Tag: POS

Determine Market Trends With A Retail Dashboard

Retail sector is blooming and turning complicated as well. A retail business has many types of data which needs to arranged and represented in the manner that decisions can be taken accurately. Journals, ledgers, cash flow statements, profit and loss tracking, and many other books of accounts are maintained by retailers and retail dashboards represent all data in a simple manner so that the executives and top management can easily take timely decisions. Latest retail dashboards are technology-driven and provide a clear operational focus about performance of retail business.

POS analysis help in identifying the best performers by showing sales trends for each region. It reduces costs, increases profits and motivates staff as well. It gives a snapshot of KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) and guides the executives in making crucial decisions about the company. Retail software providers bring essential information and data about a companys performance in a report format. Charts, tables, gauges, and maps are used in a single report, providing all the critical details so that decisions can be taken quickly. All the data represented can be drill down to any level including its source.

Retail software providers offer a competitive edge to every manufacturer and retailer from small to midsized to large companies over their competing firms. Managing a retail business has never been an easy task and with the increase in its size and operations, complexities of managing data also increase. Selection of right dashboard and right data access can make a significant difference in profits of a firm.

eSENSE Retail is an eminent retail software providers and has been helping various small and large firms in their retail data management from many years. The eSENSE Retail solution is aimed at increasing profits, reducing costs and improving efficiencies across the entire organization. They provide retailers and manufacturers powerful online dashboards which leverage 852 EDI which help them to forecast and manage trends. High level executives will clearly identify areas which require action and the ones which require follow up for sustainable profit growth. For more details, please browse through www.esenseretail.com.

Dynamics Gp And Pos Options For Retail Store

If you are looking for your new Corporate ERP application, and you are in Retail business: Deli, Asian food, Small to mid-size retail outlets, we would like to give you initial highlights on how Microsoft Dynamics GP could be implemented. We will describe three options: Microsoft RMS, POS Add-on for Dynamics GP and Counterpoint. Each one has pluses and each Retail customer has specific requirements, where one route might be better versus another one. Lets begin with the most advanced approach in our list Microsoft Retail Management System with Integration to Dynamics GP. As small remark, sometimes Microsoft Dynamics GP is also referred as Great Plains Dynamics, which is its ERP application historical name, prior to the time, when Great Plains Software was acquired by Microsoft and later on Microsoft Business Solutions announced its own Dynamics project, where Microsoft Great Plains got its new name Dynamics GP:

1.Microsoft RMS and Dynamics GP tandem. MS RMS completely automates POS cash registers and it supports the majority of POS devises, such as Barcode scanners, Signature Capture touch screens, POS customer info screen, credit card processing machines (Cherry Keyboard, and various small CC processing devices) to name a few. But, besides POS support, MS RMS also have Store Operations module (where Cash Registers user interfaces are located), where you can do such retail store routines as merchandise replenishment, stock count, sales promotions and sales days special pricing. Plus RMS has Headquarters module, where you can manage all your stores (doing such routines, as centralized Purchasing and distribution, moving merchandize from one store to another, consolidated retail management reporting). What happens in Headquarters module about POS transactions from the stores they are integrated on scheduled base (if you have reliable internet connection within the chain stores, or reliable dial-up modem connection) or on demand (typically when the number of POS transactions is relatively low). We support MS RMS to Dynamics GP bidirectional integration, which handles POS (translated into GP Sales Order Processing Invoice with Customer Payment, Return or Order, or if you do not want to track inventory quantities in Great Plains to GP Receivable Management Invoice, Return or Credit memo); also Purchases in RMS Headquarters are integrated into Dynamics GP POP module transactions; inventory transfers and cycle counts are bi-directionally propagated to Dynamics GP and RMS. This tandem gives you the power of Dynamics GP as Corporate ERP system, where you have such advantages as possible integrated Warehouse Management System, ecommerce with such popular shopping carts as Magento
(Linux/PHP/MySQL), or if you are Microsoft shop ASP.Net Storefront. Plus Dynamics GP is full featured ERP and MRP system (if you do assembly on Sales Order) with advanced Corporate Financial Reporting (FRx or its successor Microsoft Management Reporter). This solution might be not the cheapest one among the considered ones, so if you are on the really tight budget and feel the influence of slowdown in your industry, lets move on to the next option

