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5 Retail Strategies to Gratify Customers in 2022

Retail ERP Software /

After such a crazy year where new challenges sprung and never spared a single industry, we are finally on the verge of 2021. With a new year comes new challenges, and businesses need to adapt to stay prepared already. With a unified technology like LS Central Software Solution, retailers can get a smooth pass-through challenging time.   In today’s scenarios where you can expect anything uncertain happening suddenly, retailers may bump into various Obstacles in 2022, such as:   Keeping up with rising customers, where customers expect smoother and customized services.   Difficulty in finding the right technology for your business.   Losing loyal customers to the competition.   Keeping up with labor shortage and optimizing existing staff’s efficiency.   Difficult internal communication among different departments for e.g., difficulty in communicating the inventory requirement to the warehouse management.   Poor decision-making due to lack of demand forecasting which later leads to overstocking and understocking.   There is a motto in any business “Customer is the king” while keeping them on a pedestal. The customer must be satisfied with a service, or else they may jump to the other brand in a heartbeat. With customers being so moody and becoming high maintenance, retailers need similar technology to keep up with the same.   Keep Customers Satisfied in 2022   The year 2022 brings new challenges as well as new opportunities: a fresh chance to satisfy customers. We have compiled five strategies to keep your customers intact with contentment.   Contactless Payment   Omnichannel experience  Personalized promotions, deals, and offers.   Self-Checkouts  Staff Efficiency Optimization   Allow Contactless Payments  These days, hygiene has become an even bigger requirement. Contactless payment options not only deliver more convenience but also help comply with the social distancing norms. Contactless payment includes anything other than cash, be it debit, credit, UPI, etc. Allowing mobile payments and Wireless payment options adds to customer ease.   Deliver an Omnichannel Experience   Customers these days have become highly unpredictable and moody, demanding smoother ordering and payment options. They incline more towards the brands that can offer enough flexibility to place orders and make payments anytime, anywhere. Let the customer connect your business through various touchpoints like apps, websites, third-party applications, and so on. This way, you can reach more customers who have limited access to either of those platforms. Additionally, unifying all channels also cuts complexities and streamlines the entire journey for the retailer as well.   Offer Personalized Promotions, Deals, and Offers   Different customers feel differently about a product. You have to understand this algorithm and offer personalized promotions, deals, and offers. Seek a powerful AI-based technology for this i.e., a technology that keeps tabs on every customer transaction and understands their habits, spending patterns, likes, dislikes, and other relevant data to make customized deals and offers.   Everyone loves surprises: you can also offer a surprise basket consisting of your new launches or a basket full of a combination of products at an attractive price. This strategy is helpful in reaching your customer’s heart since you make them feel special and belonged, they connect emotionally to your brand, and may even refer your store to others.   Bust Long Queues and Allow Self-Checkouts   With technology advancing rapidly, customers’ patience is dropping at a significant rate. Making them stand in long queues can be a risky affair. Thus, retailers have no choice but to deal with it smartly. Allowing self-check-out options ensures speedy transactions and free floor space. This feature is especially important during the festive season, where retailers are packed with a massive crowd. Some customers would rather drop everything as it is at the store, and leave as soon as their patience runs out. It is a risky situation where the only person benefiting is your competitor.   Optimize your Staff Efficiency  Reinforcing your staff with the efficiency of optimizing equipment like a Cloud POS solution can help provide greater customer satisfaction. If a customer has a tough time finding a product, one of your staff members can quickly locate it via his mobile device. With a POS, your staff can communicate with different departments more efficiently while cutting the computing time. Inventory can be stocked at the store already before running out. Moreover, maximizing your staff efficiency can bridge the gap between labor shortage and your business.   A unified software solution like LS Retail Software Solutions can work like magic. Being backed with an AI-Based technology, you can track customer behavior, create personalized deals, and offers, forecast demand, and manage inventory better. A cloud-based POS enables a 360-degree inventory view. If you are looking for LS Retail implementation, contact Trident Information Systems, we are a LS Retail Gold Partner, backed up with more than 150 technical resources. 

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5 Restaurant Technology You Need to Know.

