Tech savvy customers are accustomed to convenience in all spheres of life and demand a seamless buying experience across various sales channels be it brick-and-mortar stores, catalogues, online platforms, social media channels or online marketplaces.

This is where multi-channel retailing comes in, the approach where you maintain a presence on various channels that your customers frequent and meet their demands seamlessly. This ensures that the buying journey doesn’t come to a halt when customers don’t find their channel or platform preference.  Retailers currently depend on retail software development solutions.                                                                                                                 

For efficient order fulfilment, no matter the platform via which orders are made you need to have to continuously be aware of the stock levels, inventory location, and the means by which inventory can be automatically shipped from the warehouse in the vicinity of the customer. 

Why Choose Multichannel Inventory Management Systems

As a retail store’s quantity of orders keeps increasing, and they branch out into several platforms, it would be counter-productive to get bogged down by the laborious process of signing in and out of platforms to enter product details and manage orders.

Retail software solutions like inventory management systems allow you to boost sales, enhance efficiency and steer clear of the potential of overselling while your business expands and multiple sales channels are put into play.

Automate and streamline every sales channel

Controlling inventory that spans a range of channels simultaneously is tedious to say to least, particularly when multiple new channels are included in your strategy. In this case you’d need to invest your efforts in business growth as opposed to handling supply bottlenecks.

With automation-based inventory management systems you get real-time overview of your stock levels spanning your complete supply chain, allowing you to fulfil the delivery with the committed time limit. 

Efficient product description creation

Listing software that integrates multiple channels saves you a vast amount of effort and time, as you would not need to manually enter in the product descriptions for each different platform. In the interest of saving time and more so to maintain uniformity for customers that interact with your business, after the initial manual entry, the system automatically shares the details among other channels to promote a seamless buying experience. That’s the power of retail software development solutions.

Demand forecasting

Many retailers opt for tailor-made multichannel inventory control solutions to extract actionable insights, leading to increasingly effective executive decisions that drive higher revenue. Features like demand forecasting enables you to stock in-demand products, maintain the ideal amount of inventory distributed among the different channels you use, thus ensuring that there is no oversale. What’s more retailers can get inventory levels down to the usual amounts once a particular spike in demand subsides.

Enhanced customer experience

Products need to be on hand when a customer’s order comes in. It’s important to ensure that the inventory is available and the customer receives their order without uncalled for delay. In this way you gain highly satisfied customers and repeat customers who are loyal to your brand.

All-inclusive reports

When you use retail software development solutions like multi-channel inventory platforms you will be able to benefit from comprehensive analytics and reports on various different aspects such as:

• DSI or days to sell inventory, calculates the average amount of time a product stays in stock prior to being sold
• Inventory turnover, refers to the total times a product is sold and restocked during a set period.
• Return rate, relates to the percentage of inventory that customers return
• Holding costs indicates the sum of all costs needed to maintain a product in stock
• Stock out, refer to times when inventory has been exhausted and is unavailable for order fulfilment
• Inventory accuracy denotes the difference between the warehouse stock that’s on record in your inventory management platform and the actual inventory that’s on shelves.

Demand tracking

Data is the key agent of insightful business decisions. To streamline inventory it is vital to track customer demand.

Using a multi-channel inventory solution enables you to monitor highest selling and lowest selling products on third-party platforms. You will be able to accommodate seasons such as Valentine’s Day, Christmas etc. All that’s left to be done is backtrack to the prior archives and isolate high demand products. This way you will be able to make accurate purchase orders and smoothly accommodate customer demands.

Customers are known to opt for buying experiences from the convenience of channels where they choose to spend their time. With this intel, retailers are now revolutionising their business potential through retail software such as multichannel inventory management platforms. There would be zero manual effort on your part when you use retail software development solutions like multi-channel inventory platforms. Get started today and connect everything that streamlines your retail processes across multiple popular channels.

Discover how technology is making a welcome impact to retail stores processes.

Recommendation Engines

Retail software development solutions like recommendation engines are a dominant means by which retailers are able to empower shoppers to locate products without too much hassle. Data-based recommendations are also made for products that shoppers would not ordinarily consider but would actually interest them. Through recommendation algorithms data is processed to analyse and forecast the types of products that various types of customers would be likely to purchase.

Recommender systems are retail software solutions with content-based filtering functions based on user data (implicit or explicit). They make recommendations of items to shoppers that are close to the items the customer has previously purchased or was interested in.

On the other hand, recommender systems with collaborative filtering recognise items that a shopper might buy by filtering the similarities between other users and their product preferences simultaneously and offer relevant product prompts. Being offered this level of personalised recommendations encourages shoppers to increase their spending. Stores generate higher revenue and shoppers keep coming back to an outlet that feels customised to their preferences.

