Digital Transformation – Shopi

How Retailers can Overcome Common Delivery Challenges

admin — Mon, 03 Oct 2022 22:14:12 +0000

Retailers have come a long way to keep up with the rapid challenges due to the pandemic, and high inflation rate and still keep evolving with the flow. However, at some point, customers want more. Customers ask retailers to be more knowledgeable about their orders, get their online purchases right away as they are lack of patience than ever before.

That is being the case, retailers need to be take a holistic approach over the entire operation and go through each process until the order is received by the customer. However, there are some main obstacles that retailers may miss out. Let’s take a look at what are the three challenges that retailers must overcome in order to meet custumer demand, compete in the retail environment and still be profitable.

Costly Fulfillment Methods

Let’s assume that a customer places an order and the retailers get notified. How the process work? In traditional and most common way, the order is fulfilled from the warehouse or from a distribution center without considering the current situation of that particular place in terms of busyness, distance and even the stock quantity. The operation until the order is delivered to shipping provider is run with manual actions which may cause frictions that ends up with lack of customer satisfaction and profit loss. However, in a world that an order management system is used, with an omnichannel approach, the order is fulfilled by business-spesific rules to find the most efficient way to fulfill an order and not only from a depot but from any stores available.

Lack of Technology

It gets complicated when multiple methods and shipping providers are involved. Most of the retailers don’t have control over their shipping providers to choose the most optimal way to make deliveries. This is how it is handled; retailers choose and integrate different methods including same-day delivery, standard delivery, etc. once and let customers choose. In this case, retailers can get help from a technology to make the right decision by considering the cost, distance and the most optimal way to deliver the order to customer’s doorstep.

Poor Communication

Customers have no patience for delayed orders and according to Deloitte’s latest research, 70% of customers are less likely to shop with a retailer again if an item is delayed and that is being the case, retailers should be more cautious while tracking and informing customers about where their order is placed and what is the exact time of delivery. It’s hard to track and handle tons of orders from different sales channels in real time without having a robust system. What retailers can do is get access to the entire lifecycle of orders accurately and give the right information to their customers whenever and wherever they want.

Shopi’s Omnichannel Order Hub solution is the perfect fit for retailers who suffers these challenges and face friction about their order lifecycle on a daily basis. With the shipment module, retailers can manage each and every order, in which conditions they will be shipped, and with which shipping provider by setting their own business rules and making it run in seconds. Today, it’s time for retailers to keep up with their customers’ demand, and thanks to Shopi, not only do customers get what they need but also helps to increase operational efficiency. To find out more about our solutions, please feel free to contact us!

“Omnishoppers” are on the rise. How retailers can keep up?

admin — Sun, 29 May 2022 19:17:30 +0000

It’s no secret that retailers have focused on enhancing their e-commerce channels as they faced a dramatic shift to online shopping starting especially during the pandemic. Even though it can’t be considered a wrong move, retailers who totally ignored the in-store experience and invested online only to keep up with the trend will actually be losing in the long run. Why? It’s because customers now are not only do shopping online but blend online and offline who are “omnishoppers”.

Omnishoppers are more demanding compared to ones who only shop online or from a physical store. Retailers need to take those customers seriously and build experiences to meet their demands while maintaining profitability as they are now not insignificant. In that case, let’s take a look at what retailers can do to build more efficient operations.

How to create an intriguing online & offline experience

Physical stores still occupy an important place but if retailers have the right strategy to turn them into space to attract customers. Customers get the best service in the fastest way possible which is only possible through adopting the right technology. While a customer does online shopping, engines find them where they can find the product, the availability and suggestion. Physical stores need to provide that service to keep customers coming back. Digitizing the store with omnichannel POS and clienteling solutions makes a big difference from the moment a customer comes in the store. Store associates can complete registration processes without leading customers somewhere in the store that completely distracts them. By empowering store associates with the right tools, they can provide an experience that can compete with online shopping. Customer information and purchase history can be kept and accessed within seconds, and most importantly store associates don’t get tied in cashiers and complete checkout anywhere which improves customer experience.

What if customers face stockouts…

Let’s suppose a customer gets the best and most personalized experience from sales assocaites but if the sales associates can not access the accurate stock data, the shopping journey ends up being a disappointment. At that point, there should be a robust system that provides real-time inventory visibility to enable store associates to access the most accurate data. With a system that connects all the inventory of online and offline channels, store associates can share the stock availability confidently, complete checkout right away in the aisle, or even better, they can provide various fulfillment options including click and collect, and send to address as they are sure that the item is available at that store.

Does in-store inventory need protection?

Another aspect to consider is that there are a lot of physical stores retailers have to manage and each has a different size, busyness, and a number of employees working. In order to provide the same service in each store, retailers need a robust order management system that enables retailers to manage even the smallest detail, SKUs, the daily order assignment limit for each store, and give them the ability to turn on/off click & collect and send to address options in seconds. The answer is yes. For busy stores and trend products, there should be options to enable retailers to set buffers that minimize out-of-stock problems, their stress, and unsatisfied customers.

If you want to serve the best possible experience out there, meet Shopi’s ORP! With Shopi’s core capabilities, you can manage the entire operation confidently while maximizing profit and customer loyalty. Turn your stores into a place where “omnishoppers” get the speed and convenience they get from online channels. This way, increase the foot traffic to unlock cross-sale opportunities and offer convenient payment and fulfillment options. To find out more about how to transform your operation and how to do it easily with Shopi, get in touch with us!

How Retailers Can Provide the Best Service While Maintaining Profitability

admin — Mon, 28 Mar 2022 07:42:55 +0000

Retailers have been adopting smart devices and technologies for their store operations to meet ever-changing customer behavior which has been significantly impacted by the pandemic. The need for rapid change put apparent pressure on retailers as the environment forced them to rethink their online and offline presence and there has been no slowdown of competition ever since with the acceleration of digitalization. These changes are here to stay and researches show that 85% of consumers report that they plan to continue with the shopping behaviors they adopted during the crisis.*

It is also already known that the existing systems are no longer hitting the mark and are not answering neither retailers’ nor customers’ needs in running the operations efficiently. Plus these systems are not sufficient to compete when it comes to “omnichannel” transformation as they aren’t designed to answer retailers’ complex problems. In order to have control over their operations, they need to be able to have full control over their stocks and have accurate inventory visibility. Retailers need to know if a product is damaged, not found, or has another status until it’s sold, and while doing that, they also need to provide an exceptional shopping experience both online and offline. It sounds like too much work, right? Implementing the right technology eases each process and accelerates the transformation right away. Here are three main key points to adopt in order for retailers to have the most efficient and up-to-date operation out there.

