A retailer must know what he has got in his retail pos application. A veteran retailer will know the complete problem in running a business. The retailer will know about inventory not getting tallied, sales not recorded or spending too much time in chasing the mistakes rather than helping the customers. To be precise, the retailers are aware of this problem and they are trying hard to come out of the same with a simple good practice of installing a POS application / retail pos application, which will help them to solve the problems.
On the other hand, there are tons and tons of retail pos software floating the market. If you carefully see many of them will be floating only for months, some of them will float for a year or two, handful of them will withstand for a long time.
Even after choosing a great / good / best retail pos software, there are many retailers who are still facing the problem and not able to come out it. Though they have found a solution to a problem and they are not able to implement the same to enjoy a 100% RELAX time.In simple words As a retailer, You must know what you have got in your retail pos application else you will be left alone..
There are many factors underlying behind the problems
- Retailers do not know what the problem (Very rare case)
- Retailers know what the problem is all about but not able to find a solution
- Retailers know the problem and know the solution but not able to implement.
In all the above mentioned cases, the retail POS application vendor plays a major role in helping the customer to solve his problem. The solution given by the POS application vendor should not be a “STOP-GAP” coverage rather it should be a permanent solution and must improve the retailers business to have a relaxing time.
Recently, BPartner Solutions took a survey in South india on the trend on “How the retail POS software being used in a retail industry”. We have covered several retail formats such as super markets, hypermarkets, single brand retail, department stores, Kirana stores and specialty chains using different retail pos application from various vendors. We found that the retailers know what they want to do, but not able to use the options available in the software or do not have the option in the pos software or not bothered to use at all. Whatever be the case, its a clear responsibility on the vendors that they have not taken any initiative to grow the retailers business.
Retail POS – Survey Result |
|
| Number of stores surveyed | 272 |
| Average POS Operations usage metrics | 37.25% |
| S.no | Operations | Usage % |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Billing – Load items , enter quantity, rate and save to get the bill getting printed | 100.00 |
| 2 | Opening Stock / Stk Update – Updating stock information on regular basis (Daily, weekly, Monthly …) | 75.00 |
| 3 | Purchase – Entering the purchase details regularly in the system. Sometimes they miss this and enter the same via Stock update | 77.94 |
| 4 | Orders ( Sales, Purchase, Re-order) – Retailers who follow a good process of Flow of purchase like Purchase order, track, verify and save as purchase | 11.03 |
| 5 | Session Management – Counter management, Cash handover, Cash management with counters and verifying the same at the end of the day. | 4.78 |
| 6 | Offer Management – Managing offers with the help of system rather doing it based on the guess work / regular practice / seeing the notes pinned on the board. | 1.84 |
| 7 | Repack management – Many of the Retailers know what it is and use this. On the other hand, they are not completely taught on how to use this effectively | 10.66 |
| 8 | Barcode (General ) – Just because they have invested the hardware they use it to scan the EAN Code and not really bothered about how to improve this feature to increase their business | 88.97 |
| 9 | Barcode (Customized) – People who use repack management effectively use this option along with that. The real reason behind this is not being explained the customer, so they lack the knowledge on the same. | 6.99 |
| 10 | Security Management – All they use is Admin / Admin and kept everything open. The roles are not properly defined / managed. | 9.93 |
| 11 | Loyalty management – It vary from business to business. Many customers track with Excel, word document and some even use 3rd party tool written only for this. | 81.99 |
| 12 | Price Level – Setting up different price for different groups of customers and also based on the category of customer (Wholesale, General Customer, Gold Customers …. ) | 12.50 |
| 13 | Inventory Management – Controlling of Ordering, Storage, usage of products and also controlling of quantities of finished products. | 9.56 |
| 14 | Credit Card / CouponTracking – Tightly integrated with Tender management. Still the age old technique of book keeping is happening in this area. | 2.94 |
| 15 | Delivery Management – Almost 90% of the retailers do door delivery, but they aren’t aware that it an be automated to make life easier | 1.84 |
| 16 | Credit / Outstanding Management – Again data is being ported to Excel / Tally and its being maintained in a different application. | 84.93 |
| 17 | General Sales reports – Most people use this only to find today’s sales and not even bothered about checking on the weekly sales, monthly sales. Even if they check, they do that only during festival / season times and not on the other days. | 80.15 |
| 18 | Analytical Reports – Yes, there are customers who still look this reports and come to a conclusion on their business, but they miss the other important aspects on the retail management. | 9.56 |
Though the retailers are knowledgeable and knowing what they want but they are not able to capitalize the same with the help of the POS vendors / applications / software. Yes, there are POS systems available in the market with all options but never reached the customer to help them in their business. The POS vendors should be Business partner of the retailers to help them grow the business and give right solution at the right time rather than show-casing huge option while doing sales and shun away from them when the retailers are in need.
POS software is not new to anyone; they are as old as computers. It is important to handle these POS solutions properly to run a retail business smoothly. With BPartner Solution’s seamless and efficient software retailers can perfectly analyze the strengths and weakness of their business and will surely give a “RELAX”ing and peaceful time.
In simple words, the retailers must know what they have got and its the ultimate responsibility of the vendors to provide the same to make life easier both for the vendors and the retailers.
–
Retail Guru
