Category: Blog

Top 5 Questions – Before Investing In Merchandise Planning Technology

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ETP blog merhcandise-planning-technology

The average consumer has changed. Retail has changed to keep up with consumer expectations. And, new technologies are continually evolving to change buying behaviours all over again. The only element that remains constant in the cycle of change is executing a customer-centric, interactive and personable brand experience. Effective merchandise planning helps you deliver just that!

Can it provide an omni-channel presence?

A customer expects seamless and consistent brand experience in-store, online, through mobile apps and social media. To remain accessible to the customer on multiple channels requires omni-channel planning and forecasting. Products, promotions and pricing has to be consistent across all retail channels – reinforcing customer trust, purchase frequency and loyalty.

Can it crunch Big Data?

Consolidated enterprise data in the form of Big Data is run through a common analytic engine to gain actionable customer insights and understand purchasing behaviour. Merchandise analytics can be used to ascertain trends and future market potential in different seasons, occasions and allow intuitive management, reducing lead times.

Is it working with real-time information?

Retailers need to provide on-trend, timely and precisely-priced merchandise as and when the customer demands it. Accurate demand planning in a highly competitive marketplace is key to optimize product lifecycle and profitability. Real-time visibility and control of business operations helps make quick strategic procurement, promotions and placement of merchandise.

Is it scalable?

When business is changing and growth is happening around the world, around the clock, your software systems and processes need to be agile. Merchandise planning, in an expanding enterprise, needs to be as cohesive as it is comprehensive. Flexibility in the system architecture leads to optimized assortments and optimal merchandise cycles.

Does it provide stable automation?

The most elemental and important feature is the stability of the merchandise planning process. All functions mentioned above can only be productive when the system platforms are aligned and stably connected to enterprise operations. It can drive superiority in the supply chain and competitive advantage in customer demand.

Online In-Store – Shopper’s Paradise

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ETP blog online in-store

Smartphones are getting smarter and making their users more savvy shoppers. Today, customers research, review, compare, purchase products online and in-store. Research shows more than 80% shoppers use their smartphones in-store, while shopping. The customer’s mobile is the starting point of most shopping journeys. It begins with searching about the various categories of interest. The search leads to the customer browsing deeper into the product information, while in the physical store, and ready to make the purchase.

Most shoppers use their phones to ascertain pre-shopping information like searching the store location and timings, comparing prices and understanding the store or brand specific promotions and ensuring the product availability at the store. Customers who use mobiles more often buy more. This is seen across product categories like health and beauty, electronics, home care and appliances. Browsing through substantial product information and reviews surreptitiously influences customers positively and removes any doubts regarding a purchase. Sometimes, customers also buy experience enhancing accompaniments for the selected products after reading about them online.

Mobile technology in retail is impacting a broad spectrum of business functions such as campaign and promotion management, customer service and acquisition, retention and loyalty management, space planning and optimization, operational processes, demand and supply forecasting, inventory management, security management, etc. Retailers are focusing strongly on mobile connect and analytics to gain actionable customer insights out of the enterprise data. For this, mobile technology like mPOS and beacons are being introduced into the retail store to deliver superior shopping experiences.

Also Read: How Can Retail Leverage The Benefits Of Blockchain

Top CEOs Redefining The Rules For New Age Retail

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Nike CEO Mark Parker talks about being the Goliath in a David market. “The last thing we want is to be a big dumb company that feels we can put a swoosh on something and people will buy that. Our management approach hasn’t come from studying and reading business books. It’s more intuitive, from the culture of sports. We’re constantly looking for ways to improve. How do you adapt to your environment and really focus on your potential? To really go after that, you have to embrace the reality that it is not going to slow down. And you have to look at that as half full, not half empty. Companies and people look at the pace of change as a challenge, an obstacle, a hurdle, we like to look at it as opportunity: Get on the offense.”

Speaking on the changing landscape of retail, Macy’s Inc. CEO Terry Lundgren isn’t losing sleep over how he’s running a retail empire in an age of booming internet-based commerce. He says “A bifurcated view of the retail environment – one in which brick-and-mortar retailers fight against a rising tide of internet retailers – doesn’t paint an accurate picture of how the average retailer shops. Rather, at least for Macy’s, the two are complementary tools used by consumers. The customer starts with a device, then they want to touch the product or sit in the sofa. Afterwards, they might walk out of the store and buy it online.”