2.Dynamics GP POS Add-ons. Through Dynamics GP ISV channel you can also find various POS extensions to Great Plains, typically extending Sales Order Processing module. In Dynamics GP SOP module you have Sales Transaction entry, where you can do Sales Order, Invoice (both with customer deposit in the form of Credit Card, Check or Cash payment), Return, plus few other types. These transactions are so powerful and fit to what you typically do at the cash register, that numerous Dynamics GP ISV modules were programmed (in Great Plans Dexterity) to enable such POS features as Barcode scanning, Signature Capturing. To name you a name of the one of the most popular SOP POS extensions Compass Technologies, VAR from the Michigan. In their POS module you can also create sales campaigns, offer special price to named customers, when you sell on account. The advantage of Dynamics GP POS add-on way in our opinion is the fact that POS works out of existing GP database and doesnt require POS transactions integration (opposed to Microsoft RMS, as RMS is in essence external application). Well, there are also drawbacks, for example, if you have seasoned business (flowers, gardening, landscaping, farm stands, farmer markets) Dynamics GP POS extensions usually require reliable internet connection to the Dynamics GP Server. Microsoft RMS, however could be made mobile and when farmer market day is over, then you can connect to the internet from your hotel room with your laptop, where Microsoft RMS Store Operations module is hosted with all the Cash Registers and daily POS transactions ready to be integrated on demand to RMS Headquarters. With Compass or similar POS extensions you may expect to save on Dynamics GP POS implementation

3.Counterpoint from Radiant Software integration to Dynamics GP. Counterpoint has its own General Ledger module, plus POS (with Cash Registers), Purchasing, Stock Count, plus such routines as items on sale campaigns, inventory counts. If you are growing from small store to several retail outlets, and now you are at the stage, where you feel that you need more powerful accounting back office (Counterpoint GL is nice, but in larger company you may need something more upscale with rich Corporate ERP business logic). Counterpoint has an option to send AP and GL (daily POS sales transactions) to external Accounting system, such as Dynamics GP, Solomon/SL and some other popular platforms. Counterpoint integrations are distributed as Microsoft SQL Server DTS packages (very popular for Microsoft SQL Server 2000), and with DTS deemphasizing in SQL Server 2005, we would like to see Counterpoint roadmap on the future integration technologies. Having said that we have to admit that you should be OK with Counterpoint upgrade to version 8.0

4.If you are serving your franchisees from your Headquarters. Here we would like to recommend to your attention such popular features, associated with Dynamics GP as Warehouse Management System and eCommerce. WMS is part of your Supply Chain Management (SCM) network. WMS typically handles such features and business processes as Sales Order Fulfillment (on the warehouse floor by barcode scanning), inventory restocking and inventory management transactions (moves between the locations and physical counts). Ecommerce for Dynamics GP works directly out of SOP tables, opening SOP Sales Order, Invoice or Return for online ordering. Our extensions for WMS and Ecommerce work in concert with each other and you could benefit on managing both systems, plus POS/Retail directly from your Dynamics GP user interface

5.To request further support, please call us 1-866-528-0577, We need to discuss your cards in order to recommend you the best solutions, which is not contingent to our preferences. We serve you USA/Canada nationwide via remote support (web sessions and phone/skype conferences). Local service is available in Western Michigan, Chicagoland, Southern California (LA, Orange County, San Diego), Houston area of the state of Texas

Dynamics Gp In Retail Chain Pos, Barcoding, Logistics

Microsoft Dynamics GP is also referred as Great Plains Dynamics by GP user community. In Retail business you typically have such challenging requirements to your future Corporate ERP system, as POS (Point of Sale terminals, usually cash register with barcode scanner, coupon printer, credit/debit card, check and cash processors, POS screen for the customer to see the progress of scanning, etc.), merchandise barcode scanners in such automations as Sales Order Fulfillment, Inventory Replenishment, Increase/Decrease adjustments, Cycle Counts (these functions are typically implemented in Warehouse Management System software). Sometimes you also do assembly on order, which might be realized in such simple manufacturing modules as Bill of Materials, or even on the Kits level in Sales Order Processing. Lets review the highlights on how Retail business could be automated in Microsoft Dynamics GP. This publication is intended primarily to IT director, it is not overloaded with programming and technical terminology:

1.Dynamics GP and Retail external products or add-ons. If you like to have only very limited POS functionality and open Great Plains Sales Order Transaction entry to barcode scanning, there are several Dynamics GP Add-ons to consider. One of them is Compass Technologies extension. However, if you plan to do more advanced level of Retailing, such as supporting multiple stores, reorder merchandise, having mobile stores (where you are following seasonal retail trends, and rolling out your Flowers, Landscaping or Farmer Market outlets on the parking lots of the supermarkets), you may consider to implement external Retail application to automate these processes. As Dynamics GP is part of the Microsoft offer, we recommend you to consider Microsoft RMS (Retail Management System) for the upscale POS and Retail solution

