Configurable POS Systems Matter in Modern Retailing

Why Configurable POS Systems Matter in Modern Retailing

Small businesses need every advantage they can get. Whether it’s a boutique, a local grocery store, or a pop-up shop, it is important to manage operations efficiently and to meet customers’ expectations. Configurable POS systems can make a big difference by not just enabling sales but also providing flexibility in running the business.

The Evolution of POS Systems for Retailers

POS systems have evolved over time from merely handling transactions, and tracking inventory, to the Retail POS Software of today that adapts to business needs. Today’s POS systems are more robust and configurable. Whether you’re managing a single storefront or planning to expand to multiple stores, having a system that fits your workflow makes a lot of difference.

POS System Features That Make a Difference in Your Business

What makes configurable POS systems stand out? Here are some essential POS system features:

  • Customizable User Interface: Tailor the layout and functions to suit your staff’s workflow.
  • Flexible Pricing and Promotions: Easily set up discounts, loyalty programs, and dynamic pricing
  • Inventory Management: Track stock in real-time across multiple locations.
  • Integrated Payments: Accept various payment methods, including mobile wallets and contactless payments.
  • Advanced Reporting: Generate detailed sales, inventory, and customer reports to inform business decisions

Why Cloud-Based POS Systems Are a Great Choice

One of the most significant advancements in POS technology is the shift to the cloud. Cloud-based POS systems offer many advantages:

  • Remote Access: Manage your business from anywhere with an internet connection.
  • Real-Time Updates: Instantly sync data across all devices and locations.
  • Scalability: Easily add new registers, locations, or users as your business grows.
  • Data Security: Benefit from automatic backups and secure data storage.

Why Configurability Really Matters

Every retail business is unique. A one-size-fits-all POS solution often leads to inefficiencies and frustration. Configurable POS systems empower retailers to:

  • Streamline operations by aligning the system with specific business processes.
  • Enhance customer experiences through personalized service and faster checkouts.
  • Reduce training time with intuitive, role-based interfaces.
  • Quickly adapt to market changes, seasonal trends, or new business models.

Choosing the Right Retail POS Software

In a competitive retail environment, having the right tools is crucial. Retail POS Software that’s flexible, cloud-based, and packed with useful POS system features can give a competitive edge to any business. By choosing a system that grows with your business and adapts to your needs, you’re setting yourself up for long-term success.

Ready to simplify your retail operations with a POS system that actually fits your business?

NetScore POS for NetSuite is built for flexibility, speed, and scale – so you can serve customers better, and adapt to change with confidence. Whether you’re running a single store or scaling across locations, our configurable solution helps you stay ahead.

Want to see it in action? Request a demo or reach out to our team to find the right fit for your retail workflow.

Loyalty Rewards in 2020

Loyalty Rewards in 2020

Kyle Scobey, Supply Chain Evangelist

We have all heard the case for running loyalty reward programs to help increase customer retention, create more attachment to your brand, raise revenue through return customers, and high return on investment. However, the practice of solely awarding some points to a customer that results in a discount or free product is not optimizing your return on investment if your program does not change with time. Comparable to developing a website that gets a lot of traction when initially launched but will quickly lose interest if it is not dynamic and updated regularly.

According to Merkle in their Loyalty Barometer Report 2020 “on their own, traditional do/get loyalty program structures can feel uninteresting.” Customers shopping habits, outside events such as the pandemic, and willingness to share personal information can affect how they respond to loyalty programs. Merkle emphasizes that affective loyalty programs include the reward portion, but also need to be accompanied by other brand touchpoints to “fuel an omnichannel, connected consumer journey — one that doesn’t just persuade customers to buy, but earns their trust and continued business.”.

Customer shopping habits: have changed in 2020 due to the pandemic and its effect on more traditional shopping experiences. This has led to a shift in how customers expect to redeem points and how retailers are responding to the surge in online shopping. Software vendors such as NetScore have expanded the reach of their Loyalty Rewards solution to allow points to be redeemed at checkout when placing an online order. Reward points earned, award tiers, available reward certificates (if part of program), can be viewed online.