Omni-channel retailing has become the norm in the industry and customers expect access to retail brands through multiple channels as per their convenience. The physical and digital platforms are blending to create an ecosystem that delivers instant value, information, products, services, payment options, rewards, cash-back, discounts, recommendations and updates to the customer anytime, anywhere. Walmart’s CEO Doug McMillon, elaborates further, “I want us to stop talking about digital and physical retail as if they’re two separate things. The customer doesn’t think of it that way, and we can’t either. One customer can shop with us in so many different ways – in stores, on their phones, at homes or a pick-up point. I get excited about what our technology team is now capable of. As we add new capabilities and join these unique assets together effectively, we’re going to have something special.”

Top New Technology Innovations

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“I believe that every life is valuable. That we can make things better. That innovation is the key to a bright future. That we are just getting started.” – Bill Gates

It is said that every generation owes itself one glorious revolution. It seems technology is impervious to this timeline distinction – from the steam engine to the printing press, from the stapler to the smartphone, it is destined to revolutionize our day-to-day lives, generation after generation. It is making clean energy at 1/100th the cost, eradicating diseases, saving and even creating new lives a tangible possibility.

The top new technology innovations of the 21st century (so far!):

DNA technology is helping produce miraculous fixes and even modify mutations that cause life-threating diseases. It is also increasingly used in criminal investigations, nanotechnology and gene-splicing.

ETP blog dnatesting-com
(Image courtesy www.dnatesting.com)

Solar technology is often imagined as solar panels installed atop the roofs of industrial and residential buildings. But, research teams are focussing on applying solar energy in various forms like solar roadways and solar power in space.

extremetech-com
(Image courtesy www.extremetech.com)

Connectivity is perhaps the most experienced form of new technology today. It is only going to be better, faster with hyper connectivity weaved into and across daily appliances at home and offices, transport modes and entertainment.

(Image courtesy www.discovery.com)
(Image courtesy www.discovery.com)

Online classrooms are providing the most important educational foundation that everyone needs, no matter their location, social stature, physical and mental limitations.

(Image courtesy www.wired.com)
(Image courtesy www.wired.com)

3D printed bridges, self-driving automobiles, virtual reality, bionic prosthetics, artificial intelligence and robotics – the future of technology is as comprehensive as it is engaging and incessant.

Shake The Status Quo – Boost Retail Conversions

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If retail was to be summarized in numbers, the key statistic would be the sale conversion rate. While determining the financial health of the retail business, it is vital to ascertain the conversion rate out of the total incoming traffic in the store. A steady incline in conversions is usually linked with increased in-store traffic in the future. The challenge lies in mastering the sophisticated combination of attracting more foot traffic and delivering personalized attention to individual customers.

Store display – How many times have you entered a store just because it looked intriguing and just too appealing? It happens. And it can happen for your store, if you put your best out in a spectacular display. Creative brand and product imagery can help a small kiosk win over a sprawling showroom. Excite passing customers with interesting display and incentivizing signage. Keep them changing as per seasons, occasions and promotions, to counter visual fatigue. In an overcrowded marketplace, if you could manage to get the prospects into your store – half the battle is won!

Sales training – This might sound very basic and an existent part of retail business, in varying degrees. But in the customer-centric retail arena, just warm greetings and polite pointing don’t make the cut. Your in-store sales staff and customer support agents need to be groomed, trained and empowered with the right technology to consult customers with confidence. When a customer is treated with a truly personable experience, it becomes the key distinguishing factor for her to return to the store instead of using other channels to make the purchase, next time.

Customer feedback – One of the best trends followed in the present social media age is being vocal about your likes and dislikes. Customers vociferously review, critique and comment on various subjects, including their retail experiences. Online/offline surveys work to an extent but it can’t be your only medium of accumulating customer feedback. A substantial, savvy and trustworthy multi-channel presence wins favor with all kinds of customers. It induces and initiates conversations that engage customers and prospects alike. Through this, retailers derive actionable feedback which helps fulfilling customer expectations and nurtures brand loyalty.

Globalized Expansion With Localized Experience

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Retail in a global economy has unlocked multiple channels and opportunities for retailers to enter or expand operations in developing growth markets. The diversification of business demand is critical to counter economic stagnation. But, the capability to safely and successfully port your brand across continents is harnessed through streamlined core operations. Retailers need to be more strategic, as each marketplace represents unique advantages and challenges. While India’s PPP ranking is high, its foreign investment policies remain restrictive. China’s increased demand for western goods needs to be carefully routed through its extensive tax regime.

