Consider these two scenarios:

Retailer A is a boutique wine shop with several locations in upscale, suburban communities. When prospective customer A walks thru the door, she is greeted in a friendly, genuine manner. A staff member approaches after a couple of minutes, offering her assistance. She engages customer A in conversation and finds out that she enjoys big, bold red wines. She then recommends several new wines that would suit her appetite. Customer A mentions that she read about the monthly wine social club on their store’s Facebook page and was interested in getting more information. They then have an informal discussion about several of the wines carried by the boutique. The customer decides on her purchase and provides her name and relevant information to the clerk when asked. Finally, the sales clerk obtains her permission to enroll her in the customer loyalty program. This customer continues to make regular purchases at this wine shop, earning savings and discounts on her future purchases. What’s more, she engages in frequent postings about events and wine education on their Facebook page, allowing her friends to see the activity and resulting in several new community members and potential sales.

Retailer B is an upscale boutique women’s apparel shop with two other locations in nearby suburban communities. Customer B walks into the shop and is not greeted at all because the two sales clerks are busy gossiping behind the counter about last night’s dates. She browses around the small boutique, seemingly unnoticed, as she searches for her favorite designer that is often carried at the shop. She finally approaches the counter to check if the store has a specific dress in her size. The clerk tells her they are currently out of stock and turns back to her conversation. She then goes online and purchases the dress from a different vendor.

The kicker? One of Retailer B’s other locations had this exact dress in the size needed. If the clerk had bothered to check, they had could have shipped the desired merchandise directly to the customer. Instead, Customer B bought her purchase somewhere else, and more importantly, communicated her displeasure with Retailer B’s lack of service with several local friends. Additionally, Customer B had shopped in their boutique several times over the past years and spent an average of $500 each time.

 If Retailer B would have had the systems and processes in place as Retailer A, they would have been able to quickly save the sale and enhance the customer relationship by identifying the out of stock item and locating it at another location. The culture of their store would have been one of fanatical customer service.

To the small and medium size retailer, a loyal customer is their best advertising. There’s no room for big budget marketing and splashy campaigns – word of mouth can make them or break them. Every customer, whether they are a happy or dissatisfied one, is an exponential tool for public relations. Did you know that acquiring a new customer costs over six times what it takes to keep an existing customer? That’s why every retailer should have a detailed strategy in place for tracking customer feedback and rewarding loyalty. The customers you currently have are worth their weight in gold.

A good strategy is

simple – concentrate on the CCR’s of customer service: Connect with your customers; communicate with your customers; and reward them regularly.

Connect

• Whether you run a one man retail shop or multi-location store with several POS, you should be greeting customers as they come into your establishment. Encourage your team to pleasantly address customers and make a connection with them within five minutes of walking into your shop.
•  Reach out and get to know your customers. Find out what their likes and        dislikes are. Ask for their name and zip code when they purchase an item, allowing you to track their buying habits.
• Build a social networking community and engage with your clients consistently. Why is social media important? People may love your product, but will likely forget about it unless you are in front of them regularly. Remind them of all the services and products you offer. Inform them of special events. Give them information so they can become a loyal evangelist of your business.

Communicate

• An SME’s size allows for flexibility and quickness in its ability to gather customer feedback and react on a timely basis. Reach out to your customers to find out what they like and don’t like about your operations. Are you able to special order an item that a frequent customer would like? You may want to consider the cost versus its benefit, as that satisfied customer will likely tell five friends about your individualized service, which will ultimately snowball into great PR for your business.
• Encourage customers to provide negative feedback along with praise, then deal with it quickly. Tools such as the company Facebook page, customer conversations, and requested feedback from after-sale follow ups can allow you to gain great insight into what they want, as well as what is working in your business. Respond to each negative comment constructively and quickly, as your customers will value your response.
• Track customer buying habits and proactively inform them about upcoming sales, new merchandise they might like, and special events.

Reward

Are you rewarding your frequent customers for their purchasing loyalty? If not, consider that a large portion of your business is derived from repeat customers. They obviously like your operations – and if they know they will receive regular rewards and savings by continuing to be loyal, why would they go anywhere else?

Be careful, though – if your business doesn’t have a methodical system for tracking customer purchases, you may unknowingly omit loyal customers who aren’t as visible to your staff. Is the quiet shopper that comes by twice a year and spends $600 on each occasion any less valuable then the frequent visitor that spends $50 a month? Your staff may be more familiar with Customer B, who stops by the store weekly and makes small purchases. Forget about that infrequent regular shopper who isn’t familiar to your staff, and you risk engendering hard feelings. Word travels fast in a community.