Loyalty members feedback: indicate the number one problem with most programs is the time it takes to obtain a reward. More frequent rewards and ease of redemption seems to be the preference. Data from your NetSuite solution will provide you with metrics such as average order size, annual customer spending, and other metrics that can be used determine how frequently your customers will achieve rewards. Using this data will help you scale your rewards program.

Engaging your customers: beyond the sales transaction and rewarding them for participating in these activities has been found to be popular. Encouraging product reviews, social media endorsements (likes) and referring friends are all opportunities to engage you customers and reward their involvement. NetScore’s Loyalty Rewards gives you the ability to provide reward points for all of these activities.

 

 

Start Rewarding Your Customers


Being able to personalize: your loyalty programs increases acceptance with 85% indicating they would prefer to pick their own rewards. Members count on their loyalty program experience to be personalized based on their specific purchases and individual preferences; however, how much personalization is acceptable is still up for debate.

Personal information: customers are willing to share varies and is something that should be factored into your program. Merkle indicates consumers are wary of allowing brands to use their location data, but 59% said they are comfortable allowing their purchase history to be utilized. Some 53% accept brands using gender, while 42% cited self-selected profile preferences, 30% cited browsing history on a brand’s site, 29% cited current location, 25% cited address, and 21% cited income. Consider including a more personalized approach for customers willing to share their data but having a more standard alternative for those unwilling to do so ensuring your audience is not diminished.

In May 2014, the U.S. Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) jointly issued a converged standard on revenue recognition. In the new regulations it laid the groundwork for the accounting for loyalty programs, particularly for U.S. GAAP preparers. The guidance later became regulations resulting in greater deferral of revenues, changes in balance sheet liabilities, and additional financial statement disclosures. Companies must now account for points issued as a separate obligation, which involves developing more robust models to enable management to comply with these accounting requirements. NetScore’s Loyalty Rewards solution integrates with your NetSuite accounting solution to ensure the accounting for your rewards program complies. This is critical to accurately reflect how the program is impacting your balance sheet.

Software companies: such as NetScore continue to upgrade their solutions to meet the changing demands of this evolving environment. Constantly increasing the flexibility to allow customers to modify programs and add multiple reward programs that can be targeted at specific customer segments. While NetScore’s solution is carefully crafted to support the NetSuite ecommerce platforms, the solution also offers support for other popular platforms such as Magento, Shopify and WooCommerce.

Having the right software solution to assist in managing your rewards program gives you the ability to offer the flexibility needed to keep customers happy in 2020 and beyond.

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Extending Your Reach With Delivery Services

Companies are always looking for ways to build relationships with their customers that will extend beyond the product and build customer loyalty. One method being adopted by many companies is providing delivery services to their customers. In a world of social distancing and increased regulations for operating instore activities, having the ability to provide delivery services is increasingly important to keeping businesses viable. The New York Times reported that online consumer spending jumped nearly 40% at the height of the pandemic. In-person shopping had already dramatically decreased prior to the coronavirus as younger shoppers opted for online options.

Delivering the product to the end customer in many cases can run 30% with food deliveries as high as 45% of the total meal cost (TMC) cost. This can be difficult to hide in the cost of the product and is often waived as a competitive edge. Use of third-party delivery services has traditionally been the answer to this question, but many companies such as Amazon are opting to build out their own delivery services. The phenomenal growth of digitally-enabled delivery services indicates that customers value the convenience and variety they provide. McKinsey estimates that the digital food delivery market alone will be worth $22 billion by 2025. Now many companies are looking to tap into that revenue by internalizing their delivery services.

Properly run services can increase customers loyalty, provide lower cost ability to respond to emergency product demand, maintain control of customer data, and tighter control of the delivery process. Delivery services can also be a source of revenue for the seller and increase margin if effectively managed. However, poorly run delivery services can be a costly mistake.

To be effective in planning and executing deliveries, companies are adopting delivery management solutions to streamline how their delivery services are performed. Being able to organize routes and build delivery plans are critical to providing effective services and lowering the cost of managing delivery operations.

NetScore’s Delivery Routing application is built on the NetSuite ERP system to provide a complete planning solution for organizing delivery orders into routes. A mobile application is included to provide drivers with everything they need to carry out the deliveries.

