I have a sign in my office that reads if you have your choice between luck, timing or brilliance, take timing first, luck second, brilliance third and don’t ever confuse the three. Point being that if you are going into retail and think you have a brilliant idea but you are not certain of the timing of the venture, location or planning, save your money or hope you get lucky. These are tough times for a retailer and if you are at the right place, at the right time with the right idea, you will make it if you streamline your business by cutting costs and managing your inventory efficiently. The best way to do that is through information from your POS Software that will provide you with all the management tools to be an extremely informed buyer. A good POS Software package can help you quickly determine your best selling products, how fast your inventory is turning, if proper margins are met, how to buy for your future product demands and how to allocate shelf space. Remember you are a retailer and not an analytical genius, all the reports you need to make these informed decisions should be easy to access, understand and decipher.

Your POS Software should also accumulate information on your best buying customers so you can send thank you notes and keep your relationship on a personal level that gives them a reason to continue shopping with you. Tough times will not be here forever, but you must make adjustments to weather the storm and be around for the returning good times. When the good economy does return, you will be in the driver’s seat. Good luck and good informed retailing to you!

If you use your POS software to determine your best and worst moving products, the position of that product in the store will help determine how fast it turns. Shoppers want to interact with your store inventory and feel and touch.

Why does touching an item increase the likelihood of purchase? The motivation traces back to what behavioral economists have labeled the “endowment effect.” This phenomenon suggests that consumers value a product more once they own it. And simply touching that product may increase a shopper’s sense of ownership, and compel the consumer to buy the product.
“When you touch something, you instantly feel more of a connection to it,” says Suzanne Shu, a marketing professor at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management, and co-author of the study. “That connection stirs up an emotional reaction – ‘yeah, I like the feel of it, this can be mine.’ And that emotion can cause you to buy something you never would have bought if you hadn’t touched it.”

Retailers should hang signs that say, “feel me.” For a more subtle approach, the authors single out the Apple Store as a model. The company openly invites its customers to fidget with its gadgets, and once you start playing with the iPhone, it’s awfully hard to leave the place without one. Make your store a fun store and stop putting all the items in cabinets, display cases and places that can’t be reached. Let your POS Software help design your store.

Small Business owners reflect what retail in this day and age needs to become. Small business owners are risk takers, but quick enough to stop on a dime and change directions if they need to. They have the ability to put the past behind and seize new opportunities in the future. If you put entrepreneurial qualities in a retailer, you will get a person not afraid to try new and exciting things. The direction changes can be forced upon them by an ever changing marketplace, competition from other retailers or just a desire to create a new and different market segment.

You need quality information from your POS software to enable you to make the decisions that will allow you to control your niche markets. Big box retailers have cornered the market on inexpensive, horizontal retailing, but can’t compete when it comes to being nimble and turning on a dime. When your Retail Stock Ledger, built into your POS software tells you that Vendor A has a higher sell through and better turn rate than Vendor B, you now have the information needed to make quick informed buying decisions. Stocking less inventory, turning more times and haveing higher margins is a recipe for success.

When you are trying to figure out good ways to increase your business in these trying times, go for the least expensive, with the most clout and least amount of risk. The first question should be how can I transform my business and increase my profitability within the current framework of my retail establishment? POS software can help you become an efficient retailer in three important ways. Market more too existing customers, control your inventory and expand your geographical territory by making your products and services available through the Internet. Capturing information at the point of sale is essential to mining more business from your existing customer base. Your customers will gladly give you some personal information if they know that preferential treatment or special pricing is the end result. Notifying them of new product arrivals, private showings or a pending sale are a few of the ways to build your customer loyalty and keep them shopping with you and not your competitors.

Controlling your inventory through reliable reporting within your POS software will allow you to stock less inventory, turn faster and keep better margins. The next best way to improve your business is to implement an easy to maintain and efficient Internet presence. A brick and mortar retailer can expect a ten percent increase in sales, according to industry averages, within the first year if the web store is properly worked and maintained. It’s just another way to get your product line in front of the buying public. These are the least expensive and less risky ways to keep your business going in tough times. With ProphetLine POS Software, all of these objectives can be met with a low cash outlay.

Most small retailers have many things to worry about and good inventory assortment does not have to be one of those. Their inventory assortment dictates the profitability of their store and makes a statement to the public about who they are, the clientele they would like to attract and their originality. Not enough of the proper assortment will tend to reduce the chances of your customers coming back and too much inventory will ruin your profits. POS Software with built-in merchandising functionality, like open to buy and a retail stock ledger will give you the information needed to make informed decisions on assortments and availability. The cost of inventory is the largest expense item on a retailer’s income statement. If not managed carefully, the cost of excess inventory can be the difference between a small retailer being very profitable and losing money.

Many small retailers think that they need more inventory to be sure they don’t miss any sales, but the truth is that too much inventory almost always will cost you more. When retailers bring their inventories in line, clean up their assortments and make it easier for the customers to shop, sales will go up. The cost of slower turning inventory is much greater than the cost of faster turning inventory. These costs happen from lost sales, lower margins and increased expenses. Retailers that properly manage their inventories, the assortment their customers want and not being overstocked are going to be much more profitable and good POS Software with built-in merchandising will get you there.

