How to Use Gift Cards to Advertise Your Business | Plastic Resource

By CDS on

September 24, 2018

- Business, Point of Sale, Retail Trends

Gift cards are still the preferred gift to receive. In fact, gift cards sales are set to generate $160 billion in 2018 alone. You can take advantage of this number by using your gift card program to advertise your business. Gift cards grab your customer’s attention and keep it, the perfect combination in advertising.

You can use gift cards to advertise to more than just your current customers, too. Let’s discuss a couple great ways you can use your gift card to boost sales and awareness of your business.

Personalize Your Gift Cards for Your Business

Do you have a unique logo that people relate to your business? Do you have a catchphrase or tagline that you use? Put it on your gift card! Personalized gift cards make an impact by reminding your customer of your business each time they open their wallet. You can personalize your gift card in many ways, down to its shape and size. From coffee cup shape for coffee shops to shirt cut-outs for retailers, the options are endless. Make sure your design is on brand for your business by using brand colors, images and style, making it easily recognizable. The design should also include your contact information for quick contact.

Share Them With Others

To maximize your personalized gift card’s potential, share it with others by giving them away. Everyone that receives a gift card is a potential customer that may not currently know of your business. For example, get charitable! Often, charities and other programs will request donations for a local event. Your business can donate your gift card to help their cause and yours. Do you have a customer loyalty program? Give away gift cards as rewards after reaching a certain number/amount of purchases or visits. Or, run a promotion which allows customers to bring in their family and friends who are then given the chance to win a gift card. You can also run contests on your social media page allowing whoever enters to potentially win a gift card for engaging with your business. There are hundreds of options when it comes to sharing your gift cards with others. Get creative and make it memorable!

Source: How to Use Gift Cards to Advertise Your Business | Plastic Resource

GUEST EDIT: THE IMPORTANCE OF PAYING CLOSER ATTENTION TO YOUR STORE’S DATA – MR Magazine

By CDS on

November 1, 2017

- Point of Sale, Retail Technology, Retail Trends

The Cloud, and the technology being developed, has changed our behaviors and the way we address our business. The access to real-time data, with smart actionable analytics, provides small retailers with a gateway to the same resources that were previously only available to big-budget stores. Small businesses, and especially independent specialty retailers, now have a runway to compete and grow. Their smaller size can be a powerful, nimble advantage. I was speaking with Robert Rosenthal, president of Next and Xhibition stores in Cleveland. They are one of the premier men’s contemporary, advanced contemporary and streetwear retailers in the U.S. I was asking him about the success they are enjoying and his outlook for the near term. Robert has boundless energy and is one of the most creative and inspiring retailers I know. He introduced me to the term “Fail Fast” and, in his words, “It is a philosophy where speed is everything. It pushes you to answer quicker.” Robert has been a first adopter, which plays to his philosophy, “First one to arrive wins.” He adds, “Do not expect everything to work 100 percent.” Look no further than Zara, with their ongoing collection of data from every store, plus the feedback they receive from their managers and information systems. They know what is working, or not working, and act fast on that information. “Fail Fast” is not intended to be a tool to use in your overall strategy. Instead, it can serve as a wake-up call. When the data tells you something is not working…act on it. The consequences of inaction, especially when competition is accelerating, can spell trouble to your bottom line. Robert is bullish on the opportunity for independent specialty retailers. He and his business partner, Steve Silver, have helped build their business through collaboration with vendors and other corporate relationships. Robert sees the playing field as having been leveled out; technology has made it much easier to compete. Robert talks about being in a “fast, digitally driven market.” By hiring creative people, you can “tell your story digitally and look as good as the big guys.” By acting quickly on information, and having the digital platform to reach your audience, you put yourself in a position to win. The availability of bits of information adds up to tell you something you can act on. As Robert suggests, “Color trend, size trend, traffic trend all can be pushed to the user instantly. It is all about speed and that information — that “something” — that can lead you to a point faster than your competition.” Busting out of conventional thinking opens the door to a future full of potential and opportunity. Mickey Drexler’s confession in a recent Wall Street Journal article sums it up best: “I underestimated how tech would upend retail.” “Fail Fast” is a culture that early adopters are employing to achieve rapid growth and capture market share. The edge of tomorrow is here and, along with it, the opportunity for seizing information to push your business forward.

