You are here: Home / Archives for Bhawna Mehan

DeVrina – Driving profitability with integrated retail operations

April 16, 2014 by Leave a Comment

COMPANY : De Vrina

Country: Australia

Industry : Footwear

De Vrina shoes specialises in quality, affordable wedding shoes for ladies, shoe clips and handbags. De Vrina is into design, wholesale and retail distribution of ladies shoes and handbags since the year 2000. They are known for sourcing of the best products and are appreciated for price and quality. De Vrina incepted its retail operations in the year 2000 and have aggressive plans to expand their retail operations in the next two years.

Challenges

  • Non-integrated retail system
  • Unavailability of clear and consolidated inventory view across stores
  • Several man hours spent in manual preparation of monthly sales and inventory reports
  • Manual replenishment and reorder led to frequent stock outsituations

De Vrina, is a fast-growing brand name in high-end wedding and formal footwear, appointed CitiXsys to implement iVend Retail Management Suite with SAP Business One. One of the biggest challenges that De Vrina had was limited visibility and inadequate reporting of in-store stock and warehouse.

With ambitious plans to grow their business, De Vrina chose iVend Retail Management Suite to manage their retail operations with SAP Business One as backend ERP. The need was to have a system that could manage a fast growing business and be easy to use and maintain with limited IT resources.

The other challenges that prompted management to invest in Retail system included non-integrated and scattered data spread over Store, warehouse and head office. They did not have integration into an ERP connecting retail data. As a result De Vrina could never effectively manage inventories.

Solution

iVend Retail with SAP Business One

Benefits :

  • Clear view into Retail operations for effective loss control
  • Unified view of inventory at POS helped in Rapid stock turnaround
  • Synchronized data transfers between Stores and Enterprise ensured operational accuracy
  • Achieved faster order processing

The key to maximizing profits in the Footwear retail industry is to aim for the highest level of optimized business solution and customer satisfaction. iVend Retail with SAP Business One has proven to increase stock accuracy up to 99%, which has led to a sales increase of 5 – 25% averting excess stock and stock out conditions.

Additional benefits of the system:

  • Integration of stores helped in generation of transparent view of Sales, purchase, stock data across stores
  • Necessary inventory and sales data is accessible in real-time across stores
  • Store sales reports can be processed daily, weekly or monthly with ease
  • Ease to set up sales, discount and promotions
  • Promotions and price discount settings have reduced manual entries atthe POS level

“The integration of iVend Retail with SAP Business One has streamlined many business processes that were previously lengthy, manual and cumbersome. Vast improvements in Inventory management and purchasing were realized by the implementation of iVend Retail with SAP Business One. Our Loyalty program has greatly improved the client partnership relationship and in particular is very easy to use.”

Helena Du

Filed Under: Customer reference Tagged With: ,

DCC S.A. – Efficient retail process to boost business performance

March 26, 2014 by Leave a Comment

COMPANY : Desarrollos Culturales Costarricenses Corporation’s

Country: Costa Rica, South America

Industry : Book Stores

Costa Rican Cultural Development, DCC S.A. is based in San Jose, Costa Rica. Dedicated to the development of culture,

DCC.SA Case Study

Download Case Study

the company is one of the leading importer, distributor of books, educational products and fine stationery of Costa Rica and Central America.

As a well-established retailer with over 22 retail stores and supplying across the country, DCC wanted to use the advantage of a strong market position to drive business growth. To achieve this objective, the corporation wanted to maximize sales opportunities from its existing customer base, and to expand into other areas of South & Central America.

Challenges

  • Non-integrated retail system
  • Difficulty in setting up promotions & discounts
  • Inefficient stock monitoring and stock movement
  • Inadequate customer information

With the goal of improving productivity, increase inventory visibility across the retail chain and to increase sales from its existing customers, DCC started searching for an Enterprise Class retail system that could integrate their overall retail business functions.

Managing hundreds of inventory items, DCC was struggling to effectively control the inventory levels and cope with the fast changing demands of their customers.

