Category: Blog

Omni-Channel Inventory Management Solutions

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ETP Blog - Omni-Channel Inventory Management Solutions

As the modern day consumer is spoilt for choice, it poses a challenge for retailers to zero down on their preferred channel of shopping. Customers interact with multiple channels and switch between them interchangeably to suit their demands. For retailers, this translates into the need to ease the process of finding the desired product across channels, for the consumers by anticipating the demand and optimizing the cross-channel inventory accordingly so that no opportunities are lost. To achieve this, retail businesses need to look at changing the way they think about and deal with their cross-channel inventory management.

The current omni-channel business models demand for a flexible and seamless inventory management at the core of the supply chain. A versatile inventory flow, that accommodates the frequent changes in consumer preferences across channels – be it physical stores or e-commerce – is essential. Retailers need to work on 2 main factors: allocation and replenishment.

The solution for retailers to tackle this is a single comprehensive omni-channel suite that seamlessly integrates channels. Such a system can enable examination of the inventory pool and allocate or replenish the stock based on pre-defined business rules and the business intelligence data acquired from across the different shopping channels. Based on analysis of the data captured, retailers can define strategies to manage cross-channel inventory. Thus, the solution can help to eliminate hurdles in inventory management and enable retailers to have a comprehensive view of their cross-channel supply chain. They can respond to trends quickly and optimize performance of their merchandise and assortments across the physical and online channels, reduce markdowns as well as satisfy customer expectations.

ETP V5 Omni-Channel Retail Suite consists of an enterprise-class multi-channel, multi-currency, and multi-lingual inventory management software solution which addresses the key needs of this dynamic industry such as merchandise management, sourcing, e-commerce order management, warehousing, sales, inventory management, replenishment planning, procurement, allocation and distribution. The system allows retailers to link up with the ETP Merchandise and Assortment planning solutions to execute their procurement based on the OTB Plan. This ensures that they buy right, distribute, allocate and deliver right.

‘More Is Less’ – The New Retail Mantra!

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The retail industry has come a long way – from being a simple barter system to the modern day retail that is all about ‘omni-channel’. This journey has helped retail to evolve and match the technology trends to meet the expectations of economic growth of regions, boost the revenue for businesses and ensure availability of products for consumers. But, the more one gets, even more is desired and thus for retail today, ‘more is less’.

Not only does every retail business want a share of the revenue pie, but it also wants to grab a bigger share each time. To do this, businesses are looking for modern ways to improve their operations and business models, to strategize effectively and increase the chances of boosting profits and margins. Further, they also want to expand and scale-up their businesses by venturing into diverse geographies or by sourcing and in some cases manufacturing new products for retail. In recent times, new channels of retail such as e-commerce have become the next big thing and retailers who were quick to jump onto the bandwagon, reaped its benefits. Many more are still following suit. But, even e-commerce has not been enough – mobile commerce (m-commerce) and social commerce are the latest retail touch-points. Taking timely advantage of these, can provide a fast paced growth for the retailers. It also provides for an opening for new entrants looking to foray into the retail business thus leading to more competition and this can just keep snowballing further.

Along with the modern trends in retail, there are a host of forward-looking technologies that can be infused in to the business in order to enhance it further. One significant example would be, the way POS technology has evolved from regular billing counters to being CRM integrated and even to Mobile POS (m-POS). Innovations in technology has enabled retail software solution companies to integrate even more advanced features to the POS such as augmented reality. With all certainty, there is still more to come in the future.

ETP blog - More is less

Big Data analytics is another such important and revolutionary technology. From simple capturing of data to offering analyzing capabilities, progressing into predictive and intuitive analytics, technology has paved the way not only for retail, but also for other businesses to plan their next steps for growth. Big Data allows retailers to capture and analyze large volumes of data – of their customers, employees and inventory – to be able to understand and predict market trends. Further advancements in technology will surely add more capabilities to POS, Big Data analytics and other retail solutions.

Just like technology, there are other aspects where ‘More is Less” influences the retail businesses. A growing global population means more consumers, more demand and eventually, more business opportunity. The need to fulfil the rising demand leads to creation of multiple product variants, versions and alternatives, and also varied pricing. Retailers can create separate brands to target the different customer segments. Offers and promotions also help to attract more customers. With a focus on customer centricity, retailers also need to provide more information about their offerings. For the consumers, all of this means more avenues or channels from where they can buy or research about the product options, more choices and more discounts on the products of their choice.

‘More is less’ is definitely the new retail mantra of today! If retail businesses can get more done, they can certainly achieve more. The opportunities to stand-out are galore if, after evaluating all factors and employing the right technologies, from planning to execution, they can get it right in retail.