Enhance In-Store Experience

There has been a constant change in customers’ shopping habits affecting the channels they prefer to do the shopping at and we have been witnessing this more for the past two years. With the pandemic, online sales increased dramatically, but even so, the latest research conducted by IBM in 2022 shows that 72% of consumers still rely on stores as their primary buying method. So, it may be the right time to consider in-store digital transformation to be able to provide the best service. But how?

Omnichannel mobile POS solutions that enable store employees to access the digital catalog as well as real-time stock availability and let them complete checkout without needing a cashier, will prevent lost sales stemming from out-of-stock problems. Even if an item is not available in that particular store but can be seen as in-stock in other stores or in any distribution center, customers can still purchase that item at that moment and have it shipped to any address they prefer.

Clienteling is also high in demand and could be considered for improving customer satisfaction. It’s no secret that brand loyalty is a key driver of business profitability and with such an app, customers can feel free to enjoy a personalized shopping experience while getting a fast and seamless service as store associates never have to leave customers’ side anymore.

Remove the Barrier of Stocktake Discrepancies

Sales channels become more and more varied leading to increased stocktake discrepancies. This is indeed one of the most critical issues for an organization since you can’t sell the inventory that you don’t see accurately.

To add to this problem, ERP systems are, unfortunately, not designed to answer real-time visibility requests. Yet, retailers mistakenly try using ERPs for such requests, almost like an order management system, and naturally can’t get the results they are looking for. On the other hand, an omnichannel order management system will provide retailers a reliable mechanism to sell without the hesitation of inaccurate inventory as these systems provide an almost 100% accurate inventory and real-time access to that information.

With a proper and holistic OMS in place, retailers can sell their inventory in the most ideal scenario possible and access real-time data of their orders, returns, cancels, and more detailed information including the most used delivery and fulfillment methods that help them immensely while making strategic business decisions.

Provide Exceptional Delivery

For most retailers, the order process ends when the package is delivered to the courier, however, there is a big opportunity for optimization right after “ pick and pack” processes so that in the end there is more profit, increased efficiency, and improved customer satisfaction.

Large retailers have vast resources to speed up and enhance their shipping processes while many mid-to-large retailers face a much different reality. They have little control and effort over their customer’s shipping experiences. Forward-thinking retailers are aware of the gap there and consider optimizing the shipping process with fully-automated shipment modules. By adopting the right module, retailers can fine-tune their business rulesets on the configuration panel and the algorithm finds the most optimal shipping provider from existing ones. The workforce and the effort can easily be minimized and as the processes run friction-free and automated, customer satisfaction improves accordingly.

Shopi’s Omnichannel Order Hub gives retailers full control of their operations by connecting all online and offline channels, offering real-time visibility and full automated work orders that prevent lost sales. Thanks to its smart algorithm, retailers can easily fine-tune the configurations enabling them to prioritize stores and warehouses for order fulfillment. Shopi also helps retailers manage pre-sales with the mobile pos and clienteling solution, Store Hub. This is how retailers can both provide the best service to their customers and make a profit as they can easily make the best decision by accessing the real-time data. If you want to find out how Shopi solves even the most complex scenarios with its highly inclusive solutions, contact us!

Resources

https://www.retaildive.com/news/report-85-of-consumers-will-continue-pandemic-shopping-behaviors-this-sea/608733/

https://www.ibm.com/thought-leadership/institute-business-value/report/2022-consumer-study

The Role of Real-Time Visibility for Operational Success

admin — Mon, 11 Oct 2021 07:29:01 +0000

Advancements in technology and the pandemic have changed the retail environment dramatically and accelerated the digital transformation. People have become more tech-savvy -especially the generation z- and to keep up with the changing customer habits, retailers have to implement the right technology at the right time.

2021 has proven that retailers need to prioritize the solutions/technologies that their operations need in order to stay competitive in the market, meet customer expectations and increase sales volume.

One of the significant reasons that make retailers come to change how their operations run is the inaccuracy of available products and unbalanced inventory between online and offline stores. Right omnichannel order management technology with a seamless real-time visibility function has become a game-changing move since retailers had to deal with these consequences.

If You Can’t See It, You Can’t Sell It

Retailers expect their ERP systems to fulfill any need related to inventory. However, those systems’ main focus isn’t real-time operation track but inventory receiving, managing the inventory moves. In order to have success in operation, retailers should understand the intended use of each technology.

In order to deliver the perfect order, the internal processes of the operation should be streamlined from gaining real-time visibility of inventory to orders to be fulfilled. The right order management implementation gives the single look at the entire inventory regardless of the channel, helps employees to access the current status of an order, and most importantly enables HQ to manage configurations on the fly based on nodes -fulfillment centers-, stock level. This only gives the right result in operations where minute-to-minute inventory traceability is possible.

However, with an order and inventory management system, the inventory always gets ready for each possible sale, in every location in balance to minimize the lost sales, eliminate overcommitting and out-of-stocking problems and increase the sales volume accordingly.

See Your Way to a More Predictable Future

An order management system not only helps retailers to automatize the order process but also collects all the data from each action taken and turns it into actionable insights on a user-friendly dashboard that includes total revenue, revenue by channel, top products, and top fulfillment centers.

It helps retailers better predict future stocks, more specifically the SKUs that will be purchased accurately by accessing past experiences in a user-friendly dashboard. Also, decision-makers leverage the data to create advanced business strategies to run their operations more efficiently, deliver a superior customer experience and become more competitive in the market by saying “yes” to their customers more often.

Have Cost-effective Operations from Scratch

Starting from the internal operation, an order management system removes much of the decision-making responsibility from employees, puts tasks in order automatically and implements the business rules determined to decide each order’s journey, and most importantly, updates the data periodically. This way, the labor cost needed in the operation can be reduced or be used in the storefront and customer services to strengthen customer relationships and build loyalty.