Having a retail solution that tracks this data seamlessly for your business eliminates this problem. It’s also integral to make sure there is a policy in place for obtaining a named customer with each purchase.

The iVend Retail Management Solution, along with the iVend Loyalty solution, has the functionality that allows you to track important data about your customers so that your team can utilize it to make better use of their sales and service efforts. The iVend Loyalty solution gives you the capabilities to reward your valuable customers at every level and allow them to interact as well.

Fanatical customer service can only happen when supported by proper systems and processes.

Are your systems enabling your staff to create that bond with your customer base?

If the answer is NO and you are looking for a solution write to us on info@citixsys.com, we have a solution for you.

CitiXsys introducing iVend Loyalty, Analytics, Web Storefront & Mobility at their booth#2463

Join CitiXsys at the National Retail Federation (NRF) 101st Annual Convention & EXPO at the Jacob K. Javits
Convention Center in New York City to View and experience the Retail Industry’s innovative and easy to use
iVend Application’s for Retail Management, Business Intelligence, Loyalty. We share our Knowledge and expertise
to unveil the most comprehensive Retail Management Suite that’s Agile & Scalable.

CitiXsys booth at NRF shall be abuzz with Demo and display of iVend Retail Management Suite and we will share
our experiences to provide a solution for retail challenges faced by modern day retailers

iVend management Suite focuses to address following topics:

• Understanding Mobility for Smart Retailing
• Loyalty for an engaging shopping experience for your customers
• Promotions to imbibe Loyalty to your brand increasing repeat footfalls.
• Leveraging analytics to gain organization insights to make smarter decisions

Register here for a free Expo pass and book an exclusive demo of iVend Retail Management Suite
at our Booth#2463

For more information and details about CitiXsys products, log on to www.citixsys.com or mail us at info@citixsys.com

This can be especially problematic for a SME retailer; as the business grows, owners must accede control and oversight of the daily operations to others while focusing on the management and long term strategy of the business. This can leave them vulnerable if they do not have the proper controls in place to guard against internal theft.

Many rapidly growing small and medium retailers tend to rely on the trust of  their employees as well, especially long time members. They may not realize the need for security controls until it’s too late.

A good retail management solution, such as iVend Retail, offers key features that will successfully discourage many leading methods of theft. Consider these common scenarios:

(A) A sales clerk at one of your locations gives her login and password information to a friend, who then accesses the retail POS system and steals cash from the till, as well as hacking confidential customer data.

Security Feature: The iVend Retail management solution integrates with a leading biometric fingerprint reader, DigitalPersona, effectively tying security and user rights to the employee’s fingerprint. This allows for complete employee accountability, confirmed audit trails, prevention against unauthorized access, and more.

(B) An employee works in cahoots with an outside partner, who comes into the store to return a single item several times. The employee scans the return repetitively throughout the day, and processes several cash refunds.

Security Feature: The iVend Retail management solution allows only one return per each specific item. The system will lock that item from being returned multiple times, even if it’s at a different location.

(C) Several employees are pilfering small amounts of inventory from various locations throughout the year. While each item isn’t substantial, the total cumulative amount over a year’s time is significant. The discrepancy in inventory is only discovered at the annual physical inventory count.

Security Feature: Cycle counts of inventory can be performed through the iVend Retail management solution periodically throughout the year, thus identifying discrepancies in inventory on a timely basis.

(D) A store clerk gives random and significant discounts on purchases to her friends without any authorization.

Security Feature: The iVend Retail management solution allows you to set discounts, price controls, and price changes at different levels of management.

Other security controls include the ability to force reason codes and comments for returns and exchanges and till counts at various intervals throughout the day.

In these tough economic times, it is crucial for a business to have access to current information and control over operational data. Our iVend Retail Management solution, an SAP Business One addon, is a complete end to end solution that allows the management team to have complete control over each store’s operations in real time.

COUNTRY : Australia

INDUSTRY : Speciality Textiles

Burke Marine, founded by Martin Burke on the shores of Sydney Harbour in 1971, Burke Marine has dominated the Australian and New Zealand Marine &  sail market for the last 40 years. Combining a wealth of boating experience with a vast knowledge of textile manufacturing, the family-run company has been one of Australia’s most respected and dynamic marine brands. Burke Marine is committed to providing the world’s best marine equipment. In addition to their own brand Burke, they represent some of the world’s best marine brands which include Henri-Lloyd & Seabrake.

