to claim input tax credit from the government, which can further be transferred through the retail chain. This brings tax respite to the retailer and consumer as the redundancy of tax payment is done away with.
  3. VAT was calculated and implemented differently by different state governments. The central government could implement only Central Sales Tax (CST). The state governments were empowered to tweak the imposed tax rate at their will, which cannot be done with GST. The central government has introduced different tax slabs for different products and has decided to share a fixed proportion of tax revenue with state governments. The state governments have agreed to this kind of revenue sharing and as a result they don’t have the power to make rate changes. It will thus provide more freedom to retailers to set up warehouses or manufacturing units in any state they wish to.

GST will bring about a positive change in the economy by creating a friendlier and understandable indirect tax regime. It will put an end to industry woes related to taxation and promote the ease of doing business. GST is simply not restricted to VAT, it encompasses almost everything which earlier fell under the scope of indirect taxes. It lies in our responsibility to understand it better for streamlining our business activities and processes. You may click here to know more about GST.

An in-depth understanding of GST is essential not only for end-customers, but also for retail businesses both in India as well as those looking to make an entry or investment in the Indian market.

Build long-lasting relationships with your customers

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Traditionally, shopping as an activity was highly transactional, but today it is an exciting journey. Earlier, shopping seemed to be simple and straightforward. But today, it has gotten complex because every step in the journey involves multiple touchpoints available for retailers and customers to interact. However, from an optimist’s point of view, there is an opportunity for retailers to capitalize on this complexity.

Being at the epicenter of the retail business, every retail owner is trying to woo the customers in order to grab their maximum span of attention and maximum share of wallet. Customer experience has therefore become the ultimate battleground for retailers to compete. To be better than the other, retailers are trying all sort of tactics to be able to deliver the best customer experience to win and sustain them. And while many retail companies are in this rat race to strike big with their customers, only a handful are getting it right.

The reason for such a circumstance is obvious and yet highly overlooked. Simply put, the main cause for retailers failing to get their customers to stick is that they haven’t taken efforts to get the basics right. Fundamentally, it is the relationship that the retail brand shares with its customers. The stronger the foundation, the longer the relationship will last. Customers prefer to do business with brands that they can relate with and retailers therefore, need to build long-lasting relationships with their customers.

Being constantly connected with their customer is one way a retail business can help in fortifying the relationship. Staying connected effectively means that the brand needs to be available and ready to fulfil the customers’ needs be it for a product or for information, whenever and wherever the customer wants it. By seamlessly integrating together the various touchpoints a consumer might use to engage, retail owners can leverage and optimize the data from these engagements to plan and design a strategy that is most likely to resonate with that particular shopper.

Another surefire technique to strike the right chord with customers is personalization. Basically, it is the ability of a retail company to know their customer by name and also be able to approach them with a personalized set of communication. This will allow the brand to strengthen their customer relationship by demonstrating that they “know” the shopper’s preferences well. Personalization can ensure cementing the consumer’s loyalty in the retail business thus sustaining their confidence in the brand, making it a preferred choice.

Being connected to the customer will enable retail brands to understand their customer and deliver personalized offerings. This combination allows retailers to not only extend exceptional customer experience, but also it is a must to forge and fortify brand-customer relationships to ensure that their customers continue to stick to the brand.

ETP – Omni-channel Technology Partner at ReTechCon 2017

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ETP blog for Retechcon

Retailers’ Association of India (RAI) is hosting the Retail Technology Conclave (ReTechCon) on 14-15 June 2017, India’s largest gathering of retail leaders and retail service providers.  The platform is to bring together industry professionals, experts and service providers together for discussing the latest in technology and deliberating on how to best use technology for the benefit of the business and industry.

ETP is the Omni-channel Technology Partner at the Retail Technology Conclave (ReTechCon) 2017. ETP is a leading Omni-Channel Retail Solutions provider across Asia Pacific, India and the Middle East. ETP V5 software is used to serve customers across 22 countries and thousands of stores for over 300 brands. ETP is enabling brick and mortar retailers to embrace unified commerce and drive their brands and customer relationships in a seamless manner. ETP V5 Omni-channel Retail Solutions enable you to deliver a unified omni-channel experience with features such as Click and Collect, Click and Deliver, Endless Aisle, and a holistic view of the inventory and of the customer. This is done using real-time integration of ETP’s POS, CRM and Promotions engine with webstores and marketplaces using ETP Connect’s secured web services framework, which has the ability to see and manage order flows.

At the event Mr. Rajkumar Jagasia, Executive Director, ETP Group will co-panel the session ‘Creating Value the Phygital Way’.  Mr. Neev Ahuja, Country Manager – India, ETP Group, will speak about ‘Omni-channel and the New Generation of Customers’. He will also throw light on how ETP V5 with its GST pack can help retailers manage extensive business processes.

Do visit us at the ETP Pavilion at ReTechCon 2017 to know more about how ETP can help you transform your business.

What is GST all about? (Infographic)

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GST is going to effective from 1st July 2017 in India and retail businesses in the country and those planning to enter India will need to be GST ready. Here is a quick overview of GST.

etp gst blog

 

ETP Omni-channel Retail Solution with the GST pack handles not only the billing processes with GST impact, but also various other retail processes, making them GST ready.

 

How unified commerce is unifying customer experiences

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ETP blogpost 94 - Unified Commerce

Price and product are important parameters for customers to make decisions related to their preferred brands and have long been dominating the decision making process. But now, customer experience is the biggest differentiator for retail brands standing out. So much so that it has already overtaken price and product as the most sought after parameter for the customers. Thus competition amongst retailers on the customer experience front seems to be intensifying immensely. As reported by Gartner 89% of retail businesses are expected to compete mainly on customer experience. Howbeit, adding more customer touchpoints, retailers are finding it increasingly difficult to manage a harmonious customer experience across channels.

The need for a unified and seamless customer experience is profound in this new age of shopping. The lingering fear of customer churn owing to inconsistent shopping experiences, the probabilities of lost sales and loyalty shift to competitor brands are some of the major concerns that modern day retail businesses are battling against. One dependable solution that retailers must look to for emerging champions in the customer experience arena is ‘unified commerce’.

Going by an important statistic according to a Boston Retail Partners (BPR) report, more than 70% of retailers have plans to implement a unified commerce platform before the turn of the decade. Further, a definition of unified commerce by BPR states that ‘unified commerce places the customer experience as first priority by leveraging a single commerce platform. A single platform rids of internal channels that operate in their own silos. Instead, merchants leverage a “single, centralized, real-time platform for all customer engagement points.” In this way, unified commerce is achieved’.

Following the definition above, it is clear that ‘unified commerce’ relies on two fundamental aspects that are key for achieving a unified customer experience:
i) a single version of the data that is true
ii) the single version of the data available in real time

Deriving further the above aspects, no matter which channel is used by a retail brand for interaction with their customers, there should be a single true data regarding the products, prices, offers and so on for the customers consumption. So also, information related to the customer such as name, age, address, and purchase history amongst others must be a single version of the truth for the retailer to process.  When this data is shared in real-time and is accessible to the customer and retail business whenever, wherever, the result will be a seamless and unified customer experience.

Retailers have not only realized this but are also striving to make it a reality. However, this is still a pain point for many of them. Having the right technological capabilities by employing innovative and futureproof solutions such as ETP retail software can help retailers unify their customer experience across all channels.