In Windows 7, Microsoft has worked out the Vista problems that kept many retail people downgrading back to Windows XP, but now Microsoft must fight the economy and the fact that many companies are cutting way back on IT spending and capital expenditures. Many consumers and businesses will upgrade to Windows 7 through new PC purchases, but they’re not likely to upgrade existing systems until there is a better feel for what retail is going to be like in the near future. Windows 7 may be a tough sell for the foreseeable future, but it is a good upgrade from Vista and all its problems.

It seems that all that goes around will come around again. Layaway was thought to be a thing of the past until the soft economy forced customers and retailers to look at different ways to keep business up. Layaway gives customers a chance to purchase an item that they possible could not otherwise afford. It is a win, win situation if they can shop and pay for the items they need over time. You the retailer are retaining the item and receiving deferred income until the merchandise is paid for. For this process to work well, you need POS software that will accurately account for all payment activity and inform customers through a layaway statement how their account stands. If it is a cumbersome process, the benefits of offering layaway is negated by the poor accountability of your current POS software or obsolete paper trail you are using. What’s old is now new again.

In these difficult times, cutting expenses is the right thing to do. If you are a retailer and are cutting inventory across the board, what a mistake. Hopefully you have a retail stock ledger and open to buy planning built into your POS software. When the customer comes in and can’t find a fast turning item, they will go to a competitor and may never come back. Do your department, class comparatives and narrow the items you need to cut by the percentage of inventory and the revenue produced. You can then make a decision from your POS software min/max levels and vendor comparatives. If the items are re-orderable year round, cut your lead time and if a seasonal item, order mostly basics that you know will give you a quick sell through.

You are trying to run a first class business and you do not need negative marketing that signals you could be in trouble. At this point however you are no longer running a retail business that is trying to provide the best service or provide the basics that are needed to be considered a top of the line retail store by the regular customers. If no one is reviewing your inventory needs properly, there will be lost revenue and lost customers. Doing this effectively through your POS software reporting by all relevant categories is the best way to lower inventories and increase turns which of course should be the goal.

At our offices, we run all of the supported Microsoft operating systems to make sure the end user of our POS software doesn’t have any problems. I always thought that if you were running mission critical business applications, Microsoft Vista was not ready for prime time. If you do decide to upgrade your computers and change you operating system, make sure you check with the POS Software company you are buying from and check for any compatibility issues with Vista, 7 or other operating systems. ProphetLine POS Software will run just fine on Vista, but we had issues with most of the peripherals. An example on Vista and compatibility issues was Epson TM88IV thermal receipt printers which are almost the standard in retail locations. After much effort and frustration, we finally learned that Windows 2000 drivers would allow Epson printers to work if running Vista, but this is only the tip of the iceberg because of all the other printers, pole displays, scanners, etc. Another major problem was security and the User Access Controls (UAC) built into Vista. We use to say simplify your life and run Windows XP until all the issues with Vista are identified and solutions provided. 7 has rectified most of the Vista problems and makes for a nice operating system for your retail POS software.

I was reading an article in a NRF News Brief yesterday and it reminded me of how underutilized the art of suggestive or push selling is. We call it push selling because in our POS software we can attach an inventory item to another item and make it mandatory that the clerk ask the customer if they would like an item that compliments the original item they are buying. The customer might buy a sweater and the clerk would be prompted to ask if they would like the new blouse that just came in that goes with it. If they say yes, the inventory item is automatically put on the sales receipt.

People are much more apt to purchase if they think that the clerk is being helpful and has their best interest at heart.
You can have the pictures of the products in your POS software and when it is displayed on the monitor, the effect is immediate. Using your POS software to its utmost capability can add several percentage points to your bottom line.

By Paula Rosenblum, Managing Partner
6/9/2009

Last Friday, the Wall Street Journal acknowledged what some retail insiders have been talking about for several months: holiday inventory plans are down – way down. The article quotes the National Retail Federation (NRF) report of a 16.5% reduction in cargo traffic plans for the peak holiday receiving months of August, September and October. It also cites continued inconsistency in consumer demand as reflected in erratic monthly comparable store sales results as justification for ordering fewer goods.

On the surface, reducing inventories appears to be logical and sensible behavior. Working capital is in short supply, consumer demand seems really unpredictable, and Wall Street has been rewarding retailers whose reductions in comparable store inventories exceed reductions in their comparable store sales.Whether or not specific retailers ended last season with excess inventory, RSR believes there is probably not enough merchandise in the pipeline to satisfy pent-up consumer demand this year. Without careful, timely and clinical business intelligence and reaction, this could put retailers in the worst of all possible worlds: lack of merchandise to satisfy demand driving down the top line, continued consumer expectations for a highly promotional environment driving down net gross margin dollars, and dissatisfied shoppers unable to find the products they want for the 2009 holiday season.

