The availability of Mac OS X-friendly Point of Sale solutions is giving Apple VARs a new window into small businesses. Retail and restaurant outlets looking for good-looking hardware more and more buy the Apple designed hardware, together with POS software such as XSilva Lightspeed (I will blog about this product in a separate post later). Besides the Apple hardware and the POS software, Mac resellers earn extra money with networking and typical Point of Sale devices such as barcode readers and receipt printers.
This viral video was created by halo, manufacturer of a web based Point of Sale system. Though I doubt you can solve hardware related problems with a web-based solution, the video is funny enough. Besides that, they offer $10.000 for additional videos of people destroying their POS systems.
Dell will team with SAP to offer an integrated point-of-sale (POS) store solution, enabling retailers to utilize SAP for Retail software solutions on Dell’s Retail OptiPlex 745 POS systems and Dell PowerEdge servers. The alliance, which brings together the world’s biggest business software maker and the No. 2 PC maker, promises to deliver systems that help retailers run their business more cheaply and efficiently.
Enhanced POS features — including accurate and timely customer demand data, real-time inventory visibility and integrated returns processing — combined with seamless connections into core merchandising and supply chain processes, will help enable retailers to better track purchase behaviors, identify buying trends and process customer transactions more rapidly.
How loyal are your customers? Are they coming back because the way you treat them? Or Just because you offer cheap prices?
Some retailers go beyond the call of duty to make customers feel more than welcome in their stores. Some make them feel like guests. Furthermore, they may be pleased and satisfied with a particular visit, but it doesn’t translate into the same affinity and desire to return again and again.
Should you treat them as friends? A friendship is special things. People might go out of their way to see a friend. They care about them, whatever they might need or enjoy their company. On the other hand, a guest, in most cases, is unwelcome whereas a friend is not!
You need two to tango, right? Retailers must invest more time with their customers and get to know them and listen to their concerns in order to establish the trust necessary for a strong, loyal, long-lived relationship.
Loyalty translates to repeat business. Statistics show that a 5 percent of customers’ retention could increase profits from 25 to over 100 percent.
Retailers understand the concept of repeat business and want to do what they can to get it; however, they should look into turning their customers into friends rather than treating them as guest.
It takes patience and more than one visit to achieve it. Friendships are not built over-night, they need time to mature but they can have great benefit as long as you are honest and sincere. Cheap prices will not do the job.
For years several manufacturers have tried to sell web-based POS systems, but until now with limited success. The benefits of a web-based solution are clear: lower maintenance costs, easy to upgrade and above all accessible from anywhere.
But the downside of a internet based solution is equally clear: What happens when the internet connection fails? Yes, you’re out of luck, and have to fall back to pen & paper. This disadvantage has kept many retailers from going web-based, and rightly so, as internet connection do fail once in a while.
But now Google presented Google Gears. Google Gears is an open source browser extension that enables web applications to provide offline functionality using the following JavaScript APIs:
Store and serve application resources locally
Store data locally in a fully-searchable relational database
Run asynchronous Javascript to improve application responsiveness
In short, Google Gears allows software manufacturers to create web-based applications that can be used off-line. Although Google Gears is still a beta product, there are already a number of sites using it. Now just wait until a Point Of Sale manufacturer implements Google Gears…
Today, Microsoft announces their latest product, Microsoft Surface. Surface is basically a powerful computer disguised as a table with a interactive surface. Surface automatically detects objects, and can interact with them.
One of the demo videos on the Surface site shows how this product can be used in a hospitality environment. The video shows a group of friends having a drink, and when one of the persons lays his credit card on the table, Surface automatically reads the card (how?) and displays information about the card holder:
The center of the table shows images of all the food drinks consumed at the table, and each person can simply drag an item to their credit card and split the bill:
Surface is a very neat product, but at $10.000 really only an option for very trendy places with few tables.
Sharp Electronics announced the availability of the UP-X300CF256 embedded POS system integrated with the optional Sharp SDW online communication solution for back office reporting.
It has a durable, sleek, matte black cabinet and a colour LCD touch-screen, making it an ideal fit for all types of hospitality environments, such as table-service and fast-casual restaurants, bars, cafeterias and delicatessens. The UP-X300CF256 has real client / server functionality with a system structure designed for real-time, dynamic information and simple maintenance via Ethernet or TCP/IP communication systems. This system is intended for configurations with up to six terminals. The system is also expandable with a variety of accessories to meet various hospitality solutions. The UP-X300CF256 can interface with key hospitality peripherals including Ethernet printers, credit card EFT, scales, kitchen video monitors and barcode scanners. For local access to accessories at the terminal, each terminal includes two USB ports and three RS-232 communication ports for a keyboard, drink dispenser, local and remote printers and other accessories.
Fujitsu plans the next release of its GlobalSTORE point of sale (POS) software. New features will include fully touch-enabled interactive screens for cashiers and customer information displays, simplified integration to other store systems including customer relationship management programs and U-Scan checkout systems and Microsoft-centric technology. GlobalSTORE minimizes the time to create real-time interoperability between disparate applications and devices. The application is a customizable POS and cash management system.
Microsoft issues its first update to the Windows-based retail operating system, Windows Embedded for Point of Service (WEPOS). WEPOS 1.1 adds support for the latest industry standards, streamlines installation of mass storage devices during setup, and enhances its language support. The new language support includes Multilingual User Interface packs (MUIs) for more than 30 languages. The WEPOS 1.1 update follows the recent Microsoft POS for .Net 1.11 update. That release featured added device classes for biometrics, bill acceptor and dispensers and image scanner peripherals.
Many retailers sell products that is grouped into Matrix. A Matrix is a way of grouping inventory items that share the same basic item information but differ in one or two item characteristics, example size, colour, pattern, etc. A Matrix is a rectangular array of elements (or entries) set out by rows and columns.
For example, a shoe store can have a line of shoe that comes in different colours and sizes. Rather than adding an item for each colour and size, you add one item and define it as a Matrix. Then you can specify its characteristics like in this case colour and size. When viewing your inventory or planning a purchase or issuing an invoice, it can be very helpful to view and work with a Matrix.