Henri-Lloyd is a premium marine lifestyle clothing brand originating from Manchester, Great Britian. Founded in 1963 by Henri Strzelecki, Henri-Lloyd quickly became the leading marine technical brand for the sailing fraternity.

The brand has been worn by crews of the Volvo Round the World Ocean Race, America’s Cup, world champions, Olympic sailors and also brand ambassador three times gold medalist, Ben Ainslie.

Challenge

Burke Marine owns a chain of stores spread over Australia and New Zealand. The company with its growing operations was unable to effectively and efficiently manage its store operations due to disparate and unstable systems, which meant they suffered from a lack of data consistency and reliability. With such disparate systems in place Burke Marine were unable to gain a complete view of their sales, inventory and store profitability, mainly due to it not being available. The manual checking of such key information became increasingly difficult to manage on an ongoing basis and was failing to provide upper management with key data to enable them to make important business decisions.

The existing system was unable to meet the local legislative demands of an Australian retailer and hence was inefficient and unable to streamline their store operations. Burke Marine needed a reliable system that could manage the end to end retail functions from Point of Sale (POS) to Head office integration along with inventory optimisation. The new system had to be scalable and therefore grow with the business and it had to provide flexibility in reporting while also giving upper management a holistic view on all aspects of the retail business.

• Required a retail management solution that was fully integrated to SAP Business One
• Improve their consumer centric approach to gain an edge
• Focused approach for improved employee productivity

 Solution : iVend Retail with SAP Business One

 Benefits :

• An end to end integrated application from POS to Head office with accuracy and transparency through iVend Retail
• Enhanced Channel visibility- Sale & purchase
• Effective gift card and Lay-By management has enabled our business to achieve improved customer loyalty and retention
• Intuitive solution, scalable to meet the future growth of 360 degree view of different divisions, revenue, costs and inventory valuation in real-time

“Our staff have commented on how easy the iVend system was to learn and to operate – it has helped to alleviate the “human errors” that we have had experienced in the past. Good features in iVend are the ability to easily look at other store and main warehouse stock levels in real time, integrated eftpos has been great, gift voucher processing is easy and transparent and we have now just implemented Lay-By.”
Fran, Burke Marine, Australia

Visit CitiXsys’s Booth No #2463 at National Retail Federation’s BIG SHOW!

CitiXsys is proud to be exhibiting once again at Retail’s Big Show, the National Retail Federation’s 101st Annual Convention and Expo, in New York City, January 15-18, 2012.

Register here to to get a FREE Expo hall Pass worth $350. Alternatively, you may download an invite here.

The National Retail Federation is the world’s largest retail trade association, and with over 170,000 sq. ft. and more than 450 vendors, its Big Show is the “must attend” event for leading retail professionals seeking success.

 CitiXsys’s – iVend Retail, a fully-Integrated Retail Management Solution with SAP application suites, is exhibited at the event.

iVend is a comprehensive Retail Management Solution to manage Head Office, Store and POS operations. The SAP certified fail safe integration with SAP keeps the head office always connected with the store operations across the complete retail chain.

iVend is used by both large or small retailers. A large retailer with hundreds of stores needs sophisticated, integrated retail suite of applications to manage retail operation. A small retailers with upto 20-30 stores need retail software that can be scalable to grow with and add advanced modules easily as-and-when they grow. POS is just 5% of retail landscape. iVend suite of Retail Applicationsprovides applications like Loyalty Management, Promotions, Inventory Management, Inventory Planning, Mobile POS, eStore, Business Intelligence, integration with good backend solution apart from having a great Point of Sale and Store Management. Integrated Loyalty module, Gift Card features and integration with leading payment processors & gateways allows retailers to have a 360 degree visibility of their operations spanning from Store Operations on one hand to Financial and Supply Chain on the other. High levels of scalability are brought about by latest technology, simple & intuitive interface, with robust Head Office engine backed by SAP – and industry leading business management application.

Its unique replication and integration services completely take away the constraint of being always-connected to the Internet. iVend Retail allows retailers to continue doing business even if the Internet connection between the Head Office and the store is severed.

iVend Retail, solution integrates with leading fingerprint biometric Digital-Persona to enable retailers to quickly and securely identify users when performing tasks or accessing applications and records. Fingerprints can be captured on the Security Use setup while setting up a user in iVend. Employee can then log into the retail POS system, instead of punching in his id & password, he simply scans his thumb or finger on the biometric fingerprint reader.