The system automatically finds the best location to fulfill an order, knows the right amount of stock level that is needed for each channel and allocates the inventory without any friction. This way, shipment, and transfer costs are reduced compared to traditional order processing as the real-time visibility gives the most up-to-date information to the operation and makes these actions accurate.

With Shopi’s Omnichannel Order Hub, gaining these capabilities to operations is accessible than ever! There is no time left to keep up with the retail environment and adopt the latest technologies. Thanks to Shopi’s seamless integration-ready APIs, the existing systems can be integrated within weeks and gives the entire operations a single picture of both order and inventory-related information in real-time. Omnichannel Order Hub once takes the inventory information from existing ERP, then keeps any data that a regular ERP can’t take as damaged item, returned item, etc., and gives the most accurate visibility of the entire inventory. In order to better manage your inventory, and keep your customers happy, meet Shopi!

Why Omnichannel Order Management is Crucial for Decision-Making Processes

admin — Mon, 23 Aug 2021 06:53:31 +0000

“Out of stock” – the three most dreaded words in the retail industry. Interestingly, 43% of customers’ shopping preferences were based on in-stock availability, while 31% expected extended stock visibility. This requires a seamlessly running operation and end-to-end control over inventory. Thus, streamlining order and inventory management and technology adoption is steadily gaining importance.

While retailers prefer spending their time on product improvement and brand building, the “new normal” makes them think more about the operational processes that are as crucial as the brand presence. With the new model, an automated order management system has become the one-stop solution that aids companies to focus on developmental strategies. The order management system and the algorithm that works behind make the operation run in the most efficient way possible, but there is another key aspect to consider which is tracking the data including orders, inventory, and performance accurately. This way, businesses can access elaborate dashboards to prioritize, plan and map out their action items in a well-thought-out manner, have better insights, and better-informed business decisions accordingly.

Visibility of Real-Time Operations

By using the right tool, retailers can drill down into inventory analysis and stock availability based on minute-to-minute data collection in a single pool which minimizes any data loss and error. The real-time performance data is beneficial for the right stocking, synchronized back and front stock level to perform and use the stock right and efficiently. Collecting and accessing the accurate data ensures monitoring business-critical KPIs of revenue, distribution channels, product returns, payment options, and other operational data that can be useful to take the right action. This observability helps judge inventory flow, address bottlenecks, correct errors, aid faster restocking to fulfill delivery periods, and so on. In the long run, with the right omnichannel order management system, by observing data collected over the years, seasonal demand upsurges can be identified based on previous selling seasons which helps to prevent out-of-stock and overstocking problems.

Follow Up Product Life Cycle

A comprehensive order and inventory management system offers a single view of an entire operation. It helps automate the flow of information during the entire journey of a customer order and more specifically the status of where the order is located presently and who is assigned for the task. Further, product requisition information is synced with the order management to provide end-to-end visibility in all channels.

Importantly, a retailer must understand the product stage with its life cycle to optimize warehousing and manage demand. For instance, a retailer may stock products with a good profit margin trend without understanding the product stage. If the product is at its maturity stage, its demand may either stagnate or decline. Without this visibility, companies may incur huge losses on account of obsolete inventory. Hence, omnichannel data management will provide 360-degree visibility to the stock at all times to avoid inventory and order-related errors that may cause loss to operations.

Ideation of Innovative Business Strategies

With the rise in online activity, companies have access to primary customer data. However, merely collecting data would mean wasting a valuable source that would provide actionable insights. The in-built business intelligence in the order and inventory management platform provides detailed reports, aiding companies to make informed business decisions. Further, data points such as top and bottom sellers, profit margins, ready forecasts are beneficial to varied functions such as giving access to detailed channel information; top products, top fulfillment centers, the channels used, etc. Using advanced analytics, retailers can design campaigns and create business strategies by tracking active customers, browsing activity, purchase intent, demand trends, etc.

For instance, the festive season is one of the busiest and profitable periods for retailers and by analyzing the product demand trends beforehand, they can tweak the ongoing strategies or reformulate a robust strategy.

With Shopi’s Order and Inventory Hub, retailers can benefit from the overall order management capabilities and easily integrate with the existing systems with an API-based approach within weeks. Once the entire operation is connected, whether the order comes from an online site or from a physical store, it can be monitored and controlled through a single dashboard. Using the inventory wisely, and locating the order in the right place, thanks to smart routing algorithms, retailers can also make business decisions, forecast future customer demand based on the accuracy of the data collected, and run their operation in the most efficient way possible. To find out how to turn your traditional retail operations into seamlessly running and unified platforms, contact us now!

Omnichannel Order Management: Pain Points and Opportunities Ahead

admin — Mon, 14 Jun 2021 07:08:47 +0000

It’s no surprise that, in the midst of this pandemic, the retail industry is in severe crisis. Retailers’ fortunes have worsened as a result of the global pandemic. Delivering the same customer experience across multiple channels becomes tiresome after a while. As a retailer, half the battle is already won, if the right tools are applied for the right strategy to propel both customers and operation. To stay in the game and to put your best foot forward, analyzing changing customer behavior and learning how to keep up with the industry is where it should be started.

Those brands and companies which can zero down on the cream from the crowd by incorporating the right tactics end up having convenient customers and efficient operations. Then, what lies behind the “new normal” and what to apply?

We’ve witnessed that having full control over the order journey and executing a true omnichannel order management is one such way that can help business owners thrive. Before going ahead, let’s take a glimpse of the challenges that can be a colossal reason for failure in operational efficiency before entering into omnichannel order management.

Unavailability of Accurate Data

What makes retailers lose revenue and customer loyalty is mainly because of the inaccurate data which causes lack of communication and loss of sales. Ended up with out-of-stock, overstock problems, and dissatisfied customers is just what retailers get if they can’t manage their channels, balance their stocks and have full control over their order and inventory in real-time. That’s why retailers need an order management system; to be more aware of what they have, to analyze and transfer their inventory to their top stores to use their inventory more efficiently and less costly, and most importantly to avoid saying “no” to their customers.

Disconnection between Online and Offline

It becomes critical and difficult for most retailers to keep all channels’ data and insight for informed predictions. Managing physical stores, eCommerce sites and marketplaces’ inventory data is now more important than ever since the pandemic hit and changed the balance of the share of channels.