2.POS extension versus external RMS. Obviously this is a decision, which should be done internally, as it defines your future direction advantages and disadvantages. If you pick POS extensions for Dynamics GP route, you do not need data synchronization phase, as POS add-on works directly with Great Plains transactions and master records. External POS system gives you the advantage of rich Retail business logic, but there are drawbacks, such as the necessity to synchronize POS transactions with Dynamics GP Sales Order Processing or Receivable Management documents, as well as Retail system originated Purchases and Inventory Adjustments and Transfers with similar transactions in Great Plains

3.Dynamics GP and Barcoding. You may try barcode scanning integration directly in GP windows, but this is not very efficient (especially taking into consideration such powerful barcode scanner options as batch mode documents scanning, and then batch mode upload to your ERP application). Normally we recommend you to purchase either external RMS or POS extension to GP, where barcoding is integrated. And when you need Barcoding on the warehouse floor, we recommend you to consider WMS (Warehouse Management System) add-on for GP, where you have such features as Sales Order Allocation, Inventory Adjustments, Transfers and Physical Counts, Merchandise Restocking

4.POS and Barcoding hardware. When you are in process of the next Corporate ERP system selection for retail business, it is important to review your Barcoding, Cash Registers on the subject of being compatible with the prospective Retail software. Please, note that barcode scanners and printers are progressing. For example in Barcode scanner selection dilemma you have multiple luxury or rather budget oriented options: having graphical user interface, or support only few lines of text in scanning, power of the internal processor, memory size, wireless protocols, etc. Microsoft RMS and Dynamics GP Workstation should be compatible with modern Microsoft Windows computer (where for cash register you probably want to minimize the hardware and software cost and in order to achieve these goals you may prefer to pick something which is rather at the minimums)

5.Sitting in your Headquarters and watching the numbers. Here we are coming to the topic of designing financial reporting, such as Balance Sheet, P&L, Statement of Cash Flow, plus probably consolidated versions of these reports (when you would like to consolidate sales results for several stores or all the stores to compare them to the last month or last year results to give you an idea). Here you have the privilege to capitalize on the power of Microsoft Dynamics GP reporting options. If you implement current version 2010/11.0 you should implement financial reporting in Microsoft Management Reporter. For the customers on the older versions: 10.0, 9.0, 8.0, 7.5, 7.0, 6.0, 5.5, 5.0, 4.0 you have FRx Financial Reporting. Both tools in our opinion are equally powerful

6.Supply Chain Management or going beyond POS and Retail features (talking about Logistics and Distribution). SCM is the term, which is considered to be broader than Warehouse Management System. It may include such features as merchandise consignment, truck delivery route optimization. If you think that such classic concepts as POS/Retail application, Warehouse Management System doesnt do the job in your case, you should consider to discuss your concerns with Dynamics GP Consultant or Partner. Microsoft Dynamics GP is definitely capable to address custom business processes requirements, but there is the cost of doing it either programing in Great Plains Dexterity, or eConnect and even Microsoft Visual Studio SDK for GP

7.Opening your operations for Electronic Commerce. Here you would need to consider such technical features as ecommerce shopping cart (Magento, ASP.Net Storefront or similar) integration with your ERP sales module, in the case of Dynamics GP with Sales Order Processing transaction, likely Invoice or Sales Order with customer deposit (Credit card payment). We recommend Alba Spectrum ecommerce add-on for Dynamics GP

8.Dynamics GP and International business. Multicurrency is supported in all the modules of Great Plains. We recommend you to review Corporate ERP localization concept, where ERP application should be translated to the local language, plus (and in our opinion it is more important) it should comply to local country business legislation. Dynamics GP is localized for most of English speaking countries, and plus for Spanish speaking Latin America (except Brazil, where they speak Brazilian Portuguese). At this time Dynamics GP is not localized for such languages as Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Russian, however translated interfaces are available, please call us for details

9.We are ready to serve you USA and Canada nationwide. Local service is available in Western Michigan (St. Joseph, Kalamazoo, Grand Rapids, Holland, Saugatuck, New Buffalo, South Haven, Grand Haven, Ludington), in Southern California: Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego, Houston Area of Texas, Chicagoland: Naperville, Chicago downtown and all the nearest suburbs

10.To request further support, please call us 1-866-528-0577, Retail industry is really complex and each customer might have know-how or business secrets to stay competitive. We need to discuss your cards in order to recommend you the best solutions, which is not contingent to our preferences

Reasons You Will Lose Money Without A Full-blown Retail Pos System

If you don’t have a full-blown POS system for your retail business, you are losing money — guaranteed!