Fiscal Printer Integration for Dominican Republic

iVend is integrated to Epson TMU-220 printer to support the printing of fiscal documents. Printing the fiscal documents is government mandate in Dominican Republic.

Fiscal Printer Integration for Kenya

iVend is integrated to Datec FP 300 printer to support the printing of fiscal documents. Printing the fiscal documents is government mandate in Kenya.

Global Pay Integration

Global-Pay payment processor integration for US and Canada has been incorporated in this release. The integration also supports the debit card sales with the PIN entry.

Importing File in Stock Transfer Requisition

Store would now be able to create requisitions from iVend even by importing the files into the iVend requisition screen.

Extended Language Support

Apart from English, iVend application is now also available in the following languages:

1. French

2. Latin American Spanish

3. Italian

4. Greek

5. German

6. Vietnamese

Auto Deliver Layaway Item

The new functionality will prompt the cashier to add the items that are put on Layaways automatically for delivery in a transaction if the customer has paid all the installments. Using this functionality the cashier operations are eased as there would no need to add the items for delivery once the customer has paid for the Layaways.

Gift Cards/Gift Certificates

Gift Certificate functionality has been enhanced with this release of iVend. This release allows selling and redeeming the Gift Certificate in single transaction. With this feature enhancement the cashier can now redeem the Store Credit that was given to the customer and can still issue a new Gift Certificate in the single transaction.

Printing Enhancements

The following are now supported by the thermal receipts of iVend

1. Barcode (Single or Multiple) can be printed anywhere on the receipt: Earlier version of iVend had a limitation that the barcodes will always be printed at the bottom of the receipt. With the new release it would be possible to print the barcode anywhere on the receipt. This is beneficial specially in printing the Gift Certificates from iVend.

2. Paper Cut: Receipt can now be configured to be cut from more than one place now.

3. Showing the decimal values as whole number on receipt: User would now be able get rid of trailing zeroes of the shown value on the receipt. This would make receipt more readable.

Inventory Transactions

All inventory transactions screens of iVend now shows the line number in front of each row of detail. This is helpful in user to identify the number of rows in a document specially while entering the Goods receipt at store.

Security Rights for Closing the Till

A new security right has been introduced in this release of iVend to restrict/allow the cashier from closing the till at the POS. This setting would normally be used when the till is assigned to a Team instead of a User and only one User of the team is allowed to close the till at the POS.

Quick Button

Quick button functionality has been enhanced with this release of iVend. User would now be able to setup a Quick button for a Matrix item also. This would enable the user to click on the button and quickly select the child product for selling.

Inter-Store Transactions

The Inter-Store transaction functionality is now split in two parts

1. Can Deliver from General Warehouse: This functionality will allow configuration of the system to capture the Sales/Order at Store which are to be delivered from General Warehouse from SAP Business One.

2. Allow Inter-Store: This functionality will allow the configuration of the system to capture the Sales/Orders at the Store which are to be delivered from other retail stores or from general warehouse of SAP Business One.

The major differentiating factor between the above 2 options is the way the records are replicated between the stores. In second case the transaction done at the one store are replicated to all other stores whereas in first case the transaction done at store is replicated only to the iVend Enterprise.

Integration Enhancements

The integration cycle will now integrate the records from SAP Business One to iVend before posting the transactions into SAP Business One.

SAP Business One Integration

iVend integration engine will now populate the transaction id of iVend transaction in the Journal Remarks field of the SAP Business One invoices and payments. This would help SAP Business One user in reconciling the customer accounts within SAP Business One.

The advent of online retail and smart phones, while enabling the consumer, has created more challenges for traditional retailers already facing difficult economic times. And the small and medium sized retailer is even more sensitive to this issue.

The term “mission shoppers” has been coined to describe Web-savvy shoppers that enter a store with a purpose – they head directly to their intended purchase and leave without browsing. They’ve already used the web to investigate and analyze the goods. This is especially impactful for retailers dealing in name brand commodities like electronics, luggage, and appliances, but it will have an effect on every business.

Another potentially damaging effect of online commerce is the ability for a consumer to research the desired item in a brick and mortar store and then make their purchase online for the best deal. Many shoppers still desire that kinesthetic aspect of touching, seeing, and trying on merchandise before they purchase it. They’ve essentially used the store as an investigative tool but let price be the deciding factor in where they make their purchase.

