Is your point of sale system good enough for today’s omnichannel environment?
In a recent blog, we talked about how changing consumer expectations are disrupting legacy point of sale technology and shared five areas to focus on to differentiate the store customer experience.
If you want to ensure your next retail platform will grow and evolve alongside your needs, here we look at the challenges retailers experience when making the shift to a new POS, and the important tests the new tech needs to pass.
For many omnichannel retailers, the rise of online shopping has set higher expectations for in-store experiences.
Physical stores now play a key role in driving demand and profitability - even when the final purchase happens online.
Shoppers today view their online and in-store interactions as part of a unified buying journey, not separate channels. And by speeding up delivery, increasing share of wallet, and providing hands-on product experiences, stores are enhancing and differentiating the overall customer journey.
Yet, a significant challenge persists: many retailers find that their outdated point of sale systems are unable to meet the needs of today’s omnichannel shoppers, especially with the ‘phygital’ experiences that tech-savvy consumers now expect.
And making the shift to a new point of sale is complicated:
Many retailers defer upgrades because of concerns about potential disruption to current operations, the resources required for successful implementation and the task of staff training.
Compatibility issues with existing and future systems can make the transition to a modern POS seem a daunting task.
This can be amplified by a fear of not achieving the anticipated return on investment, especially if they’ve previously been burned by failed tech projects.
In the past, retailers who got behind on their store technology investments frequently focused on catching up to current standards. However, now the focus is on future proofing – choosing platforms that speed up innovation, with the flexibility to change direction as opportunities develop, competitors act and customer expectations evolve.
You don’t want a project that fails to deliver the desired returns because the wrong product was selected.
So at a time when point of sale software is undergoing a surge of disruption, innovation and investment, how do you select the right system for your business requirements?
Here are the 7 tests a point of sale purchase must pass, with the first being the most crucial of all:
Test 1. Can it be rapidly implemented and deployed?
The number one priority for most of the retailers we speak with is speed of deployment.
The complexity of upgrading legacy POS infrastructures can present significant operational challenges. This means you need a platform built on a modern architecture, with all your core requirements out-of-the-box plus the ability to customise and easily add new functionality.
When you choose a partner with a mature platform, they can focus on delivering innovation because the core functionality you need already exists.
Check the provider has recent and proven success planning, implementing and managing complex, large-scale deployments across multiple stores, multiple formats and multiple geographies. They’ll need to understand your fast-paced, data-intensive environment where any significant level of downtime is unacceptable. And their people will need the capability to help you plan and implement your projects so that they work for you now and into the future.
Our client GAS took only 10 weeks to rollout Infinity across 127 stores – a masterclass in POS deployment. GAS now has a modern retail system that supports its retailers to provide great customer experiences and drive growth.
“That is what Infinity point of sale system is able to deliver to us, a system which is fast, reliable, secure and on a modern architecture and platform.”
Nahid Ali, GAS General Manager
Test 2. Will it support your unified commerce business model?
Today, the store is mission control for a seamless omnichannel customer experience, making the POS the anchor for unified commerce.
That means you’ll want a point of sale system that will not only work with your existing systems, but also provide an end-to-end solution for a unified commerce business model.
The POS needs to be the hub for unified experiences spanning endless aisle, click and collect, store fulfilment, pricing and promotions, clienteling and loyalty, as well as functions that allow customers to search, transact, acquire and consume products across all your channels.
You don’t want to be tied to a point player that can only provide portions.
“The reason unified commerce resonated with me is that it would give us one core platform do the heavy lifting and a single source of truth to manage the customer data, inventory and order orchestration, rather than relying on too many systems to push and pull data everywhere.”
Shane Lenton, previously Cue’s Chief Information and Digital Officer
Test 3. Will the system work offline?
No matter how exceptional your retail customer experience is, it becomes irrelevant if you're unable to complete a sale.
When inevitable network outages happen, you need to trust that your POS will keep all your stores operational without any disruption.
When implemented correctly, the offline POS experience should be so seamless that your staff may not even realise the system is offline.
Though some features may be limited, it's essential to know what transactions can still be processed during the loss of connectivity. For example, the system should handle card and cash payments, process returns, capture customer data and link it to profiles, and continue scanning products for smooth checkouts.
Test 4. Can it grow with you, and adapt to change?
Whether you're expanding into new locations or launching pop-up stores, it's crucial to ensure your POS system can scale quickly and adapt to changes in customer expectations. While it might seem obvious, scalability can easily be overlooked in the excitement of cutting-edge technology.
Your growth plans should account for how your physical stores can complement your online presence - not just to drive online sales but also to strengthen customer loyalty. Your POS solution must be able to function anywhere your ecommerce platform can.
POS adaptability means having a system that can quickly adjust to evolving customer preferences. It should operate seamlessly across tablets, phones and fixed tills, allowing transactions to flow between devices effortlessly. This flexibility not only opens up possibilities for innovative store layouts and experiences but also provides the practical benefit of better backup strategies for your devices.