Order Fulfilment Automation

Retail store owners are using automation through retail software solutions for order fulfilment. These solutions mean they can increase sales, lower labour, boost customer satisfaction and streamline the supply chain.

Each phase of order fulfilment, be it order processing, inventory delivery and shipping can easily be automated through retail software development solutions. This translates to boosting the efficiency of a store’s operation, ensuring that they are less likely to have issues connected to delivering your products to your consumers.

Up-and-coming retail store owners find that they are no longer able to handle the rise in volume of orders smoothly, prompting them to opt for a highly tactical role rather than trying to manage the tediousness of daily activities.

To make sure that you outpace your competitors it is important to fortify your logistics processes with automation-based retail software solutions. In this way you can grow your business faster and more efficiently, stop losing customers, and also cut back on time and money investments.

Inventory Management

Inventory is one of a retail store’s most vital resources. Both semi-finished and finished items are crucial to a business’s profitability.  Inventory shortages can adversely impact the reputation of a retail store while excess inventory can prove to be a risk. Surplus inventory holds the potential of spoiling, robberies, deterioration, or changes in demand. Today’s retail business usually have advanced inventory management systems equipped to monitor stock levels in real-time.

This is why inventory management is vital for all types and sizes of retail stores. Keeping track of ideal product pricing, replenishing timing for stock, amounts to produce or buy are some of the aspects that retailers need to figure out using retail software solutions.

Comprehensive data via advanced inventory management platforms help store owners handle inventory flow, benefit from useful forecasts, insight-based decisions and more to help boost the outlet’s profitability. A robust inventory module of retail software development solutions can monitor raw, semi-finished and finished products, eliminating spoilage, damage or thievery and other things.

Internet of Things Technology

IoT technology in retail software solutions help retail store owners to provide their customers a satisfying shopping journey. They can elevate the running of the store with smart equipment and boost customer experience and increase the rate of sales. IoT based equipment like smart kiosks, shelves, checkout counters and more are optimising everyday retail tasks. IoT is helping retailers decrease check out wait times, handle inventory, monitor energy usage, identify store areas with higher foot traffic and also discourage theft. Devices and sensors within stores monitor shopper experiences, track their preferences and behaviours and share insights that help you improve services and increase your sales.

Leveraging this information through retail software solutions, marketing teams can carry out hyper segmentation marketing. Through this they would generate content based on those different segments, making promotions personalised for all shoppers. Customers would benefit from suggestions, tips, offers, deals, advice and more or recommend others to the store.

Smart Equipment Applications In The Retail Sector

• Tailored retail content delivery and marketing
• Self payment counters
• Foot traffic tracking solutions to optimise store layout
• Shipment monitoring tools
• Sensor-based condition monitoring of products in real-time
• Inventory monitoring modules
• In-store shopper preference and behaviour monitoring

Customers today want experiences that deliver insights and personalization that empower them make effortless purchase decisions. By leveraging retail software solutions, retail store owners can considerably elevate their customers’ in-store experience and also run operations smoothly while ensuring significant savings.

What’s clear is that with the tech innovations in the markets today, store owners and retailers can have their complete operations run with a handy smartphone or tablet. With a mobile device alongside cloud-based retail software, store owners now have the capacity to sell no matter where, within their store, outside their store (for instance, events, trade shows, or pop-up shops), and even offer a 24/7 online order option.  

Accordingly, what you would need to do ‘sell everywhere’ is figure out the ideal retail POS software for your retail business. Let’s check out some major features to search for in a POS so you can effortlessly begin sales on multiple channels without any added effort.

Smooth Management of Customer Data

An increasing amount of retail consumers are making purchases spanning multiple channels. Retail software solutions like the modern cloud POS technology must also be equipped to help you gather and tackle customer information spanning multiple sales channels. Your POS provider should build a solution that enables you to tackle all customer sales & returns in a single location, gather comprehensive customer contact information, and access customers’ transaction history.

Inventory Management in Real-time

Sales carried out via different sales channels such as online, brick-and-mortar, and social media necessitate retailers to maintain a precise count of inventory on each of the channels.

Nonetheless, several legacy retail software solutions are equipped to manage inventory and sales for just a single channel. Multi-channel POS systems, with modern cloud technology, have the capacity to enable you to tackle inventory anywhere your products are stocked or sold. You kill two birds with one stone- your inventory tracking becomes effortless and orders fulfillment spanning various channels also becomes seamless and quick.

