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Blogging For Business - Great Reasons For Every Business To Start A Weblog
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He calls it "the Extractor". Last week, my Guerrilla Marketing buddy (and top marketing consultant), Mary Eule went to the South Carolina State Fair. An inventor had set up a booth where he was selling a device he created for extracting nails. He...
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The Quickest Way To Start A Business Online
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The 10 Most Important Retail Technologies That Will Give Your Small Retail Business a Boost
Here are 10 retail technologies that I believe will give
retailers the biggest benefit and boost for success. If you're
not utilizing any of these technologies then you might want to
check them out because you could be missing out on some big time
saving and money making tools...
Here they are in order of importance (in my humble opinion, of
course):
1) Point of Sale (POS) and Inventory Control Software
A good POS / Retail Management System can be a huge time saver
and money maker for you. That's partly why it's number one...
In its simplest form, a good POS system will track all your
sales so you can easily see how your business is doing (at any
time). In other words, it replaces your cash register.
It's difficult to decide where to even start talking about POS
software because it can do SO many things for you. I could
literally write a book about ALL the reasons why a POS system
will help you -- so I'll quickly summarize in 5 key areas. A
good POS system can...
* Dramatically improve your customer service. * Simplify and
improve inventory management. * Improve the effectiveness of
your marketing efforts. * Easily show where you're making and
losing money so you can make adjustments and increase profits. *
Save huge amounts of time by automating bookkeeping and
countless other retail tasks for you.
Now keep in mind... not only will a POS system give you a huge
benefit, but it can also be the MOST difficult technology to
choose. There are many things to consider and you certainly
don't want to miss out on anything important because it's very
expensive to change POS systems. So take your time and do your
research when you choose a POS system.
2) Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Software
One of the unwavering keys to building a successful retail
business is to build relationships with your customers. Because
of that, CRM software is a critical tool for the retail
business. And not only will CRM help you improve your customer
loyalty it will help you market to potential prospects and
generate new business.
In a nutshell, CRM software allows you to track your customers,
identify market segments and then easily communicate with them
via email, telephone, direct mail and more.
Some POS systems actually include CRM capabilities and that's
what I recommend. This allows you to track all this information
in one place and reduce time consuming double entry. In any
case, CRM software can be purchased as a stand alone product or
considered its own module in your POS software. So it deserves
its own category.
3) Bar Code Scanning and UPC Codes
Simply put, bar code scanning allows you to check products at
the point of sale much faster and more accurately than can be
done on the keyboard. Not only will this save you time, but you
should also consider the effect of your inventory...
Just think about the consequences of entering the wrong product
number and throwing off your inventory. Your inventory is the
lifeblood of your business and accuracy is vital. These errors
can cause you to lose sales, increase inventory costs, and waste
hours of time.
I should also point out that if your merchandise has UPC codes,
you can easily scan those tags without the need to print your
own bar codes. This can be a huge time saver.
4) Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)
EDI technology allows you to send purchase orders (created in
your POS software) to your supplier electronically via phone
line or internet. Not only does this save a huge amount of time,
but it can also reduce errors -- so you don't have to apologize
to your customer because you special ordered the wrong item.
Just imagine, using your POS software to automatically generate
purchase orders (based on order levels and sales history) and
then sending your order to your supplier electronically. You can
process your entire order without entering a single product
number! How much time would that save you?
5) Retail Accounting Software
More and more retailers are doing their accounting in-house
because they can quickly produce up-to-date financial statements
and see how their business is doing at almost any time. This has
become easier for the small business owner because of a variety
of user friendly accounting applications.
Accounting software can be purchased stand alone or can be
integrated with your POS software. Now it's important for you to
consider each different module within an accounting system. I
suggest that your Accounts Receivable module (what people owe
you) should almost always be integrated with your POS
software.
It's also a good idea to get your Accounts Payable module
integrated with your POS too (because you'll reduce double
entry). Your General Ledger module can be stand alone or
integrated. There are pros and cons for each method. If you'd
like to learn more about integrating POS and accounting
software, here's a good article to check out:
http://www.possoftwareguide.com/articles/pos-accounting-integrati
on.html
6) Store Traffic Counters
These valuable devices will help you improve sales conversion
ratios, increase store traffic, and improve advertising. If
you're serious about increasing sales conversions then you need
an accurate measure of your store traffic so you can determine
your closing ratio. Automated traffic counters are accurate and
objective. They provide surprisingly detailed data that takes
the guesswork out of measuring closing ratios and even how ads
pull.
Store traffic counters also help better schedule your sales
staff because they identify actual foot traffic in your store
during certain time periods. You can also determine if traffic
goes up or down during marketing promotions so you can figure
out what works the best. And this is just the tip of the
iceberg! There are MANY benefits to this technology.
7) Graphics Design Software
Most small retail business owners tend to wear many hats... and
taking care of marketing promotions can be one of them. With
computers and graphics programs today, you can save thousands of
dollars by creating simple flyers, brochures, and ads with your
own graphics design software. Popular programs include Adobe
InDesign, Adobe PageMaker, Corel Draw and Microsoft Publisher.
8) Websites & Shopping Carts
Whether you sell products on your website or not... websites can
be powerful tools to promote your retail business. For example,
you could link to your website from business cards, newspaper
ads, and more. This gives you an opportunity to tell your story,
give people an idea of what you sell, and convince them to stop
by your store. Since it would be very expensive to tell your
entire sales story in a newspaper ad... you can finish the job
by sending people to your website and save money.
Then if you're really serious, you can utilize a website
shopping cart so customers can place orders and pay you right
from the website.
9) Payroll Software
Payroll software can allow you to do payroll in-house and save a
bunch of time. The software calculates the deductions that come
out of each payroll, like FIT, SIT, FICA, 401K, HSA, flex, etc.
It also calculates the totals for W-2's (and prints them) at the
end of the year. And of course, it also prints nice looking
checks with all the deductions per payroll as well as
year-to-date totals.
10) Portable Data Terminals (PDT) and Hand Held Computers
Portable data terminals are great tools that allow you to
quickly count your inventory and easily update your POS system.
You can simply carry around this portable terminal, scan your
merchandise, and then enter your on-hand quantities. This allows
you to more easily and accurately count your inventory.
In addition, hand held computers are becoming more popular. They
allow you to create orders and complete various tasks on a
computer that fits in the palm of your hand. You could place
orders from a truck or anywhere inside or outside of your store.
Now I obviously listed only 10 retail technologies because it's
a nice round number, but there are many other great technologies
that can help you out. For example, a few honorable mentions
include... signature capture devices, smart cards, customer
loyalty cards, wireless technology, and email auto-responders.
I'm sure there are a few more that I'm missing, but depending on
your type of business, this is a pretty good list to start with.
I suggest that you take a close look at each one of these
technologies. Make sure you understand what's involved and why
they are SO important. Then consider utilizing this type of
technology in your business (if you haven't already).
Learn more about retail technology including how to choose,
utilize, and maximize profits with retail technology:
http://www.possoftwareguide.com/newsletter.asp
About the author:
Jeff Haefner is a nationally known author and retail technology
expert. He has past experience as a programmer, retail
consultant, network administrator, POS software salesmen and
marketing manager. He's also the author of "The Point of Sale
Software Buyers Guide" and a free "Retail Technology
Newsletter": http://www.possoftwareguide.com/newsletter.asp
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