Getting organized is a key element to running a successful delivery operation. As sales orders are processed and fulfilled in your NetSuite solution, NetScore’s Delivery Routing system takes the orders and creates delivery orders. The route planning capability using a geo-point mapping solution to organize the delivery orders into stops on the route. A rule based system allows for further control over the building of routes and can control the number of orders to be included, management of weight and volume capacity by truck type, and time to complete routes based on the calculated transit times between stops. Routes can be adjusted to meet the route planner’s preferences and assigned to a driver.

Keeping control over your delivery fleet is critical to ensure drivers are following the most effective route and keeping on schedule. NetScore gives planners the ability to view graphical representations of each route and see updates as deliveries are completed. A map view shows the planner all drivers location in real time. Routes can be adjusted while they are in progress if needed due to changing requirements by the customer. Delivery orders can even be moved from one driver to another in the event a delivery vehicle breaks down or additional assistance is needed to complete the route.

Making your driver’s life easy is key to running a delivery service that is cost effective and efficient. Route plans that provide the most effective method of accomplishing each delivery is critical. Being able to properly load trucks in reverse stop order makes sure each order to be delivered is properly positioned on the truck. NetScore’s solution produces a route plan that can be used as a picking document or loading document to properly position orders on the truck.

Execution of the route plan is critical to achieve the objective of delivering product on time and at the lowest possible cost to the service provider. Mobile applications now put powerful tools in the hands of drivers to assist them in carrying out their deliveries. Effective applications like NetScore’s Delivery Routing solution provides:

 

  • Travel time between stops.
  • Graphical depictions of the route plan
  • Turn by turn instructions.
  • Order contents to be delivered.
  • The ability to send alerts to customers of impending delivery.
  • Enter reasons for delivery cancellation if the customer refuses delivery.

 

Proof of delivery is an important element to any delivery service to capture signatures, photograph product drops, and note other key information regarding the delivery. This gives the service provider undisputable evidence that the product was professionally delivered and accepted by the customer. NetScore’s mobile application incorporates all these features and allows the driver to quickly gather the information. The proof of delivery information is then automatically uploaded to the backend system and attached to the delivery record. NetScore gives you the value added integration to Google Drive to store pictures and signatures keeping your NetSuite data storage to a minimum.

Moving beyond delivery can be advantageous to many companies to optimize what their delivery service operation can produce for the company. Being able to perform functions like:

  • Picking up returns during their delivery route.
  • Accepting payment from customers for outstanding invoices or cash on delivery orders.
  • Picking up product based on purchase orders issued by the service provider.

NetScore’s Delivery Routing application provides all features described above to your NetSuite system and the associated mobile application.

To help you plan and implement your delivery service, please reach out to NetScore Account Executive.

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Getting Creative With Rentals

As the corona virus took hold and businesses shut down across the globe, many were forced to get creative to survive. One hard hit industry is health clubs forced to shutdown due to the inability to maintain social distancing for their customers. Many have suffered dramatic losses, and some may not reopen. However, some are getting creative allowing them to stay in touch with their customer base and generate revenue for their businesses. One common thing they all have is a substantial amount of assets from treadmills to stationary bikes, weights, and other workout equipment sitting idle.

Julie Guttormson owner of an exercise facility in Wyoming decided to rent her workout equipment to existing customers who wanted access to equipment at home but didn’t want to spend the money needed to purchase it. This offered a great solution for people dealing with stay at home orders that wanted to continue their exercise routines. Within two weeks 70% of Julie’s equipment was rented with a waiting list for some of the more popular items. She extended her business offering by including online classes that the renters could attend. This type of creative thinking provided a winning approach to a difficult situation.

S&P Global Ratings is forecasting a steep global recession with global GDP reduced by 2.4% in 2020. They expect the economic contraction and reduced capital expenditures (capex) by key end markets to curtail demand for original equipment. Rental of equipment is an option that many companies are turning to as sales of big-ticket items slow in the face of the pandemic.

Companies ask “how do I learn what is needed to build a rental business as part of my product offering?” Clearly there are many considerations and requirements that need to be addressed when managing a fleet of rental assets. Having the right resources to maintain a fleet of rental equipment is critical in maximizing profit for this business. Working with a partner who understands all of what needs to be considered and effective tools to meet those demands is extremely helpful when expanding into this line of business. NetScore’s Rental Management software provides the tools NetSuite users need to manage the entire rental process. Our team of experts has helped numerous companies take the necessary steps to build their rental business and manage it effectively.