The following are 10 reasons why,

1.Time is money.

As you sit at your desk, head in your hands trying to reconcile your balance sheet, the store next door, the one with the full-blown POS system has accomplished the same task in less than 5 minutes.

Most POS systems automate a wide variety of functions that normally take retailers tons of time to accomplish. Tasks like inventory and sales reports, end of the day balancing, purchase orders, and more. A full-blown retail POS system will automate all of those functions making hours of work take virtually seconds. As long as it takes you to push a few buttons. This saved time means hours on the clock, hours that you’re paying employees, hours that could be spent making sales.

2.Inventory shrinkage.

Stores without a POS system are more susceptible to employee theft; nearly 50% of retail shrinkage comes from employee theft.
POS software can help to significantly reduce or eliminate incidents. With instant access to “voided/cancelled/deleted sales reports,” “returned transactions” reports, and “inventory adjustments reports” you can easily tell when something fishy is going on. Additionally, with many POS systems you can password protect any area that you do not want employees to have access to.

3.Poor customer service means lost money.

Customer loyalty is fleeting, especially if you don’t give them anything to remember you by.

Your business and your customers can significantly benefit from a POS system. The most basic customer service benefit is the amount of time that is reduced at the checkout counter. But imagine being able to call up your customer’s profile based on your caller ID or being able to instantly check the status of a layaway or special order.

Additionally, digital copies of your receipts allow you to modify your return policy and take returns from customers without receipts.

4.Missed upselling opportunities and decreased sales.

Do you know what your customers are buying? It’s impossible to remember everything but your customer remembers and if you had a POS system, you would too.

POS systems enable sales associates to access information about customer’s previous purchases so that they may assist them better or provide them with information for upselling opportunities at the point of sale.

This excellent customer service means that you’ll increase your sales too. If for example a customer enters the store looking for an item that is out of stock, a quick check of your inventory on your POS system will show you what complimentary products are available.

5.Missed client marketing opportunities.

Do you have a customer loyalty program?

Did you know that many POS software systems offer client management and marketing features? These features enable retailers to send targeted letters, emails, and direct mailers to their customers based on demographics and past purchases.

Many POS software packages can easily produce a list of your top customers in minutes. Imagine being able to personally invite your top customers to a sale or offer them a discount for being such good customers. Some retailers use their systems to send thank you notes to customers after they’ve made a large purchase or letters to customers that haven’t made a purchase in a long time.

6.Ineffective check verification systems mean lost time and money.

The benefit to having your check verification system tied directly into a POS system is that the transactions, information, and all necessary tracking of the accounts are done automatically, thus eliminating the many steps of paperwork that would still be required if you operated a check verification system independent of a POS software system.

Steamlined systems mean that your time is spent making sales instead of handling paperwork. Each point of sale transaction is speedy and all information is available from one location — your POS terminal. Additionally, you’re adding the extra security that your customers deserve by having your transactions, check verification included, run through a secure point of sale software system.

7.Pricing mistakes and missed profit margins

Do you know what products are selling and at what price they sell the best?

POS software enables you as a retailer to easily determine which products are your fastest sellers and at what price point. This makes it easier to find that ‘ magic price point that allows you to maximize profits. Additionally, regardless of the size of your inventory, prices can be updated in a matter of minutes.

Additionally, pricing mistakes are virtually eliminated because you don’t have to rely on your employees to calculate the price of items. The computer has already done this, and your sales tax, and any discounts that may be applied.

8.Unhappy relationships with suppliers

Many retailers fail to ask for discounts because they don’t feel like they have the leverage of the big boys. In many cases, that’s simply not true. And if you have the facts and information to justify your request it’ll make your pitch all the more convincing.

If you utilize your POS inventory system to track markdowns and clearances, you can print a report that shows your supplier that your profit margin on their products is 6% lower than your profit margin from competing products. That should get their attention! Take advantage of that information and use it to negotiate better prices for future orders.

9.Website shopping carts?

If you currently sell your products online or ever plan to, then an integrated shopping cart POS software solution can save you a huge amount of time by automatically creating orders and new customers for you. An integrated shopping cart – POS software solution can also reduce errors because human data entry is always prone to more mistakes. These mistakes can make frustrate customers, eat valuable time, and mess-up your inventory. An integrated shopping cart – POS software solution can save you loads of time by synchronizing the inventory information and pricing in your POS software with your website.

Imagine for a moment that you want to start selling a brand new product line on your website. How long would it take you to manually add all those new products added to your website? With the right technology, all you have to do is check a box in your POS system and that inventory will be uploaded to your website. Your POS system will send product numbers, descriptions, images, pricing and other various inventory information to your website.