Retail POS Solution /

The time is evolving, and so are the expectations of customers with the restaurants. Times are gone when customers are liable to commute to the restaurant in order to get their favorite meals. They want to eat wherever and however they want. In addition, with technological advancements, they expect faster services and complete attention from the staff at the same time.   Research has shown during the pandemic that the food home delivery ratio increased to a certain level, and this was the factor through which restaurants could manage to survive. Usage of third-party food delivery applications like Swiggy, Zomato, and so on grew significantly. Technology played a vital role in restaurant survival.   Now, the customer can enjoy food wherever and however they want. They can now make changes to their order without having to ask a staff member. For instance, they can tell them to add more cheese to the pizza or ask for extra ketchup right there and then without a server. In some reports, we discovered that people would pay more to add Ons when they have a self-service facility available.   As technology has evolved so much, there is still room for growth. To meet customer preferences and not to mention to evolve, restaurants need to invest more in further technological advancements. This way, they can focus more on what they love: creating delicious meals and delicacies and unforgettable experiences. We have compiled a list of restaurant technologies that restaurants must be aware of.   Online POS  An Online POS system or a Cloud-based POS system is more than billing software. It is more advanced and delivers more features than the traditional one. Older POS were merely used to collect bills online and offline separately. However, the scenarios have changed, and modern POS can collect bills, take orders, track inventory, and integrate the front office with the back. Everything is saved on the cloud so there is no risk of data loss. Even if there is no internet, the transactions are recorded offline and saved on the cloud as soon as they are connected to the net.   Apart from this, a cloud-based POS records customer transactions from different channels which can later be utilized to create deals and plans for the customers. According to some reports, about 61% of businesses want their next POS to be cloud-based. Some of the reasons include its cost-effectiveness and scalability. Online POS can be availed of a monthly subscription. Therefore, ditching the need to invest in high upfront costs. It does not even need hardware and is quick to deploy.   Artificial Intelligence (AI)  Artificial intelligence is the simulation of human processes by machines, specifically computer systems. This technology can process even the natural language, collect data, and make sense from a vast amount of data. In the case of restaurants, there are many applications powered by AI such as:   Chatbots: chatbots are designed to understand speech patterns and have relevant conversations through which customers can book a table or order food online. Platforms like- official websites and social media platforms can be used.   Predictive Ordering: this feature analyses your restaurant’s previous orders and revenue and forecasts future needs while helping you avoid over-stocking or under-stocking.   Staff Scheduling: scheduling and staffing solutions help you schedule staff optimally.   AI is the heart of businesses which helps them grow and evolve exponentially. Therefore, allowing restaurants to elevate their service standards.   Kitchen Display System (KDI)   A Kitchen Display System (KDI) is designed to replace your traditional paper ticket and kitchen printers. The job is not done here, there are a lot more things it offers. As soon as a customer place an order, it flashes straight on the accurate kitchen counter. If guests want to make changes or wish to have add Ons they may address them straight away while notifying the chef.   There is a function called recipe viewer, which enables chefs to follow a specific recipe and avoid wastage. A recipe viewer will also cut costs on training and call attention to nutrition and allergy information.   Business Intelligence (BI)  Business Intelligence optimized AI to compile, integrate and analyze business data, turning it into a single vision truth while driving more logical decisions. Business Intelligence and analytics solutions have been used to increase business efficiency, and their effectiveness is not new to restaurants.   With this technology, restaurants can place suitable lunch meals in the relevant areas or provide reports on the breakfast items making the most profit each week. Restaurant owners can also identify if the crowd in a location would like to see stand-up comedy during dinner. Having these kinds of data at hand helps make more logical decisions and    Contactless Payments and Self Ordering Devices  Restaurants need forms of payments that require little or no contact with shared surfaces. For instance, mobile wallets, biometric authentication payments, credit cards, debit cards. Contactless payments are much safer, especially in this era where social distancing has become one of the necessities.   Similarly, self-ordering devices vitally helped cope with the pandemic. They enable customers to make their orders without a server in the restaurant kitchen. Customers can either use self-serving kiosks, tablets on the table side, or even their mobile phones.   Internet of Things (IoT)  Internet of things refers to all the items and devices that are designed to connect to the internet and each other to transmit data. For instance, connected kitchen appliances like ovens, freezers, and deep fryers upload their status automatically to the cloud ensuring seamless operational flow and regulatory compliance.   With IoT, managers do not have to go through each device and check their condition. Instead, they can simply go through the reports and see the presence of an issue and think of a resolution.    As time flies, the restaurant industry is rapidly changing. It needs to adopt technological advancements to fulfill customer demands and embrace better efficiency. LS Retail provides a suite of tools that ensure customer satisfaction as well as better business efficiency. Trident Information Systems is a Gold LS Retail Partner who has served multiple business ventures. Backed with a team of 150+ experts and two decades of experience, we deliver excellent software services. Contact us for further information.  

