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By Natalie Stevenson
Deputy Features Editor,
Retail Week |
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A good retailer knows your name, knows what you like and knows which products you've bought before, when and why. Based on this information, they can suggest special offers you're interested in and point you towards products you'll probably buy. If this sounds accurate, you're almost certainly dealing with an online retailer.
Unfortunately, this type of information-rich, personalised service is seldom found at bricks and mortar retailers' points of sale. Online shopping is serious competition for the high street because the virtual PoS is full of added value. However, high street retailers now have the opportunity to play their online peers at their own game. By harnessing new technology, the physical point of sale can become more than just a way of
parting shoppers from their cash. Examining the online
competition, it is clear that many shoppers like to research
products to an almost fanatical level of detail.
This service could be taken into the high street, with shoppers using touchscreens and printers in stores to find and print out information pertinent to their product with the help of store staff. When faced with 100 varieties of mobile phone, tariff and
package, for example, time starved shoppers would be better served using technology that empowers them to narrow their search rather than baffling them with too much information. We have already seen retailers, particularly electronics and mobile phone specialists such as Carphone Warehouse, getting better at this by evolving their points of sale into true points of service. Shoppers are starting to expect personalised service at the point of sale and staff to be informed enough to help them with
complex decision making.
Most retailers understand that the point of sale can add value
for both retailers and customers by making stock positions
available in real time, along with other operational benefits. More importantly though, the interactive and information-rich point of sale can play a key role in promotional activity, upselling and boosting brand image. These customer-related benefits can be gained by harnessing new point of sale technology that adds to existing EPoS systems.
Full colour printing is now available for the point of sale that allows retailers to print any information the customer wants
onto virtually any material. The customer who discards regular receipts would take a second look at colour vouchers, gift
certificates and promotional information printed on eye-catching paper or card. Those hungry for more information could retain printed documents, certificates of authentication and guarantees. These could also benefit the retailer when exchanges or returns are necessary - a massive issue when Christmas comes along.
Retailers are waking up to the possibilities of mobile points of sale - at first seen as a queue busting mechanism but now used to give more personal service to customers and to up and cross sell products. Mobile tills are already being deployed by retailers such as Woolworths, so that customers are given speedy service by knowledgeable staff. Staff can use mobile points of sale to receive information on products, check availability and to print information for customers to keep. Much more interaction between staff and customers is thus available.
As tills become more interactive, double screened points of sale will begin to appear, enabling staff and shoppers to contribute information simultaneously, feeding into product searches, the agreement of contracts, order and delivery arrangements and payment. This allows customers to re-gain control over their buying decision, in keeping with the trend for increasingly informed consumers becoming more involved with researching and dictating the terms of a purchase as shown by the
ever-flourishing Ebay.
With the cost of ownership of point of sale technology falling, technology becoming easier to use and deployment becoming less complex, investment in the crucial point of sale will be a small price to pay for retailers to gain engaged, excited and empowered staff and customers.
What do you think? If you have any comments on this story, please email your views to editor@epsonsupport.co.uk |
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