Managing retail operations with inventory control and good customer service seemed like a complex task since their retail stores were located in different regions of the country.

DCC was keen to analyze sales and inventory performance in real time. The company’s goal was to gather more accurate and timely figures to support decision making.

Their existing legacy system was unable to manage such transaction volumes and was falling short of the expectations.

Solution

iVend Retail with SAP Business One

Benefits :

  • Standardized business processes based on industry best practices
  • Enhanced Inventory Control
  • Improved customer service
  • Ease to setup and monitor discounts and promotions
  • Faster order processing

iVend Retail Management Suite has helped DCC integrate their retail operations across all 22 stores spread across the country. The solution helps DCC stay connected with collaborative insights to his business operations.

iVend Retail Management Suite delivers up to date visibility of stock across the retail chain extending complete stock visibility across the retail chain.

DCC’s legacy point of sale (POS) and back-end applications were hindering the company’s attempts to streamline its business processes to access timely and accurate business information.

iVend Retail Management Suite, a complete Retail Management Suite seamlessly integrated with SAP Business One was the solution set that addressed all the business expectations of DCC.

“Yes, we improved importantly the time of attention to customer at the register, we now have more information about the transactions and the promotions are set up quicker, training and induction of new employees is now faster due to the iVend’s user friendly interface”

Marco Montoya,
Financial Manager

Filed Under: Blog, Customer reference Tagged With: ,

AOC – Streamlined Retail Operations and a simple and smooth sales process

October 23, 2013 by Leave a Comment

COMPANY : AOC

Country : Angola & UAE

Industry : Electronics

AOC is a private company operating in the telecommunications market since 2004 in Angola/UAE. The philosophy of the brand AOC has been developed since 2007 with a focus on the distribution and retail of high quality mobile handsets and allied accessories.

AOC_blog

In last five years AOC has stated its success and is now one of the leading retailers, stimulating the market in their approach to users. AOC is a young and rapidly expanding company with people of high responsibility and motivation to become one of the strongest brands in this market. Facilitating communication,and as our motto states, ‘DRIVING MOBILITY’.

AOC is an Angola and UAE based enterprise, they currently have 8 storesoperational in Angola and have recently opened their new store in Ras AlKhaimah, UAE.

Challenge

  • Non-integrated data management
  • Invoicing and extraction of financial data was time consuming
  • Needed a reliable retail management system with streamlined inventory view
  • Process to generate financial reports was complex
  • Manual synchronization of data from store to enterprise led to errors

AOC was previously using a home grown legacy system that began as an accounting system and was then developed into an ERP. Continually after using it for over a period of time our client felt the need to have an efficient system that was flexible, feature rich and powerful.

AOC was facing trouble tracking real time business statistics, also they did not have clear visibility across financial data and also had concerns regarding financial reporting. The major challenge that new system was expected to address was elimination of manual trial balance entries and extraction of report data. The management team at AOC wanted to have a seamless integration between store operations and back office financials.

For managed Retail operations at the store and managed data warehousing, AOC needed software which seamlessly integrated with SAP Business One and iVend Retail Management system seemed a perfect solution for all their requirements.

Solution

iVend Retail with SAP Business One

Benefits :

  • Increased employee efficiency with integrated back office processes
  • Real-time inventory visibility
  • Synchronized data transfers between Stores & enterprise for data accuracy
  • Achieved faster order processing & flexible promotion management

Post implementation of the new system AOC has a well-managed inventory with the ability to synchronize transactional information to and fro from their main servers, their retail structure always demanded such precision, which they could well achieve with iVend Retail and Business One.

AOC has successfully streamlined their current processes, iVend Retail’s seamless integration with SAP Business One being the key. The simplicity of the layout makes their sales process quick and effective.

iVend Retail Solution from CitiXsys is set up very well across all our entire stores to handle complex sales processes, promotions, offers & inventory and to schedule deliveries at a macro level. The product implementation & support team is very willing to  work with us. The best part is the extensive feature set of the product that suits our line of business (Electronics Vertical), which is complex and different from the other Retail businesses.”

