Through the industrial era, computer era, jet era and web era; retail stores have stood the test of time. Some of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs made it on the Forbes rich list through retailing their top-quality products. Read their success stories and you’ll learn a lot about crafting your own niche, employee productivity, pricing strategies, promotional methods, and other tactics needed to operate a successful retail business.
But rarely, the entrepreneurial stories of these highly successful individuals will include a mention of the tools they’ve used to reach greater heights. Retail businesses of all sizes and ages can access the same tools to increase sales and productivity. So to help you out, I’ve compiled a list of the must-have tools you need to run a successful retail business.
- POS (point of sale) software
POS software will help you process payments, manage employees, configure products, and run reports. However, every POS solution is different, and only the best ones are backed by top of the line modern technology. Options like mStream and similar solutions are tailor made for retail businesses as they simplify the processes involved in setting up products, integrating payments, and running reports in real time. Additionally, such top POS solutions come with all hardware and software components as well as the flexibility of integration.
- Traffic Counter
This valuable device will help in improving store traffic, advertising, and sales conversion ratios. They’re helpful in determining a store’s closing ratio, which can then be used to determine your sales conversions. The data provided by traffic counters will help you generate the steps needed to improve sales conversions. Also, retail traffic counters help in scheduling of sales staff as you’re able to identify peak traffic periods. Lastly, you can determine the impact of different marketing promotions on store traffic.
- Shipping Software
Shipping is perhaps one of the most complex areas of retailing. A reliable shipping software like Shipstation can give you tremendous flexibility over order routing. Instead of doing everything in-house using manual methods, which would consume a significant amount of your resources and time, you can configure a software to handle the shipping and logistics aspect of your business. Even with a 3PL, you can pass orders through a third-party software. Smartphone apps are available for most shipping software, so you’ll no longer be tied to a computer.
- Beacons
It’s time you give serious consideration to this technology. Solutions like Gimbal are now enabling retailers to engage in-store customers through targeted, real time sales offers delivered directly to their smartphones. Beacon technology combines beacons and geo-fences with the hardware, analytics and software to give you actionable insights on how you can serve customers better and get the most out of their location presence. Beacons are also transforming the way retailers send push notifications.
- EDI (Electronic Data Interchange)
An Electronic Data Interchange tool is necessary to transfer purchase orders (normally created by a point of sale software) to a supplier through electronic means. With this technology, you can reduce errors, so you can avoid a situation where you’re apologizing to customers for delivering a wrong product. The POS software will create purchase orders based on transaction history and then these could be sent electronically to suppliers, without you needing to enter a single item number.
Make sure to learn what’s involved in each tool and how they’re useful. Then leverage them to streamline your retail store operations.