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Drive Customers Back to Your Business in a Post-COVID Era

Retail ERP Software /

There has been a massive shift in the way customers approach brands. They have now become even more quality and cost-conscious. Businesses have also modified the way they operate; they have now understood their customer’s sentiments better while the world is fighting a battle against this never-ending virus.   In order to gain your customer’s trust, you have to be true to your brand and serve its purpose. Now how can you do it better? By understanding your customers, their needs, and sentiments. Keep your customers first. Ask for feedback, use appropriate technology to track their spending patterns and habits. What changed, and how can you keep up with it? It is all you need to understand. Given below are a few things that COVID-19 changed;   Brand Switching: As several brands dwindled and shuttered, consumers were forced to try new brands. With the limited opportunity to purchase products in person, they had to rely more on online mediums. As the pandemic started fading, more people began to realize that it was not a bad idea to give other brands a chance.   Expecting channels: As customers explored online shopping increasingly, they became further accustomed to Omnichannel research and transactions. Customers are now expecting physical stores to offer online transactions that complement their overall shopping experience even before entering the store.   Price and Value Consciousness: After job declines and shortage of income, people started becoming even more quality conscious and began to question further if their brand is equating the value or not. Also, they are concerned about environmental sustainability and what these brands are doing in the favor of the planet.   Loyalty V/s Retention: Many people confuse loyalty with retention. However, little do they acknowledge their difference. Customer loyalty is what fuels customer retention. Loyalty is a keen sense of support and obligation to choose a brand which later fuels retention.    Tips to Keep Customers Loyal to Your Band Post-COVID  There are a number of ways through which you can retain customers. If accompanied by suitable technology like LS Retail, even better. You have to make sure the quality of your product is up to the mark while keeping customers first at all times.   Keep Online Communication Consistent  Online communications involve updated social media posts and emails. However, at the onset of COVID, various small businesses paused their online communication. If you are one of them as well, this is the best time to begin again.   You do not have to aggressively promote your brand (which can later become annoying for the customer) and understand that the situation is now different from pre-COVID times. All you have to do is inform your customers about product availability. Since this is a tough time for everyone, sympathize with them, tell your stories, and let them know how much you care for them. This is the best time to connect emotionally with the consumer.   Omnichannel Customer Service  Imagine how frustrating it would be for a customer to fill in their name, contact, and other details again and again at every step, especially when his requirement is urgent.  For instance, a customer purchased a product last weekend from your store, who raised a fund request explaining his issues. After a while, a customer executive calls him asking for issues further, and other details again. After a few days, now the marketing manager wants to have a word with the buyer and asks for the same details again.   Businesses need to introduce a robust omnichannel mechanism that allows every member to stay on the same page while taking care of the customer’s concerns. It not only saves time but also lets the customer feel important.   To set up an effective omnichannel, you need to bring sales, marketing, and customer services together and connect them with all touchpoints via a common dashboard.   Offer Gift cards to Customers  Pandemic or not- everyone loves gifts. To increase customer engagement, offer them e-gift cards. This way, you are maintaining communication while avoiding human contact. Offer them interesting offers while keeping your business in mind and how it runs. For example, if you have a store at Amazon, you can offer X% cashback on your next purchase. Such offers thrill customers and boost sales while maintaining safety.   Resolve Queries of Unsatisfied Customers first  It is more important to train your customer service team to treat unsatisfied customers first than you think. It is a massive risk to let them remain dissatisfied. Everyone has access to social media platforms where they can freely share their opinions. There is always a risk of negative promotion if they are discontented. The best practice is to resolve their queries as soon as possible. Another factor that may come into influence is their negative remarks on social media impacting your website search engine.   Reward Loyal Customers   Using a unified software solution like LS Retail can help you identify your loyal customers. With a robust visionary dashboard, you can calculate each customer’s behavior and pick the loyal ones. Offer attractive deals and offers exclusively tailored for them. It makes the consumer feel important and belonged. You can classify different customers and segment them into diverse groups and prepare exclusive deals for each. Offer gifts that none of your competitors offer. There is no better time than their birthdays, anniversaries, festivals, and other notable events to offer your personalized gifts.   It is essential to think out-of-the-box to keep ahead of your competition in the post-COVID era. Letting the right technology assist you is a clever idea. LS Retail is a unified software solution specifically designed to take care of your every business need. Trident Information Systems is a Gold Partner of LS Retail. Armed with 150+ technical resources, we have served various business ventures. Contact us for further information.  

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How can Retailers Surpass Competition with Innovation?