Your partner should let third party solutions connect via APIs so that you are free to focus your development efforts on the front-end. You can be more agile and create a community of third-party apps and systems that work together in an ecosystem. As a result, you’ll reduce integration and maintenance overheads, increase real-time accuracy and enjoy virtually limitless scalability and agility.
Test 5. Does it have an intuitive UX for a better EX?
Today, any innovation within the store must minimise friction for store teams because this directly contributes to delivering a superior customer experience. The focus is now on speed and simplicity to maximise staff productivity, no matter where they are in the store.
An easy to use UX and straightforward setup will enable new employees to quickly learn the system and begin selling almost right away. By removing the frustrations caused by complex technology, you'll also help lower staff turnover.
In addition, many retailers run multiple systems within stores, forcing their teams to juggle between different apps and screens as they serve customers. By consolidating store technology onto a single POS-based retail system, your teams can do everything in a single view, from sales transactions, customer loyalty, pricing, product and promotions through to virtual appointments and endless aisle access to stock.
Test 6. Will it make complex sales simple?
For enterprise retailers with multiple brands, B2B operations or franchises, you’ll need a POS system that makes complex sales simple.
You’ll want to control everything from either head office or at store level to set pricing and promotion rules, permissions, return and refund validation, discounting and cash management.
And ensure it supports complex sales like charge-to-account, quote management by channel, debtor management, loyalty and all types of pricing, including retail, trade, contract, promotional, project, customer-specific and rules based.
“Infinity is one of the few platforms able to accommodate our diverse business model, with both retail and wholesale customers requiring multiple volume breaks and bulk purchasing. And Infinity’s New Zealand presence gives us an out-of-the box solution with local capabilities that can be customised to our requirements.”
Amanda Thompson, General Manager of Moore Wilson’s
Test 7. Can you rely on the vendor for new functionality and ongoing support?
Working with the right people and processes will make the roll-out of your new point of sale much easier and deliver results much faster.
A local partner means you’ll have direct access to second and third level support, with direct engagement with people on the ground committed to your success (and not distracted by offshore business activity).
It means you can have more influence on the product roadmap, with fewer layers of bureaucracy giving them more agility and responsiveness. And a mid-size partner is more likely to view you as an important customer of influence.
Louise Mitchell, NPD’s Senior Category Manager
Want help to modernise your point of sale?
As you transform your customer experience to deliver the seamless and personalised buying journeys your customers crave, your point of sale system must transform as well. If you’re looking for help to shape your strategy and extend your omnichannel capabilities, get in touch. We’d love to help you develop the solutions you need now and guide you to where you’re headed next.
For more on how a move to a unified commerce strategy gives you the flexibility and agility you need to keep in step with consumers’ changing needs, download our ebook:
The 7 omnichannel capabilities reshaping stores
There’s a colossal shift taking place right now in how retailers plan, build and deliver their in-store customer experience.
And the prime driver behind this upheaval is the ecommerce boom that is creating new online shopping habits and reshaping consumers’ expectations of in-store experiences.
Customers today crave convenience, personalisation and a seamless shopping journey that doesn’t stop when they enter a store.
As more shopping journeys begin online and store visits becoming more intentional, retailers are looking for new ways to elevate the customer experience - by bringing digital convenience to stores, fulfilling orders via stores to increase profitability and delivering personalised and tactile in-store experiences.
And while the shift towards online retail is real, physical retail is going to continue to grow at 4% year on year and total an estimated 70% of sales by 2027. The retailers that take a unified CX approach are seeing significantly higher profitability and sales growth than their peers.
Do you have a clear strategy and roadmap towards strengthening your in-store CX?
Many retailers struggle to support their customers’ omnichannel demands and aren’t equipped to create the shopping journeys now expected by post-pandemic, digitally savvy consumers.
They have disparate and siloed backend systems that are fragile, inefficient and costly to integrate. Many implemented quick-fixes to get new capabilities up-and-running, but now need a long-term unified solution that delivers a single source of truth across all physical and online channels.
And they’re under increased pressure to implement change fast but can’t quickly spin up the new “phygital” customer experiences the business demands.
So what are the new capabilities retailers need to modernise their customer experience for unified retailing?
Here are seven areas where retailers are increasing their focus and investment:
Stores that amplify the digital experience
The phenomenal rise of live online customer experiences has migrated beyond social media and live chat to virtual shopping appointments. Retailers are using the unparalleled knowledge of their store staff to boost digital sales and service by giving in-store teams the tools to connect with shoppers digitally. Platforms like Brauz provide the video commerce smarts, while unified commerce solutions (like Infinity) help to automate the end-to-end process, from customer communications and data insights to seamless sales transactions and fast delivery.
