Selecting the right solution for your retail business

When the time comes to update your ERP and POS systems, many retailers are cautious. Overhauling your IT is a big step, and an ERP and POS implementation impacts every aspect of the business. Get it wrong, and you could end up caught in a costly and time intensive exercise, landed with a system that doesn’t deliver all the functionality you need. But get it right, and you’ll have a solid backbone to your operations, which will support you as you grow and diversify your business, and which will ultimately help you thrive. 

Does it support a seamless shopping experience? 

Many software solutions let you superficially deliver a uniform experience for the customer. But to deliver effective and engaging customer experiences across channels, you need technology that gives you a clear view of your data, total control, and real-time information on products, sales, and customers for all your online and physical stores. If your data sits in siloes, across separate databases, and your channels don’t communicate with one another, sooner or later you’ll find yourself unable to see and serve your customers. 

Can your system offer personalization? 

Customers expect to be treated as individuals and want to be recognized as such. When personalization is done well, it can bring significant benefits to your business. Can you offer personalization? To gain a complete view of each customer, you must be able to identify them whether they are shopping online, on the app, or in person, and connect all the data points so they form a single picture. This involves bringing together multiple data sources into one database, to obtain a unified view of consumers across transactions and channels. 

How strong are the stock management capabilities? 

To have the right products at hand and minimize overstock, retailers also need to be able to both see what consumers are buying now, and to foresee what they will want in the future. To do this they need intelligent tools that help them identify trends and patterns, predict demand, and determine which products to order and how to distribute them. 

Does it deliver strong business intelligence and advanced analytics? 

As retail becomes increasingly data driven, you need technology that helps you wade through oceans of data, and organize, analyse, and contextualize information from different sources and channels. And as consumer preferences and opportunities move fast, you also need technology that suggest you what actions to take to optimize your pricing, promotions, and assortment. 

Will it support changing business needs? 

Every retailer needs future-proof technology that will support them as they grow their enterprise, diversify their product offering, and adapt to new business needs. While you may already have plans to open new locations, you can’t always predict accurately how quickly you’ll grow. You’ll be happy you selected a software solution that makes it easy to open new stores, perhaps in countries with different regulations, currencies, or languages. If you already run non-retail services, or plan to do it, it pays off to find an ERP and POS system that can support different industry requirements out of the box. 

Selecting a POS and ERP system that supports your current and future needs will help you build resilience and agility into your retail business. At the same time, the software solution you choose will significantly impact your business for the next 5-10 years – so this is not a decision to be taken lightly. 

For further information on LS Retail please contact allonline365 on +27 (21) 205 3650, or email us on info@allonline365.com, or visit our website www.allonline365.com