Source: GUEST EDIT: THE IMPORTANCE OF PAYING CLOSER ATTENTION TO YOUR STORE’S DATA – MR Magazine

4 Indisputable Signs Little Local Retail Is Becoming A Goliath

By CDS on

July 31, 2017

- Business, Point of Sale, Retail Trends

The biggest competitor on the retail horizon is more likely to be called David than Big Department Store, and he’s got a slingshot full of technology to help him stand his ground. As major brands from Macy’s to Foot Locker wrestle with competition from Amazon, small independent merchants are gaining a foothold on the retail landscape. More than half (54%) of U.S. sales are generated by small businesses, according to the Small Business Association, and that figure could likely rise. Why? Technology has much to do with the small retailer’s ability to level the selling field, but other surfacing forces, including those influenced by age, are providing the velocity. With July being Independent Retailer Month, the time is ripe to explore how small independents are reclaiming their status as a major competitive force, and as crucial components of a thriving community. Following are four ways the little local guy is emerging as a giant in retail. 1: Hyper-Local Power Social media has yielded a nation of sharers, and they’re accustomed to immediate gratification. They also have high expectations of being heard and understood — but not just online. Increasingly, they want the support of their digital community to extend to the physical community, and this includes commerce.

Small shops, particularly those operated by long-time residents, serve as living-and-knowing communities. They connect with the local population on trends and nearby happenings — a relevant feature among younger shoppers who know the owner and feel invested in his success. None of this is new, except that today the shopper likely follows the merchant on Facebook and promotes him socially. However, to manage an edge over giants like Amazon, corner shops have to answer to the need of immediacy, meaning fast delivery. More than 40% of consumers (41%) want “hyper-local” delivery, with control over how, when and where their products ship, according to the report “State of Shipping in Commerce” by the fulfillment software firm Temando. Of those shoppers, 38% said they’ll pay for it — but just 24% of retailers offer it.

Fortunately, investors are responding to the demand for hyper-local delivery. Venture capitalists have upped their funding in supply chain and logistics startups more than tenfold in three years, to $2.8 billion from $266 million in 2013, reports “The New Delivery Reality: Achieving High Performance in the Post and Parcel Industry,” by Accenture. 2: Internet Democracy One way to accommodate the demand for hyper-local delivery is by selling one’s products via Amazon (Amazon shipments for independent merchants doubled in 2016 to 2 billion). Similarly, Etsy, Bonanza, eBay and other platforms, combined with easier and more affordable transaction-processing technologies, enable small merchants to sell their goods as part of the long-tail economy. The loyalty research firm COLLOQUY coined a term for the emergence of small retailers via digital marketplaces: MomPopolies. These are mom-and-pop shops that have the engagement power to compete with major competitors, yet maintain a local edge. Mix in the element of social media and we are seeing more mom-and-pop social shopping communities — digital marketplaces that combine independent wares from around the world with shopper feedback. The power of social communities can build empires. A jeweler in New Mexico can compete with Nordstrom in Seattle (assuming delivery is overnight). Or a maker of Bohemian headbands and accessories can make $80,000 a month on Etsy, as was the case for the shop Three Birds Nestbefore its owner, a mother of three, spun it off on its own. 3. Digital Natives They may have cut their teeth on smartphones, but most of the members of Generation Z prefer the taste of physicality when shopping, research shows. Nearly seven in 10 members of Gen Z (67%) shop in brick-and-mortar stores most of the time, with another 31% shopping in-store sometimes, according to a survey by IBM and the National Retail Federation. Defined as those born from the mid-1990s to the mid-2000s, Gen Zers could have significant influence on which of those physical merchants survive. The population counts nearly 70 million spenders in the United States — 2.5 billion worldwide. What they want in a retailer may be easier for little local guys to capture: authenticity. Being digital natives with lifetimes of online exposure, members of this generation are highly sensitive to sharing personal information, and they are more demanding of transparency and trust. Quality also is critical; 66% of the IBM/National Retail Federation respondents said quality and availability are the most important factors when choosing a store. 4. Digital Money Independent currencies, the offspring of Bitcoin, are launching with specific markets and missions in mind, notably to support local vendors. Enter Colu, which specializes in generating localized digital currencies earmarked for spending with (and empowering) local merchants. A recent story out of London details how Colu launched a regional currency in the U.K., specifically to support a local community: “Colu’s digital wallet application supports buying local, offering an easy and convenient way to pay instantly from a smartphone while empowering local businesses,” the story states. Blockchain currencies such as Colu’s are digital equivalents of cash, making it simpler for shoppers and merchants to transact. Colu specifically provides participating merchants with digital toolboxes, including dashboards, to help them better compete against major chains. And true, while this service is in the U.K., not the United States, the concept is adaptable anywhere. The rise of small retailers won’t be so great as to upend the power of major merchants, but they are likely causing bigger players to pay attention and recognize why shoppers are spending their money with smaller David, not the Department Store Goliath. In the meantime, technology and consumer preferences are making Independent Retailer Month a more important part of our calendars. Source: 4 Indisputable Signs Little Local Retail Is Becoming A Goliath