Yaseen Aljaizani,
Co-Founder and CEO

Filed Under: Blog, Customer reference

Mobility enhancing Retail Customer centricity

June 21, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Mobile device multiplication among store associates, floor managers, back office and supply chain workers — and, perhaps most importantly, customers — has accelerated rapidly. For forward looking retailers who are focused on customer centricity, mobile tech integration has become the propelling force. Extension of enterprise applications to mobile devices is helping retailers achieve timely data access, break down channel-specific silos of information, facilitate tailor made sales and service, and enable true one-to-one CRM (customer relationship management) with consumers on their path to customer centricity.

The tidal wave of enterprise and consumer-mobility  is here and this new age technology really puts the customer at the center of the business.

 Customer-Centricity Trends and Tech Enablers

Mobility is about more than devices and wireless networks — it’s about data. Data is being gathered, processed, and pushed to applications faster than it ever has, allowing retailers to make better, faster decisions — from the storefront to the supply chain — and align those decisions with near real-time consumer preferences.

Retail Analytics enables customer centricity by giving retailers insight into data, which improves productivity and increases the depth of customer engagement. Forward looking retailers rely heavily on measurements and key performance indicators via dashboards and scorecards and relying on predictive modeling to make big decisions.

Omnichannel Retailing

“Cross-channel” retailing was the topic of discussion last year or the year before but the mobile Internet that 50% of shoppers are taking with them on their smartphones everywhere they go has blurred any distinguishable lines between retail channels. Consumer mobility has crossed a considerable number throughout the world and looking at the way it is embraced globally, it has become the primary retail touch point.

Most retailers have some serious “channel integration catch-up” to do before they can respectfully call themselves “cross-channel” enterprises. Much less omnichannel retailers are deploying an integrated retail solution which is agile, innovative and scalable. Such a solution is their primary concern

Mobile technology is forcing change from a channel mentality to a brand mentality, and as it relates to the brand, there’s nothing so important as the consumiVend Mobileer. Generating a user experience that is channel agnostic is the perspective so that the consumers are associated with brand, not a specific channel.

 Store-Level Device Mobility

Mobile technology beholds in the context of enhanced in-store shopping experience. Implementation of this technology in store increases business opportunities for retailers and engages their customers. More and more retailers today are turning to mobile technology at checkout to enhance customer engagement and repeat buyers.

Inside the store, mobile technology has removed physical location as an obstacle to customer centricity. Consider the store-level associate who, using an ipad, can check inventory on a shoe style and size, at her store or any other in the chain, without leaving the customer’s side. That same associate can use that same device to access the customer’s purchase history, their loyalty status, and, in truly omnichannel environments, their site-browsing history and Web shopping cart. In this way, the associate can assist the customer with the completion of a transaction that started in a different channel. With mobile POS, the customer centric guest experience culminates at an entirely higher level.

Beyond enabling personalized service and transactions, mobility fuels customer centricity by creating on-the floor access to back office and managerial applications such as availability, scheduling, and inventory lookup . Because so many of a store manager’s tasks can be executed with the aid of a tablet or smartphone — as opposed to yesterday’s fixed PC — both the customer and the retailer realize the benefit of new found sales floor access to the retailer’s best salesperson and brand advocate.

Mobile enables customer centricity, whether it’s leveraged in stores for communication (email, voice, planning), productivity (access to managerial reports and task management applications), or customer service (access to customer, product, and inventory data).

Filed Under: Mobile POS, Mobility in Retail Tagged With: ,

Mobile POS – The New Point of Service

April 30, 2013 by Leave a Comment
iVend Mobile POS, is one of the latest innovations from CitiXsys and forms an important part of the iVend Retail Management Suite. Built to operate on iOS devices and Andriod tablets, iVend Mobile POS suites the retail strategy of retail leaders who adopt innovative retail technologies to make their customers happy.

