Anyone from another business sector will probably look at retailing from the outside and assume that sales figures and annual turnover are the key indicators that a business is doing well. Pubs selling for multiples of their annual turnover, at least in major city locations, tend to drive that general perception. But in fact almost all retailers will focus on costs because they understand all too well that profit margin is what counts. Add a euro to your sales and you add a few cents towards the bottom line. But every cent you can save across all of the headache fields of staff, overheads, energy, unsold stock and so on actually does pass directly to that bottom line. The other side of the coin is that you can all too easily have a healthy sales performance overwhelmed by the total spread of costs.
Formula for success
The truth, of course, lies in between as always. Better profit margins are achieved by driving sales up and costs down and both aspects of the business need focussed management attention. Today’s smart in-store systems and equipment really do address both ends of the spectrum. EPOS (Electronic Point of Sale) systems have evolved far beyond the ’till’ into sophisticated multi-purpose workstations that combine a range of information and communications technology functions.
“Cash and card sales, printing dockets and recording the transaction and passing it to the accounts and stock systems are now really quite basic,” points out Frank Corr, commercial director of Datapac Business Solutions. “Price look-up when a tag is missing has been normal for years, but what about stock look up ? Now you can go even further into seeing if another branch has the item or when a delivery is expected. Features like these save staff time, oblige the customer and capture sales that might otherwise be lost.”
Even old cash registers had keys to allow the sales assistant and the transaction to be linked on the tally roll. Today’s systems take that much further with links, for example, from the EPOS to the payroll and HR software. Staff members clock in and off at their normal work station and the information is automatically captured for pay and hours worked. But such links mean that compliance with working hours legislation, say for younger workers, can be built in with alerts to a supervisor or messaging to the staff member at clock-in time.
Touching success
“Touch screens are really the smart choice at the moment, in every sense. Dispensing with the keypad makes positioning and shop design much more flexible, the screen can be configured any way you like to guide the staff through the transaction and minimize training.” Frank Corr points out. What is behind the screen is essentially a network PC linked to the shop’s other systems. “So it is relatively easy to set it up so that even a trainee can be led through an intuitive series of steps to handle a sale, enquiry or whatever. But a more senior person can have access to deeper layers of information, password protected if necessary.”
Typically, a touch screen is linked to its computer CPU, cash drawer, bar code scanner, printer and the credit/debit card terminal. Because they are separate units, they can be positioned to suit the specific location and apart from necessary power cables the connection can be wireless (infrared or WiFi). Ray Ryan, sales director of Advent, suggests that an increasingly valuable addition is a swipe card reader.
“You can then issue cards to staff, facilitating security and recording who did what and when. But we have seen loyalty card solutions find their way to relatively small retailers, like hairdresser and beauty salons. It’s an excellent way to keep track and hold on to your best customers and reward them with discounts or special offers.”
Authorisation apps
“Another application is to use swipe cards as purchase authorisation for account customers. A local builders’ merchant, for example, can easily verify and keep track of trades people coming for items by issuing his customer with the required number of cards, which can also be project-related or time-limited.”
Displaying transaction details
Another feature that Ray Ryan reckons will simply become standard is the EPOS unit that has a touch screen facing the sales assistant and a display screen facing the customer. “You can show the transaction details, as some supermarkets have been doing for a while now, or you can use the display for information about promotions, new products or whatever.”
As he points out, big flat screens have become a feature of supermarkets and department stores. But the point of sale unit brings many of the same possibilities to the smallest shop at an affordable cost level. “Because the basis is a standard Windows PC, programming the visual display is not rocket science and many advanced users (or retailers with tech-savvy children) are exploiting the technology in ingenious ways to suit their own business.”
Wireless takes off
Wireless technology has already made a big impact on retailing, notably in allowing the flexibility of handheld units to make many tasks easier and more efficient. Order taking and transmission in the catering industries from hand-held devices is now almost standard, as Frank Corr explains, while once again the central software can add many clever features. A server can be prompted When menu items are not available, for instance, or the kitchen can be alerted when an order includes something that takes special preparation or extra time.
In a shop, Ray Ryan says that the touch screen has been allied to the hand held option in the form of tablet PCs: “It can be used in a fixed position or quickly and easily taken in hand to use as a queue-buster or to accompany a customer around, perhaps using the look-up facility or even calling up images of alternative products, colours and so on.”
Case in point: Justscan Ltd, Sligo
No barriers with barcode tech
The Sligo firm Justscan has been a retail specialist for some years and as the name implies it caters especially for anything that can be done with bar codes. “For example, we have set up loyalty card schemes for some customers that are really simple and inexpensive because they use bar coding rather than magnetic stripes,” says sales manager Bernie McGlynn. “The key ring size plastic version is very popular because it is simple and stylish. All of the customer information is retained on the shop system.
“Charge cards for credit accounts can be implemented this way also, while of course the swipe card option is also there for larger retailers with all of its electronic advantages. In country areas there is still a high proportion of charge accounts, so a system like this has enormous advantages over the traditional ‘book’ records in village shops. ”
Bernie McGlynn is happy to emphasise that the product bar code is the key to everything in retailing today. “We all know the standard things. The bar code triggers the price, sales record and stock reduction. But it is in the many special case instances that arise in retailing that the bar code enables the smart functions at the back end to kick in. We offer solutions to track credit notes, deposits and items out for testing or ‘on approval’ with customers, either by using the item bar code or generating one to identify the customer and transaction. Many retailers offer vouchers and gift cards and a unique bar code offers great advantages both for security and back office administration.”
She points out also that regulatory requirements for item and shelf edge labelling can be triggered by the bar code: “In many consumer product and food areas, for example, the price per kilo or litre must be displayed with the item price. Similarly, with electrical items the appropriate WEE charges must be displayed on each product price label.”
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