Move ‘Em Out: How to Sell What’s Not Selling | KIZER & BENDER’s Retail Adventures

By CDS on

July 18, 2016

- Point of Sale, Retail Technology, Retail Trends

Move ‘Em Out: How to Sell What’s Not Selling

As we wrote this post we stopped every once in a while to sing the theme song from the TV show “Rawhide.” The retail tie-in pertains to the refrain, “Move ’em on, head ’em up; Head ’em up, move ’em on; Move ’em on, head ’em up… Rawhide!” That’s exactly what you do each time you take a markdown: Head ’em up and move ’em out. At least that’s what we hope you do. Consider the retailer who was convinced by a dubious financial counselor to invest $1000. The counselor promised that $1000 investment would yield $2,500 within 12 months, so the retailer handed over her hard earned cash Three months later the retailer called the financial counselor to see how her money was growing. The answer was disappointing: her investment was down to $815, but the counselor encouraged her not to be discouraged. Another three months passed and the retailer called again, this time her $1000 investment was down to $488. Six months later its value was just $104.00. Not exactly a happy ending. This scenario happens in retail stores all across the country each year, maybe even in yours. You might be that financial counselor if you’ve ever held on to merchandise far past its selling life, you’ve been there. Sometimes you hold on to product so long that it begins to fade, wear a little around the edges, and fall out of style. You might even have some of this merchandise on your sales floor right now. Here’s the thing: the fashion and seasonal items you carry have limited life cycles. You should never wait until shoppers turn up their noses and walk away from a display as the only hint that it’s time for a markdown. The basic items you need to stock every day can become shopworn and need to go too, even if it means reordering that same item. Just because you loved it when you bought it doesn’t mean that customers will too, and it doesn’t mean that it’s guaranteed to sell. We call buying things you personally you fall in love with the “halo effect,” which is dangerous to your bottom line. You need to make sure that your invested money works smarter and harder for you, supplying a return on your investment. Let’s look at the key areas you need to manage to move ’em out: Calculate your Turn. Inventory turnover, or turn, is a measure of the number of times inventory is sold within a period of time, usually a year. The easiest to way to determine your inventory turn figure is to simply divide your last year’s total retail sales by your year ending inventory at retail value. To achieve a better turn rate, you need to closely control your inventory. Be insistent about delivery dates, and implement a strong markdown program to clear out product that’s past its sell date. Tell vendors when you want to receive your orders. Before you place that order ask yourself when the product actually needs to be in the store, and then tell your vendors what you need. It’s foolish to take late-season deliveries if that can hurt you, and it’s just as foolish to receive goods – and have to pay for them – far in advance of your actual need time. So request delivery dates. You won’t always get your wish, but if you don’t ask, the vendor will always get theirs. It’s fabric, not wine. It doesn’t get better over time.To manage your inventory and return on investment (ROI), you need to know the age of every item on your sales floor and in your back room. When did it arrive? You don’t always have time to run to your computer or POS system to look it up. And let’s be honest, when was the last time you actually did that? Instead, adopt a system to mark each item with a “received date” code that allows you to instantly determine age without having to leave the sales floor to check a report. We like a simple bin ticket for this task. Bin tickets are stickers that you place on each shelf or fixture to indicate the item’s designated home. Bin tickets should include the information that’s important to you, including SKU number, maximum and minimum quantities, price, cost (in code shoppers can’t decipher), vendor, and date code. The date code tells you when the item was received so you’ll know at a glance which products are selling and which are not. Let’s say a customer asks for a particular item, so you lead the customer to the place it’s supposed to be. The bin ticket is there, but the shelf is empty. Or worse, the space has been filled in with another product. How long has this merchandise been out of stock? Is there more in the back room? How do you know? Here’s where our Dot System comes into play. You’ll need a supply of small red and green adhesive dots. A green dot on the bin ticket means there is more of this particular available product in the back room. A red dot on the bin ticket means there is no more in the back room. No dot on the bin ticket means there isn’t any more of this product in the back room and