Retail POS Solution /

In today’s world, where competition is cutthroat, retailers need to find innovative ideas to stand out in the crowd. With the right technology and creativity, retailers can be ahead in the race. With suitable strategies, retailers can accurately capture a larger sum of customer base.   Traditional retail methods come along with various drawbacks such as:   Inability to record customer experience.   Consumers demand the latest POS experience.   Reliability of the same old methods to sell a product and expecting a different result.   Stores and eCommerce are still operating in silos.   Lack of accurate customer data for launching effective offers.   By combining the right technology and strategies, retailers can outshine their competition.   Switch to an Integrated POS system  Customers need flexibility and freedom to place an order however they want and get it wherever they want: their smartphones have become a walking POS. Traditional POS would only support billing offline and online separately. It would not record customer data further to form effective loyalty programs. An integrated POS does the job. With this technology, even staff efficiency increases, they can serve customers even more effectively, find the product location right away, manage inventory more easily and greet customers with a warmer smile. The customers no longer must stand in the long queues, they can help themselves with the payments and free the space soon. Before creating any loyalty program, the first step is to access the customer data, only then can a retailer classify customers into diverse groups for different deals and offers.   Offer Subscription Boxes   A subscription box is a marketing tool to enhance brand exposure to the customers. Be its meal kits, books, shaving kit, or wine subscription boxes have transformed the concept of repeat purchases. Surprises excite everyone. Hence, they can be used as a great marketing tool. Consumers adore the experience of convenience and a surprise of a curated selection of new products directly sent to them. According to a recent eCommerce study by McKensy, about 35% of active box subscribers tend to purchase more active subscriptions.   Surprise Customers with a Surprise Basket   Understand each customer’s preferences and their spending pattern. Offer deals on their favorite products. Mix a few of them and voila! you have a surprise basket for your customers. Distinct baskets for different segments. Not only does this boost customer satisfaction, but also builds recognition for your store. Satisfied customers tend to spread word of mouth contagiously. There is no better promotion than a referral. It is economical and more effective than any other promotional measure. As human beings, we all long for a sense of belonging. If you successfully show your care and affection towards your customers, you are already ahead of the competition.   Promote Sustainability by Reselling   Customers these days have become more sensitive towards our environment. According to Neilsen, 73% of global consumers are willing to change their consumption habits to reduce environmental impacts. Consumers are now holding retailers accountable for their production tacts. Keeping this new mentality of their customers in mind, retailers have decided to respond by reselling pre-used items.   According to the latest Thredup resale reports, the sale of second-hand items has grown 21 times faster than the retail apparel market over the past three years. Now the time has changed, and bargaining is not limited to just students. Even 26% of luxury shoppers are now preferring pre-used luxury items.   Allow Apparel on Rent  As the trend of ethical consumption grows, the rental market is fueled as well. Consumers nowadays do not prefer to empty their bank accounts and buy expensive clothes to rot in their closets as soon as a trend is over. Apparel rentals give enough flexibility to the buyer to keep up with the trend affordably.   Retailers willing to enter the rental market must make sure that they have the right technology that tracks each item; which one is in, and which ones are out. It should be efficient enough to check the state of each product when it is back in the store and identify if it is in the proper shape.   Bottom Line  Retailers can barely stand up to their strong competitors Without innovation. With better technology, more accurate data, and more efficient strategies, retailers can beef up their business tremendously. LS retail is a unified software specializing in retail matters offering a complete set of tools required to run a retail business. From integrated POS to automatic inventory tracking, you can get everything under one umbrella. Trident Information Systems is a Gold Microsoft Dynamics 365 Partner who has served various business ventures so far. For further information, contact us.

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Why Good After Sales Services Enhance your Customer Services & Sales Both