Here is what happens when retailers don’t acquire the right omnichannel strategy. First, keeping up with the stock changes becomes nearly impossible which prevents them from investing in the right channel. Secondly, for the will of stores, tracking customer behavior and developing the right strategy ends up with failure as they can’t access real-time visibility and unified look of inventory.

Adversity in Returns and Exchanges

Gone are the days when customers were satisfied with what was being offered to them. As the saying goes, now, the customer holds the key of the industry; determines which channels to buy from, which technology they’d like to use, etc. They are no longer okay with the conflicts in return and exchange processes as it’s been a big pain point for customers and a determinant while choosing a brand to shop for. Omnichannel return & exchanges offer multiple ways that meet their customer’s demand including requesting return regardless of which channel they made the purchase to benefit from several exchange options.

What Happens as a Result

In a nutshell, the result is complete customer dissatisfaction and operation inefficiency. The number of channels for customer interaction is rapidly increasing as technology advances which makes the control much harder than ever. The more the interaction increases, the more the demand and inventory should be directed in the way that retailers benefit from. As the competition is fierce, retailers prefer not to refuse the customer. However, without real-time data and systematic operations, it’s hard to execute.

How to Achieve Efficiency in Operations

Retailers can better satisfy their customers and avoid all of the challenges to make their customers smile from ear to ear by utilizing integrated technology. Shopi’s Order & Inventory Hub provides the right engine to help retailers manage their channels unified which gives the right order & inventory data and the status of them to track what you have and where they are located presently. It allows retailers to monitor the advanced analytics of both their stores, channels, and more specifically their store associates and it gives the operation a vision for what comes next and has them be prepared for the next step thanks to business intelligence. This way, retailers take advantage of using their inventory in the most efficient way, balance their stock levels according to demand and give access to any channel of the inventory that avoids lost sales. To learn more about Omnichannel Order & Inventory Hub’s capabilities, get in touch with our experts!

Leverage Technology for Improved Inventory Management

admin — Mon, 03 May 2021 06:53:34 +0000

Poor inventory management is one of the biggest reasons for inefficiency, negative customer experience, and the resulting loss. This problem becomes more impactful when you’re selling a wide range of products and have only a limited space to store them all.

In such a case, these can be the consequences of poor inventory management:

You are unable to display your wide range of products
Poor choice of inventory management reduces your sales
Limited choices can be a turn-off for customers
Aggravates to track your inventory and manage them efficiently
Decreases employee productivity as they are constantly searching for products
Can create conflict between customers and employees.

If you are grappling with these problems, the good news is there is an effective solution that can help you to have full control over your inventory and orders as well; that is a well-positioned omnichannel order & inventory management system. You can leverage boosting your operation efficiency, customer experience, and overall productivity with the right strategy and technology behind. Let’s see how acquiring this kind of technology can protect your business from facing basic problems.

Omnichannel Order Management for Better Inventory

Omnichannel inventory technology should unify the entire inventory in a single place and give you real-time visibility, allowing retailers to have the right data over inventory while planning stock or demand according to the analytics. This gives retailers the power to procure what is needed based on customers’ demands. So, the concepts of “overstock” and “stockout” are eliminated as they have a unified look and can access the entire inventory whether it’s located in a warehouse or physical store. It helps retailers stop large items to occupy a ton of space in-store.

Let’s try to dive into this concept with an example. For instance, a customer walks into your store to buy a washing machine. You deal in about three brands and five models of each, for a total of 15 different of them. Imagine how much space it would take to store them and it’s just one product example. In addition to that, they are not fast-moving, so they just sit idle and occupy a large part of your store or maybe occupy the products’ place you can make profit from.

At the same time, when you don’t store these products, it can be a turn-off for your customer, and he/she can walk away to buy it from another store. That is something you surely don’t want. So, how can you strike a balance between these two possible scenarios? The simple answer – omnichannel order and inventory management systems and related devices to let customers monitor the products that aren’t in the store.

Think about a scenario where your customer picks one of your washing machine models; however, it is not in your stock. What will be your move to sell your product without any frustration for both sides? With an omnichannel order & inventory management system, you can immediately check other warehouses or stores with the help of real-time inventory visibility to find the way to sell the product. You can show the product to your customers without leaving their side thanks to the store associates app which enables displaying the entire inventory and related information in real-time. Also, you can let your customers help themselves and use in-store kiosks to display different models of a certain product they are looking for either it’s located in this store or not, and to enable them complete checkout without needing any assistance.

Improving Customer Engagement and Employee Productivity

As a business owner, this is another potential problem that keeps you from satisfying both your customers and employees. However, changing this unpleasant situation is possible with these technologies. When you empower your store associates with the right tools, they can quickly display the relevant products and their details, so they can provide accurate and timely information to customers. Also, they can display more choices instead of the unavailable product. It’s not just about selling the product, it’s also the principle of not saying “no” to customers to build loyalty and increase customer satisfaction. On the other side, the business owner increases the motivation of their employees by giving them what they need -the mobile app- to help them avoid wasting time searching for products and meet customer needs as soon as possible.

As you see, order & inventory management systems and in-store mobile devices, in particular, can be the panacea for all the problems that have been contributing to your loss. So, why not acquiring one to boost operational efficiency? Meet Shopi’s Order & Inventory Hub to have those capabilities to run your business in the most efficient way possible with minimum cost and maximum customer satisfaction.

How To Increase ROI Through Omnichannel

admin — Sun, 11 Apr 2021 09:24:19 +0000

The world of retail has seen some major upheavals over the last few years, thanks to the emergence of the Internet, social media, mobile technologies, and now, the COVID-19 pandemic. As people start coming back to stores, there is an overwhelming understanding that everything will never be the same again.

During this period, people have gotten used to the idea of buying online and when they come back to the store now, they expect the same personal experience that your website has been providing them. As a retailer, understanding what has changed and giving customers what they need is the essential key to your success. And how can you do that? The simple answer – Omnichannel retailing and in-store technologies.

Let’s briefly understand what omnichannel retailing and related technologies are before we understand their importance.

Need of Omnichannel Retailing in Inventory Management

Omnichannel retailing is the process by which you can reach out to your customers through many channels to provide an integrated and streamlined experience. This requires the right tools to bring together your physical and digital retail channels for a connected shopping experience for your customers.