As an application, iVend Mobile is as relevant to mid-sized retailers who want to expand their retail footprint much faster, as it is to large format retailers who utilize iVend Mobile as a queue buster and also as a tool to optimize expensive real estate space.

The application allows small format retail chains to expand faster and open new outlets by significantly reducing time required to setup an IT infrastructure. This is achieved by iVend Mobile’s ability to directly connect to iVend HO Server. On the other hand, iVend Mobile allows a large format retail chains where a retailer would like to increase the checkout points without compromising on expensive real estate space. In this case iVend Mobile connects to the store server.

This one feature of iVend Mobile gives all retailers an unprecedented leverage for a faster expansion without any compromises.

iVend Mobile will be made available at Apple App Store and Google Play in July 2013 and will get installed on the mobile device like any other App.

The configuration settings which include setup of the peripherals, preferred language, printers, etc. are done on the handheld device.

User can either specify a fixed time during the day when the synchronization is to be executed OR the user can specify the synchronization frequency at which the transactional data from iVend Mobile will get synchronized to the iVend Server.

The transactional data gets synchronized in real time whereas the updates from iVend HO server get synchronized at the defined frequency.

iVend Mobile not only works when the device is connected to the store or the HO server over a WiFi or 3G connection (on line mode) but is also designed to work even when there is no network connectivity (offline mode) With little to no investments in IT Infrastructure, iVend Mobile turns out to be an extremely affordable solution. The costs associated with procuring and maintaining retail peripherals for terminal POS are far more than those of running mobile POS.

The money value of time saved for the customers by busting queues is an important factor in enhanced customer satisfaction. In addition to the time saved at the checkout counter, a mobile POS gives an opportunity to the store executive to upsell items while interacting with the customers on the floor.

Filed Under: Mobile POS Tagged With: , , ,

Let’s Meet Again – iVend Retail Summit 2013

March 25, 2013 by Leave a Comment

It was a grand one at Thailand last year and continuing the trend let’s meet again at New Delhi, India this year. CitiXsys invites all its partners to iVend Retail Summit 2013 with a focus on Strategizing Sales and Team Enablement. Along with exhaustive sessions on Retail Sales, Implementation Learning and Knowledge Sharing, we would showcase our hospitality and passion to the attending Partners.

A once in a year opportunity for your Sales force and Implementation teams to learn about iVend Suite’s newest products & features, share best practices, experience the latest product innovations, and learn new skills and techniques. Series of meetings, group discussions, product demonstrations, and welcoming partner meets made this event a grand success.

Let’s meet, interact and rediscover our passion to excel in the world of Retail. CitiXsys is overwhelmed to have a global network of committed, reliable, and trusted partner Network and who deliver ‘Quality’ software services to the Retail & Wholesale Distribution space of the ERP segment globally.

The event shall be abuzz with activity where CitiXsys employees & proud Partners from USA, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Philippines, Vietnam, Taiwan, China, Thailand and India shall be attending parallel Sales & Implementation Tracks where the products will be showcased and the roadmap ahead will be shared.

We look forward to meet all the associates and anticipate their valuable participation and their inputs to improvise and further strengthen our systems.

Not to miss the cocktail dinner party towards the end on 19th April 2013, looking forward to see you there..

Filed Under: Blog, Events Tagged With: ,

What can Retail Integrated Ecommerce do for your SME’s

February 18, 2013 by Leave a Comment

eCommerce_Blog-Banner

These days, the whole world is online and e-commerce is changing the way that SMEs do business. Making use of efficient and effective retail integrated e-commerce models, you can significantly grow your business into something more successful than you could have ever imagined. Here we will take a look at just four of the many ways that integrating e-commerce into your retail enterprise can be to your benefit.

