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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 MoreProphetLine POS software’s unique Web capabilities make it perfect for ‘click-and-brick’ retailers and users of ProphetLine for Windows. ProphetLine integrates seamlessly with your web site and is controlled from the POS software. Adding items to display and sell on the web is as simple as checking a box within ProphetLine for Windows. The system will then transmit the images to the web site. Web orders are downloaded automatically into your ProphetLine POS Software for fulfillment. Customers are shared, so you always know who they are and what they are buying. Quite simply, this is the easiest and most comprehensive way to get your business on the web!
The lack of sales you see on the web are sometimes misleading. Many people will shop on the web, but their actual purchase will made in the physical location. A well run web store can add an additional 10% to your total sales in the first year. This figure represents a small portion of your overall sales and pouring in excessive dollars into an unknown revenue center is senseless. Because you have a minimum investment with the ProphetLine Web Store, a smaller sales result can still mean big profits.
The preliminary results of the latest National Retail Security Survey found that retail shrinkage averaged 1.61 percent of retail sales last year, nearly unchanged from 1.60 percent in 2005.
Even though shrinkage as a percentage of sales stayed virtually the same, total retail losses increased last year to $41.6 billion due to higher retail sales in 2006 compared to 2005. The survey, now in its fifteenth year, is a collaborative effort between NRF and the University of Florida.
According to the survey, the majority of retail shrinkage last year hit was due to employee theft, at $19.5 billion, which represented almost half of losses (47%). Shoplifting accounted for $13.3 billion, or about one-third (32%) of losses. Other losses included administrative error ($5.8 billion and 14% of shrinkage) and vendor fraud ($1.7 billion and 4% of shrinkage).
Retailers don’t realize that most of their losses are from their loyal and trusted employee rather than customers. I used to call these employees my silent partners and I had a lot of them. Much of the saving from using POS software is that employees are forced to use the system correctly and that creates accountability. Every function in the POS software should make a sequential entry with a full audit trail. You should have an exception report that gives you exact entries at the checkout terminals. An employee that shows up on the exception report numerous times during the day is either poorly trained or stealing. Make employees accountable for their actions and you will have honest employees.
The ProphetLine POS/Retail Management Software Company has made available as a free software download, an application that manually prints barcode pricing labels. This is not a high volume application that is connected to your current POS software, but a manual program ideal for individual labels, shelf tag labels and retailers using POS software or a cash register that does not print barcode pricing labels. This is the same printer matrix that is embedded into ProphetLine POS Software which runs totally automated. This label program is made to run with the Zebra TLP2824 and LP2824 series transfer and thermal printers. The Zebra printer can be serial, parallel, USB or networked. You can run multiple size labels; large 2 ¼ X 1 ¼ I-up, 1 ¼ X 1 2-up, 1 X ¾ 2-up and Jewelry tag labels. The 2-up labels and the jewelry tag labels have a limitation on the number and type of characters you can use in the UPC code field. The older style gap labels or the newer black line labels work equally well.
All of the necessary information you need for your customers can be printed on the larger 1-up pricing or shelf tag label; the catalogue number, bar code, description, department/class, selling price, MSRP, vendor account number, cost encrypted, date received encrypted, the store name and the quantity of labels desired.
According to Wikipedia, Customer relationship management (CRM) is a broad term that covers concepts used by companies to manage their relationships with customers, including the capture, storage and analysis of customer information. Large companies use three aspects of CRM, operational, collaborative and analytical. You as a small retailer will be concerned mostly with the operational side which is the automation of customer information gathered with your POS software concerning their buying habits. This is so important because it effects not only your buying decisions, but how you are going to keep existing customers happy and in your retail facility. Which is the easiest, trying to find a new customer or keeping and enhancing current customers? The obvious answer is to keep current customers happy and buying more from you.
ProphetLine POS Software tracks all customer purchases at the time of sale and allows you to query data in numerous user definable ways. You can put customer preferences on the main screen, pull up a sales analysis of past purchases and send automated emails straight out of our POS software without any other third party applications. I want to send an email to all customers that purchased a specific item in the past and notify them we have received a new item that goes perfectly with the original item purchased. In most POS software, this is a complex procedure requiring technical skills, but in ProphetLine you simply put in a date range and tell it to run. Using the information obtained at the POS software level is the easiest way to generate more revenue from your current customer base and keep them from shopping with your competitors.
The ProphetLine POS/Retail Management Software Company now has two separate ways to handle your integrated web shopping cart and both are seamless with ProphetLine POS Software. The first way is the hosted model that utilizes our server and we do the hosting. The second way is the new dot net version that can be hosted with your own hosting service. You now have a choice in building your business and one of the best ways 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.
The only other reliable and efficient way to improve your business sales and cash flow are to sell more to existing customers by capturing information at the point of sale and 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. If you are interested in doing the above mentioned two items, your cost will be minimal and you will be able to transform your business processes and improve profitability?
Preparing a merchandise plan makes crucial buying decisions that much easier. This would be no different than a home builder having a design drawn up before he started building it. The first key is to make sure you are proficient in the use of the information gained from your POS software system. Once you have good historical data, the plan is much easier to build. Top down planning is usually the best for most small retailers. Start with total company figures, move to departmental numbers and then to the class level.
When building your plans, try to give yourself more room in the mark-up area. If you start with higher mark-ups, your early markdowns can be much more effective without killing your gross margin. Plan some markdowns for each month so that you will always have some in-store specials working. Markdowns, employee discounts and shrinkage must be planned for to obtain accurate inventory levels and forecasted sales totals.
Choosing the right POS/Retail Management software is only one step in achieving retail success. Learning to properly implement procedures and then learning to manage and react to the information provided is every bit as important as finding the right features in your system.
Without exception, studies show that customer satisfaction with POS Software is directly related to the quality and quantity of education. One study a few years ago determined that upon completion of training, a customer retained at most 80% of the training. In many cases, it was closer to 50%. If that trained person leaves the organization and trains a replacement, the new employee has only 25%-64% true knowledge of the system. A new employee who has to learn the system by guessing may have less than 30% knowledge of the capabilities of the system! Because training is so important, ProphetLine offers training for now and for later.
If we go on-site and spend two days solid, the customer’s attention span is not going to last. The best way to train is to give two hour blocks of on-line training and the trainee will retain a majority of the information. When they need to learn a different portion of the POS Software or have a refresher, set-up another training session.
This subject is so important that I am replaying an older blog on support with POS Software. When you have a big sale ahead and everything needs to go perfect, it doesn’t take much to ruin the day. Your POS Software system is acting up, you call tech support and two hours later there is still no response. This is probably when you realize that you have made a big mistake in your purchase and all the features and functionality in the world are not going to make up for the fact you can’t get good support. ProphetLine POS Software support prides itself in answering 80% of the calls immediately and the other 20% on a call back basis in less than 10 minutes.
A few years ago, there was a study of companies that had gone through two computer installations. The research drew conclusions regarding the importance of issues such as price, software functionality, training, support and other items considered in the decision process. The first time around, price was number 1 and support was number 9. The second time around, these same companies, listed support as number 1 and price as number 7! We set a maximum time frame so that if your problem is not addressed within the time frame, you can call back and make sure that some extraordinary circumstances have not arisen. These guidelines are available at support tab.
