Using Retail Software To Improve Sales And Productivity

By Author: Anna Ballantine
Total Articles: 5
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The Retail industry is in the midst of a boom as the purchasing power of the huge middle class has increased substantially. To cope up with the current and expected growth in retail business, many leading as well as small and medium sized retailers are looking for good retail software to manage things better.

The easy availability of technology such as advanced ERP solutions has made it possible for retail companies to completely automate their business processes. This has led to increased business efficiency better control over day to day retail operations.

The retail industry needs to source merchandize from different sources as and when needed. Having advanced retail software in place can help businesses execute business faster and also increase their inventory turns; this can also be done through a manual system but with certain limitations.
Retail software offers several advantages to both the retailer and the customers. A few key advantages include:

The opportunity to increase operational efficiency and streamline inventory
Helps reduce errors as ...
... the process is highly automated.
Real time availability of information helps companies make better and more effective decisions.
It helps retail companies expand their areas of operation and reach out to a larger audience, thus maximizing sales and profits.
Using specialized retail management software with inbuilt CRM helps retailers to give better customer service.
Software also helps in generating extensive reports about purchases, sales, and inventory positions. In many cases it also forecast sales trends.

The point-of-sales (POS) or the checkout counter is where all the real action takes place for the retailers. It is important to ease up the process at this crucial point to make matters easy for both the customers and the staff. No customer likes to spend time in long queues at the checkout counters after they have made their purchases.

A perfect retail transaction involves using the right retail software and the corresponding hardware to make sure that the customers are dealt with in the minimum possible time. A good POS system increases productivity of the staff and reduces shrinkage and wastage of inventory while helping in improved footfalls and sales. Customer services can also be improved through various promotional offers, reward points and discount coupons, all of which can be seamlessly integrated into the software.

Customized software can be used to increase sales and profits by giving prime importance to satisfying the needs of the customer. This can be done by using the system to store customer related information which enables the retail companies to deliver customized service to them. Some advanced types of software aim to maintaining better one-to-one relationship with customers by keeping a track of their interests, purchase patterns and buying needs.

There are software systems which automate sales, services and marketing processes by using the information stored in the customer database and sending out automated mailers on special occasions.
It is impossible for growing businesses to survive the major retail growth blitz without resorting to use of specialized retail software. ETP provides effective software solutions to help businesses grow profitable. Their operations are spread across 14 countries including Asia, India and the Middle East. Using their dynamic retail management software can help businesses have better control on all areas of operations