ETP – Helping Lifestyle Retailers Get It Right In Retail

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ETP Blog - ETP helping lifestyle retailers

 

The luxury and lifestyle retail market is the beacon of the future, with several international brands vying to design, develop and deliver the fashionable goods and services that consumers want.  To do so, they are being compelled to modernize their supply chain, to track inventory performance and to spur consumer interest in products and promotions. Obsolescence of existing systems, the predicament of whether to build or to buy and the need to seamlessly integrate cross-channel operations are the major challenges lifestyle retailers encounter.

Working with the leaders in luxury and lifestyle retail across Asia Pacific, India and the Middle East for more than a quarter of a century, ETP has garnered a vast experience and expertise of unscrambling such retail tech tangles. It has understood the business needs of lifestyle retailers from across the 3 most diverse regions in the world and developed an enterprise class, scalable and secure platform that seamlessly fulfils these needs with a prime focus on increasing demand and optimizing costs to improve bottom line.

Some of the noteworthy business benefits delivered by ETP to lifestyle retail brands through its omni channel retail solutions in order to help them transcend customer expectations and increase customer loyalty are:

  • One seamless solution that can integrate with existing, third-party e-commerce and ERP solutions, across different store formats and business models
  • Superior customer experience with quick checkout
  • Quick access to customer buying history, which helps the marketing and merchandise departments analyze customer needs and buying patterns
  • Option to define promotions centrally and establish controls on how to deploy them across channels
  • Targeted promotions and instant gratification based on customer profiles
  • Access to KPI dashboard to define and track sales/store-staff performance as per assigned targets
  • Ability to capture actionable customer feedback
  • Ease of inventory management, distribution and complete inventory visibility regardless of location or time
  • Brand, store and category level analysis of sales revenue and cost of goods sold
  • Complete visibility and centralized control, modification of feature roll-outs
  • Business stability and scalability to launch new stores while maintaining a uniform brand experience and quality customer service

Stock Right, Using The Right OTB Planning Tool

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Efficient inventory management is vital for ensuring that an appropriate level of stock is on hand at the right time for the amount of targeted sales to be realized. Having too much inventory or the wrong kind of inventory during crucial sales periods can ebb your cash flow and reduce profits with the involuntary but obligatory need to offer too many markdowns. On the other hand, if you under buy and under stock and consequently miss sales opportunities as a result of that, then you are not banking your potential profit. Similarly, merchandise may get delivered at an inappropriate time when it isn’t needed and may be unavailable when it is essential. All of these will affect sales and inventory turnover.

A retailer can be sure to stock the right amount of the right products at the right time in the right place by using an effective Open-To-Buy (OTB) plan. Open-To-Buy (OTB) is defined as the merchandise budgeted for purchase during a certain time period, but has not been ordered yet. It is also the process of planning merchandise sales and purchases.

OTB can be calculated in either units or dollars. It is essentially the difference between how much inventory is required to achieve targeted sales and how much is actually available. Consider maintaining an OTB plan for your business as a whole, but also plan for each category of merchandise that you stock. The plan can be maintained on paper, in a spreadsheet or by employing and using one of the right Open-To-Buy software programs/tools.

The Open-To-Buy formula is,
ETP-otb-planning

For example, a retailer has an inventory level of $130,000 on December 1st and planned $115,000 end-of-month inventory for December 31st. The planned sales for the store are $64,000 with $1,050 in planned markdowns. Therefore, the retailer has $41,050 Open-To-Buy at retail. Multiply that by the initial markup to arrive at the OTB at cost. So, if the markup is 40%, then the Open-To-Buy at cost will be $16,420.

ETP blog-otb-chart

Keep in mind that many of the figures on your inventory plan are only guidelines. A good thumb rule for business is, if your actual ending inventory is within five percent of your plan, you are doing very well.

It is recommended for OTB to be maintained and monitored for each category separately. Further, OTB should be calculated and monitored not only on retail price, but also keeping a track on the price ranges thereby, getting the required quantity mix across all the ranges. It is important to capture pending deliveries – in transit and any outstanding purchase orders in the OTB calculation. It is also important to close the opened Purchase Orders (PO) if there are no more deliveries expected in that PO, so that it is not added to pending deliveries thereby, leading to an incorrect OTB calculation. In order to take advantage of special buys or to add new products, some of the OTB budget should be held back. This also allows the retailer to react to fast-selling items and quickly replenish supply.