Retail brands are adapting to local culture, skill-sets and eco-systems. They balance localization with customer expectations by fine-tuning store models and personalizing online strategies. For example, Walmart in America is focused on bargains and selection; the same is true in China, but for different items. Real estate is much more expensive in China, so Walmart purchases a small plot of land and creates several levels, like a mini shopping mall, instead of a single level that is spread across what seems like acres in America. However, the quantities are kept smaller in China as most houses in China are small and do not have room to store bulk purchases. Samsung plays an active role in understanding local appetites, customs or preferences to meet customer needs – In Bulgaria, yogurt is an important part of the local diet so they developed an oven able to produce the perfect homemade yogurt in seconds.

Regional retailers are also flexing their marketing muscle to maintain growth, as global players increase footprint in their respective regions. The future will lead to increased localization efforts by foreign retailers to fortify market positions. Consequently, regional retailers would focus on strengthening existent customer connect while emulating the proven best practices of the larger retail competitors. Technology has played a vital role in enabling globalization across multiple industries including retail. From manufacturing processes established at different continents for cheaper labour and raw material costs to end consumer analytics for determining the right product and market matrix; retailers can expand their supply strategies and introduce cost-effective innovations to operations. This helps optimize business capital expenditure to support local market efficacy and boost global expansion.

Retailers – The Sleeping Giants Of e-Commerce

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– Naresh Ahuja

ETP blog retailers-the-sleeping-giant-of-ecommerce

At ETP, as we work with retailers across 20 countries and over 25,000 stores and 500 brands, we have seen tremendous depth in their skills in merchandising, brand management, sales and supply chain management, their understanding of their diverse customers and employees, their ability to manage cycles and seasons and still produce a profit, their infrastructure management, their cash management, so on and so forth.

In the last one year, we have seen these giants waking up to their potential in the eCommerce space. With all their powerful management and execution capability, they could be the game-changers of this new “omni-channel” retail world. Like all large organisations with a legacy and systems and processes in place, they may not be as nimble as the pure-play eCommerce players, however they seem to have got it now and are ramping up their organisations’ technology, culture and capability to play the eCommerce game. At the same time, the eCommerce players have grown and are struggling with the lack of the same competencies that the larger retailers have.

It is a fascinating new battle front and the next couple of years will tell all. My guess is that the winners will be the ones who leverage the core competencies of retail and deploy the technological savviness of eCommerce.

 

This article has been written by:

Naresh Ahuja ETP Naresh Ahuja, Chairman and CEO, ETP Group

Naresh as the Founder, Chairman and CEO of the ETP Group leads the company with a clear focus on bringing enduring value to customers through best practices mirrored in software applications. Spanning 25 years of focus on retail domain expertise and IP development, ETP today, has a strong customer base of market leaders in more than 20 countries across Asia Pacific, India and the Middle East, and is on its way to becoming a global leader in Retail Software Solutions.

Top 5 Questions To Ask Before Investing In Retail Pos Technology

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etp-blog-4-important-benefits-of-retail-pos-software

As technology continues to thrive around the world, businesses need to reevaluate their offerings and operations. In retail, the POS is where the ‘business promise’ is realized by the customer. Today, it represents much more than a system to process purchases and can be used as a powerful tool to fulfill both customer and business expectations. So here are the key checks to be made before ringing in a new retail POS system:

Does It Provide True Integration With Enterprise Data?

Julia, a customer, approaches the POS terminal to complete her purchase. Paul, the cashier, feeds in Julia’s name or swipes her membership card to access her buying history. The system interface now displays her purchase patterns and past sale analysis. Paul makes recommendations basis the most frequent bought items, preferred modes of payment, and current offerings on her loyalty credits and identifies promotions to cross/up-sell. If a product is not available in-store, he views, ships and tracks products directly from other stores or the warehouse to Julia’s desired location. Through an integrated POS system, Paul accesses real-time enterprise CRM and inventory data, store sales reports, product performance and business analysis. It empowers him to fulfill customer expectations and thus drive demand optimally.

What About Omni-Channel Functions?

Consumer expectations are not just getting the right product at the right price at the right place at the right time, but also the right interaction and the right service everywhere! An omni-channel point-of-sale system streamlines business operations across physical and digital retail platforms. Customers value instant connect with the brand and staying informed, updated and engaged seamlessly across channels. So, while shopping in-store or on a smart device, they are greeted with personalized communication on products, prices and promotions. Retailers also manage multiple touch-points through a centralized supply chain and intuitive system interface. The capability to delight customers across multiple channels lends to a bigger market share and favorable social quotient. The sustained engagement and accessibility also fosters loyalty and distinction from the competition.