Retail POS Solution /

Your job is not done as soon as you sell a product. In contrast, it starts from there! Many businesses use after-sales services as an effective promotional tool. This way, they can gain customer trust and drive the spread of word of mouth. Many organizations optimize after-sales services to build stronger bonds with their customers while encouraging them to come hopping back to you.   After-sales services start right when you sell a product, it includes what you do at the Point of Sale and how you follow up with your customers afterward. Repairing products on warranty or an easy product return policy are some extended services. There are many ways you can upgrade these services:   Allow Seamless Payment Mediums: Nobody likes to stand in long queues. Instead, people demand faster transactions. A cloud-based POS can help streamline the operation while ensuring customer satisfaction. They can even help themselves with payments if no store staff is available to help them out.   Get in Touch with Your Customers After 1-2 Weeks: Contacting your customers after 1-2 Weeks post-sales can give you some essential feedback you can use to enhance your overall services. Ask how their experience was with these services and how they would rate it. Apart from this, it helps generate a stronger relationship between a company and its clients. They feel being recognized and build more confidence in the services.   Maintain Communications: Keep in regular touch with customers through newsletters, articles, videos, webinars, and guides. Keep them updated about your new product or service launch. If you give them every information they need, they are not likely to fall for your competitions.    Personalize Notifications: If you feel your customer is satisfied with your products or services and other sales are happening soon, you can send them personalized emails or messages informing them about the same. Additionally, you can personally suggest what they can get out of it.   Ask for Recommendations: Ask your customers for their recommendations. Let them explain what else they expect from your business and what features are just not for them. Let them share their ideas of ideal services and, if possible, customize the same for them. This is one of the methods to make your customers feel recognized. Apart from collecting customer data like this, you can also use AI-based technology like LS Retail that extracts data from various sources and presents reports on customers’ activities and preferences. This is a much easier and more accurate method.   How After-Sales Services Enhance Your Business  After-sales services are one of the most important aspects of a business. They define what your business is, and how seriously you take your customers. This is what makes or breaks your business. If done right, and implemented the correct strategies, it can ensure the following benefits:   Overall Product/Service Improvement  Referral Promotion  Sales Enhancement   Loyal Customer   Improves your Services/Products   Getting essential feedback from customers on your product can address where you lack. Pay attention to it and enhance your overall services. You can also introduce new services complementing the old ones or custom make packages for classified customers. This way, you can keep innovating and evolving. ERP Solutions like LS Retail sets a platform where your business has comprehensively made reports driving better decisions. Apart from this, your constant improvement depicts your business receptivity. Expressing your customers how your business could improve due to their valuable feedback generates a sense of recognition while subconsciously binding them to your company.    Boosts Referral Promotion   A happy customer recommends a service to their family and friends. It has been observed that people tend to believe Word of Mouth more than any promotional measure. You do not even have to spend a thousand dollars on other promotional techniques when all you have to do is keep your customers happy and let them do the rest for you. This is where the power of multiplication shows up. People also tend to post about products and services on their social media for free exposing you to a greater set of audiences.   Enhances Sales   Improved services plus referral promotions are equal to sales boost. Marketplaces like Amazon and Flipkart provide seamless after-sales services. From allowing a variety of payment methods (debit, credit, cash, GPay) to replacing or returning a product to dealing with customer grievances it supports everything. A unified solution like LS Retail handles every aspect of after-sales services, integrates multiple tasks, and saves time while enhancing sales.   Builds a Stronger Bond with Customers  Good after-sales services make customers feel cared for while developing good relationships. Tracking customer activities and classifying them in diverse groups for suitable deals ensures a sense of belongingness and warmth among customers. Emotions are what drive people to purchase more than their needs. Hence, maintaining an emotional touch with customers ensures their loyalty. There are various methods to collect their data. However, the easiest way is to get an AI-based technology like LS Retail to automatically extract data from various sources and turn them into actionable reports depicting customer behavior and preferences.    After-sales services are an effective marketing tool. Apart from boosting sales and building customers’ confidence, it ensures a healthy bond between a business and the customer. There are certain services like the one LS Retail offers, which takes care of all the after-sales services. Trident Information Systems is a Gold LS Retail Partner who has served various businesses so far. For further information or queries, contact us.  

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How do Successful Loyalty Programs Help in Increasing Sales and Drives Customer Behavior?