Many companies around the world are embracing this form of retailing simply because it’s the future. As customers become more tech-savvy and have access to different channels, providing this seamless experience across in-store and online channels is becoming a basic building block for your business. Omnichannel retailing not only has a huge impact on the customer experience, but also on inventory management, operational efficiency, real-time visibility into inventory, and employee motivation. Let us now see how this impact works:

Real-time Visibility into Inventory

One of the advantages of omnichannel retailing is that it provides real-time inventory visibility so that retailers do not have dusty stocks piling up in some corners of their store. Rather, you only have those items that are sellable, and your stock moves quickly as well. Such streamlined inventory management can lead to more profits and better use of available space. It also avoids stockouts and overstocks. You have real-time access to your inventory and can easily navigate your fulfillment strategies, creating rule sets for your routing algorithms over your inventory.

Boosts In-store Efficiency

From an operations standpoint, in-store technology will always give you more efficiency. When you use state-of-the-art technology to monitor anything from customer information to product information and stock availability, on a mobile device, employees will avoid scrambling around the store searching for things. All that they have to do is click a button on their mobile device to know where items are and to answer any questions that customers may have regarding the items in the store or regarding their preferences. In turn, store staff will have more time to interact with customers leading to better customer service, improved efficiency, and high levels of employee motivation.

Enhances Customer Experience

With omnichannel retailing, you are in a better position to handle your customers’ requests with speed, efficiency, and high levels of shopping experience boosting the overall customer experience. You’re more likely to stock the things they buy and even if you do not have it in the store, you can deliver the item to their address or you can fulfill it from another store or a warehouse for store pick-up. All these are sure to enhance your customers’ trust in your brand. Omnichannel technologies unify channels and your customers can now do every transaction from the stores even for the items they buy online. They can exchange, return and pick up items in store, even though they complete their purchasing process online from e-stores. This provides huge flexibility for both customers and for retailers, minimizing the cost of logistics.

Increases ROI through Omnichannel

When all of these are taken into consideration, you may wonder how these capabilities will help you in the long run to increase ROI. ROI is related to customer experience and operational efficiency at its core. So the better the operation, the better the efficiency, and according to that the higher ROI.

This is where omnichannel should be considered as a solution. If the strategy is well-executed then the quality of the experience increases. It forces retailers to be more involved and think about their presence on a larger scale. This leads to opening more possibilities and in turn make the retailer more successful and increase ROI.

The health of a business largely depends on how well-received and professional it is. It will become important to be omnichannel, to stay one step ahead of the game. Customers are looking for retailers with whom they can connect and make the customer journey satisfying. When these needs are met, the ROI is increased accordingly. With omnichannel investments, you will be not only increasing your overall customer satisfaction but also increasing your efficiency and minimizing your cost for your operations and logistics.

So, isn’t it high time to acquire an omnichannel order management technology to enhance your operation and to keep up with the era? Meet Shopi’s cloud-based omnichannel and mobile solutions that meet the needs of modern-day retail scenarios. Fulfill all those needs above with an intuitive dashboard and a user-friendly interface that makes it easy to stay on top of your customer engagement while increasing your operational efficiency and return on investment.

What Lessons Learned in 2020

admin — Mon, 29 Mar 2021 06:36:13 +0000

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought sweeping changes to the retail world as stores learn to bridge the physical and digital to provide a seamless shopping experience for customers and at the same time, implement some necessary precautions to provide contactless shopping to avoid hygiene concerns.

These changes have been possible because of the use of omnichannel technologies such as order management systems, inventory management systems, in-store mobile devices, and more. Also, more retailers are looking to keep up with the challenges and have been turning to technology for the same. In 2021, retailers are aware of the path they should take to keep the pace of the environment and to survive. The lessons learned from 2020, so let’s check out what to keep and what to avoid to acquire these experiences right.

Why Low Operational Efficiency?

A study by Forrester Consulting shows that 67% of retailers are concerned about low operational efficiency, but only 27% feel in control of it. This gap stems from a lack of understanding of what causes inefficiency and leads to an inability to fix them.

Broadly speaking, low operational efficiency occurs due to,

Outdated inventory practices that cause unwanted items to pile up and leave out the essential and fast-moving items
Disconnect between online and offline systems, so what’s shown as available on the website is not available in the store
Poor understanding of market demands and changing customer preferences
Poor orchestration of the existing systems, especially in an omnichannel environment
High employee turnover

All these reasons can occur in isolation or in tandem to bring down the efficiency and the resulting profits.

Bad Customer Experience

In today’s competitive environment, you simply can’t afford to lose customers because they had a bad experience in your store or website. Some of the possible contributors to bad customer experience are:

Long queues
Customers are unable to find what they want quickly
The disconnection between employees and customers, especially when employees are unable to answer customers’ queries
Social distance in the wake of the pandemic
Lack of a personalized shopping experience

Remember, you have only a couple of minutes to impress your customer, so even a small misstep can be critical.

Silver Lining – A Digital Transformation

Though bad customer experience and low operational efficiency can sound like a double whammy, it’s not all so bad because you can address both the issues with the right digital transformation and technology.

The right technology that you choose must

Facilitate quick checkouts
Provide a personalized shopping experience where the store associates can suggest the right products based on past buying patterns.
Inventory is up-to-date and at a place where it’s easy to find
Employees can answer questions accurately based on updated information available on their handheld devices
The digital and physical stores are streamlined to provide a user-friendly experience for customers
All the different digital channels and devices are connected to ensure that the complexity of managing them doesn’t overwhelm your resources
Has a short learning curve for employees, so they can get on the job right away.

Now, if you’re wondering whether such in-store technologies even exist, Shopi’s solutions are the best fit for you. With Shopi’s Assist, your store associates are guided with smart mobile devices that consist of what they need from customer information to product detail. It also enables mobile checkout from anywhere in-store without having to ask your customers to wait in long lines. Store managers and the HQ can easily track the performance of both stores and specifically the employees if the given goal is reached. For customers who’d like to experience self-shopping due to hygiene concerns, can easily use Shopi’s Sign, in-store kiosks, to complete the shopping process by choosing the product they like and complete checkout without any guidance.

