I have made a career of fixing issues within retail/wholesale businesses and have practical methods to ensure that “projects” get resolved, one way or another, allowing you to get back to focusing on your core business.  I typically work with retailers that have 50 to 500 stores and possess the unique ability to cut through the turmoil of a project that has fallen off the rails and get it resolved quickly. I SIMPLIFY CHAOS. Whether it is a bungled software upgrade, a difficult transition to a new warehouse / office, a merchandise planning plan that has not achieved the desired result or an under-performing division that needs to be “dealt with”. After a proper assessment, I will sort it out by getting it back on track, starting over or putting it out of its misery.

Retail software providers offer a wide range software and POS systems for many different types and sizes of retailers. Finding the right one for your business is important. Software applications involve every facet of the retail chain from customer facing processes to  inventory control to warehousing to customer relationship management to e-commerce sales to merchandising to distribution. Systems make retailers run smoother and more efficiently and profitably.

DEFINITIONS

• Accounting package
• BI
• Cloud
• CRM
• Digital -
• e-commerce
• End to end -
• ERP -
• Integration
• Interface
• Merchandise Planning -
• Platform -
• POS - Point of Sale -the “front end” of the system – registers the sale, processes payments, perform layby transactions, adjusts stock, prints receipt, etc.
• Que busting - using a handheld unit, the clerk is able to process a sale anywhere in the store. Is often used during busy times when there is a long que.
• Replenishment -
• WMS – Warehouse Management System

SCOPING

1. Bringing in specialists that have done this in the past can save a lot of time and headaches. A consultant should be able to spend a few days with your business and create a short list of potential vendors.
2. Key factors in the early stages of shortlisting: growth, end to end or “best of breed”, high level functionality, location, internal expertise, ability to go “vanilla”, type of retail, reputation, number of stores, complexity of specific product, online vs bricks and mortar, process adaptability, etc. – more on these specifics later.
3. Priortise the functionality – Many solutions will meet your general needs, but you will most likely have specific functionality in a new system. Will you need an integrated online capability? Is it critical that the vendor has experience supporting retail software for your specific sub sector  Do you want to invest in open source POS software? These issues, and many more, should be top-of-mind while looking through various POS system reviews.
4. Budget – consider this carefully. Make sure that you don’t pick the wrong software just because it fits the budget – you will regret it. The license costs are just one factor as well. It is the implementation costs and development costs that tend to catch you. There are best practice rules of how much a retailer should spend on technology.
5. Map out the process as it stands to understand where the starting point is.

SELECTING

1. Research the market. Get a feel for the jargon. Different companies call things different names. Start with the vendors websites.
2. Select the one that ticks the most boxes in it’s vanilla format. Developments are the areas that have issues with time and costs.
3. Create a matrix that ranks each function for it’s importance to your business.
4. Consider your hardware. We suggest that the POS / ERP system you choose should influence the hardware you purchase. However, your new software might  be compatible with certain hardware platforms or software operating systems.
5. You are selecting a “partner” for your business for the next few years, if not longer. Do your due diligence on the company you are partnering with. Do they have proper support? Is it viable? Are they going to sell out? Who else do they support?

DEVELOPING

1. Truly understand the processes that the chosen system can deliver. As much as possible, only implement the base system and wait for developments until you are  live.
2. Understand what best practice is in the particular area for development. Reasearch what other companies do.

IMPLEMENTING

1. Training – Do not schedule training too far in advance – even 4 weeks ahead will be an issue as staff forget quickly if they are not using it regularly. Train with live data and after any developments.
2. Ensure that you have dedicated for the implementation. A team needs to focus on the project and be available to work with the vendor.
3. Put off other major projects until implementation is finished. It will cause preventable issues arising.

PLAYERS IN THE MARKET (work in progress)

Island Pacific vs Advanced Retail Technology vs 3 Q

Retail IT simplified

BuyDesire`s mobile led platform allows in-store shoppers to find and tag items they desire while they shop.  They make it easy for consumers to keep track of their favourite pieces to purchase later, and let businesses and brands reach and influence consumers at the precise moment they want to buy.