Retail POS Solution /

Did you know if you manage to boost your customer engagement rate by as low as 5%, your profit can increase up to 60%? Loyalty programs are a great measure to increase customer engagement from both existing and new customers.   Loyalty programs deliver tremendous benefits to a business, they make the customers feel being cared for, recognized, and valued. Why wouldn’t anyone want to come back to you if you make them feel special? Apart from financial, these programs proffer non-financial benefits as well.   Note that not just any loyalty programs will provide the same benefits, you need to carefully hold research, track customer behavior, understand their spending pattern, and generate customer driving strategies. A unified ERP software like LS Retail can help create loyalty programs like a piece of cake. Essential data is automatically generated in the form of dashboards, providing a single vision of truth. Therefore, driving customer behavior and boosting sales.   Why is Customer Loyalty so Important?  Research has shown that 80% of your business comes from your loyal 20% of customers. An effective loyalty program can ensure repeat business from 47% of your customers. Amazing eye-catching deals can drive a good sum of customers back to your business.   Most people believe that brands should offer loyalty programs while 60% of internet users address ‘earning rewards’ as one of the most valued aspects of a retail shopping experience. It is best to use software that helps create loyalty programs like LS Retail, where customers can earn loyalty points and redeem them in your retail store and its respective chains. You can create different schemes and set rules on how to collect and spend points.  Apart from this it can help segment different customers based on their spending patterns, choices, and habits. It also keeps track of the vouchers and offers that are redeemed or on stand-by.   How Effective Loyalty Programs Help Boosting Customer Sales?  An effective loyalty program can do wonders for your business, boost sales and connect with the customers emotionally. Nothing is more effective than a loyalty program based on a customer’s desires, spending pattern, behavior, and similar factors. Research has shown that people’s emotions drive them to purchase more than their needs. Given below are its amazing benefits:   Greater ROI   It is costlier to acquire new customers than to retain the existing ones. Paying for different forms of promotions can add up to the marketing costs significantly. Additionally, 50% of your existing customers are more likely to spend more on your new product. Hence, providing a higher ROI.   Stay Ahead of the Competition  Shoppers tend to go through a hundred brands before buying a product in a few clicks keeping the product in mind more than the store. It might drive a few businesses like yours to the bottom, putting larger stores like Amazon at the top.   Loyalty programs can change your game while not relying on the pricing alone. Since buyers tend to spend more based on their emotions than their requirements, a loyalty program understands the customer and creates perfect schemes for them. It makes them feel special and connects them on an emotional level.   Understand your Customers   A loyalty program helps you understand your customers better, their preferences, and predict their behavior. With a loyalty program feature, you can effortlessly identify trends, micro-segments and anticipate demands. Upgrade your marketing campaigns keeping customer habits in mind. Plan your stock, mix-match products, and boost cross-selling and upselling. All the channels a customer uses to access your business can store their data, process them, and turn them into insightful dashboards. Without proper customer insights, your business fails to create effective deals and offers.  New Customer Engagement   With a well-structured loyalty program, you can incentivize referrals, rewarding customers who bring new customers to your business. There is convincing evidence suggesting that referred customers are more profitable and loyal than non-referred customers ensuring more loyalty and low churn rates. 83% of customers show greater trust in personal referral than any other form of marketing. McKinsey’s study shows that referrals generate twice the sales of paid promotions.   Creates Brand Advocates  Loyalty programs not only encourage people to increase their engagement with your business but also promote it. According to some research, loyalty programs help boost referral promotion. People recommend a business to their friends and family members if they are happy with the loyalty schemes. Showing your customers how much you value them connects them emotionally and turns them into your brand advocates. Additionally, 86% of costumes engage with a brand by spreading the word.   Final Words   More customer engagement is the essence to boost sales. Ensure customer engagement with effective loyalty programs as it ensures a greater ROI, keeps you ahead in the competition, understands your customers, engages new customers, and creates brand advocates. ERP software services like LS Retail integrate all the channels and extract customer details which later help in making effective loyalty programs. Trident Information systems is a Gold Partner of LS Retail and has served various businesses so far. For further queries or a demonstration contact us.  

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Retailers are Seeing Scary Supply Chain Ahead of Festive Season

Retail ERP Software /

Festive season drives a boost of business and stress altogether, challenging retailers at every step. Retail ERP Software can assist through this period brilliantly. Being able to stand strong and manage everything effectively, complying with the right strategies, getting retailers maximum profit, greater customer in-flow, and goodwill as a reward.   The festive season commences post-monsoon. In a span of 4 months, it mounts tremendous pressure on the retailers. Consecutive occurrences of multiple festivals drive different sets of consumers to buy assorted products or services. There is a high chance they would demand a mix-match of a few products. Additionally, the bid on a combination of regular consumption and gift factor adds to the complexity. It is always better to opt for Retail Management Software, as it ensures all the necessary tools required to get you through this frantic yet crucial period.   What Causes Supply Chain Hiccups?  The dazzling and cheerful festive season fetches various supply chain hiccups, turning jam-packed consumer seasons even tougher to deal with. Some major causes lead to supply chain hindrances:   Running low on inventory   Not having enough workforce   Low storage space   Last-mile fiction    Effectively Manage Supply Chain During the Festive Season   Working in silos can block ways to new opportunities, it delays operations and is prone to errors. Make sure you adopt Supply Chain Management Services like Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Retail Industry. You can make better replenishment strategies, plan loyalty programs, boost upsell and cross-selling, and much more.   Smartly Replenish Inventory   Replenishment strategies play a crucial part during the festive seasons. Poor replenishment can make this festive season a lot more stressful. Failing to find the desired product can lead your customers to approach your competition. You need technology that tracks your previous sales and patterns to help you make replenishment strategies. Working in silos will only make things worse. During high traffic, you need things to work faster and smoother, which is only possible with a Retail ERP Software such as Microsoft Dynamics 365.   Forecast Demand and Plan Wisely   It would be extremely helpful if you could successfully forecast customer demand during this festive season and stock just the right products. Apart from meeting daunting customer demands, it saves you from wastage and embarrassment. Analyze your previous sales, trends, and correlations to understand what people are demanding. Artificial Intelligence can provide tremendous assistance. You can easily pick an algorithm that matches your sales pattern the best and predict future sales demand on various levels. You can easily identify which product has the highest probability of being sold.   Read Customers and Offer Special Deals  During this heavy customer current, you are most likely to hook a good sale with smart strategies. Scan through their past purchase and spending patterns and identify which product they are most likely to purchase. Classify customers into different sets and plan offers for each set. Identify customer demands and encourage cross-selling. Offer discounts on the right products. Distribute coupons they can redeem later in the same or the other retail chains of yours.  Refill Stocks as Soon as You Can  All your efforts go in vain if your customers fail to find the desired products without delay. Going out-of-stock not only upsets your customers but causes a lot of embarrassment to you too. Track your inventory to stay updated as soon as you run out of stock. Inventory management tools such as the one Microsoft or LS retail offers can help you keep track of inventory and ensure prompt refilling. It is better to have your inventory data at hand, if you can get it on your mobile, even better. This way the updates reach faster to you.   Avoid Multiple Integrations   Having your data stored within different platforms can add to the complexities. Having to draw data from different software is more time-consuming and prone to errors. Similarly working in silos can do more harm than good during this opt for a unified solution like Microsoft Supply Chain Management. It is one of the Best ERP for Retail delivering a comprehensive supply chain suite – from Inventory Management to back office, everything packed within the same technological environment. Ensure free flow of communication throughout all the departments and deliver inventory requirements fast.   Final Words   Get ready for a business boom in this festive season. Ensure better Inventory Management and Replenishment with Retail ERP Software like Microsoft. Smartly replenish inventory, forecast demand and plan wisely, offer exclusive deals to your customers, and so on. Trident Information Systems is a Microsoft Gold Partner who has been serving various businesses for over two decades. For further information contact us.  