this item is not to be reordered. Train your associates to check the stock room each time they come across an empty shelf and a bin ticket with a green dot. This product is available and needs to be restocked ASAP. Know when to take a markdown. Markdowns are not your enemy; in fact it’s smart retailing to ditch the dogs. Stores do not close because they had to take markdowns. They close when product is not sold fast enough to create the cash flow needed to cover expenses. When taken on time, the first markdown is always the cheapest markdown. Clearing out merchandise before the price/value relationship is destroyed is critical. You should mark down items as soon as sales start to slow down. Let’s say you have an item that’s currently priced at $25.00 but it isn’t selling. If you mark that item down to $19.99, its value goes up in the customer’s mind. If markdowns are not taken in time it will take much larger discounts to create value. Just ask an apparel retailer who’s trying to sell prom dresses at full price in July. Keep this in mind: Markdowns allow you to maximize your invested dollars. When you get those dollars back you can reinvest into newer items that will yield higher margins and better inventory turn. One of your jobs is to be on the lookout for merchandise that’s past its prime, taking take markdowns as frequently as necessary to clear this merchandise. Sales on seasonal merchandise should start just before the season ends; waiting until after the season/holiday is over will severely hurt your return. Packing product way for next year isn’t a good idea either. Get the cash out of your investment and keep it working with new, fresh goods. Properly display markdown merchandise. When you run a sale, run a SALE. Display the product near the front of the store or in its normal home. You can also use your speed bump displays to house this merchandise during the sale. Highlight the displays with banners or signs created specifically for the sale. We’ve seen too many clearance areas that look like disaster zones; that’s no way to create value. Clearance items should be merchandised with the same care as regularly priced product. When running a clearance sale, display this product near the front of the store. After the sale move it to a small clearance area near the rear of the store so that shoppers have to pass through displays of new product to get to it. Clearly sign your clearance area so that shoppers will want to stop and check it out before heading to the cash wrap. “Hot Spot” and “One to the Right”. Every section of every fixture has what’s called a hot spot; it’s the part of the fixture that sells product the best. To find the hot spot in any fixture, draw an imaginary cross through the center of the fixture – the hot spot is at eye level (about 5 feet 4 inches) where the two lines intersect. Customers tend to stop in the center of a display to peruse the product, so this area is easily seen. Use it to display important product you don’t want shoppers to miss. Here’s an insider tip: Remember “Hot Spot and One to the Right.” Shoppers do a lot of things they don’t realize they do, like reaching for product with their right hand. This means that the position just to the right of the Hot Spot is also a strong display space. You can use this area to display new items or to energize product that’s still in its selling season but isn’t moving. It’s also a great place to house product that’s a tough sell. Display impulse items at the cashwrap. A lot more happens at the cash wrap besides just ringing the sale; it’s where impulse purchases live. Load your cash wrap with product customers just can’t pass up. Think of the add-on sales possibilities! If you have a wall behind your cash wrap, use it to create displays that keep customers thinking about product – it’s also the perfect place to introduce new products Cross-merchandising. Why just sell one item when you can sell two or three? Here’s where cross-merchandising come in handy. Display different products or categories together on the same fixture. Cross-merchandising helps shoppers easily visualize how the items will look or work together. This technique is always a safe bet for the speed bump displays at the front of the store. Merchandise Outposts. The next time you are at a department store take a look at the product that’s displayed in the main aisles. Chances are you’ll find tables of product that’s not in its traditional home on the sales floor. These clever displays are called Merchandise Outposts; their sole purpose is to encourage impulse purchases. They make shoppers stop and think, “I need that!” Merchandise Outposts will work on your sales floor, too. Maximize in-store signing. Signs act as silent salespeople, helping customers when no one is available to help. Women read signs for information; men rely on them to make decisions. And since 70 percent of purchase decisions are made in-store, your signs actually entice shoppers to buy. To be effective your signs must be three things:

Easy-to-read. Use at least a 30 point font so shoppers can see them even without their reading glasses. Use both upper and lower case letters, all caps are harder for older eyes to read. Most books, newspapers, and magazines use a serif font because this type is easier to read. Times New Roman, Palatino, Georgia, Courier, Bookman, and Garamond are popular serif fonts.

Easy-to-understand. The offer or item description on the sign must be is perfectly clear. Use small, simple words so the sign is easy to scan.

Professional. Print signs on your computer on a neutral colored paper. (Know what neon paper says to a shopper? It says, “This stuff sucks and we can’t give it away.”). Use proper sign holders, not tape, to display signs. And unless handwritten signing is part of your brand, don’t do it.

Schedule in-store events and promotions. To move product and build community awareness you need to hold one MAJOR and one to two MINOR events in your store each month. Events are the one thing that can really set your store apart from the competition. Major events – think open houses and semi-annual clearance sales – attract a large number of people to your store. Minor events, such as classes and trunk shows, tend to draw smaller crowds, but still take time to plan. We recommend that you plan your events out months in advance. We can help here, too. If you need event ideas, send us an email and put “Promotions” in the subject line. Read more here Source: Move ‘Em Out: How to Sell What’s Not Selling | KIZER & BENDER’s Retail Adventures

5 Easy Ways to Build Ecommerce Sales | Independent Retailer

By CDS on

November 18, 2015

- Point of Sale, Retail Technology, Retail Trends

Running an online store is no small thing. First you have to construct a site. Then you have to invest in and manage your inventory, which is an expensive endeavor (see Amazon). By the time your site is finally up and running, you’re flat broke! And who has the extra money to hire a marketing firm to get their products out to the entire Internet? I know I don’t. I have, however, managed to find a few simple ways to showcase my store and close sales. Here are a few simple principles that will help you market your store to prospective clients without breaking the bank. Make the checkout process seamless There’s nothing more annoying than getting held up at the checkout. We’re not in 1996 anymore, when people limped around the Internet using dial-up service. If a YouTube video fails to load in 10 seconds, people are taking their eyeballs elsewhere. At a brick and mortar store, people will complain about slow service, but they’ll put up with it. In your eCommerce store, you’ve lost the sale. Unlike the local big box store that can invest money in extra cashiers to expedite checkout, you must make your checkout process seamless and simple with a few clicks. The easier it is to check out, the less likely customers are to abort their purchase. Quick checkouts = more cash in the bank. Here are a few tips to make your checkout simple in order to boost those online sales. Don’t require users to register for your site in order to check out. While contact information is helpful, research shows that customers leave their carts and move on when they have to register. Give them a guest checkout option. When shoppers do register, let them save their information. When they return to shop again, their checkout is much faster, which will bring them back in the future. Make the process visual by adding checkout phases. Break up the checkout into phases so that customers feel they are making progress. When the checkout is visual, customers understand that they are getting closer to being finished. Now, I realize you probably don’t have a developer on call to make this happen for you. Luckily, there are companies like Shopify (www.shopify.com) that offer one click plugin products to handle this for you. Make product recommendations at the checkout. Upsell, upsell, upsell! Amazon’s product recommendation engine is absolutely brilliant. Just prior to me paying, Amazon splashes a host of closely related products up on the screen. The result? I end up shelling out more money than I initially planned. Right before your customers pay, upsell them on related products. Give them deals they won’t get anywhere else. Convince them that they have to have the warranty or the cleaning solution or whatever it is that you want them to buy. They are already in a buying mindset, which gives you a psychological advantage. Give products away for free If you’ve got a limited marketing budget you should seriously consider influencer marketing. Influencers are incredibly powerful because they serve as online referrals. If you can connect with the right ones, you can drives tons of motivated traffic to your website. Personally, I love using Instagram for influencer outreach because most people are willing to promote your brand simply for giving them the product for free. I use a simple process to find influencers: 1) Head over to http://websta.me/search and type in some keywords related to your product. 2) The platform will return the latest content with that hashtag. 3) Sift through the posts (this takes time) to find ones with high engagement. 4) Those highly engaged posts generally belong to someone who has a large, engaged following. 5) Most influencers have a contact email in their bio. If they don’t, you can send them a direct message. Simply let them know you love their content and ask them if they’re interested in checking out your product, free of charge. This can be a lot of work on your end but I promise you, it’s well worth it. Take advantage of online advertisements Social media is a gateway to closing sales and promoting your business at an extremely affordable price. The beautiful thing is that it targets consumers suited for your store on its own. You don’t have to do anything. Just purchase the ads and let social media work for you. Many social media sites offer ad budgeting options, meaning you can set a daily budget (some start as low as $1), and then when your budget for the day is spent, your ad quits running. It’s a great way to stay within your means while still reaching out to potential customers online. Facebook ads are a tremendously effective way to find customers at an extremely low cost. I don’t want to hear the argument “my customers aren’t on Facebook.” Mark Zuckerberg posted a status a few weeks ago that announced Facebook had reached a new milestone. For the first time in the history of the network, 1 billion users were logged in at the same time. 1 billion users. Your audience is on Facebook, trust me. Build a community of loyal fans Invest your time in building a community of fans. If you own a business, you need to have a social media page, and you MUST work to build a following. People who like your page and share your page are doing your legwork for you, so it’s literally a free marketing tool where others work for you. Keep your social media up to date. Post upcoming sales, offer coupons, and promote new products on your page. Encourage your fans to share your information with others, and it will spread the word quickly about what you have to offer. Build email lists and run email marketing campaigns. There are tons of free email newsletter creators online that can help you design and email you fans. Create quality content Quality content on your page is one of the most important marketing techniques you can have. As in a brick and mortar store, your customers want to feel like they matter. Quality content that speaks directly to them, not down to them, creates that connection. Talk about what you believe in with regard to your products, and then tell customers why they need those products. If your content is just trying to hard sell customers, they’ll be just as turned off as they would with a pushy salesman in a store. Be creative, be genuine, and be yourself! Conclusion If ECommerce were easy, every joker and his mom would do it. It requires strategic thinking and careful execution. Small mistakes, like a cumbersome checkout process, can cost you serious cash. But with thoughtful implementation, you can create an ECommerce store that creates significant revenue for you.