Benefits of Retail Integrated E-Commerce

1. Attract New Business

Gone are the days when small businesses had to hope for passerby’s to notice their boutique or rely upon word of mouth in order to make sales. In the online world, it has never been easier to attract consumers through successful keyword optimization strategies. Because every single one of your products, categories, departments, etc. can have their own customized search engine meta tags (ie: titles, keywords, descriptions), your business is far more likely to show up in your potential customer’s search results and capture their attention. With integrated e-commerce programs you can also monitor which key words seem to be drawing in the most clientele so that you can maximize the usage of those tags.

2. Keep Customers Coming Back

Once you have attracted customers to your page, it is important that you keep them browsing through your products and returning for more. The beauty of retail integrated e-commerce is that it simplifies the process of keeping consumer’s attention. By utilizing features and coding that suggest related or alternate products, product upgrades or add-ons, verbiage like “Customers who bought A also bought B”, customer ratings, ads for coupons and special offers, etc. are all great ways to keep consumers browsing through your online store. It’s also a smart idea to allow customers to obtain “e-coupons” that can be utilized within your actual retail location via their smart phone or tablet.

3. Operate in “Real Time”iVend eCommerce Banner

In this fast-paced society, your consumers expect quick transactions and real time operation. By integrating e-commerce models into your retail business you can instantly make updates to your product inventory, descriptions, availability, and prices. Not only is this ideal for making online sales, but it also plays a huge role in your ability to make on-site sales at your physical retail location. 73 percent of consumers have admitted to utilizing their smart phones or tablets while shopping and 47 percent of these use them to more closely investigate a product prior to purchase. More surprising is that 93 percent of those people who utilize apps in store will make a purchase on-site, the same day. These figures make it clear that quick and accurate product updates and descriptions are critical to making sales.

4. Understand Your Customers

One of the greatest attributes of retail integrated e-commerce is that it enables you to continuously get to know your customers better. Each time your consumers log into your website, you will get a better picture of what it is that they are interested in and how to better meet their needs. By “remembering” previously viewed or purchased products, your online system can present buyers with customized suggestions and offers that will yield a higher response rate – leaving both your business and your customers satisfied. Online purchases and in-store purchases can also be integrated through web based customer loyalty programs that will enable your buyers to accumulate points that lead to further savings by making purchases either on the internet or at your physical location. By being able to access their loyalty points through mobile apps, your consumers will also be more likely to spend more while visiting your store.

For details on Integrated Retail solutions and how can it help your business write to us on [email protected]

Filed Under: Ecommerce Tagged With: ,

Mobile eCommerce steps up Footfalls in Retail Stores

November 28, 2012 by Leave a Comment

There’s just no escaping the fact that in the retail environment of today, attracting and keeping customers increasingly revolves around an enterprises’ ability to interact iVend eCommercewith and attract shoppers from across an ever expanding spectrum of contact points. The growing and most dynamic of these are electronically generated.

The revolution that has swept through the world of media and information technology over the last decade has transformed the environment for retail operations to such a degree that no area of commerce has been left unaffected. Staying up to date with these advances, and finding ways to creatively incorporate them into an integrated retail marketing strategy, has become essential to gaining customer attention and sustaining commercial viability.

There’s an App for That
Internet has changed the world forever, and every successful retail operation has long since adapted to this reality by establishing a presence online as a key element of their overall marketing strategy. Yet, as recent as the emergence of the internet may seem, the ways shoppers and information seekers use it has continued to change and evolve.

Over the last few years the advances and innovations which have come to mobile internet devices has utterly transformed how people use the internet, and how they interact with shopping and commercial relationships. The percentage of people who now conduct a large portion of their online activity via some form of mobile device has skyrocketed, with no end in sight.

In today’s internet marketplace, retail operations that do not have an application (app) specifically designed for use on a handheld mobile device are, quite simply, missing out on being seen by many potential shoppers, and every day that percentage increases.

