By
Jyoti Tejpal
Ultimate dynamic pricing & promotions platform E-commerce & omnichannel retailers With QL, monitor calculate and apply optimal prices on real-time market trends
Mobile solution for brands Built to accelerate retail excellence & maximize profitability in store Helps field teams achieve brand’s goals in store Notifies HQ
Cloud-based TMAS powerful all-in-one platform, Leverage traffic data & retail insights Connect with present software Accelerate data analysis/spotlight trends
Retail management software offers retailers of all types and sizes to manage the financial reporting, accounting, and operations of their retail stores. Modern retail management solutions provide organizations to understand consumers’ buying behaviour, thereby improving sales and customer satisfaction. Generally, the systems have features like inventory management, employee management, reporting, and analytics. Retail management software integrates core retail processes with other systems, like the point of sale (POS), human resources, marketing, eCommerce, and customer relationship management (CRM).
Easing up transaction processing: Fixing prices and checking for transactions manually can lead to costly errors. Retail management software automates jobs such as bar-code scanning, increasing accuracy and speed during the checkout process and decreasing transaction processing-related mistakes. Automated retail management software also provides features such as suggestive selling, which facilitates up-selling and cross-selling of additional products to clients during checkout.
Minimize errors and improve accuracy: Retail management software helps in automation that decreases human intervention in daily basis retail operations and decreases the impact of human error in processes such as inventory management, employee management, and sales.
Boost Sales: Retail management systems offer to improve sales by keeping track of fast-selling items, and inventory lying unsold in the warehouse to provide retailers respond to demand, or lack thereof. Besides, these systems can help retailers connect with their clients online, and accumulate experience from their shopping and social media behaviours. Retailers can utilize retail management software which is compatible with multiple devices to aid data collection, and learn customer likes and dislikes, and use that information to boost sales.
Inventory management: Tracks and manages the number of stocked goods to maintain proper supply levels. Offers to store managers with real-time reports on inventory levels.
Point of Sale (POS): Process point of sale (POS) operations like billing, payments, cash register transactions etc.
CRM: Tracking customer information and managing a centralized customer database.
Purchase order management: Tracking and managing purchase orders.
eCommerce: Managing online storefronts.
Email marketing: Creating email campaigns and sending marketing emails to advertise products and reaching to communicate with customers.
Most products available in the market are priced on a “per month” basis for each register/physical location/POS store managed by the software. Pricing can be divided into three pricing tiers based on their starting price. A premium/advanced product is priced higher and has additional features like an advanced report builder, gift cards, and account management.
Scalability: While ordering a retail management solution, it’s essential to keep in mind the volume of items and transactions the business requires the system to process. The scalability factor is the software’s ability to execute the work processes with a high degree of labour efficiency. Be sure to call for a solution that not only meets your requirements now but will meet them in the future as the business increases.
Integration and Coordination: Because retail management as a whole needs a lot of various processes and functions, be ready to check the combination and coordination capabilities of retail management software before making a buying decision. Evaluate integration with subsystems like price management, replenishment, and merchandise planning, or external solutions and their relations to accounting, eCommerce, and human resources.
Cost: Retail management software can be offered e-time licensing fee or on a subscription basis. These systems can also add up additional expenses related to hardware, database licenses, and technical support. Generally, some businesses may only need a subset of retail management solution’s functionality rather than the entire system. The company must conduct extensive research and speak with vendors to call for a solution’s pricing structure to negate overpaying for functions user don’t need or unexpected costs after investing in a system.
Suitability: Not all of the retail business is the same, and some retail management systems focus on specific niches as compared to general retail management, e.g., retail management software for apparel, spa services, fitness. Such software comes with pre-built specific industry templates and easy-to-understand interfaces designed for users within that particular market. Whenever available, consider buying a category-specific retail solution for the business to avoid costly add-ons in the future and benefit from technology-focused on user-specific business requirements.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is providing recommend products to customers: Understanding customer preferences and their purchasing behaviour has always been crucial for businesses striving to retain customers and increase revenue. AI-driven retail management software is automating the required process by learning customer purchasing behaviour and patterns and recommending related products to drive sales. These improved systems can also alleviate retailer-customer relationships through user accounts that track behaviour, preferences, purchasing activity, etc.
The internet of things (IoT) is increasing retail operations: As technology continues to evolve, the IoT is helping retailers gather vast amounts of customer data with sensors and RFID tags. Products embedded with IoT tags and sensors help to monitor the purchase date, expiration date, and usage pattern. Tommy Hilfiger, a fashion label, is planning to introduce chip-embedded clothing that will obtain customers to earn points whenever they wear that clothing at specific locations. This, in turn, helps the brand track and gain insight from customers’ usage of their product. In the coming years, expect facial recognition, contactless payments, and other advanced technologies to improve IoT-driven retail operations and the shopping experience.
Omnichannel is driving retailers to enhance the customer experience: As technology continues to connect customers to online and physical stores using social media, eCommerce websites, and other platforms, retailers are tapping into every possible touchpoint to enhance the customer experience, from product research to purchases and returns. Retailers are improving in-store skills as well as online buying by simplifying the whole process across the channels.