Moreover, Shopi provides full control over the stock of your online and offline stores with its Order & Inventory Hub solution. The entire inventory of your operation is first centralized and then thanks to the smart routing algorithm, finds its place in the most cost-effective and optimal way possible that meet your customers’ need This way, out-of-stock problems are diminished by having full control over your stock in real-time, and customer satisfactory level increases as they never have to face the answer “no”. To learn more about our solutions to overcome these times of crisis and be beyond traditional retail operations, contact us now!

How to Thrive in the New Retail Reality

admin — Sun, 03 Jan 2021 21:58:24 +0000

At the end of 2020, we’ve learned that the most important thing retailers need to acquire is digital transformation. This requirement made retailers take quick actions to adapt to the changing environment in these challenging times. In today’s new retail reality, multiple delivery and fulfillment options have become valuable assets for retailers and consumers alike. How do you answer the call of adopting fulfillment capabilities, consumers’ new shopping preferences, and the need to maximize current inventory? The answer lies in order management capabilities, data, and personalization.

Understanding the process of order management

Basically, order management is a process of picking, packing, and shipping the items whenever an order is placed. It runs an algorithm that helps retailers keep track of the order and the steps to fulfill them. It may sound easy to adapt. However, imagine you are running tens or hundreds of stores with multiple warehouses serving background. At this point, you have to determine what your priorities and capabilities are and plus how an omnichannel order management system should be placed within your operation even before building one.

Redefining the order fulfillment

There is a system that all retail operations use internally to manage their order processes somehow, but the statistics show that they still need an omnichannel order management system to thrive on. Let’s check out what makes this system necessary and distinguishes it from other simple systems.

The entire inventory of both online and offline stores can be monitored and managed from a single point in real-time.
Smart routing algorithm finds the best location either a store or a distribution center to fulfill an item.
Cross channel delivery and return options (BOPIS, BORIS, ROPIS) can be offered to have loyal customers.
The single view of the operation lets you follow the order status (picked, packed, shipped) easily.
Needed reports are accessible in seconds to have better insights about the store or the entire operation.

The changing customer behavior increases the need of having an omnichannel technology that provides a faster, error-free, and more personalized shopping experience as it’s mentioned above. According to Pwc, The number of companies investing in the omnichannel experience has jumped from 20% to more than 80% in 2020. Today’s retailers have to take action quicker than before to keep up with these changes.

With Shopi’s Omnichannel Cloud, building the strategy your operation has to acquire is easier than ever. You can determine the business rules for each of your stores differently according to your needs and let the algorithm run to fulfill the item without friction. Also, your entire inventory will serve your entire operation to avoid stockouts and overstock. Isn’t this amazing?

To better serve your customers, you can reach the order status to find out if the order is picked or packed or is ready for shipping or which shipping method was used for delivery, and where it is at?

What makes omnichannel order management unique is, of course, giving the ability to retailers to monitor the entire operation in real-time. From order status to performance tracking, what retailers need to run a store in the most efficient way is possible with real-time data. Imagine you can are free of operational errors since you can manage the inventory from a single hub as it’s connected to all of your channels as well as monitoring them in real-time. It sounds great, right? Also, all these benefits your operation is looking for is just a click away with a chance of easy integration of your ERP and CRM systems. Contacts us to find out more about Shopi’s Omnichannel Cloud.

Personalizing the Shopping Experience Through Clienteling

admin — Mon, 14 Dec 2020 11:08:58 +0000

Not so long ago, when you walked into a store, you were greeted by your first name and the shopkeeper knew the things you used and the brands you preferred. So, he gave you just what you want and at a discounted rate because you visited the shop often.

The result? You came out of the store smiling because you got a personalized experience and felt happy with the interaction with your shopkeeper.

Fast forward a few years. You walked into a huge retail store where no one knew you or spoke to you. No smiles, no greetings! You silently looked at all that was displayed, picked the items you wanted, and walked out of the store. While this was not a bad experience, you obviously didn’t feel great while shopping or walking out!

What is the future like? A digital world that is devoid of personalized experience where users shop on a website instead of a store, with no connection to your brand or your offering?

Not necessarily! You can use technology to bring in personalization to the shop floor and to be more specific you can use a technology that addresses both sales staff and customers to bring back the old way of doing business but in a digital world. Ladies and gentlemen, please meet Clienteling.

What is Clienteling?

Clienteling is a strategy used by stores to provide a personalized customer experience by gathering customer data including purchasing history, browsing history, and other related actions done on the website or app. This way, the store associates will know your name and your preferences.

This is a powerful strategy that gives the best of both worlds – a digital interface and a personalized experience. This is sure to bring the smile back on your customers’ faces and helps you to leverage the multitude of benefits that come from it.

Let’s take a brief look at what clienteling can do to your business.

Helps to provide a targeted service for your customers
Boosts loyalty and more customers are likely to come back.
More consumers, leading to more sales and revenue.
Promotes up-selling and cross-selling, so your customers actually end up buying more
Happy customers who can relate to your offerings
Great brand image
Instant data
Use of advanced technology such as artificial intelligence, cloud technology, and predictive analysis to make appropriate recommendations to your customers
Establishing a long-term relationship with customers
Enhancing professionalism among store associates
Superior customer service, as employees will be in a better position to answer all the customers’ queries, leading to improved customer experience.
Make the best offers to the right consumers

While this is not an exhaustive list, it is sure to give you an idea of the huge potential of clienteling and the big difference it can make for your business.

But the key to enjoying these benefits is to choose the right clienteling tool, as you want the tool to have an intuitive user experience, provide the right data, create a personalized experience for your customers, support mobile checkout, track purchase history, analyze customer data, and more.

With Shopi’s Clienteling solution, you can display your customers’ past purchases, personal preferences, shopping habits, open baskets with a user-friendly interface of customers list. The store associates who have the power of controlling the store and customers provide satisfied service that gives you up-selling and cross-selling opportunities.

Also, you can easily classify your VIP customers in the black book for a close up look and inform them about online and in-store campaigns that suit their needs the best.

Long story short, in today’s retail stores providing a personalized experience to customers, is almost impossible without an assisted sales technology. Now with, Shopi Assist, Shopi’s Mpos, and clienteling solution, stores will become online-connected and technology-driven channels where customers can experience fast, easy and seamless new generation shopping with utmost customer satisfaction

To learn more about how Shopi’s solutions work, contacts us!