ETP Omni-Channel Retail Merchandise Planning solution improves cash flow with intuitive Open-To-Buy (OTB) planning, helping you to buy right and on time. The cross-channel configuration fine-tunes OTB planning to take timely in-season action. OTB begins with the planning process, is future oriented, provides guidance on how much to buy, and provides benchmarks for evaluating progress and adjusting future plans. The opening stock and OTB values are displayed in the Option plan. These values are auto populated in the plan and therefore there will be no need of creating OTB plan in future.

Focus On The Four Fear Factors Of Festive Shopping

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ETP blog festive shopping

There is plenty of advice out there for retailers on how to get ready for the shopping frenzy that they experience and if managed right, enjoy during the festive shopping season every year. Buzzwords such as mobile optimization and omni-channel experiences are good to hear, but when it comes down to milking the cow during the most revenue generating part of the year, the transaction is at the heart of the holiday season shopping experience.

Customers worry about price, secure transactions and right product availability when spending their festive dollars both online and offline (in-store) and they are depending upon you to dispel those fears. For retailers, that means addressing the four fear factors that concern shoppers:

Product: To realize maximum profits, it is of optimum essence to plan your pre-season and in-season omni-channel merchandise and inventory right. Even at a time when the offline and online are merging to enhance shopper experiences, customers prefer to complete their festive shopping hassle free, one stop. So it is vital to stock the right product in the right channel and the right quantity at the right time. This will also help you to get through the entire festive season effectively, avoid stockout situations which usually result in unhappy or lost customers and ensure that you do not end up with excess stock at the end of the season.

Pricing: With many retailers offering similar products across multiple channels, shoppers are spoilt for options. In this situation, price usually becomes the deciding factor between a sale and a no-sale. Hence, along with the right inventory, you need to price your merchandise right across each channel. Additionally, you need to analyze the profit margins on individual seasonal products. If you can’t make a profit after the season is over with the left over merchandise, you may want to consider offering a markdown on the time sensitive products during the season.

Promotions: A steady number of shoppers are seen to be actively planning their festive shopping early, looking for deals and promotions to compare their best buying options. They have more locations to purchase from, both online and in-store including pop-ups, more discounts to compare and more information at their fingertips about the products they want. Hence, it is imperative that you plan, roll-out and modify your festive promotions and campaigns early as well as on the fly in-season.

Protection: With a plethora of transactions taking place due to the rise in shopping activity during the festive season, it is necessary to protect shoppers’ payment card data and ensure secure transactions across channels. You must take measures to make payment card transactions safe for your customers, no matter which channel they use for buying from your retail business, by employing a payment application that helps you do just that by protecting the heart of the festive shopping experience – the transaction.

ETP’s Omni-Channel Retail Solutions can help you put to rest all the above fear factors effectively and efficiently. The ETP Merchandise Planner helps you plan and manage cross-channel merchandise and inventory taking cues from previous seasons and industry data. It also enables you to manage pricing for all your products across each channel. The ETP Accelerator equips you to define, plan and roll-out retail promotions based on your business rules, and start, stop or modify them on the fly. The ETP V5.5 Omni-Channel POS solution is certified as PA-DSS v3.1 compliant by the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council (PCI SSC). It means that retailers can now feel more secure with the ETP V5.5 POS solutions to provide a secure payment card-related transaction process for their end users.

Infographic – How Well Do You Know Your Omni-Channel Customer?

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Online, offline, mobile. e-commerce, m-commerce, brick and mortar; these things are beginning to blur more and more, because, really, only one thing matters: Your customers – and your customers are digital! It doesn’t matter if they’re in your store with phone in hand or browsing on a tablet from their couch. They want one seamless experience. So do you know your omni-channel customers well to provide them with that experience?

How Well Do You Know Your ETP Blog - Omni-Channel Customer

Payment Card Data Security At The Point-Of-Sale (POS)

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As retail businesses adopt more omni-channel retailing methods such as e-commerce, m-commerce, social selling, and mobile payments, standard online and mobile payment frauds also pose a problem, exposing confidential information and credit card data of the customers. Hence, businesses and governments are under increased pressure to prioritize data security. To address such issues related to financial data theft and hacking, the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council (PCI SSC) was formed on December 15, 2004, that released version 1.0 of the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), a proprietary information security standard for organizations to increase controls around cardholder data.

PCI DSS represents a minimum set of control objectives which may be enhanced by local, regional and sector laws and regulations. Additionally, legislation or regulatory requirements may require specific protection of personally identifiable information or other data elements (for example, cardholder name), or define an entity’s disclosure practices related to consumer information. Examples include legislation related to consumer data protection, privacy, identity theft, or data security.