When times dictate frugal spending instead of the mentality that price is no object, your customer loyalty is much harder to build and keep. Building trust with customers begins with the retailer, not the customer. They have to see and feel that we genuinely care for them and have their best interests at heart. When was the last time you ran a report on your POS software for your best buying customers and sent them an appreciation of their continued loyalty? It is ten times harder to get a new customer than keep an established customer in the fold. Why is it so hard to call these good customers on a regular basis and thank them, ask if there is anything that would improve their experience in your store and in general, make them feel as if they are appreciated?

Sometimes the retailers that are questioning the loyalty of their customers are the ones that have not been loyal. Build your customer database in your POS software and keep your good customers happy. This is where your Point of Sale (POS) Software can be a valuable tool. ProphetLine POS Software has integrated customer marketing that will give you the availability to stay in touch with the customers that do the majority of your business. User definable fields can easily give your customers that personal touch that will keep them as a valued customer even if you don’t have the best prices in town. High quality customer Service is something we at ProphetLine know is valuable and is one of the reasons our POS Software makes it easy for you to give higher customer service to your clientele.

Yes, we sell inexpensive POS software and yes it is full featured, but why am I very rarely asked when the product is demoed about our support. POS software without a great support staff is useless. Most Pos software can do all the basics like perpetual inventory, cash controls, sales analysis and the day to day functions. The really good POS software companies give you support that helps you understand how to use information that should be fully automated, seamless and will give you an advantage over your competitors. Don’t over analyze, keep it simple with an easy to understand retail stock ledger that gives you department/class comparatives, vendor comparatives and an open to buy program that requires very little work and gives you information to make you an informed buyer.

Almost all POS software can act like a glorified cash register and track money, inventory and your basics. They also give you a bunch of lists at the end of the day that you don’t have a clue about how to use to improve your business’s bottom line. There is no reason that you should not be using a great POS software system instead of a glorified cigar box that gives you this bunch of lists. To put everything in perspective, yes we sell POS software with great technical support, yes we are full featured and nothing on the market can compare with the bang for the buck you get with ProphetLine POS Software.

Small retailers are getting all this advice on a daily basis on how to weather the economic downturn. Most of this advice comes from consultants who don’t have a clue what the small retailer is going through. It’s really quite simple, lower your variable expenses to the bare bones and treat your inventory like gold. Differentiate yourself from your competitors by finding niche markets and merchandise that can’t be found anywhere else. Going green is also stylish and handling eco friendly products and promoting an environmentally friendly business model is also a big positive.

Investing in technology in a downturn can also pay you dividends over the long haul. Don’t think of technology as an expense, but an investment in the well being of your store. Small retailers need to understand that investing in POS/Retail Management Software in hard times will enable them to change and improve their business processes and reduce their in-store costs. The real difference is they are moving forward with technology and their competitors have pulled back. Hard times don’t last forever and when the good times are back again, the retailers that have invested in store efficient software will put a gap between themselves and their competitors that will be hard to overcome. POS/Retail Management Software enhances the business processes, streamlines the inventory supply chain and gives you better analytics to make more informed stocking decisions.

Now is not the time to put a shell around you and hope times get better, it is a time to implement positive changes and ready yourself for a brighter retailing future. All good things come to those that wait, as long as they work like hell while they wait. Call us if you have any questions about POS Software and what it can do for your business or if you need help on the purchasing.

Why does ProphetLine POS software offer so many features that you might think it is too complicated or overkill for your particular need? Because it is an all-in-one POS software powerhouse that provides the convenience of having multiple program feature sets in a single interface. This saves you money because you won’t have to buy all the different packages to perform a family of related tasks. If you only want to use the basics, you can do it, but you will never outgrow our POS software. You want it simple, then you can use it simple, you have demands that exceed normal, then you have a POS software product with a rich history of handling complex businesses.

Our price is slightly above our low end competitors, but much less than others that try to sell you high price because they are a bigger company. With ProphetLine, low price does not mean you get low quality. There is no reason you should pay more if you are willing to do some of the POS software implementation yourself. We do as little or as much as you would like us to do. ProphetLine POS software is less because we have a lower overhead and price structure than larger companies, and the savings get passed on to you.

If price is the first thing you ask when inquiring about POS Software, you have it entirely backwards. Your first question to the POS software company should be how can your POS software transform my business processes and improve my profitability? The only two reliable and efficient ways to improve your business sales and cash flow are to market more to existing customers or expand your geographical territory by making your products and services available through the Internet.

Capturing information at the point of sale is essential to mining more business from your existing customer base. Your customers will gladly give you some personal information if they know that preferential treatment or special pricing is the end result. Notifying them of new product arrivals, private showings or a pending sale are a few of the ways to build your customer loyalty and keep them shopping with you and not your competitors.

The next best way to improve your business is to implement an easy to maintain and efficient Internet presence. A brick and mortar retailer can expect a ten percent increase in sales, according to industry averages, within the first year if the web store is properly worked and maintained. It’s just another way to get your product line in front of the buying public. If it is seamless, integrated brick and mortar POS software with a complimentary web shopping cart, that makes it all the better. Now that you know that the POS software can pay you dividends, price and great support are the next items that you should ask about.