Source: 5 Easy Ways to Build Ecommerce Sales | Independent Retailer

How to use customer data to understand your shoppers better | Retail Pro Blog

By CDS on

November 17, 2015

- Point of Sale, Retail Technology

Understanding your customer is key when it comes to offering service that meets and anticipates customer needs, cultivates loyalty, and stimulates repeat business. Retail Pro® provides native functionality that allows you to capture and analyze the exact information you need to understand your customers’ shopping habits, needs, and expectations across channels. Data collection with user-defined fields User-defined fields (UDF) in Retail Pro allow you to track a virtually unlimited number of data elements. UDF and auxiliary fields can be completely customized to ensure you capture the specific type of data you need to inform, for example, your merchandising or marketing strategies. Capture customer preferences like favorite colors, styles, and activities to personalize your marketing campaigns, or arm your sales associates with access to those details on a mobile device so they can make meaningful recommendations. For example, a cosmetics retailer might track a customer’s favorite brand, shade of eye shadow or lip tint, or their skin type based on their transaction history, and can send special offers for those products when they shop online or come into your stores during their birthday month. Data analysis with calculated field Calculated fields like total sales, total transactions, total units, and the total number of visits enable you to analyze your customers’ sales history and determine their lifetime value. Then, using that key criteria, build targeted customer lists to increase the effectiveness of your marketing across channels. For example, you can create segments to market to customers with total sales over $10,000 or every customer whose favorite hobby is fishing. Whatever your engagement strategy, Retail Pro gives you the tools you need to gather and analyze the customer data that helps you drive effectiveness and build greater loyalty and customer satisfaction. Retail Pro News: Learn the latest Retail Pro news and industry updates first.

Source: How to use customer data to understand your shoppers better | Retail Pro Blog

What Retailers Should Know About Mobile Wallets

By CDS on

November 12, 2015

- Point of Sale, Retail Technology, Retail Trends

By Robert Harrow Retailers know there is a major shift currently underway in the payment industry. More and more consumers are beginning to leave their credit cards at home, in favor of keeping digital versions saved in their smartphones. Through the use of technologies such as Apple Pay, Android Pay, and Samsung Pay, individuals can carry out everyday transactions without ever reaching for their wallets. Outside of being popular and trendy, these “mobile wallets” come with their own set of positives and negatives. There are a few major considerations business owners should take into account before deciding whether or not to support this new payment platform. Improved security over conventional card payments. Mobile wallets take advantage of technologies that provide more secure transactions. Individuals today are more security conscious than ever – the massive campaigns behind the EMV shift are evidence of this trend. Businesses that support technologies such as Apple Pay and Android Pay are on the forefront of card-payment security, or namely, tokenization. When your customers pay for a product or service using their phones, their financial information travels in an encrypted packet – a “token” – that is later decrypted by your software when you receive it. If a thief or fraudster were to somehow get their hands on your customer’s payment data, they will only have access to these tokens, which are useless without a decryption mechanism. Secure encryption features are just one reason consumers are switching to this new technology, and retailers who offer a mobile payment platform find that it frequently serves as an incentive for some customers to keep coming back their store. Shorter Customer Wait Times. Mobile payments are fast, especially when compared to a more conventional payment method. The scene in any rush hour New York Starbucks shop should be enough to convince anyone of the importance of cutting wait time. While those customers who pay for their morning cup of Joe with a card must hand their card to the attendant who then swipes the card through a reader, the customers utilizing mobile wallets just hold them up to the NFC reader and they’re done – fast and quick. Decreasing the time it takes to process each customer should be an attractive feature to any business with heavy foot traffic. Not only will businesses be available to service a larger volume of customers, but those customers will be generally happier due to lower wait times. In this way, mobile wallets can serve to increase customer satisfaction and retention. Mobile payment fraud. On the flip side of things, accepting mobile wallet payments may pose a risk for some merchants. With the surge in mobile wallet popularity, fraudsters are focusing their sights on exploiting this technology to attempt to trick business owners into accepting fraudulent transactions. Staying vigilant and monitoring the transactions that come through your store’s account will help deter fraud. Employee Training and Systems Management. As with the implementation of any new technology to your business, it is impossible to ignore the time devoted to employee training. Because mobile wallets are an emerging technology, few employees will be ready and trained in how to service customers who pay with this method. As a business owner, you will need to set aside time to fully train your staff and to ensure that you know the ins and outs of the system yourself. By adding to the complexity of your system and adding new card readers you are also increasing the number of possible points in your business that may need troubleshooting. Be certain you understand the hardware and software system components and make sure your tech support person is available for the system rollout. Costs of Upgrading. In order to accept mobile wallet payments, your business must have a contactless payment-capable point of sale terminal. Retailers who have recently upgraded their POS may recognize that EMV comes in two major varieties for in-store payments: “contact” transactions, in which a chip card is inserted, or “dipped,” into a POS terminal, and contactless payments, where an EMV card or smart phone is waved near to an EMV terminal. Many of the new POS terminals offer both features, and range in price from between $100 and $1,000 per terminal – actual costs will vary widely based on your store’s needs. Generally, the more functionality a new contactless point of sale terminal has, the more expensive it will be. If your business already accepts credit cards, contacting your merchant services provider is the first step you should take. Your provider should be able to offer you cost-efficient ways to upgrade your reader to support contactless payment-capable readers, as well as provide you with any additional cost estimates and educational resources. Mobile Wallets Are the Future for Consumers and Businesses. A 2015 report from Forrester Research estimates that by 2018, up to 20% of US smartphone owners will be using mobile wallets. With such a large segment of the population utilizing this new technology, many customers will come to expect retail stores to support this payment method. As consumers begin to leave their wallets and cards at home, the only way for some merchants to accommodate sales will be by accepting mobile payments. Forrester Research’s report also points to an added advantage inherent in mobile wallets: marketing campaigns. Working together with app developers, business owners can help drive more traffic to their locations by pushing notifications to smartphone users through coupons, or other forms of advertising.