Unified Reporting and Sales Metrics

Modern POS systems offer valuable data that retailers can leverage to make insight-based decisions regarding their business. With a retail software development service, you gain a solution that allows you to view analytics spanning all your business channels, both consolidated and separately, as required. This gives you insights into what is working and what is not. Your business will thus become highly flexible and evolve swiftly to shifts in the retail landscape.

Fulfillment Options and Marketing Integrations

Having ideal POS features also serves you to helps you drive your sales. The current innovative systems provide integrations for digital marketing configured to cater to the shifting needs of modern customers, which can result in amplified sales for your store. For instance, retailers can take advantage of their POS to put forward their products on Google and grab the eyeballs of shoppers in the vicinity who are on the lookout for the products their business sells. Additionally, it’s vital to search for a POS system that provides flexible pickup and delivery options, such as, local delivery, shipping, buy online, pick-up in-store, etc.

So, it’s high time for you to get retail software solutions like a feature-rich retail POS system to help your store not only run but also thrive successfully.

The hypercompetitive atmosphere of retail whether it’s online or brick-and-mortar stores has meant that retailers have to depend on retail software development services to gain innovations that set them apart from competitors and enhance their chances of flourishing in their chosen industry.

Without further ado, let’s discover the ways in which robots are actually evolving retail stores.

Robot-powered checkouts

Several shoppers feel the checkouts are quite a hassle. Nobody enjoys waiting in long queues to pay for their purchases. Thus robotic checkout systems seem to be an apt answer to this issue and can transform this facet of retail.

Here’s how it works essentially- stores have scanner-based ‘robotic baskets’ which are equipped to examine each product placed within them. After the shopping is done, the shopper goes up to an independent checkout system and the items in the basket get scanned. After the customer pays, automation takes over. Automatically, both the bill gets generated and the products get placed in a bag. A seamless and time-saving process.

Replenishing stocks with scanner robots

A few of the heavyweights in the retail sector are taking advantage of the latest retail software solutions and are reaping the benefits of using robots in their outlets.

Particularly, when it comes to scanner robots, they have the capacity to locate the precise section where products are beginning to dwindle down or have gone out of stock. These robots then proceed to share images to store associates who have to replenish stocks in a timely fashion. What’s more these robots are able to share information with automated unloader conveyor systems that are designed to prioritize which merchandise gets unloaded from trucks, reducing the time of the process considerably.

Offering improved customer service

In previous times, robots were used solely for back-end functions of stores. Currently, they are being leveraged as a novel way of providing customer service, through robotic shopping carts.

With the assistance of these innovative carts, customers are able to easily locate all the products they want to purchase and do not need to drag the cart all across the store. The technology is useful for all shoppers but particularly for those with physical challenges as it helps them have a smoother and hassle-free shopping experience.

Products are engaging with shoppers

Robots of a retail software solution is being powered to highlight in-store products and bring them to life. By means of sound, lights, and motion innovations they bring in a delightful shopping experience. Each time a customer comes in the vicinity of a particular display they activate a device rigged with a motion sensor-equipped to showcase the product to potential buyers. From specialty ice-creams to the latest tech gear, the product itself engages with the would-be buyers.

Store owners today simply cannot turn a blind eye to the emerging technologies available. Disruptors like robots and other retail software solutions are soon becoming the norm. Their capacity to enhance the quality of the service as well as cut costs has led to dramatically boosted sales and overall success for retailers.

You need retail software development services from a reputed provider to leverage the power of robotics for your retail store.

Investing in legacy software that would need to be installed on a server on site is often a costly affair. Contrarily, your new POS system need not ‘break the bank’. Cloud-based software involves fees that are paid on a monthly basis and cover a host of ongoing support and maintenance services.  

Here we will discover the tremendous advantages of cloud POS systems as opposed to the counterpart legacy software.

Pay monthly and cover all your bases

Those who have opted for retail software development services for cloud-based POS systems do not have to worry about paying a hefty flat fee. You would merely need to pay a reasonable amount on a monthly or yearly basis in terms of the services and features offered by the provider. Frequently this comes to a much lower amount than when purchasing a legacy POS system.

Covers support services

Typically, those who use SaaS-based POS solutions are exempt from shelling out additional money to gain support services. Almost all retail software development service providers are equipped with support personnel who provide all types of support that their clients may need without charging them any further.

Covers regular updates

Once you have a cloud-based POS solution you can expect to receive updates at regular intervals carried out remotely to give your entire software a boost. You will not incur additional costs other than your monthly/yearly subscription fee to benefit from updates such as new versions or new features.