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LS Retail is now LS Central & Trident is LS Central Gold Implementation Partner

Retail ERP Software /

LS Central is Centralized Software solution for Restaurants and food services industry, this is all in one complete suit to manage front office to back office operations, inventory, customer service, online food ordering, Trident as LS Central Implementation Partner offering Retail ERP implementation, Support & training

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Streamline ordering and communication with a connected Kitchen Display System (KDS)

Uncategorized /

Since LS One 2020 was released in July, the LS One team has been developing extra functionality to enhance the system. They have put special focus on extending the capabilities for restaurants and food service businesses. Trident is LS Retail Central Platinum Partner, offering ERP for Retail & Hospitality. The Kitchen Display System (KDS) is a digital order viewer that replaces paper tickets and printers in a restaurant kitchen. A KDS has become an essential component in a modern kitchen, as it helps organize and streamline work: No more stained, hard-to-read paper tickets: all orders are displayed on screens, clear and tidy. No need for servers to waste time running from the front to the kitchen and back: all communication between kitchen and front (orders, items, their preparation status) goes through your POS system. Items and orders are automatically routed and displayed at the proper food preparation stations. Items are shown on the screens by production order, so kitchen staff can start and complete preparation timely. Kitchen staff can bump dishes to different stations, or mark orders and items as ready. The Kitchen Display System and the POS are connected via a two-way communication system. Front-of-house staff can see the status of orders at the POS, and make sure all dishes are delivered to the guests at the right time. You can add screens and set up specific automations to follow your kitchen’s flow. In the past, to connect a KDS to LS One you needed to do your own integration. From this version of LS One onwards, you can use your LS One POS system with the LS Retail Kitchen Display System. The systems are connected out of the box, no extra work needed. Picture this: Your server takes the order at the POS. When they send the order to the kitchen, the items are automatically routed to the KDS in the correct kitchen station (for example, the grill station versus the sauté or dessert station), and displayed in the right order of production. When a guest asks “When is my dish coming?” front-of-house staff can check at the POS the status of the order, and update the table. Easy, quick, and professional. Sell groups of items easily with assembly items It’s now easier than ever before to sell multiple items at once – for example, as a gift basket. In LS One you can now create “assembly items” by combining different items into one. The options are endless: Set up deals (or meal deals, if you run a restaurant or café) Create hampers and gift baskets Make bills of materials Set up recipes, managing the ingredients as separate items Assemble supply kits Do you run a chain, and want to differentiate your offering across locations? You can vary the list of component items between locations, and easily substitute products or ingredients as needed. For example, your holiday hamper can include Gouda cheese, instead of brie, in some of your store locations. You can set a special price for the final item, or add up the prices of the items that compose it – your choice. If you want, you can also display the list of components on the POS receipt, on the printed receipt, and on kitchen orders – or you can hide it. The integration to SAP Business One ERP just keeps on getting better Since we introduced the out-of-the-box integration between LS One and ERP SAP Business One, more and more businesses have moved from other POS solutions to LS One. Using their valuable feedback, we have been working on the integration to make it even more immediate and seamless. You can now add a U.S. tax setup when you create a customer on the POS The login service layer is more intuitive and quicker We have added tax synchronization for specific localizations You can now easily connect to different versions of SAP Business One HANA More enhancements to come as the LS One team keeps on ironing out the wrinkles. Endlessly enhancing LS One We are continuously working on improving LS One in terms of functionality, speed and simplicity. Some highlights from this release: You can now add the company’s country information Discount calculations are way faster than before We have redesigned the “send to station” and “menu type selection” dialogs (restaurant-specific functionality) The kitchen printing/send to station functionality is now fast and seamless (restaurant-specific). You can find more enhancements and fixes in the release notes. And as usual, more improvements are ahead as the team keeps on working to make LS One the best POS in the industry. If you have any comments, suggestions, or any query for us, get in touch! or write at info@tridentinfo.com