The Payment Application Data Security Standard (PA-DSS) is a subset of the PCI DSS.  The PA-DSS applies to software vendors and others who develop payment applications that store, process, or transmit cardholder data as part of authorization or settlement, where these payment applications are sold, distributed, or licensed to third parties. In order to ensure that all sensitive cardholder authentication data is secure, PCI requires merchants, banks, and all other parties that use a third-party application for processing payments to select one that meets the PA-DSS standard.

The following chart details what is required to be PCI DSS compliant (and therefore what a payment application must support to facilitate a customer’s PCI DSS compliance).

ETP Blog-credit-card-data-security-at-the-point-of-sale

The ETP Store Omni-channel POS solution is certified as PA-DSS v3.2 compliant by the PCI SSC. It means that retailers can now feel more secure with the ETP V5.5 POS solutions to provide a secure payment card-related transaction process for their end users.

Being PCI DSS compliant means that, ETP V5 software does not retain, block or store and securely delete any sensitive payment card validation data, provides secure authentication features and facilitates secure remote access to the payment application while maintaining a log of all payment application activity. The PA-DSS certification for ETP V5 Suite is especially significant for customers of ETP Store (POS) and ETP MobileStore (Mobile POS) solution, as ETP V5 is one of very few retail software solutions to be PA-DSS compliant on the market.

“Keeping our customers secure and successful is the number one priority for ETP. We continually push beyond the ordinary and develop omni-channel retail software solutions with secure payment applications that protect wireless transmissions, facilitate secure network implementation and remote software updates and encrypt sensitive cardholder data over public networks,” said Naresh Ahuja, Chairman & CEO, ETP Group. “PA-DSS accreditation is by no means a simple task. However, by accomplishing it, we make it easier for our customers around the world to apply for PCI PA-DSS certification, where the use of compliant software solutions is a key element of demonstrating their ability to protect sensitive card data.”

For more information on ETP V5.5 Omni-channel POS solutions, click here.

Pop-Up Retail: Understanding The Value Of Opportunities

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ETP blog popup-stores-retail

The impressive growth of pop-up retail can be seen in the fact that it was a zero dollar industry in 2003 but flourished into an 8 billion dollar industry in 2013. Pop-up continues to drive innovation and offer several strategic opportunities thus adding a new dimension to retail.

Some of the strategic opportunities presented by pop-up retail:
1. Retailers can target a niche audience.
2. Chance to experiment with an economic alternative to full-scale retail set-up.
3. Allow retailers to test new products, concepts, and markets.
4. Derive valuable consumer insights economically and with minimum inventory.
5. Retailers can create buzz and imprint their products on the customers’ minds.
6. Tap into “massclusivity” and stimulate consumer curiosity with elements of surprise and urgency.
7. Clear old inventory and stock.
8. Aggressively promote merchandise around a finite duration of time such as season, festival or holiday.
9. Create a learning center for customer

Retailers have been quick to explore the popup retailing concept:
– In 2003, Target pioneered the pop-up model with a 1,500 sq.ft. store in New York City that for showcasing designer Isaac Mizrahi’s women’s clothing over five weeks.
– Nike created a Runner’s Lounge in Vancouver with free massages, snacks, drinks, and the opportunity to test their new line of shoes designed exclusively for running.
– Collaborating with global brands – Adidas, Levi’s and Sony Ericsson, MTV promoted limited edition apparel and high-tech electronics by setting up pop-up stores in German cities for a week at a time.
– Exploring the idea of a traveling pop-up store, Gap fashioned a school bus with 60’s themed apparel and accessories.
– E-commerce retailer, Bluefly.com opened a brick-and-mortar store in New York to unload slow-moving stock in a temporary boutique.

To set-up a successfully running pop-up store or site, retailers need to employ the right pop-up technology. Web-based point-of-sale (POS) and mobile point-of-sale (mPOS) integrated with customer data and inventory management tools using the right retail software will enable the pop-up store staff or self-serve kiosks to answer customer queries and access real-time information about product availability and provide superior customer experience. Retailers must ensure strong security measures at the pop-up locations for protecting transaction data going across the network while providing connectivity.

Retail Insights (Infographic)

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The retailers that will move ahead of the pack in the coming year are those that can deliver a consistent, clear, clean, simplified, and seamless message across all channels.

ETP blog retail-insights-infographic

Retailers looking into the future can be sure that no matter what trends and technologies are coming, an omni-channel strategy that is propelled by data and streamlined by automation will lead the way. Keep an open mind about innovations in omni-channel technologies in the future.