Building a rental asset pool is the first step which generally involves creating a separate (can be virtual) warehouse where rental assets are managed. This removes the items from your saleable asset pool and allows you to easily manage the rental and return process. It also facilities the ability to depreciate the assets for those companies wishing to do so.

Scheduling and reserving items is an important aspect of rental management especially for companies who deal in longer term rental contracts. Having a scheduling tool that lets you view rental requests and reserve assets is critical for demand planning. Being able to take deposits against reservations helps ensure customers are committed to the future rental. This is also needed when you rent equipment that periodically needs to be removed from the rental pool for maintenance.

Managing rental assets on contract for long term rentals means you need to be prepared to manage situations like equipment failure, routine maintenance, and the need to replace equipment in the field. Having the ability to swap out equipment during the rental and updating the contract to show the replacement is a complexity that needs to be dealt with.

Maintaining your equipment and capturing maintenance costs helps you get a true picture of the profit generated by a rental asset. Keeping track of maintenance records, cost of repair, preventive maintenance, and other items needed to keep your rental asset pool operational is important. This is especially important for equipment that needs to be calibrated or certified such as medical equipment.

Billing can be complex for rental contracts that span longer periods of time and requires generation of invoices on a billing schedule. Keeping track of each rental contract and generating invoices can be a time-consuming process. Having an automated billing engine that manages this process can simplify this process for long term rentals. With NetScore’s billing engine, invoice generation can be automated and can consider discounts for individual items or for the entire rental contract.

Accounting for your rental business requires the need to properly recognize revenue, capture costs, and even depreciate your rental assets. NetScore’s rental management solution handles everything needed to properly account for your rental business and manage it with your NetSuite financial solution.

While there is a lot to consider in managing your rental business, our team of experts and software solution will ensure your rental business will deliver the desired results. If now is the time to explore how you can expand your business model to include equipment rentals, reach out to NetScore Account Executive to get things started.

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Riding The Coat Tails Of Online Giants With Omni-Channel Solutions

 

As the economic impact of the corona virus unfolds on the world economy, customers have been driven to online marketplaces for safety and in some cases due to closing of traditional stores. According to BigCommerce online sales will increase from $3.5 trillion or 14% of retail sales in 2019 to $4.2 trillion or 16% of retail sales in 2020. However, some of the short comings of online sales has been the inability for shoppers to touch or feel product, try it on or visually see how the product will fit into their home. Many small businesses have struggled to incorporate capabilities into their websites that mimic the in-person shopping experience. However, the larger marketplace players such as Amazon, Walmart, and others are investing enormous amounts of money to do just that. Technology such as Augmented Reality (AR), Voice Search, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Big Data are being deployed to personalize shopping experiences.

Gartner predicts that 100 million consumers will shop in Augmented reality online and instore experiences by the end of 2020. As such, this type of technology will become mainstream for businesses of all sizes eventually. However, it also comes with a hefty price tag that is beyond the reach of many small businesses.

NetSuite users have many significant advantages that the solution brings to their business. One of the most significant is its ability to manage Omni-Channel sales structures tying together ecommerce marketplaces, webstores and EDI relationships. One approach to providing a more sophisticated shopping experience is tying into the Amazon, Walmart and other marketplaces that utilize these technologies.

Development partners such as NetScore, produce ready made connectors that will give your company access to many of the large online marketplaces. You get the advantage of their technology spend in the selling experience without the cost of deploying the technology yourself.

Building an Omni-Channel network does have challenges when it comes to deploying and maintaining your network. Many of the providers of connectors charge a substantial fee for setting them up on top of the annual subscription you will pay for the application itself. Additionally, you can expect more consulting fees when updates are needed, or you choose to deploy more advanced capabilities.

Most connectors have a defined data set that consists of the data points the trading partner utilizes and the corresponding fields in NetSuite. Some data points center on features you wish to manage through the connector and are typically defined in the connector documentation. The deployment of the connector becomes mostly a mapping task of tying together the fields where data will be pulled from or delivered to.