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Get Prepped: Consumers To Spend More This Holiday | Retail Pro Blog

By CDS on

October 14, 2015

- Point of Sale

It’s 80 days until Christmas — and those holiday displays are starting to edge out Halloween merchandise on the shelves. Wait, Halloween hasn’t even happened yet, right? Be that as it may — yes, we are still more than three weeks away from Halloween — the smart money is on the 2015 Christmas shopping season being brighter than last year’s. According to the 2015 Holiday Purchase Intentions Survey from The NPD Group, consumers have a more positive outlook, and are looking to open up their wallets to family, friends and the needy. The mean spend for holiday shopping this year, according to NPD, is $619 — a 5 percent increase compared with what consumers said in 2014. “Consumers are ready to spend for the holidays, more so than in recent years,” said Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst, The NPD Group, in a statement. “However, manufacturers and retailers need to pay close attention to what is driving the consumer mindset, and deliver product that anticipates inevitable shifts in their thinking over the course of the season. Positive consumer perceptions combined with holiday promotions, could drive early impulse purchases, but the market has to deliver enticing product that consumers want and need in order to build on that momentum and keep them spending.” Cohen makes a salient point: Retailers must be careful to offer promotions at the start of the season while not cannibalizing sales that might have come later. Many people browse early in the season and then wait until the last hours before the holiday to complete their shopping. Marketers face pulling off a tough balancing act of luring customers into the store in early November with bargains, and maintaining that enthusiasm profitably through the end of the year. Coupled that with the popular notion that there will be even better buys closer to Dec. 25 and the marketing department is in a quagmire: Damned if you discount too early, but double damned if they don’t and miss out on the increase in shopper traffic. And don’t kid yourself, multi-channel competition is up. Brick and mortars are not only facing challenges from other traditional storefronts, but also from e-commerce retailers. And vice versa. That was true in the past but the pace is quickening. Don’t have a mobile app? You’re missing a sizable shopper segment. Have an app that offers little value and that’s possibly worse than not having one at all. The mobile connection is important more than ever because a majority of consumers — almost two-thirds — said they will do pre-purchase research. Online research and consumer reviews are critical links for customers looking to stretch that $619 as far as possible. Don’t neglect cultivating honest reviews and including them on your site and make it easy to review a product or purchase through a mobile app. Consumers want quick, easy-to-access information, as well as real-life feedback on products from honest-to-goodness users rather than the stores selling them. In the end, all the preparation will result in a solid brand presence log after the holidays. As Cohen noted: “Just as the consumer mindset is one component to holiday success, the holiday season is one leg of the larger retail marathon – it’s not the finish line…Consumers are more complex, and marketers have more opportunities to reach them than ever before. Truly connecting with consumers requires interaction and omnipresence, emphasizing a complete experience that extends beyond channels, beyond traditional methods, and beyond the holiday season.”