Digital convenience in stores
The POS used to be the epicentre of the store technology experience. But today consumers expect unlimited access to information and functionality to inform their purchasing decisions, and demand digital convenience inside the store. Retailers are putting customers in charge of their in-store experience by integrating digital services, such as the ability to look up loyalty points, explore product information and add items to digital wishlists in stores. Shoppable screens provide ‘endless aisle’ capabilities that let customers browse and order from the entire inventory.
Self-checkout expands to self-service
In tandem with the new digital experiences inside stores, retailers are modernising their checkout experience so that customers can transact on their terms. They’re putting customers in control with fast and flexible self-guided assistance, mobile point of sale and contactless payments wherever the customer is - in the store, out in the warehouse or yard, at trade shows and pop-up stores. While self-serve kiosks are practical solutions for larger stores and supermarkets, fuel and convenience retailers taking advantage of new self-service software that can be deployed on any touchscreen terminal, making it simple to create fast and memorable experiences.
Endless aisle for anywhere, anytime orders
Consumers are choosing retailers based on the ease and flexibility of the end-to-end experience. With a ‘buy anywhere, fulfil anywhere’ strategy and centralised unified commerce platform, retailers can give customers and staff real-time visibility of inventory, order and customer data across the business. That means customers can shop whenever they feel like it, at any time, using their most convenient channel. And endless aisle access to inventory lets customers order any product and get it delivered to any address.
Flexible omnichannel fulfilment
With ecommerce sales returning to pre-pandemic growth levels, services such as ship-from-store, click-and-collect, endless aisle and returns anywhere are all just table stakes today. Retailers are prioritising capabilities that help them to launch and scale omnichannel experiences faster by improving store fulfilment efficiency and enhancing the store pick-up experience. They’ve created hybrid stores that support the rise in online sales while meeting customers’ expectations for fast pick-up and delivery.
They’re now introducing ship-from-store capabilities that not only enable ecommerce orders to be shipped from stores, but stores can also ship orders placed in other stores. And with a unified view of inventory across all stores and DCs they can quickly see where inventory is located and the fastest route to fulfil orders.
Unified channels strengthen personalisation
With more buying journeys beginning online, and store visits become more predetermined, customer expectations for a frictionless ‘one brand’ experience are rising. However, many retailers have channel silos that mean any interaction or activity that the customer had with them online is not available to the customer or staff within the store.
Retailers are delivering personalised experiences by using AI and intelligence across online and offline channels to deliver timely and relevant communications, recommendations, offers and rewards across in-store and digital touchpoints, including the point of sale, mobile app, web, email and social. And some are extending these personalised recommendations into other communications with customers, such as e-receipts and shipping notifications.
Unified employee experiences
A great customer experience hinges on a great employee experience. After years of underinvestment and now a labour crunch, many retailers are playing catch-up by making employee efficiency and enablement a top priority this year. They’re giving their in-store teams access to relevant customer intelligence - such as loyalty points and rewards, wishlists and sales histories – to equip them to add more value to their customer interactions. Some are using AI technology to provide personalised upselling recommendations during click-and-collect pickups. And localised pricing gives their teams up-to-date, competitive pricing and empowers them to make better, on-the-spot decisions.
This post was originally published September 2022 and updated on 14 December 2023.
Want help to modernise your stores for unified retailing?
As you transform your stores to be the centre of your omnichannel experience, your POS and retail systems must transform as well. If you’re experiencing technology challenges that prevent you from unifying store and digital experiences, get in touch. We’d love to help you make stores play a bigger role in your CX strategy.
If you’re driving the CX transformation at your retail business, our unified commerce maturity model is the perfect tool to create your roadmap. Learn about the capabilities you need to create a rich mix of omnichannel experiences.
The critical role of stores in digitising the retail customer experience
There’s been a massive shift in consumer expectations around convenience, connected shopping experiences and personalisation. Here’s how to use your stores to elevate and differentiate your customer experience.
For most omnichannel retailers, the growth of ecommerce has meant boosting their investments in physical retail.
That’s because the store is essential to creating and satisfying customer demand - even if the customer ultimately transacts online.
Consumers now see both the online and offline shopping experience as part of the same buying journey and not as one versus the other. Investments in unified commerce to unify the store and online experience are gaining momentum, with 20% of retailers heavily investing in it, 32% beginning to invest and 36% considering doing so. Retailers who used unified commerce in 2022 saw a 7% revenue boost over those who did not.
Omnichannel retailers now see their stores as critically important assets to invest in.
Store loyalty captures more share of wallet
Today’s shoppers are purposeful and discerning. They don’t just compare your service to that of your competitors, but to the best service they’ve ever received, anywhere, any time. They want consistency across your channels, recognition wherever they shop with you and a relationship with your brand.
With the ability to see, touch and feel products and assess alternatives, stores are important for marketing and customer acquisition. Store conversion rates are typically 20-40% - around ten times more than ecommerce channels (only 2.5-3%). And the store remains the dominant sales channel, still generating more than 70% of sales.