Fortunately, many consumers still appreciate the individualized service one gets from an independent retailer, as evidenced by the success of American Express’ 2^nd annual Small Business Saturday. The following strategies, when implemented consistently, allow your retail business to integrate the technological practices of large chain retailers with the personalized service of a small business.

Help your “mission shopper” find what they are looking for quickly and efficiently. What if your customer wants a certain brand of luggage in a color that you don’t currently have in stock? In the time it would take your staff to call around to other stores, your savvy shopper has likely found the item on the internet, using their smart phone, in the color and style they desire. With the iVend retail management solution, your staff can locate inventory available at any of your locations quickly from their POS terminal, thus saving the sale and impressing your customer with their fast and efficient service.

You can offer flexible payment plans such as layaways to your customer. While they may save some money by buying the desired item online, they need to pay for it immediately and then wait several days to receive this item. Your staff can use iVend’s layaway feature to entice consumers to purchase without having to part with their cash immediately. Layaway terms can be arranged to fit the customer’s needs, allowing your staff to upsell items and increase sales. Many large retailers are bringing back layaways for the holiday shopping season.

Your staff can recognize and reward frequent and loyal customers easily. Our iVend Loyalty solution allows you to track your customer’s buying behavior and assign loyalty points, etc. Staff can use this to reward the frequent customer with discounts, gift cards, and more. Consumers who shop at small to medium sized stores generally appreciate the recognition and relationship they establish with the retailer. Why not reward them for their loyal behavior?

Make real time pricing decisions if needed. A friend of mine recently was in the market for a new television. He was the true mission shopper – after researching various brands and finding the best price online, he then asked two local retailers if they’d match Amazon’s price, which was $30 less. One savvy retailer quickly matched it and then threw in free shipping and removal of their old tv. It’s no wonder that this independent brick and mortar retailer has consistently done well, even though their prices are higher than most chain stores.

iVend is a complete end to end retail management solution that allows you to analyze and react in real time. Together with your personalized service and business savvy, the small and medium sized retailer can easily turn browsers into loyal buyers.

The current disinvestment opportunity will offer wider choice with better quality to consumers and bring in more business opportunities for SMEs. With large investments expected in this sector, global retailers shall be interested to explore the Indian manufacturing base more, once they are allowed to set up local operations here.

Multi-brand retail with 51 per cent ownership will change the game completely and make the market more competitive, it shall also reduce wastage and reduce distress sales for farmers involved in fruit & vegetable cultivation; that is expected to give a definitive surge for Indian economy. The organized retail is expected to increase affordability for consumers. The quality of products is expected to improve with greater transparency and easier monitoring of adulteration. The organized sector will redefine India’s supply chain infrastructure and bring down the prices, and the consumers shall gain from the same.

“Indian retail shall see a serious competition between the organized retail and traditional unorganized mom-and-pop shops, it will increase their effort to enhance their customer proposition through adoption of innovative ways. These steps  may vary from adding new product lines, brands, better display, renovation of the store, introduction of self service, enhanced home delivery, more credit sales, acceptance of credit cards, etc.” said Mr. Kamal Karmakar, CEO, CitiXsys Technologies Ltd. He further added “ for Retail Management & Integrated Retail Solutions CitiXsys has a Suite of Applications for business owners, hence we also see it as a welcome business opportunity for us in India.”

For more details about CitiXsys Retail solutions, log on to www.Citixsys.com.

1. Introducing the HANA Revolution
2. Performance Delivered – Analyzing 3.2 Billion Records
3. iVend Retail with SAP Software

CitiXsys, a proud sponsor to the event and our Vice President, Mr. Manish Chaturvedi shall be present there as a guest speaker at the event along with Mr. Dipan Shah, Business Head for EMEA. As a speaker, Manish shall be discussing on challenges faced by retail segment worldwide and solution to same with integrated, scalable retail management software solution – iVend Retail.
“SAP conferences are the ideal time to hear SAP success stories and share best practices from industry leaders & partners. We get a chance to showcase our products for SAP Business One – our leading industry partner, & at the same time unveiling the same to other SAP enthusiasts and business partner attendees. We shall dramatically extend our presence and actively display our services throughout the event.” said Mr. Manish Chaturvedi- VP, Inside Sales, CitiXsys Technologies Ltd.

Meet CitiXsys representative at Booth no.- C-21, Hilton Birmingham Metropole Hotel, National Exhibition Center,Birmingham UK.