Involves decreased hardware expenses

Those who opt for legacy POS software need to invest in heavy-duty hardware, for instance, servers.  On the other hand, one of the top perks of cloud-based software is that you can use your own basic machines, like printers, computers, scanners, and cash drawers. Cloud-based retail software solutions are so versatile that they can even be used on the current tech innovations like mobile and tablet devices.

Gain relevant integrations

Unlike traditional systems, sophisticated cloud POS systems allow you to include key integrations that serve to link to various aspects of your business. With your cloud-based retail software solutions, you will be able to integrate with services like accounting, CRM, ERP, marketplaces, eCommerce, marketing, warehouse management, and more.

Superior Security

Legacy POS solutions are prone to introduce several risks to your retail operations. Conversely, owing to its cloud-driven technology, cloud POS software involves negligible risks and considerably higher security. In case your store’s computer starts malfunctioning, or your server is down, thanks to cloud POS, your data will neither get corrupted nor lost, as it is securely stored in the cloud on offsite servers.

When it comes to retailers making a critical purchase, the merits of cloud POS software speak for themselves. Remember that retail software solutions such as POS are meant to make a retailer’s life easier by helping them run all operations smoothly and not to cause unnecessary complications. You can opt for a well-supported and regularly updated cloud POS and watch as your retail business flourishes.

Want to know more? Connect with retail software solutions specialists at Ivan Infotech now!

More and more ESLs (Electronic shelf labels) are being leveraged to display product information in brick and mortar stores. Wireless retail software is frequently affixed on the front of store shelves and is battery powered. These smart and fully wireless electronic labelling solutions provide tremendous advantages to consumers and store managers alike.

To ensure that retail software solutions like ESLs remain affordable, the technology needs to have the capacity to offer the required range and speed despite requiring low power consumption. Because of the rise in radio frequency (RF)-enabled IoT devices, retailers are increasingly finding ways to cater to these requirements.

Below you will find the key reasons to opt for retail software development services to gain electronic shelf labels and figure out whether these tools will suit your purposes.

Real-time display

Display control by product type, shelf type (fresh produce, groceries, toys, clothing, books, etc.), unique product or promotion is done remotely and updated in real-time. This enables complete price control at all times and guarantees greater customer satisfaction.

Information control and standardization

Electronic shelf labels are part of retail software solutions that enable you to systematize real-time details displayed to the shopper. This is also being leveraged to fine-tune prices and displays on the basis of local or point-of-sale specific price discounts and branch locations.

Perishability management

Customers are able to directly check the sell-by date of the product thanks to the electronic displays in the store. Product managers are able to efficiently create offers and discounts on items once they have reached the end of the consumption period and modify the price automatically.

Monitor customer patterns & movements

Installing movement sensors to electronic price labels can be highly beneficial to retailers. The sensors are able to monitor all instances of traffic and customer movement occurring in your store. Retail software solutions like this offer you a virtual heat map of your store, revealing high-traffic areas and low-traffic areas.

Saving time and boosting returns

Hooking up your POS management system with electronic labelling solutions allows all pricing and information modifications in the POS to be processed through the ESL server and reflected on the labels in real-time. Additionally, users get the chance to instantly check details of the item they intend on buying, its origin and its price; promotional products can be easily identified thanks to colour-coding.

Inventory management

It has been found that keeping stock level data precise is extremely challenging for retailers. With retail software development services, you gain electronic shelf labelling solutions that have the possibility of displaying the number of items in stock to your customers though not all the items may be available on the shelf itself. ESLs allow you to conduct stock management with stock control and real-time inventory.

Retailers who want a competitive edge will discover how ESLs have the power to save them tremendous time and money over the long haul. Today several well-known supermarkets, drug stores and department stores have already embraced electronic labelling solutions.

An increasing amount of retail software solutions surface each year and you would be wise to keep track of the offerings even if your business is not prepared to upgrade just yet. 

The various complementary strategies that can be developed using a point-of-sale system in combination with retail software solutions are- Sales strategy, marketing strategy, customer relationship strategy, inventory management strategy, and employee retention strategy. The features offered vary according to the type of point-of-sale system chosen. The features offered under different strategies are-

Sales strategies

Applied for the marketing or sales functions, the sales strategy can help the company in achieving time-bound objectives. The advanced reports generated through the point of sale system can be analyzed, evaluated and elaborated to fine-tune the sales strategy.  You can generate these reports by using dedicated POS solutions offered under the retail software development service.

While determining the sales strategy it is also important to consider historical data. The reports generated by a Point of sale software can offer tremendous value in this respect. These reports can help you compare historical and current year sale data.

An omnichannel retail software solution can offer you a centralised report-thus helping you save time and money. The data offered by these solutions can not only help in fine-tuning your sales strategy but also develop a deeper connection with customers. Ultimately the database can be used to figure out effective cross-selling and upselling opportunities.