BuyDesire is a brick-to-click commerce solution that requires minimal effort and cost to drive incremental revenue. Track a user from the moment they intend to shop to the actual point of purchase. Understanding your customers shopping preferences is key to securing more sales.

More and more shoppers visit stores only to check out the merchandise but then end up buying online. Connecting your products to your customers across physical and virtual touch points is more important than ever. Having the right cart abandonment solution for your brick-and-mortar business is essential to compete against showrooming and online only marketplaces.

Stay tuned for more updates about BuyDesire and let me know if you would like more info.

StreetHawk is a location-based marketing solution for retailers that lets them contact customers when they are around store with personalised phone notifications. StreetHawk drives footfall by allowing retailers to make the most of the information they hold about customers, and to provide an additional, cut-through communication channel to reach customers when they are in the real world.

Natasha Rawlings started the company last year and has made good traction. Prior to this, she worked in executive roles with Mills & Boon, Guthy-Renker (Proactiv), News Corp and International Masters Publishers

StreetHawk drives shoppers to bricks-and-mortar stores the smart way by creating impulse buying outside shops and creating set and forget marketing communication.

It is a location based marketing solution that deals with campaigns, loyalty schemes and analytics.

Wait until you see what she has in the pipeline. Let me know if you would like more info about StreetHawk.

I speak to retailers regularly, and a comment I hear fairly regularly from marketers with ‘older’ brands is that smartphone users ‘are not my customers’. I’m afraid ladies and gentleman, they are. And if you’re not careful other companies are going to court your customers away from you, even while they’re in your store! (We’ll be working on some of these campaigns soon!)

At last count, smartphone penetration in Australia was 59%, so by now that figure would be well over 60% and with our current rate of adoption we’ll be at 100% near the end of 2013. We know that 70% of Australian shoppers are using their mobiles in-store to compare prices and find out more product information, but how does that shake out for ‘young’ vs ‘old’?

The best source of deep information on these things at the moment is Google – have a squiz sometime, you can configure the stats in all sorts of ways to really get the mobile revolution:

http://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/insights/tools/our-mobile-planet-tool/

What you’ll see is that if you’re under 50, smartphone adoption is isn’t too different between the 18 – 30s and the 30s to under 50s. That means an 18 year old is just a little more likely than a 49 year old to have a smartphone. If you’re over 50, then nearly 1/3 of mobiles are smartphones. And these stats aren’t going south any time soon, they’re jumping up every time there’s a new survey.

In terms of using smartphones in shopping, the same applies. An 18 year old is just a little more likely to take a smartphone to research products, or change their mind about an in-store or online purchase with their phone than a 49 year old. Over 50s aren’t that far behind – really. 18% of over 50s compared to 28% of 18 – 30 year olds take their phones out to research products. Most of that difference could be a statistical error.

When looking at actions taken after using a smartphone to look for local information (like calling or visiting a store or buying in a store or online), then all the stats are line ball across all age groups (except for calling a store where the over 50s win hands down).

Except for purchasing products via smartphones, the over 50s are pretty close to their younger counterparts when using apps or searching for products.

If you think you have time to spare on implementing a mobile strategy because you think your customers are too old to be using smartphones then you need to think again, quickly. A massive opportunity is about to pass you by, and you won’t even know what happened.

SCOPING

1. Bringing in specialists that have done this in the past can save a lot of time and headaches. A consultant should be able to spend a few days with your business and create a short list of potential vendors.
2. Key factors in the early stages of shortlisting: budget, growth, end to end or “best of breed”, high level functionality, location, internal expertise, ability to go “vanilla”, type of retail, reputation, number of stores, complexity of specific product, online vs bricks and mortar, process adaptability, etc. – more on these specifics later.
3. Map out the process as it stands to understand where the starting point is.