Stores shorten delivery times
Stores support ecommerce fulfilment and place inventory close to customers - the source of demand. Click and collect, ship from store and return in store are now routine ways to fulfil online orders. Without a store, many online orders would not happen, and would be unprofitable.
Stores set the stage for experiences
Stores can amplify brands by adding a tactile experience and human factor that isn’t possible online. Store staff build trusted relationships with customers through personalised recommendations. They are often better at acquiring customers and stimulating repeat purchases than digital channels. And self-service technologies can create an easy and fast experience at transactional moments of the in-store journey.
Our client, Cue Clothing, is a remarkable example of how to use stores for competitive advantage. Around 20 percent of its sales are online, but over 60 percent are fulfilled by stores instead of a dedicated warehouse. The introduction of endless aisle increased access to inventory eightfold to 80,000 items, leading to a 70 percent increase in conversions and 130 percent increase in overall sales. And Cue has also launched a range of award-winning in-store initiatives – including virtual styling and in-store wishlists - that are driving up conversions, increasing revenue and boosting customer loyalty.
So how can your stores play a bigger role in your CX transformation?
Here are 3 areas to focus on to differentiate your store experience:
1. Bring digital convenience to stores
Many retailers have relied on convenient physical locations and knowledgeable store staff to entice customers to visit them. But today’s digitally savvy consumers want a ‘joined-up’ omnichannel experience that doesn’t stop when they enter a store.
By reimagining the store customer experience and giving staff tools to connect with customers digitally, you'll bring a rich mix of human and digital interactions into stores.
Start by revamping the checkout experience. Offer fast, digital, contact-free point-of-sale transactions wherever the customers are - in the store, out in the warehouse or yard, at trade shows and pop-up stores. Ensure you can provide quotes and take cash sales or charge-to-account orders anywhere, with the flexibility to handle complex split orders, sales and returns.
Put customers in charge of their in-store experience by integrating digital services, such as the ability to look up loyalty points, access product information and add items to digital wishlists in stores. People who use digital while they shop in-store convert at a 20 percent higher rate compared to those who do not use digital as part of the shopping journey.
Localised pricing will let your team offer up-to-date, competitive pricing and empower them to make better, on-the-spot decisions.
2. Use store fulfilment to increase ecommerce profitability
Retailers are working to optimise their processes and remodel stores into fulfilment centres to meet the explosion in demand for online orders fulfilled in stores.
However, many retail systems weren't built to provide real-time inventory so the challenge of knowing where stock is located across the store network causes missed sales and cancellations of online orders.
Create a single view of inventory across stores, online, mobile and warehouses to improve your return on inventory and maximise selling opportunities.
Use your stores as mini-distribution centres to give your customers a variety of delivery options, such as click-and-collect, store-to-door, drop ship and returns anywhere.
Endless aisle capabilities let you sell products not stocked in your current location and have them delivered to or collected by the customer.
3. Personalise customer experiences by extending digital into stores
With more customer journeys beginning online and store visits become more focussed and deliberate, customer expectations for a frictionless ‘one brand’ experience are rising.
However, many retailers have channel silos that mean any interaction or activity that the customer had with them online is largely unknown to store staff.
By connecting all your customer engagement points in near real time, you can deliver a holistic and personalised customer experience more consistently. That means treating each customer as the individual they are all the time – one person with one account, interacting with one unified brand.
Combine your customer, inventory and sales data from all channels and touchpoints and analyse your customer preferences. Use these insights to develop personalised communications, experiences and offers that drive customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Make this data available to your store staff. For example, provide your teams with access to relevant customer information, such as loyalty, wishlists and sales histories. Use AI technology to provide personalised upselling recommendations during click-and-collect pickups.
Extend these personalised recommendations into your other communications with customers, such as e-receipts and shipping notifications.
This post was originally published June 2022 and updated on 25 September 2023.
As you transform your stores to be the centre of your omnichannel experience, your POS and retail systems must transform as well. If you’re experiencing technology challenges that prevent you from unifying store and digital experiences, get in touch. We’d love to help you make stores play a bigger role in your CX strategy.
If you’re driving the CX transformation at your retail business, our unified commerce maturity model is the perfect tool to create your roadmap. Learn about the capabilities you need to create a rich mix of omnichannel experiences.
The 7 omnichannel capabilities reshaping stores
There’s a colossal shift taking place right now in how retailers plan, build and deliver their in-store customer experience.
And the prime driver behind this upheaval is the boom in ecommerce that is creating new online shopping habits and reshaping consumers’ expectations of in-store experiences.
Yet many retailers have struggled to support their customers’ omnichannel demands and aren’t equipped to create the shopping journeys now expected by post-pandemic, digitally savvy consumers.
They have disparate and siloed backend systems that are fragile, inefficient and costly to integrate. Many implemented quick-fixes at the start of the pandemic to get new capabilities up-and-running, but now need a long-term unified solution that delivers a single source of truth across all physical and online channels.
And they’re under increased pressure to implement change fast but can’t quickly spin up the new “phygital” customer experiences the business demands.