So Is It Completely Mobile?

Often times, even the best shopping experiences are ruined by long queues at the checkout counters. In the age of instant gratification, the sight of a long waiting line would deter walk-ins and even lead to basket abandonment. Installing more POS terminals is an impractical solution in terms of added expense, floor space utilization and viability during low rush hours. mPOS technology extends the functions and capabilities of the POS system on smart devices, as an application. It helps in-store staff to approach the customers, consult them basis their CRM profile and conclude the purchase from anywhere in the store. The invoices are electronically transmitted with enough time left to receive valuable feedback from customers. Happy customers often spread the love to other prospects and drive demand. Saving in-store floor space and using cost-effective smart devices optimizes operational costs further.

But Will It Support Business Growth?

Retail is growing, markets are expanding and opportunities are abundant. Considering the time it takes to set-up or upgrade enterprise technology software, it is essential to ensure the POS system is future-ready. It needs to be easily scalable and secure with the flexibility to adapt to different markets and industry dynamism. The ROI increases steadily with low administration costs and virtual system updates across the enterprise. The POS system processes are seamlessly automated across channels, providing centralized control. This helps deliver uniform brand experience, uncompromised customer service with complete operational visibility.

Vendor Or Partner?

Implementing technology is a long-term commitment which requires equal collaboration between the solution partner and the retail organisation. While a software vendor might support the point of implementation, a solution partner will share business goals towards innovation, growth and profitability. It is vital to choose a solution partner who has created a solid foundation in the industry with the experience of working with retailers of similar size and scope of operation as you. Your investments are better protected with a company which has reached the scale to support you globally but keen on continual customer satisfaction to accommodate your unique requirements. The solution partner should be able to dedicate expert teams with in-depth best practices knowledge. This helps structure the implementation, training, consecutive project phases and support in line with the business projections.

Also Read:  Omni-Channel Fulfilment Is The Biggest Retail Challenge

Blog URL: https://www.etpgroup.com/omni-channel-fulfilment-is-the-biggest-retail-challenge/

Mobile Technology Redefining Retail

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Recently, Flipkart – India’s leading e-commerce marketplace offering over 15 million products cross 70+ categories, announced it would convert into a mobile app-only format within the year. Flipkart’s mobile traffic was at 6% a year ago, but it has increased more than 10 Times since then. The move makes sense as India is the third-largest internet market in the world with more than 243 million users, trailing China and the US in that order. Boston Consulting Group expects more than 580 million people in India to use the internet by 2018, 70-80% of them accessing the web on mobile phones.

Mobile technology has brewed exponential change in retail operations. We dive deeper into the main and most successful components of the same:

Mobile Point Of Sale (mPOS) technology has removed physical limitations on a sale check-out and created more in-store floor space. mPOS technology empowers the in-store staff to use wireless, intuitive mobile and tablet applications to accept payments on the spot. For example, the ETP MobileStore MPOS application integrates in-store item record, customer data, sales person information, product barcodes and multiple payment transactions with electronic invoice capability. This enables features like queue busting, mobile CRM, easy customer/inventory lookup, price check, quick customer service, customer registrations and promotions gratification. mPOS reduces walk-outs and reverses the trend of small basket check-outs through up/cross selling, based on personalized customer profile and secure, faster modes of payments.

Beacon is a hardware technology of nominal cost and it is small enough to be installed anywhere in the store. This battery-friendly device uses Bluetooth to transmit messages or prompts to smartphones and tablets around the store location. With the requisite permissions, beacons integrate with the company’s analytics software and access the customer’s buying history. The messages can be targeted according to past sales, current customer location, average time spent in the store, and more. It seamlessly combines the data captured from both online and physical store, directing online preferences to the retail store. According to customer research, 63% of respondents can be persuaded to enter a store by a push notification sent to their smart device via beacon technology.

The mobilization of shopping with m-commerce has grown exponentially across the world due to the swift adoption of smart mobile devices. The unique selling point remains the convenience of shopping anywhere, any time with multiple payment options. Big data analytics has helped retailers fuel their mobile marketing strategies through data-driven insights. It has helped brands reach consumers who cannot access conventional retail touch-points.

Macy’s became the Retailer of the Year 2014 by embracing image recognition, beacons, mobile wallets and event-driven mobile commerce, bringing added convenience and excitement to the shopping experience in a way few other retailers can match. Mobile technology would continue to thrive, develop and stimulate retail transformations that evolve the customer experience. In the near future, models like social media retail, virtual showrooms and 3D printed customization are going to head the next stage of change.