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Source: Get Prepped: Consumers To Spend More This Holiday | Retail Pro Blog

Catching the Crumbs from the Big Box Battle

By CDS on

July 15, 2015

- Point of Sale, Retail Technology, Retail Trends

Amazon and Walmart are preparing for an epic battle of summer e-retail war, the likes of which we’ve never e-seen before (or, at least they hope we haven’t). Amazon’s Prime Day is scheduled for July 15, 2015, and promises to reward Amazon Prime members with steep discounts and unbeatable deals as a midyear Black Friday for online shoppers, while offering 30-day Prime membership trials to those who are not current Prime members. Who doesn’t like cheap online merchandise shipped directly from the Amazon warehouse to your doorstep, right? The answer, obviously, is megabox king, Walmart. With spoilers on their minds, Walmart decided to respond by taking a bit of thunder from the Amazon Prime Day storm by announcing their own July 15, 2015 sale, albeit not named also “Amazon Prime Day”. Outside of holiday sales, we have yet to see such a confluence of markdowns, discounts, and sales on a particular day like this before. Big box chains can get by with these discounts simply on volume alone. Without going into the gory details of Walmart business purchasing practices, it’s fair to say that small independent retailers are left to sit back and watch the carnage occur while possibly even getting in on the fun and doing some personal shopping. However, even independent specialty retailers can benefit from the White Wednesday sales event (I just made that name up…not sure if they are actually using it or not). That may seem counter-intuitive, however what this one day sale does is strengthen the concept of the OmniChannel in the retail world as it exists in present day. E-Commerce, mobile commerce, and web shopping all fall into this catch-all net of OmniChannel sales. By strict definition, OmniChannel is using all available means of procuring sales in any given sales cycle by using all of the above. Walmart has something that Amazon doesn’t have nor could they ever have, which is a brick-and-mortar store in just about every substantial city in the US. What they also have that Amazon doesn’t have is the capital investment and operational expenses to burden them with having to track such things as departmental sales for future stocking. However, both of them have a BIG footprint into the OmniChannel world, combining as many different avenues to sell their wares as possible. Independent retailers can have a footprint in that space as well, and it can be substantial. Do you have a brick-and-mortar store, but haven’t walked down the investment track to E-Commerce? If not, you are getting left behind by those who do. Have you incorporated mobile sales into your brick-and-mortar store? If not, you aren’t keeping up with the guys down the street. Do you have a web store with the ability to order and pick up at the store? If not…well, you get the picture. What indie stores have that those big boxes can never have, though, is a one-on-one sales experience. They’ll always have the volume, but as an independent retailer you can always trump that with a personal sales experience. A worldwide sales battle between two heavyweights only brings about more online retail and causes more online shoppers to go looking for more deals out on the internet. Is your store positioned to take advantage of the increased traffic?

Avoiding the Creepy Factor In Hyperpersonalization | Retail Pro Blog

By CDS on

May 19, 2015

- Point of Sale, Retail Technology, Retail Trends

Is hyper-personalization creepy or cool? A recently released Accenture study, “Retail Hyperpersonalization, Creepy versus Cool,” finds that the answer largely depends on which demographic you’re asking.

While customers appreciate personalization, many are concerned about their privacy.

By and large, Millennials seem more into with retailers personalizing messaging. Boomers less so. For example, nearly three times more Millennials (17.2 percent) than Boomers (6.2 percent) think being reminded while shopping about needed items is “cool.” Also, 41 percent of Millennials say they’d welcome retailers stopping them from buying electronics that are not right or are outside their budgets. Gender influences the perception of what constitutes acceptable personalization as well. Accenture reports that 34% of male respondents think receiving suggestions personalized to account for their families’ food preferences is “creepy.” However, 40% of female respondents consider that type of personalization “cool.” Some forms of personalization are generally welcomed, though not universally. For example, these implementations are widely considered “cool”:

82% enjoy discounts or loyalty coupons;
59% welcome promotional offers based on items that the customer may be considering or lingering over;
54% like receiving suggestions for items that complement merchandise that the customer is currently browsing.

Conversely, there are personalization efforts that customers find “creepy.”:

36% of shoppers do not want to be greeted by name when walking into a store;
42% don’t want recommendations based on their health issues;
46% don’t want to be dissuaded from a purchase by a sales associate with preexisting knowledge about what the customer currently owns.

That leaves retailers with some specific rules of engagement: First, they must keep the value proposition from the customer standpoint in mind. There needs to be significant value for shoppers in order for them to be motivated to engage. Second, it’s important that the customer doesn’t feel overwhelmed. Too many messages or promotions can easily backfire for the retailer. Third, retailers must be transparent about how any information gathered will be stored and used. Opt-in policies let customers play an active role in the process. Fourth, retailers should have a system in place to capture and safeguard customer information. There should also be a plan in place detailing how a retailer’s information is to be used and how it will improve business. Fifth, and finally, building trust is key to success; retailers must work at establishing and maintaining a bond. It’s difficult to establish, yet easily destroyed. The Accenture study notes that there are three components for implementing a hyperpersonalization solution properly: make it expected, secure and data driven. Doing so provides a foundation for success that will drive profits as well as customer loyalty. Source: Avoiding the Creepy Factor In Hyperpersonalization | Retail Pro Blog