So what are the new capabilities retailers need to modernise their customer experience for digital-first retailing?
Here are seven areas where retailers are increasing their focus and investment this year:
Stores that amplify the digital experience
The phenomenal rise of live online customer experiences has migrated beyond social media and live chat to virtual shopping appointments. Retailers are using the unparalleled knowledge of their store staff to boost digital sales and service by giving in-store teams the tools to connect with shoppers digitally. Platforms like Brauz provide the video commerce smarts, while unified commerce solutions (like Infinity) help to automate the end-to-end process, from customer communications and data insights to seamless sales transactions and fast delivery.
Digital convenience in stores
The POS used to be the epicentre of the store technology experience. But today consumers expect unlimited access to information and functionality to inform their purchasing decisions, and demand digital convenience inside the store. Retailers are putting customers in charge of their in-store experience by integrating digital services, such as the ability to look up loyalty points, explore product information and add items to digital wishlists in stores. Shoppable screens provide ‘endless aisle’ capabilities that let customers browse and order from the entire inventory.
Self-checkout expands to self-service
In tandem with the new digital experiences inside stores, retailers are modernising their checkout experience so that customers can transact on their terms. They’re putting customers in control with fast and flexible self-guided assistance, mobile point of sale and contactless payments wherever the customer is - in the store, out in the warehouse or yard, at trade shows and pop-up stores. While self-serve kiosks are practical solutions for larger stores and supermarkets, fuel and convenience retailers taking advantage of new self-service software that can be deployed on any touchscreen terminal, making it simple to create fast and memorable experiences.
Endless aisle for anywhere, anytime orders
Consumers are choosing retailers based on the ease and flexibility of the end-to-end experience. With a ‘buy anywhere, fulfil anywhere’ strategy and centralised unified commerce platform, retailers can give customers and staff real-time visibility of inventory, order and customer data across the business. That means customers can shop whenever they feel like it, at any time, using their most convenient channel. And endless aisle access to inventory lets customers order any product and get it delivered to any address.
Flexible omnichannel fulfilment
With ecommerce sales returning to pre-pandemic growth levels, services such as ship-from-store, click-and-collect, endless aisle and returns anywhere are all just table stakes today. Retailers are prioritising capabilities that help them to launch and scale omnichannel experiences faster by improving store fulfilment efficiency and enhancing the store pick-up experience. They’ve created hybrid stores that support the rise in online sales while meeting customers’ expectations for fast pick-up and delivery.
They’re now introducing ship-from-store capabilities that not only enable ecommerce orders to be shipped from stores, but stores can also ship orders placed in other stores. And with a unified view of inventory across all stores and DCs they can quickly see where inventory is located and the fastest route to fulfil orders.
Unified channels strengthen personalisation
With more buying journeys beginning online, and store visits become more predetermined, customer expectations for a frictionless ‘one brand’ experience are rising. However, many retailers have channel silos that mean any interaction or activity that the customer had with them online is not available to the customer or staff within the store.
Retailers are delivering personalised experiences by using AI and intelligence across online and offline channels to deliver timely and relevant communications, recommendations, offers and rewards across in-store and digital touchpoints, including the point of sale, mobile app, web, email and social. And some are extending these personalised recommendations into other communications with customers, such as e-receipts and shipping notifications.
Unified employee experiences
A great customer experience hinges on a great employee experience. After years of underinvestment and now a labour crunch, many retailers are playing catch-up by making employee efficiency and enablement a top priority this year. They’re giving their in-store teams access to relevant customer intelligence - such as loyalty points and rewards, wishlists and sales histories – to equip them to add more value to their customer interactions. Some are using AI technology to provide personalised upselling recommendations during click-and-collect pickups. And localised pricing gives their teams up-to-date, competitive pricing and empowers them to make better, on-the-spot decisions.
Are you looking at how to modernise your stores for digital-first retailing and a better customer experience? Our unified commerce maturity model is the perfect tool to create your roadmap. Use it to assess your current capabilities, identify the gaps and prioritise areas for improvement.
New in Infinity – June 2022
Here’s new functionality across the Infinity platform that will help you unify your physical and digital channels, create a differentiated omnichannel experience, and let your teams work more efficiently.
Infinity is a modular platform and you may need additional components or licencing to access some functionality.
INFINITY API
Access real-time fuel inventory
Fuel retailers can now get a near real-time view of fuel inventory levels at branches, helping to simplify their stock management. Fuel tank dip values and inventory levels can now be regularly posted as an event notification for processing by external downstream systems, such as fuel delivery management software.
PRODUCT INFORMATION MANAGEMENT
Easier updates to item costs
If your business uses Infinity’s inventory review function to manage price updates at branches, you can now update an item’s recommended cost at the branch when that item’s unit cost is updated at head office, saving you the time and effort of changing the cost manually. If you use Infinity ETL to bulk update item data, you also now have the option to update the recommended cost of an item for a specific branch or for all branches.