Some NetSuite customers will deploy a number of connectors as they tap into marketplaces, 3PL’s, webstores and shipping solutions. Managing a network of connectors can be tricky in some environments needing constant attention to ensure data is flowing smoothly. However, NetScore recognized the need for companies to take a more “do it yourself” approach to managing their networks and save on consulting fees. Earlier this year they released their IPass solution providing a tool to do just that.

IPass provides an application for your NetSuite platform that allows customers to manage their connector network without the need for consulting services. With their available connectors for Amazon, Walmart, eBay, Jet, Wish and more, customers have a wide variety of marketplaces to choose from and a tool that is preconfigured with the connection points. Users simply deploy the connector and use their IPass tool to map the desired fields to their NetSuite solution.

The built-in command center allows users to quickly configure purchased connectors using a preconfigured mapping tool. Users can quickly map out fields they wish to connect, and a scheduler allows for controlling the frequency of each items update. Fields are categorized into intuitive groups such as product, inventory, images, orders, billing, shipments and more. Audit and error logs allow for monitoring each connectors activity with the ability to correct and process any failed transactions.

There will come a day when we will all be trying to figure out how augmented reality and other such technologies will play into our online presence. However, leveraging the online marketplaces and riding the technology coat tails of the big marketplace companies can go a long way to providing your customers with the best possible buying experience.

For more information on NetScore’s connectors, IPaas solution, and services, please reach out to NetScore Account Executive.

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Is Your Delivery Software Intelligent?

As someone who has been involved in technology my entire career, my curiosity is always drawn to new ideas, concepts, and technology. Over the last couple of years, I keep hearing more about the “Internet of Things” (IoT) and how it is impacting today’s technology solutions. I thought I would use this writing to explore how it is now offering new frontiers for software developers to enhance their products through utilization of IOT.

For those of you that are not that familiar with IOT, Wikipedia offers a decent explanation. IoT is described as a network of physical objects—“things”—that are embedded with sensors, software, and other technologies for the purpose of connecting and exchanging data with other devices and systems over the Internet. As the concept has evolved, other technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), real time analytics, embedded sensors, and big data mining, have become building blocks to build a new generation of solutions.

According to Fortune Business Insights, “The global IoT market size stood at 250.72 billion USD in 2019 and is projected to reach 1.4 trillion USD by 2027”. The impact has crossed a broad spectrum of industries with a few examples being consumer products, medical, transportation and logistics, manufacturing, and communication.

When NetScore first started development of their Delivery Routing solution, they built in the standard features that allowed you to organize customer orders into delivery routes. The early edition included features such as:

  • Manual Route Planning
  • Signature capture
  • Viewing a map of the route plan
  • Re-assigning routes
  • Perform PO pickups

As the solution was deployed through the customer base, a common request was the ability to view the location of their trucks in real time. As the development team started exploring solutions, they realized that they could truly take the solution to the next level by incorporating IoT solutions as part of the offering. Leveraging the technology would solve tracking trucks in real time, but also extend to monitoring statistics regarding the vehicle, driver, traffic, and even sensors on the vehicle. The commitment to adding the capability to manage this type of information required revising the infrastructure of the product. While this was not a simple task, the value of enhancing the solution opened broad areas where the application could be expanded.

NetScore decided to partner with Particle who specializes in building sensors that can be leveraged by other developers to bring IoT to their solutions. They produce sensors for a wide variety of applications but offered a product line designed for the fleet management and transportation industry. Figure One shows the relationship of the Particle solution and its integration to NetScore.

Figure Two shows the revised data flow representing how information moves through the Particle IO cloud to the NetScore cloud solution. Additionally, NetScore has included the ability to manage and analyze the data through incorporation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Data Analytic tools.

Delivery operations are both capital and cost intensive to maintain, so companies are always looking for means to lower their costs and increase efficiency. Optimizing routes using real time traffic information can save fuel, driver time, and help maintain delivery schedules. Sensors that monitor temperature for refrigerated trucks can warn of a possible refrigeration failure that could jeopardize a full load of product. Monitoring vehicle speeds can help management determine whether trucks are being driven safely and help reduce accidents.