What Retail Transformation Requires

admin — Mon, 23 Nov 2020 06:46:50 +0000

Nearly a year after the pandemic has started, the new normal has been established and some aspects of it may very well be here to stay even when it ends completely. While it was wildly popular pre-pandemic as well, omnichannel retail has become the obvious thing to do. With the change in customer shopping habits due to hygiene concerns, the ease of online shopping, and the lockdown restrictions, the retail industry’s operation had to keep up with new challenges. These changes made retailers rethink and reprocess their operations. While some stores opened their online channels, some of them tried the latest integrated technologies to merge online and offline stores.

The new understanding of using channels connected, omnichannel, brings productivity in every corner of the operation. Now the stock availability of any stores can be displayed from store associates which improve customer satisfaction and also the needed product can be fulfilled from other stores available according to the determined business rules. On the other hand, smart order routing activities, product status, online and offline stock balance can be monitored in real-time from a single point to provide better performance tracking of the entire operation. However, while these challenges and innovations that the retail industry and customers face improve the stores to keep up with the new retail era, it also addresses another significant aspect of the shopping experience; the deficiency of delivery, and return processes. Omnichannel management systems also help retailers to adopt the buy online, pick up in-store (BOPIS) and the buy online, return in-store (BORIS) models to cope with delivery and return processes allowing customers to purchase and return anywhere they want with utmost efficiency and customer satisfaction in these times when customers have the concern of doing safe and quick shopping.

When it comes to BOPIS, customers can choose where to pick up the product and to be sure that the item they’d like to purchase isn’t out-of-stock, so that they don’t waste time coming to the store for an out-of-stock item. This ensures giving shoppers a more seamless experience that allows them to easily purchase products and pick up on the same day at their convenience. This will go a long way in creating lasting customer loyalty and from the retailers’ side, it drives in-store traffic.

While retailers provide customers the flexibility of returning the product, they are also fretting about the loss of revenue. BORIS creates an easy process to improve customer satisfaction and also creates opportunities to upsell. Driving the customer traffic to the store may direct them to discover new products they may not have thought about purchasing before.

With BOPIS and BORIS omnichannel fulfillment solutions, retailers have the ability to offer consumers multiple ways to fulfill orders, driving in-store traffic, and increasing revenue. In an age where customers are not willing to spend more time in-store due to health concerns and prefer completing purchases without waiting for delivery to address, Shopi’s Omnichannel Cloud solutions can reshape the traditional retail operation and replace a system that meets both retailers and customers need.

References

https://www.mytotalretail.com/article/retailers-and-shoppers-are-all-about-bopis-and-boris/

How Omnichannel Strategy Accelerates the Entire Operation in Retail

admin — Mon, 09 Nov 2020 08:46:46 +0000

The traditional structure where a retailer uses one strategy for inventory management and another for store efficiency is becoming outdated.

Imagine you wanted to buy a pair of slick black trainers. You visit your favorite online store, and you see the out-of-stock tag. Then you visit the physical store hoping for a different outcome. The store associate tells you they have it, but not in this outlet. This is how a retail store loses an eager customer.

Day by day, we’re witnessing the line between online store and retail is being erased especially with the rise of omnichannel strategies such as omnichannel order fulfillment, buy online pickup in-store (BOPIS), buy online return in-store (BORIS), ship-from-store (SFS), and many more. What’s the pushing power behind these strategies?

So, What’s Pushing Retailers to Adopt Omnichannel Strategies?

The digitalization age produced a new type of customers with higher expectations. The need to meet customer expectations is a force pushing retailers to find solutions. And the omnichannel order management system is proven to be the right answer. Using all channels both online and offline as a unique unit meets retailers’ and customers’ needs of keeping up with the latest trends and using their time and money efficiently. In a scenario that both sides win, let’s get deeper and understand what actually an omnichannel retail technology is.

Advance Tech Improves Store Efficiency

According to the research of Salesforce, 84% of customers say the experience a company provides is as important as its products and services. Retail store difficulties as stock errors, inefficient communication, return and refund processes cause bad customer experiences but now it can be easily eliminated with an omnichannel understanding. For example, imagine you’re managing several stores. And you have data that can predict which store needs more inventory allocation based on sales history. Wouldn’t that make your job easier?

In a traditional store only in-store inventory can be tracked and whether it works in real-time is suspicious. However, integrating all channels and managing entire inventory from a single point avoid overstock and out of stock problems, and redress a balance across channels. Thus the operations run in real-time, organizations can easily track inventory and make plans for the future accurately.

Building a store communication and synchronization between channels also enables providing a vast of omnichannel delivery options. A customer can easily buy a product online and return it to the physical store as well as buying it online and picking up in-store etc. Providing these options to customers allows them to receive a satisfactory shopping experience.

At the heart of every omnichannel strategy, you will find the customer, and retailers should consider that while making a decision on their stores and operations. A recent study by Harvard Business Review suggests, 73% of customers prefer a mix of online and offline experience. This new type of experience guides retailers who aware that running an efficient store comes with satisfied customers to adopt an omnichannel strategy.

Centralized and coordinated data help you to reach customers through many channels and that can be called the key to keep up with the future of retail. With Shopi’s Omnichannel Cloud, You can easily integrate your channels both online and offline, and easily manage them from a single system as if you have only one store. The out-of-stock issue is a concern of traditional retailers! With Shopi’s smart order routing technology, find the most optimum store to fulfill an item and deliver the item wherever your customer wants; either to a store to pick up the items or to their doorsteps. In the era of providing solutions with developing technology, never let your customer walk out of the store without purchasing anymore.

References

https://www.salesforce.com/blog/customer-engagement-trends/

The Future of Retail After COVID-19

admin — Mon, 05 Oct 2020 06:00:00 +0000

For the past few years retailers were intuitively aware that acquiring and integrating new technologies were the most critical steps to take in order to be aligned with the future of retail. However, the decision making processes were long as the digitalization of retail was still a vague concept and the expected return on those technological investments were still not concrete. This notion of vagueness and the time taken to make the investments have dramatically changed when COVID-19 crisis starting at the beginning of 2020 hit the retailers with drastic consequences. The impact of the pandemic caused major shifts that drove retailers to adapt to new solutions faster than usual and the acceleration became a “survival of the fittest” issue.