PRICING & PROMOTIONS
Launch new fuel promotions
Fuel retailers can now offer dollar-off fuel coupons with each fuel transaction, giving marketers another tool to incentivise customers to shop with them, and helping to increase customer retention and boost sales. It allows them to reach a different customer segment, with different purchase motivators.
REPORTS & ANALYTICS
Give stores access to sales data at-a-glance
You can now give your stores easy access to stripped-down sales information using the new Product Sales Summary Report. This report includes the number of individual items sold and total value, minus information you might want to exclude (such as costs or margins).
Better cash management reporting for branch managers
The Banking Transaction Report is now available at the Back Office, allowing branch managers to view the movement of money into and out of the trading location.
By viewing their banking deposits and receipt transactions, they can more easily reconcile bank statements or review cashflow within their store.
POINT OF SALE
Faster item data updates via Wedderburn scales integration
Infinity is now fully integrated with Wedderburn scales. This means that changes to item data in Infinity, such as price per kg, can be pushed directly to Wedderburn, rather than users having to update the prices again independently on the scales.
TECHNOLOGY
SQL Server Always On Availability Group
If your Head Office database is set up in an Always On Availability Group (AOAG) with appropriate read-only access, you can offload some Linker load to the read-only node to distribute the SQL activity for the Linker, thereby reducing the load on the primary SQL node. Note: At present, only one high-use query uses this feature.
To find out more about any of these enhancements and add them to your Infinity platform, contact us.
If you’d like to get our regular ‘New in Infinity’ updates in your inbox, sign up to our newsletter.
The critical role of stores in digitising the retail customer experience
There’s been a massive shift in consumer expectations around convenience, connected shopping experiences and personalisation. Here’s how to use your stores to elevate and differentiate your customer experience.
Omnichannel retailers now see their stores as critically important assets to invest in.
Last year, US online sales grew faster than ecommerce for the first time ever - with physical stores growing at 18.5 percent versus ecommerce growth of 14 percent.
And while ecommerce growth is predicted to outpace growth through physical stores in future, the spotlight will remain on stores. For most omnichannel retailers, the growth of ecommerce actually means boosting their investments in physical retail.
That’s because the store is essential to creating and satisfying customer demand - even if the customer ultimately transacts online.
Stores can amplify brands by adding a tactile experience and human factor that isn’t possible online. Store staff build trusted relationships with customers through advice, service, support and sales. They are often better at acquiring customers and stimulating repeat purchases than digital channels.
Stores support ecommerce fulfilment and place inventory close to customers - the source of demand. Click and collect, ship from store and return in store are now routine ways to fulfil online orders. Without a store, many online orders would not happen, and would be unprofitable.
Our client, Cue Clothing, is a remarkable example of how to use stores for competitive advantage. Around 20 percent of its sales are online, but over 60 percent are fulfilled by stores instead of a dedicated warehouse. The introduction of endless aisle increased access to inventory eightfold to 80,000 items, leading to a 70 percent increase in conversions and 130 percent increase in overall sales. And Cue has also launched a range of award-winning in-store initiatives – including virtual styling and in-store wishlists - that are driving up conversions, increasing revenue and boosting customer loyalty.
So how can your stores play a bigger role in your CX transformation?
Here are 3 areas to focus on to differentiate your store experience:
1. Bring digital convenience to stores
Many retailers have relied on convenient physical locations and knowledgeable store staff to entice customers to visit them. But today’s digitally savvy consumers want a ‘joined-up’ omnichannel experience that doesn’t stop when they enter a store.
By reimagining the store customer experience and giving staff tools to connect with customers digitally, you'll bring a rich mix of human and digital interactions into stores.
Start by revamping the checkout experience. Offer fast, digital, contact-free point-of-sale transactions wherever the customers are - in the store, out in the warehouse or yard, at trade shows and pop-up stores. Ensure you can provide quotes and take cash sales or charge-to-account orders anywhere, with the flexibility to handle complex split orders, sales and returns.
Put customers in charge of their in-store experience by integrating digital services, such as the ability to look up loyalty points, access product information and add items to digital wishlists in stores.
Localised pricing will let your team offer up-to-date, competitive pricing and empower them to make better, on-the-spot decisions.
2. Use store fulfilment to increase ecommerce profitability
Retailers are working to optimise their processes and remodel stores into fulfilment centres to meet the explosion in demand for online orders fulfilled in stores.
However, many retail systems weren't built to provide real-time inventory so the challenge of knowing where stock is located across the store network causes missed sales and cancellations of online orders.
Create a single view of inventory across stores, online, mobile and warehouses to improve your return on inventory and maximise selling opportunities.
Use your stores as mini-distribution centres to give your customers a variety of delivery options, such as click-and-collect, store-to-door, drop ship and returns anywhere.
Endless aisle capabilities let you sell products not stocked in your current location and have them delivered to or collected by the customer.