Inventory management strategy

A sound inventory management strategy is a must-have requirement to boost your sales revenue. The inventory management strategy can help you in optimising inventory levels across the different company outlets. But a sound inventory management strategy relies on accurate data.

The retail software solution can pull data from the POS system to help you in this regard. The software offers data regarding the sales performance of each of your stores. It drilled deeper, you can also identify goods that are sold most frequently. These data points can then help you create a sound inventory management strategy and helps prevent. both understocking or overstocking situations.

Marketing strategy

A marketing plan will enable your business to increase its turnover by tailoring its offering to market needs.

You may utilise different marketing tactics, such as cross-selling, with the aid of a POS. Your staff will be able to offer more goods for sale to encourage customers to buy using this “impulse-buy” sales function. Under retail software development services, companies can develop retail software to offer all the required data at a single touchpoint.

In a hunting and fishing store, for example, a client purchasing a fishing rod may be offered a spool of fishing line or bait to complement their purchase; this approach helps you to apply your marketing plan by increasing spontaneous purchases. Using retail software solutions data, you can also personalize customer profiles and offer products that can address his/her needs.

Employee retention strategy

Employee retention is an important tactic to consider. Your staff, in reality, play a critical part in the success of your business. You’ll be able to track their performance in real-time using your retail software solution’s sophisticated reports, which will provide you access to the number of products each employee sold.

This data can further be used for identifying and rewarding high performers. Concurrently, the data can also help in designing training programs for low performers.

Customer relationship management strategy

Knowing, gathering, and evaluating your target market is the foundation of a customer relationship management plan. This technique helps you to start a conversation with your consumers and create customer loyalty.

Using retail software solutions, you can gather more data regarding each customer which can help you then develop a personalised customer relationship management strategy. 

Thus, if you want to scale up your retail business, you need to opt for a retail software solution from a leading solution provider. The experts at Ivan Infotech can help in your endeavour. Connect with our experts to know more.

Augmented Reality

The necessary quarantine needed to reduce the spread of COVID-19 has swiftly amplified the desire for virtual fitting room technology. Augmented shopping involves the try-before-you-buy option, drawing in customers by giving them the chance to try out products online. Clothing brands are employing virtual fitting rooms and showrooms to enable shoppers to try products in virtual spaces. Other brands are using apps to allow buyers to get a visual look at how their potential furniture will appear in their premises, by moving their smart device cameras around the space in real-time.

Machine Learning To Carry Out Demand Forecasting

As several Retail IT Solutions are attempting to leverage big data, demand forecasting driven by machine learning is one of the cutting edge methods to streamline logistics and manufacturing operations, customer and supplier relationship management as well as executing smart marketing campaigns.

When compared with the traditional forecasting processes, machine learning approaches are proving highly adjustable to changes and swifter to execute. This is one of the main reasons why ML-powered demand forecasting is relevant to the current reality.

E-Commerce-Optimized POS Systems

In the midst of the pandemic, several proprietors utilize e-commerce platforms in an effort to enhance online sales processes. Post-pandemic, those proprietors holding both e-commerce and brick-and-mortar, would need to ensure both offline and online inventory, promotions, and transactions are synchronized. As a result, integrating eCommerce Industry Solutions will be the most efficient solution both during and post this pandemic.

Personal Interaction Based On Data Science and Machine Learning

Machine learning and Data Science- driven technology has the capacity to put forward recommendations to consumers even before they themselves are aware of what they want. Recommendations serve to incentivize consumers on the basis of needs and desires, instead of hassling users to download an app.  Once machine learning methods are implemented, the recommendation system captures details about comparable consumers to create shopping profiles.  After that, the system develops customized calls to action to specific customers, thus accelerating the buying journey.

Voice Commerce

NLP (Natural language processing) and AI have experienced high- level growth over recent years. This technology does not even require that you open your browser or app to communicate with voice assistants – these intelligent applications are equipped to recognize the customer’s speech and act in response to the sound of your voice.  As oppose to typing in a search query, buyers use voice searches to look for products or any information that they need.  Voice commerce including the use of smart speakers is increasingly being infused with the latest technology; as a consequence, it is blazing a trail for the future of retail.

Staff-Free and Cashier-Less Stores

Given that social distancing is a critical means to remain virus-free during the pandemic, staff-free and cashier-less stores are poised to transform the retail scene. Currently, a high percentage of customers would prefer stores that offer self-checkout or contactless options. This digital transformation will be facilitated by tools like machine learning, facial recognition, computer vision systems, IoT devices, and RFID tags.