In traditional physical shopping, customers are expected to wait at each step of the entire shopping experience due to inefficient processes in operation. However in March 2020, shoppers stopped going to stores and during the minimum visits they made to the stores, all they wanted was to purchase and go. The need for efficiency suddenly became a must have, rather than a nice to have.

Bridging the gap between customers and store associates

Having loyal and satisfied customers requires meeting their needs in the best way possible but inefficiencies and difficulty of accessing the needed data causes losing customers. To avoid wasting customers’ time as they are waiting for store associates to find their product or to disappoint them not finding it, retailers had to find new solutions that provide efficient store operations. These solutions had to ease access to product and inventory information, and enable mobile checkout in seconds without leaving the customer’s side.

Providing efficient self shopping experience

As the major lockdown eased, brick and mortar stores reopened under the condition of providing hygiene and social distancing. Not just retailers, but also customers were affected due to the restrictions, social distancing, queuing up for entry in retail stores, maintaining personal hygiene, and other preventive measures and these concerns made them lean to brands that provide better services while taking care of their safety. This accelerated the demand for transformation more than ever. To meet the need of having safety shopping and to complete shopping the fastest way possible, some stores located kiosks to allow customers shop without any interaction. What store associates were offering in the store, can now be done by customers from reaching the product and inventory info to purchasing.

Equipping sales associates with the necessary tools to maximize efficiency as well as sales has become inevitable. Decision making processes that enabled the penetration of such technologies to the stores has become of critical importance.

Integrating online and offline stores

Probably the most transforming experience of the retail domain took place in online shopping. We have witnessed the slow but steady rise of ecommerce in recent years, however the upward graphic has never been this steep as it was in the past few months. It is clearly understood that retailers who adopted omnichannel strategies and unified commerce systems adapted to unexpected market forces way more solidly. An omnichannel infrastructure facilitated an ease of operation in managing the inventory, in monitoring accurate and real time data and avoiding stock outs. The ability to support ecommerce transactions with store inventories made all the difference when the demand for online shopping has dramatically increased and created different challenges for retailers.

Even if some of the precautions taken for the pandemic are nearly subsided, some shopping habits haven’t been brought back and have changed permanently. As a result, the brands that have been already blending physical and online channels by experiencing digital transformation didn’t get as much affected as the ones that had no second plan. The future of retail seems so much more integrated than ever before. The integration of online and offline will determine the survival record for the post-covid era.

As we find out from the new normal so far that retailers have much ground to cover, and time is of the essence. Seeing all channels as an entire operation is crucial to enable the business work as a whole, successful, and efficient unit. What shouldn’t be seen apart from the customer experience is how the entire operation works and now bringing them into balance is just possible with smart integrated technologies. The new normal is still taking shape and is in process to become better everyday while customer expectations are still shifting. Retailers who respond to these needs with agile and innovative solutions will strengthen their ties with customers and operate their stores much more efficiently.

References

(1) https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/retail/our-insights/adapting-to-the-next-normal-in-retail-the-customer-experience-imperative

(2) https://www.mytotalretail.com/article/the-future-of-retail-after-covid-19

How to survive the Amazon Effect

admin — Wed, 12 Sep 2018 09:12:00 +0000

What is the Amazon effect?
Since its entry to the lives of billions of people in 1994, the Amazon has changed the way that retail functions. Consumers have been empowered by the speed of purchase and the information available during the decision-making process thanks to digital commerce. Their online empowerment has changed their offline expectations. The transition between online and offline retail is far from over, however if brick and mortar stores are to survive the Amazon effect they must evolve into something greater to meet these new expectations. In fact, rather than raising the white flag, a crucial paradigm shift is being experienced by many as they see how their stores stand to benefit from the world of omni-channel and connected commerce. Say what? Brick and mortar stores can apply lessons learned in the online retail world? Absolutely!

To keep up with changing times, retailers need to embrace this shift by incorporating the following:

Reimagine your store role
Many retailers are realizing that the online and offline worlds are not actually two retail spaces but actually one in which both sides complement each other. As an example, 80% of American smartphone users are browsing the online site of a retailer via smartphone whilst physically present in the offline store. Hence, thanks to retail technologies, retailers can blend the two seamlessly by means of in-store digital catalogues and connected commerce solutions to benefit from both worlds. They can now display their existing data in-store with endless aisle and assisted selling solutions. They can exhibit their entire inventory with digital catalogues, complete sales quickly and make the customer relationship permanent and more personal by means of clienteling through an effective in-store usage of CRM insights. All these activities are necessary to compete with the Amazon effect.

Roll out technology
The online trading revolution effectively removed friction and waiting from the shopping experience. It allows to consumers to browse and purchase without the limitations of and old-fashioned mom and pop store – after all when was the last time you had to get in line before buying online or shout for an online sales assistant to help you?

The modern brick and mortar store can provide this same experience.

Products can be researched and found nearly instantly by means of effective in-store information points. Sales assistants can be empowered with smart devices to answer questions, locate stock (even globally) and, crucially, action the sale whilst conversing with the customer using mobile technologies. 73% of customers are said to favor retailers that use mobile technologies over those that do not.(1)

Analyze your customer behavior
In the online world, it is obvious that customers can be approached in an incredibly personalized manner, with product suggestions, up-sales etc tailored for their every need. In the past this did not apply to the offline world. Customer analytics were exclusively gained from clicks and browsing online history. The modern retailer knows that this is only part of the potential of analytics. Every interaction online and off, can be a source of information about your client base and a valuable source of feedback regarding your store which can be compiled in cloud computing and employed almost instantly. Sales assistants empowered with portable technology, interactive screens or other interactive sales tools recording customer queries and conducting personalized follow-up via email and social media constitute an incredible added value to the retailer’s brand.

The time is now!
The next 2 years will be crucial for retailers. Those who evolve and adopt the advantages in their physical stores will reap the benefits of increased sales, customer traffic and happy customers. The time is now to apply lessons learned from the online world. Retailers interested in evolving store and processes should know that Shopi is providing retailers with technologies that will future proof their brick and mortar stores. They can survive the Amazon effect with Shopi’s extensive Retail Platform and its easy-to-use products, namely, Shopisign, Shopisassist and Shopiconnect.

Reference:

(1) https://marketingland.com/reports-digital-especially-mobile-driving-trillions-offline-retail-spending-207037