3. Personalise customer experiences by extending digital into stores
With more customer journeys beginning online and store visits become more focussed and deliberate, customer expectations for a frictionless ‘one brand’ experience are rising.
However, many retailers have channel silos that mean any interaction or activity that the customer had with them online is largely unknown to store staff.
By connecting all your customer engagement points in near real time, you can deliver a holistic and personalised customer experience more consistently. That means treating each customer as the individual they are all the time – one person with one account, interacting with one unified brand.
Combine your customer, inventory and sales data from all channels and touchpoints and analyse your customer preferences. Use these insights to develop personalised communications, experiences and offers that drive customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Make this data available to your store staff. For example, provide your teams with access to relevant customer information, such as loyalty, wishlists and sales histories. Use AI technology to provide personalised upselling recommendations during click-and-collect pickups.
Extend these personalised recommendations into your other communications with customers, such as e-receipts and shipping notifications.
As you transform your stores to be the centre of your omnichannel experience, your POS and retail systems must transform as well. If you’re experiencing technology challenges that prevent you from unifying store and digital experiences, get in touch. We’d love to help you make stores play a bigger role in your CX strategy.
If you’re driving the CX transformation at your retail business, our unified commerce maturity model is the perfect tool to create your roadmap. Learn about the capabilities you need to create a rich mix of omnichannel experiences.
New in Infinity – April 2022
Here’s new functionality across the Infinity platform that will help you unify your physical and digital channels, increase your team’s operational effectiveness and differentiate the customer experience.
Infinity is a modular platform and you may need additional components or licencing to access some functionality.
INFINITY API
Access real-time order data
Order information is now available in real-time to streamline fulfilment execution. Infinity now allows services to subscribe to changes in order status, such as dispatch or voiding. The updates can be used to integrate order data with other systems, such as ecommerce sites to provide dispatch or cancellation email updates to customers, ERP systems and buy-now-pay-later financing schemes.
PRODUCT INFORMATION MANAGEMENT
Increase accuracy of data capture during complex sales
Infinity now gives you the ability to capture extra information for highly complex sales transactions, with validation during the process to ensure data accuracy. Businesses with complex item data requirements can configure rules and validations to capture specific information before a product can be added to the sale. Extended rules can also be configured for payment processing, receipt printing and exclusive selling rules.
Using this new functionality, a business might decide to take payment on behalf of other businesses (such as power companies and local authorities), requiring highly accurate information to be captured at the time of payment. By configuring the rules required by those other businesses, you can be confident that all information is being captured and all necessary business processes are being followed.
INVENTORY
Faster adjustments of non-stock products
Head Office and branch users can now easily find non-stock products with negative stock on hand and correct the stock automatically to zero. Instead of having to identify items manually and create a stock adjustment for each one, users can now save time by finding all non-stock products with negative inventory and set them all to zero at once.
Give branches more local purchasing flexibility
If your stores have multiple regional supplier contacts, your staff can now directly email their local sales rep rather than having to go through a centralised contact for all stores. Branches can also now create customised supplier email addresses for sending purchase orders, giving them even greater control over the local purchasing process.
Increase accuracy of cost updates
Branch users can now update the cost of an item on the master data automatically during the invoice matching process, allowing them to avoid the pitfalls that come with manually inputting cost updates and ensure data integrity.
ORDER MANAGEMENT
Automate store notifications when branches re-assign orders
Infinity will now prompt your store staff when an order line has been re-assigned to them from another branch and is awaiting processing (for customer collection in store or ship-from-store), ensuring that all parts of a customer order are processed and fulfilled in a timely way.
PRICING & PROMOTIONS
Assess profitability of promotions
When you create a pricing promotion using Infinity’s pricing wizard, you can now see the worst-case scenario for gross profit percentage. This allows you to easily gauge whether promotions are financially viable and gives you greater control over profit margins in your business.
REPORTS & ANALYTICS
Give store staff more returns visibility
You can now provide your branches with more information on returns. If goods are returned to your store but originally sold at another store, store staff can now see details of the return transaction, and not the details of the original sale transaction.
If the goods were both sold and returned at the store, they will see a range of details about the transaction, such as the date the goods were sold and returned, the return price and quantity, the reason for the return, the store operator who processed the sale and the return, and the receipt number.
POINT OF SALE
Increase stock visibility during sales process
Infinity’s Advanced Item Search now allows you to see stock levels and pricing at nearby branches. This gives better visibility during the sales process to businesses who source inventory from other branches. For those businesses that capture sales orders through a call centre, the inventory and pricing will default to the branch that the current customer belongs to.
Easily adjust your returns policy
If your business uses Infinity’s extended returns function, you now have greater flexibility over your return policy. You can choose to allow goods to be returned to any store. Alternatively, you can simplify the return process by only allowing customers to return goods at the store they made the original purchase.
TECHNOLOGY
Increase email security
Infinity now supports the use of TLS 1.2 and a wide number of common SMTP ports to send emails. TLS 1.2 allows for better encryption and, in turn, improved security when sending emails via Infinity.
