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ProphetLine POS has been our lifeline for seven years in our four retail stores. The software is robust and offers many more functions and ...
Read MoreWhen talking to a potential client about their needs and wants in POS software, it’s obvious that the POS software desires sometimes don’t match their budget. They will talk with large POS software vendors and get sticker shock without realizing they can get product that will fit their size without breaking the bank. This is the exact reason we specialize in small retail stores. We give you POS software you can afford, functionality you need and support staff that cares about your success. You can call us about any problem that you are having and you will get someone that wants your needs addressed.. Small retailers need to select a POS Software company that can act as their technology staff as well as furnish them software. Small retailers also want a product equal to or better than what the big box retailers use, but at a price that can fit their budget.
Because most small retailers can’t afford a massive POS Software deployment, they must be willing to change and adapt their business processes to fit the new (POS) Point of Sale/Retail Store Management Software. All POS software products have strong points which made you select them in the first place and small deficiencies you were willing to overlook in the selection process to get the new and improved functions. To try and have the new software work just exactly like the old software should not be your goal. To accomplish this, you would have to program for the old functionality, de-bug and go way over budget and the gains in productivity would be negated by the additional costs. The POS software you select to improve your business should be 95% of what you are looking for, straight out of the box and return on investment must be your top priority.
Excerpts From Ryan Deutsch In Email Insider
“Doing more with less.” For marketers, this is not a recession-specific catchphrase. In my experience, organizations are always asking marketing departments to do more (drive more leads, Web site visits, online transactions) with less (budget, staff, services). While this tendency has caused more than a few ulcers, the positive byproduct has been (and continues to be) innovation in direct marketing technology.
In fact, it is safe to say that it’s easier than ever for marketers to do more with less. The trick is finding the application of technology that makes the most sense for your business. From an email communication perspective, a great place to start is automation. If you are not automating a good portion of email communications, you may be missing a chance to be more relevant, timely and efficient. If email automation was on your list of 2009 objectives, you need to can get started before 2010 rolls around!
ProphetLine POS Software has all the email marketing built in. You can query by birthdays, anniversaries, when things were purchased, who are your best customers; almost anyway you would like. Why run two different products when the correct POS software can handle both.
I don’t know if you remember the movie "Network", which came out in 1976 and won Peter Finch an Oscar for best supporting actor, but that line was the trademark of the film. Howard Beale (Peter Finch) is an ageing TV anchorman for a TV network who is fired, after his ratings have been steadily deteriorating. He goes on the air with a crazy rant and rave session and asks all of the viewers to go to the window and yell, "I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore." As a small POS software developer and you as small retailers know, nobody in Washington cares. Only the large get aid and they brought most of it on themselves. Small businesspeople hire most of the workers, pay a huge amount of the taxes and get the shaft.
It doesn’t matter whether you are a Democrat or Republican; you need to have all the candidates’ state what their ideology is when it concerns small business. You need to hear that small business is the backbone of this country and I am going to do everything I can to help you succeed. That could very well be your next candidate to support. This rant and rave session just so happens to come out the day before the April 15th tax deadline. ProphetLine POS Software would like to publicly state, "I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore."
Although the economy is still screwed-up, there do seem to be signs of real recovery and for entrepreneurs and optimistic retailers, this is great news. If that is the case, we need to start planning for better times now. If consumers are ready to start spending, you want to make sure some of that money goes to you. Start thinking about better times and don’t get caught up in the current gloom and doom. It’s time to start thinking recovery and not recession. It is time to start thinking about upgrading your staff and slowly adding inventory to levels that will satisfy customer needs. You don’t want to be caught short with outdated products, empty shelves or employees that are negative. If your inventory is too low and your staff isn’t prepared for a future wave of shopping, these customers will find another place to shop.
Don’t ask yourself what you need now; rather, try to determine what you’ll need later when business is booming again. Is your technology outdated? Now would be the time to replace that old POS software for something that will give you a competitive advantage. You need to research what is new and inventive in the technology marketplace and determine if spending some money now will save you more down the road. A lot of POS software can sell T shirts on Times Square where a quarter of a million people go by every day, but good POS software has built in customer marketing and merchandising.
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.