10.Inaccurate inventories and tedious ordering processes.

Ordering too much or too little of a product can create huge problems for retailers. POS software inventory control features enable you to keep your inventories streamlined by automating the ordering process. As soon as a product reaches a designated level, a purchase order can be automatically generated and sent to your distributor. Imagine the time you’ll save with that feature!

Starting A Retail Business Retail Key Performance Indicators (kpi) Maximise Sales

Starting a retail business means youre excited. Did you know by adopting Best Practice Retail Sales Performance Standards you can immediately increase your sales and profit expectations by as much as 30%!

Why because achieving sales objectives is more than just about whats on your shelves and what your store looks like its about having a customer focused mentality driven by key performance indicators (KPI) to inform staff at every level about the condition of the playing field.

Complicated? Not at all. Retail Sales Performance is just like Sports Coaching. How would sports coaches know how to focus their athletes without statistics? How would racing car managers know how to fine tune their engines and performance its all about statistics. When last did you watch a game on TV without them? They tell us about trends, behaviors, opportunities to increase performance, and they forecast the short to medium term future enabling us to understand why and where we are heading.

Statistical measurement of fundamental sales performance drivers for any retailer is a prime need. With all manner of spreadsheets, POS systems reports, Dashboards and Scorecards, we use Key Performance Indicators (KPI) to communicate the strategy of the shareholders to the individuals in the company and we employ feedback systems to report the results. It is common practice to compare what we have forecast with what has actually taken place statistically so we can make judgments, changes and plans.

It is important to recognise that the standard (senior level) business indicators such as profit margin and wage costs do not drive bottom line sales on the shop floor. You cannot walk up to a Salesperson and say We did 80% of budgeted sales please increase your performance. Thats like the manager of a football team saying to a player We lost the past few games you have to do better. To the salesperson or player the information is useless they cannot see a clear reason for their under performance.

What sports coaches do is take the Team Managers expectations (of winning) and filter them down to each individual player on the team so each player can win for them (and the team). The coach measures performance of a few highly enlightening KPIs that tells the players exactly in which areas to improve. In soccer it may be recording the number of times a player touched the ball, or number of attempts at goal. In baseball the coach could track number of players on 3rd base or number of strike outs etc.

It is common practice in retail to employ only five (5) KPIs to track individual performance and deliver the on-target information for coaching purposes more than five and the reporting system is too complex, confusing, and ambiguous. The five KPIs for retailers are:

Sales per hour – a statistic tells us about the speed at which each individual salesperson is selling or attending to customers compared to everyone else on the shift.

Average Sale the average selling price of each individual salesperson compared to everyone else on the shift higher averages show a greater knowledge of product as the salesperson is able to sell higher ticket items. Low statistics reveal the salesperson lacks skill in either product knowledge or effective probing.

Items Per Sale tells us about the ability of the salesperson to add-on to a sale.

Conversion Rate tracks how many visitors to the store are turned into customers.

Wage to Sales Ratio compares a salespersons hourly wages to hourly sales. This KPI identifies your clear performers and underperformers and their value to you.

The most common reason retailers do not track the five vital KPIs at a staff (team player) level, is their inability to easily and quickly, record and calculate data, to create meaningful reports. After all, one needs to track hours worked, set goals, track planned versus actual performance, and somehow level the playing field for all Salespeople. It can be a lot of work.

In a sports match the playing field is level at all times because everyone is simultaneously on the field. In a retail environment some salespeople will work during fast periods and others during slow periods of the day. A salesperson working during the lunch hours should be expected to sell more than a salesperson working early morning or late afternoon. So any realistic reporting system is going to have to weight individual sales targets otherwise the data becomes ambiguous.

Critical to any Retail Sales Management Solution is the ability to determine the most deficient statistic of the five KPIs because it is logically understood that improving the worst KPI first will have the greatest increase in sales and staff motivation.

Imagine if you had a really simple to use Staff Roster (time and attendance software) that automatically assigned individual, weighted, sales targets to each salesperson, based on when they were working then integrated with your POS (point of sale) terminal to instantly calculate the five (5) key performance indicators, and figure out the most deficient KPI – on demand! What if that software went further by having integrated sales behavior coaching tips built right into the system?

Playing the retail sales game to win means knowing why you are losing and how to go about fixing problem behavior areas. It’s easier to improve retail sales skills than it is to re-stock a new product or brand.

To win in retail, measure the five principal KPIs using an affordable solution and put Best Practice in place for your fast track to success.

Good luck with your brand new store!