The value of the information being gathered increases over time as you now can use AI and Data Analytic tools to analyze the data. This will help spot trends, allow for predictive action, and better manage your assets. You are probably thinking about where all this data can be maintained since storage can be expensive. NetScore is integrating with Google Cloud Storage to provide an affordable option for storing your data. The integration will allow for seamless management of your data with the full ability to leverage your Data Analytics and reporting tools.

As I mentioned early on, making incremental improvements to how you plan routes, deploy your delivery assets and care for your delivery fleet, will add up over time. Deploying a solution that can leverage IoT technology, AI, and Data Analytics, will result in a quick return on investment. It will also increase your customer satisfaction and build a reputation for delivering your product efficiently and effectively. For more information on how NetScore is leveraging IoT in their Delivery Routing solution, please reach out to NetScore Account Executive.

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Squeezing Cost Out of Your Delivery Operation

 

Running an effective delivery operation is a challenge. Costs associated with delivery services can get out of hand if not monitored on a continuous basis. According to Insider, last mile delivery amounts to 53% of shipping costs. If you have ever tracked a package and it said “out for delivery” this is the area we are focusing on.

Many distributors are electing to carry out this process by adding their own delivery service to their operations. Customer expectations are high as companies like Amazon have established services such as Amazon Prime. This type of delivery service can involve hundreds of stops with delivery of small amounts of product. This scenario compounds the need for efficiency as now a broad range of efficiency-sapping factors are at play. Understanding those factors and ability to monitor them provides a key element in controlling these costs.

Delivery fees can contribute to a company’s revenue stream and cover costs of the delivery service. It is important to understand the costs to arrive estimate delivery fees. A solution like NetScore’s Delivery Routing application gives companies the ability to track costs over time. This level of information provides the ability to estimate delivery fees.

Driver time is a significant cost and must be managed as it controls how many deliveries go out in a shift. Route planning tool accounts for:

  • Transit time from one stop to the next
  • Unloading product
  • Loading returns
  • Acquire proof of delivery
  • Communicating with the next stop

The above factors can all affect delivery time. Time stamps for each delivery can, over time provide an estimate of time needed to account for these factors. NetScore’s Delivery Routing solution timestamps each delivery stop and provides real time driver locations.

Fuel is a variable cost that can improve by use of intelligent routing solutions. The solution determines the most efficient route based on the planned stops among other factors. Integrations to solutions like Google Maps can determine potential traffic snags, road closers, and accidents that can make a route inefficient.

Truck maintenance is critical to maintaining an efficient delivery operation. Trucks breaking down while en route to a delivery can be costly. Some possible challenges due to this are:

  • Unhappy customers
  • Perishable product go bad
  • Alternate vehicles must be pulled into service
  • Product transferred from one truck to another

NetScore’s solution lets you keep track of maintenance activities, schedule preventive maintenance, and let you know when a truck needs maintenance.

Vehicle constraints such as weight capacity, load volume, and truck assets (refrigeration, lift gates) impacts the choice of appropriate truck for a route. Companies need the flexibility to assign appropriate trucks and assets to a route to optimize costs. NetScore’s Delivery Routing Solution helps build routes to optimize the vehicle capacity. It can also ensure keeping the weight well within limits to reduce fines and excessive vehicular wear and tear. Optimizing loads can be accomplished with the right delivery management software.

The right information helps make better routes which in turn reduces costs. NetScore’s Delivery Routing Solution soon will be able to integrate with other solutions to provide enhanced capabilities. Examples of this include integration your NetScore Warehouse Management Solution that allows for delivering product to the loading dock in order sequence. This allows for easier loading of trucks in reverse stop order to make unloading efficient and quick. This solution can integrate with solutions from Google for real time mapping capabilities and Google Cloud Storage. A new integration with Particle enhances features in fleet management and integrating sensor technology which all offer opportunities to remove costs.

Running a cost-effective delivery operations is a challenge. But, leveraging the right software to manage this process will provide a solid return on investment in the form of lower costs, higher customer satisfaction, and optimum performance of your delivery service team. For more information on how NetScore can take your delivery operation to the next level, please reach out to NetScore Account Executive.

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