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How to reduce queues in your retail store and keep customers safe

Retail ERP Software /

Consumers hate standing in line at the store. This is nothing new. Nine out of ten UK shoppers interviewed by Box Technologies and Intel revealed they avoided stores with long queues. When Amazon opened its cashier-less, checkout-less store Amazon Go, many hailed it as a much-needed revolution exactly because it eliminated the need to queue to check out. Since Covid-19 hit, long lines have gone from being simply a nuisance and a waste of time to a potential hazard. As a retailer, how can you reduce the risk of lines forming without going the Amazon Go route? Here are six ideas. 1. Bring the register to the customer with mobile POS Today, the most advanced retail software solutions enable you to run the Point of Sale (POS) on mobile devices like tablet computers or smartphones. Your staff can look up information, scan items, close transactions, accept payments and print receipts anywhere the customers are, both inside and outside the store premises. No need for customers to line up at the register and wait for their turn. Another advantage of mobile POS is that you can easily add more devices when needed, without having to devote space to extra registers. [Download our whitepaper “No more strings” to find out more benefits of adding mobile Point of Sale to your in-store experience] 2. Add special stations for complex processes Simple sales are usually fast to handle, so a line of customers simply buying items usually flows rapidly. On the other hand, more complex processes like returns, custom orders or loyalty program signups can take longer, and slow down the line significantly. Since simple sales usually outnumber complex ones, you can reduce the average waiting time having a special service station for shoppers who need extra help, for example those needing refunds, exchanges, special orders and more. 3. Experiment with virtual queues With a virtual queue machine, customers can take a number and secure a place in a queue without actually having to stand in line, close to each other. Although these kind of machines are common in service centers like post offices and banks, they are not as widespread in retail stores, especially at the register. My local electronics store, for example, uses virtual queuing for customers looking for assistance, but relies on traditional lines at the register. Are they missing an opportunity? An added reason to try out virtual queues is that they give customers the time to wander around the store while waiting – a great opportunity for them to see   extra items they might want to add to their cart. 4. Set up one-to-one appointments Not all retail store visits need to be unplanned walk-ins. If a consultation or special attention is required, more retailers are encouraging people to book a time beforehand, so they can be given the time and attention they need. Jewelry chains Watches of Switzerland and Goldsmiths, Mappin & Webb started booking one-to-one appointments with customers as soon as they reopened their stores after the temporary pandemic closures. Craig Bolton, executive director of The Watches of Switzerland Group, says that his company set up 13,000 one-to-one virtual and in-store appointments in the last two weeks of July alone. Although this format may not fit retailers in all industries, reservations can help organize the flux of incoming visitors and ensure that you have the time and space you need for your customers. 5. Add “scan and go” tech The latest revolution in Point of Sale technology sees the POS move into the consumer’s hands. Scan and go mobile apps allow consumers to self-serve in the shop, using either their personal mobile device or a provided handset to scan items and pay. The process is different from traditional mobile POS, not just because customers take care of the scanning themselves but also because items are scanned as they are added to the cart. Although for now Scan and Go technology is most common in grocery stores, there is no reason why retailers in other sectors shouldn’t take advantage of it. In a fashion, health, electronics or DIY store, customers would benefit from the ability to add items to the basket at their convenience while limiting human-to-human contact. Scan and go apps have other benefits, too. When they scan aa barcode , customers can see all the product details, including information like nutrition, components or ingredients and care instructions– a great way for shoppers to get all the extra information they need to make a buying decision without having to touch the product. 6. Empower your staff with intuitive, reliable tech Is outdated, slow technology one of the causes of long lines in your store? One of our customers told us a horror story of their old POS breaking down during the Christmas Eve rush. “It was a nightmare: one of our cash registers locked up, causing all of the systems in our main store to go down. Lines wrapped around the store because we had to process all transactions manually by writing everything down. We easily lost $20,000 that day, and who knows the long term effects it had on repeat business.” His conclusion? “The most important criterion when choosing a system is reliability.” Take a hard look at your technology: is it still serving your customers adequately? When selecting new software, look for systems that ensure short transaction times. Long queues used to be a luxury problem for a retailer; not anymore. Do you need help finding the right technology to give customers a safe, pleasant experience in your stores? Do not hesitate to contact us.

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