The New Word of Mouth
Every retailer knows that the most powerful form of promotion they have available is the buzz of comments they can create within the buying public. A consumer talking to other consumer what really gets shopper’s attention and traffic into your Store. So it should come as no shock that right alongside the incredible ascent in the use of mobile internet devices, there has emerged an explosion in the ways people communicate with each other.

The growth of this social media has transformed the world of word of mouth advertising from a local to a global phenomenon. Retailers who understand this and have adapted to this new landscape have seen their visibility expand, and their reach extend to areas that seemed out of range even a few short years ago.

Generating traffic to both your website, and your brick and mortar locations, has been utterly transformed for retailers who have developed a seamless interface between their web-presence and social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, along with myriad other bookmarking applications.

Mobile eCommerce has arrived and is changing the shopping public’s interaction with the internet – and you – in fundamental ways that directly impact the bottom line of every retailer who is moving with this tidal wave of innovation and change.

What is emerging from this new environment is dramatically enhanced ease of use for shoppers. And there is no greater guarantee of customer loyalty to your operation than making their interaction with you as easy, and effective as possible. The continued growth and development of mobile eCommerce is the cutting edge of that continued interaction – and the key to maintaining and expanding your customer’s engagement at the point of sale – which they now hold in their hand.

Filed Under: Mobility in Retail, Retail Trends Tagged With: , , ,

Era of Modern Retail (in India) begins with FDI

October 26, 2012 by Leave a Comment

The Indian Retail Industry is the 5th largest retail destination and the second most  attractive market for investment in the globe after Vietnam as reported by Global Research firm AT  Kearney‘s Era of Modern Retail begins with FDI. The  growing popularity of Indian Retail sector has resulted in growing awareness of  quality products and brands

All Indian households have traditionally enjoyed the convenience of calling up the corner grocery/ Mom & Pop or the “kirana” store, which is all too familiar with their brand preferences, offers credit with door delivery. New Mall based shopping formats are gaining popularity in most cities today, the price-sensitive Indian shopper has reached out to stores such as Big Bazaar mainly for the steep discounts and bulk prices, although most shoppers still prefer the convenience and access offered by the local store.

So how would these Western multi-brand stores such as Wal-Mart and Carrefour strategize their entry into the country and gain access to the average Indian household?

Wal-Mart has already entered the market through its partnership with Bharti, and gained opportunity for some early observations. The company’s entry into China sure must have brought some understanding on catering to a large, diverse market, and perspectives on buying behavior in Asian households. Carrefour on the other hand has launched its wholesale cash and carry operations in the country for professional businesses and retailers. The only ways we see these retail giants gain some quick wins while reaching out to the Indian consumer are-

For one, they will effectively harness their expertise with cold storage technologies to lure customers with fresh and exotic vegetables, fruits and organic produce.

Secondly, they will attract Indian consumer with a range of inspirational global foods and household brands.

Thirdly, by supporting domestic farmers will try ensuring supplies of essential raw materials to them.

Surely, these should engage shoppers’ and farmers interest–but what needs to be seen is whether they can effectively combine these benefits, with the familiarity, convenience and personalized shopping experiences that the local Mom & Pop  or “kirana” stores have always offered.

In emerging markets where FDI has been allowed, it has been observed that organized retail can’t grow beyond a point. The average share of Modern Retail in China is about 25%. Back home where it is open to large Indian corporations, only about 25 to 27% of trade is through Modern Retail. Extensive Market research indicates that an average family does three kinds of Shopping- daily, weekly and monthly. In monthly shopping, people usually buy groceries in bulk from larger stores for better deals. Weekly & daily purchases are top-up purchases and the key driver here is convenience. This is largely driven by door-to-door delivery. Modern Retail will struggle to offer such a facility.

Indian organized retail industry is one of the Sunrise sectors with huge growth potential.

Total retail market in India stood at USD 350 billion in 2007-08 and is estimated to attain USD 573 billion by 2012-13.