SELECTING

1. Select the one that ticks the most boxes in it’s vanilla format. Developments are the areas that have issues with time and costs.
2. Create a matrix that ranks each function for it’s importance to your business.

DEVELOPING

1. Truly understand the processes that the chosen system can deliver. As much as possible, only implement the base system and wait for developments until you are  live.
2. Understand what best practice is in the particular area for development. Reasearch what other companies do.

IMPLEMENTING

1. Training – Do not schedule training too far in advance – even 4 weeks ahead will be an issue as staff forget quickly if they are not using it regularly. Train with live data and after any developments.
2. Ensure that you have dedicated for the implementation. A team needs to focus on the project and be available to work with the vendor.

PLAYERS IN THE MARKET (work in progress)

• Chairing the RD user group
• Project advisory, steering and management
• First level support
• IT audit / due diligence
• IT outsourcing
• Infrastructure

Users of Google’s free map application can now navigate, search and ask for directions inside Australian airports, shopping malls, railway stations and other significant public buildings.

“It’s like having an indoor directory in the palm of your hand, telling where you are, what floor you’re on and where you want to go,” Nabil Naghdy, product manager of Google Maps, told AAP.

Previously Google Maps only allowed users to view maps of Australian outdoor spaces, albeit in increasing detail.

Initially, the floor plans of just 200 buildings in NSW and Victoria have been covered by Google’s indoor maps, which went live in Australia at midnight (AEDT) on Wednesday.

They include Sydney airport, Central station, the Queen Victoria Building, Melbourne airport and Flinders Street Station.

Most major shopping malls in both states are covered.

Google expects to map more buildings in coming “months and years”, but was unable to offer a precise timescale.

“It won’t happen overnight but the goal is to have all of Australia’s indoor public places available,” Naghdy added.

Indoor maps are initially available to those in Australia using Google’s Android system – so that includes a large number of smartphones and tablets, but excludes Apple’s iPhones and iPads.

Apple launched its own maps application in September 2012 and has since supplanted Google Maps on its iPhone 5 and in optional software updates for iPads. However, Apple’s map application contained errors when it first launched and it does not have the indoor capability of Google’s.

Apple says it has since rectified many of the errors and its maps do have other unique features, including the 3D fly-over capability for some cities.

Google said it will expand indoor maps to other mobile devices in future, again without offering a timescale.

The indoor maps are already available in 12 other countries including the US and UK.

Australia’s Dr Waleed Kadous, a former University of NSW student, has been one of the application’s key developers at Google’s US headquarters.

The technology works by using mobile phone towers and wireless internet infrastructure to approximate a users’ location within a surveyed building.

Google indoor maps do not identify individual users, Naghdy said.

“When you use this product we don’t actually collect any personal information – we don’t know who owns or uses the handset,” he added.

“We don’t know who you are, we’re just telling you where you are on the device.”

SCOPING

1. Bringing in specialists that have done this in the past can save a lot of time and headaches. A consultant should be able to spend a few days with your business and create a short list of potential vendors.
2. Key factors in the early stages of shortlisting: budget, growth, end to end or “best of breed”, high level functionality, location, internal expertise, ability to go “vanilla”, type of retail, reputation, number of stores, complexity of specific product, online vs bricks and mortar, process adaptability, etc. – more on these specifics later.

SELECTING

1. Select the one that ticks the most boxes in it’s vanilla format. Developments are the areas that have issues with time and costs.

DEVELOPING

1. Truly understand the processes that the chosen system can deliver. As much as possible, only implement the base system and wait for developments until you are  live.

IMPLEMENTING

1. Training – Do not schedule training too far in advance – even 4 weeks ahead will be an issue as staff forget quickly if they are not using it regularly. Train with live data and after any developments.

PLAYERS IN THE MARKET (coming soon)

We have a set of proven methods and processes to ensure that your selection and system implementation are smooth and in the end you have the system to take you to the next level. We typically work with retailers that have 50 to 500 stores. We have excellent understanding of all the key software vendors in the marketplace and how various retailers use technology to maintain competitive advantage.