This is where a good seasonal plan developed from your POS software with built-in retail stock ledger and open-to-buy planning will get you closer to that magic mark of inventory stock perfection. You will never get it on the button, but you can get it close enough to have enough inventory for sell and very little to mark down. This might be the most testing time of your retail life and some good advice from your POS software will not hurt.

It seems like gift cards have taken a bad rap in this recession period. Everyone is afraid that the company they bought the card from will not be in business by the time the card is redeemed. Nothing could be farther from the truth from most companies. U.S. shoppers bought gift cards in just about every type of retail store and shopping center the holiday season before this one and spent a record $27.8 billion on the plastic presents, according to the National Retail Federation. By mid-January, though, their recipients had redeemed fewer than half – 37.3 percent – the trade group said. That was 07 and 08 was way off because of the economy. This will change again and you need to be ready for the big gift card explosion.

Business is too hard to come by to let those dollars slip away. The extra cash in the drawer is a perfect reason to put a gift card program into your retail outlet. Not only is this gift card income, money you get to use interest free, but a majority of gift card users spend more than the balance on the gift card and portions of the balance are never used at all. ProphetLine POS Software builds a gift card program into their product through their credit card processing partner, Mercury Payment Systems. If you use the credit and debit card functions of Mercury, you incur no transaction fees on the gift card usage. Another way, quality POS software will improve your business.

Because our POS software is totally email ready, out of the box, I tell potential customers that the most important thing they need from a walk in customer is an email address. Their reply is what if they will not give me one. Almost everyone will give you an email address if they think they will receive something of value and their email address will not be shared with other retailers. 68% of consumers queried by Forrester report subscribing to e-mail to receive discounts. That means retailers should determine whether subscribers want to hear about all discounts or only those most relevant to them, Forrester says. 50% subscribe simply because they like the retailer or brand, and for those consumers they need to be informed of in-store events. And 49% of consumers sign up for a retailer’s e-mail because they want to hear about sales. If retailers can identify consumer preferences for instance, that a particular brand is on sale their e-mails to these customers can be made more effective, Forrester says.

To find out why different consumers subscribe and to encourage more e-mail subscriptions, retailers should improve their on-site preference center to capture information that can guide e-mail campaigns, Forrester says. With that data, retailers can, for example, feature language about sales in the subject line and first few message lines for customers who register to learn about sales, and new product information in the same areas for customers who subscribe to receive information about new products, according to the report.

Forrester also says retailers can make their e-mail programs more effective by showing consumers, outside the e-mail channel itself, the benefits of subscribing and displaying that information in catalogs, at the point of sale (POS software terminal) and during online checkout. All data captured at the POS software terminal can be used to email sales and specials to targeted customers.

When I talk with potential new clients about POS software, the conversation always turns to how to control inventory in the simplest way. Trying to keep track of inventory by item level is next to impossible, unless you would like to be glued to the computer twenty four hours a day. We built our POS software where item levels are viewable, but the analytics are done by the department and class level. What departments and classes are trending up in sales? Which are heading down? How are the sales comparisons changing, as measured by the percentage of revenue each department and class contribute and their overall cost? Which vendors are my profitable ones or which ones I like to drink coffee with?

Have I been able to maintain my selling price and margins or am I keeping up my dollars at the expense of my bottom line? How are my sell thru percentages, turn rates and margins in each department and class as compared with other departments and classes. These numbers all come quick and automatically from the POS software retail stock ledger. You need to identify these trends quickly if you are to change your product mix, lower or raise your initial markups and change floor layout. The steps you take need to be factual, quick and easy to implement based on solid information from your POS software.

It seems like we have been stuck in this lousy recession forever. It has been a long time since, we the small American retailer, has had to face this amount of economic pressure. For those that have managed to weather the storm and can see a light at the end of the tunnel, more power to you and job well done. All we read and hear about is the financial stimulus aid for the large corporations that still pay an incompetent CEO large checks and big golden parachutes. As a small retailer, you are on your own, but there are steps to take that will ease the pain of a recession and that is good inventory control. Don’t over buy on inventory that doesn’t fit the clientele that you cater too. Now is not the time to bring in assortments that does not fit your base business model. Do your department/class comparatives and make sure the dollar value of each department is in line with the revenue contribution. The pressure is also on your vendors to perform well and now is a good time to make sure they understand they are under the microscope to give you the terms and pricing that will help keep you in business. Your POS software should give you all the information needed to make the good, tough and informed decisions you need to help you weather the recession storm.

There isn’t anything new in retail store technology that is so innovative that it guarantees you retail success in 2009. Most retail systems are last year’s model with a different ribbon and a new name. I feel good about where ProphetLine is and where we are going. ProphetLine POS Software is so fully integrated and feature inclusive, you can run a specialty retail store and never need another product. I know our product development this year is in line with what retailers need to get through this tough period and stay strong until the economy is back on the upswing. If you are in the market for POS software tools to help you improve your business processes, now is the time to start your search.