Support for Microsoft Edge browser
Infinity now supports using the Microsoft Edge browser engine technology to display external websites where support for Internet Explorer 11 has been removed.
To find out more about any of these enhancements and add them to your Infinity platform, contact us.
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NPD modernises its retail experience with Triquestra
Fuel and convenience retailer, NPD, has selected Triquestra to transform its retail system and provide a hub for future innovation. Triquestra’s Infinity unified commerce solution will be installed as NPD’s point of sale in stores to improve the customer experience and support retail operations excellence and profitable growth.
Following rapid New Zealand expansion over recent years – including the launch into the North Island market in 2021 – NPD has 95 sites nationwide. With ambitious growth plans to launch 32 new sites over the next three years, the company prides itself on offering an exceptional customer experience.
“We have a strong focus on innovation as we grow our network and expand our retail offering to meet changing consumer needs,” says Lewis Preston, Retail Operations Manager at NPD. “Our architecturally-designed cafes are inviting and spacious, and we offer a forecourt service to ensure customers are being looked after as soon as they arrive. What really sets us apart is our incredibly popular range of café products which are all freshly prepared on site.”
According to Louise Mitchell, NPD’s Senior Category Manager, the team are looking forward to the move to a modern technology platform that will streamline processes, gather deeper insights and provide great customer experiences.
“Infinity will play a key role in delivering a fast and efficient service to customers, while also helping to better manage our pricing and promotions and operate our business in a more profitable, data-driven manner.”
It was important to NPD to partner with another New Zealand-based company. “As a Kiwi owned and operated business, we really pride ourselves on supporting local businesses and communities,” says Louise. “The Triquestra team’s responsiveness and flexibility gave us the confidence that we’ll get the swift, on-the-ground support and reliability we need.”
Infinity’s analytics capability was another key factor in the decision. “We wanted to eliminate labour-intensive manual reporting and give our management fast and easy access to real-time business intelligence to support their decision-making,” explains Lewis.
NPD is looking forward to better inventory and order management to increase stock accuracy and reduce admin time spent on sales, transactions, stocktakes, receipting, cash balancing and reordering.
“Right now, we have one retail price point for all of our sites nationwide,” says Lewis. “With surging inflation and rising costs, this negatively impacts the profitability of our sites in expensive regions.
“We pride ourselves on bringing genuine price and service competition to the fuel market. With Infinity’s ability to customise products, prices and promotions by site and region, we can provide our customers with even more value,” he adds.
“And we expect Infinity’s user-friendly interface to speed up our service at the till,” says Louise. “That will be amazing for both our staff and our customers.”
“There is tremendous pressure on fuel retailers to create new business models and revenue streams to replace traditional sources of revenue,” says Triquestra CEO Kelly Brown. “Retailers that become destination stores with more of what customers want are best positioned for long-term profitability and customer loyalty. We’re proud to partner with an award-winning convenience retail leader like NPD that is innovating to differentiate the customer experience.”
Infinity will be implemented in a phased approach starting in mid-2022, with deployment and support provided by Triquestra’s implementation partner, ECL Group.
If it’s time to upgrade your point of sale to one that will scale and adapt to shifting consumer expectations and new technologies, contact us.
Video: GAS optimises inventory for improved profitability
Many retailers struggle to create a single, accurate and up-to-date view of inventory, but fuel retailer GAS has cracked it. Following its record 10 week implementation of Infinity point of sale software, the retailer now has a unified view of inventory to grow sales and drive profits.
Nahid Ali, GAS General Manager, says that achieving profitable growth starts with better inventory management.
“The Infinity point of sale system has got some fantastic features,” explains Nahid. “The key for us is the stock control and the inventory management.
“Infinity POS allows GAS retailers to do business better … and grow their profitability.”
Interested in how GAS only took 10 weeks to deploy Infinity POS nationwide?
Watch GAS modernises fuel retail through fast point of sale deployment.
Want help to unify your inventory? Contact us to find out more about how Infinity can give your business an accurate and single view of inventory.
Video: GAS crafts personalised customer experiences to grow loyalty
GAS is one of New Zealand’s largest independent fuel retail networks. Following its blistering-fast implementation of Infinity point of sale software, the retailer is now capturing customer data to develop a distinctive experience and boost loyalty.
Watch Nahid Ali, GAS General Manager, describe how GAS can now develop cluster- or even site-specific offers that let site owners take advantage of opportunities in their local areas.
Nahid explains:
“Infinity has opened the door for GAS head office and GAS retailers to a wide variety of marketing tools that we've never enjoyed before.”
Interested in how GAS only took 10 weeks to deploy Infinity POS nationwide?
Watch GAS modernises fuel retail through fast point of sale deployment.
If you’d like help to create tailored customer experiences that boost loyalty, get in touch. We can help you seamlessly integrate physical and digital channels to create a unified customer journey.