India is the second most attractive retail destination‘s globally from among thirty emergent markets. Foreign companies ‘attraction to India is the billion-plus population. Also, there are huge employment opportunities in retail sector in India. India‘s retail industry is the second largest sector, after agriculture, which provides employment. FDI in Retail is a blessing which would lead to massive job generation, inflow of foreign investments in villages, reduce farm wastage, provide farmers’ their due in form of higher prices for their produce and will not have any impact on a traditional Mom & Pop store or ” kirana” merchants in any way whatsoever. The strong back-end infrastructure of organized Retail would help reduce wastage from farm production and improve efficiency of a highly-fragmented food supply chain in India and give the much needed push to small & medium scale manufacturers where they can utilize multi-brand Retail chains as marketing interface to promote their brand among masses.

iVend Retail Management Suite is a complete solution from CitiXsys. The suite provides retailers a real time view of their operations with centralized control enabling effective and faster decision-making. It helps retailers succeed in their business by providing connected modules including: in-store management, eCommerce, Customer Loyalty Programs, Pricing & Promotions, Inventory Management & Planning, and Business Intelligence & Analytics

Filed Under: Retail Trends Tagged With: , , ,

How to increase Sales and Customer Loyalty in Mobile Marketplace?

September 25, 2012 by Leave a Comment

As the economy slowly begins to return to a state a stability, the large majority of consumers are still feeling hesitant as they begin to wade back into the waters of retail Loyaltyshopping. It is because of the reluctance to spend that most industries have enlisted the help of some kind of retail management system to assist with boosting sales, tracking inventory, and managing customer loyalty programs. Because these loyalty programs are so important in acquiring and maintaining customers, it is critical that retailers remain ahead of the curve with the latest technologies. Making use of a strong retail management system will help you to attract and encourage buying from consumers via mobile loyalty programs.

Why should I go mobile for my retail loyalty program?

In today’s world, everything from friendships to ordering pizza have gone mobile – so why shouldn’t your loyalty program? With the ever growing popularity of cell phone apps and the usage of tablets, consumers are demanding that retailers stay on top of mobile market trends by catering to their every need in a way that is easy to access and use, even while on the go. Here are a few of the many reasons that your retail management system should allow for mobile loyalty programs.

  • Impact before checkout – On the whole, consumers and retailers alike have grown accustomed to the fact that many loyalty programs don’t do much more than add “points” to an account. Once these virtual points reach a preset threshold, the customer will receive discounts upon checking out. The problem with this system is that once the consumer has reached checkout, it is too late to encourage an increase in spending as the customer has already finished shopping. When your retail management system incorporates mobile-based loyalty programs, on the other hand, consumers are able to access and view their benefits throughout the shopping process which will encourage them to buy more.
  • Personalization – Another great advantage to mobile loyalty programs is that it allows for personalization. Each time a customer checks in, your retail management system will be able to learn what appeals to and interests these consumers most. In this way, you will be able to provide personalized offers that will yield a higher response rate.
  • Social Media – Your retail management system should be able to link mobile loyalty programs into social media. Consider the impact of online communities like Pinterest on social networking. People love to share their great finds with their friends! Mobile loyalty programs that are hooked to social networks will allow customers to share their purchases and loyal activity with friends which reinforces the value of what they have bought while offering you free advertising.
  • Mobile Payments – One of the latest trends in cellphone and tablet apps is the ability of consumers to make payments directly from their phones. It is being predicted that the widespread usage of mobile devices to make payments at retail location is closer at hand than you may believe.

Quick facts-

Still unsure if incorporating a mobile loyalty program into your retail management system is right for you? Consider the following:

  • 73 percent of consumers say they have used their mobile devices while shopping
  • 47 percent of shoppers rely on smartphones to learn more about a product before buying
  • 93 percent of people who use apps in stores make a purchase at a physical location

Your consumers are already going mobile in your store – why not use to to your advantage? Mobile loyalty programs are the wave of the future and will lead to increased consumer satisfaction and higher overall revenue.

 

Filed Under: Mobility in Retail
« Previous Page
Next Page »