Optimizing Your Business Technology Now and for the Future
It has been about two years since the COVID-19 pandemic changed the way people live. Communicating, learning and teaching, working, shopping, and practically everything else have been altered in some way. In retail, it provided added impetus for stores that were slow in updating business technology. When they were ordered to close, adopting online sales was the only way to keep cash registers ringing. It all proved that optimizing business technology is the best way to prepare a store for 2022 and beyond.
A comprehensive retail management platform simplifies most business processes from ordering stock to final sales and delivery. They simplify operations, eliminate tedious, time-consuming tasks, and let merchants make the most of their time and labor. A good one starts with a point-of-sale system (POS) that is easy to operate, learn and teach, and then gives a store owner a way to control all aspects of their business from a single terminal.
Many stores already have this technology, they just don’t unleash its power.
“When incorporating a retail platform into a business, it’s paramount you fine-tune your store processes into the technology, not the other way around. Too many businesses purchase a retail system envisioning the way it will fit into their current workflows or processes. That’s wrong. Retail technology works best when it’s used the way it was designed. This means putting your trust, faith, effort and investment into learning how to properly use the equipment and software.”
Owen presented his take on how independent stores can utilize business technology to improve operations and build for the future in a Retail Science blog “Evolving Toward Success with Technology.”
BizTech recently published a story, “Small Business Saturday: Three Technologies Smaller Retailers Should be Using Right Now,” that emphasizes how much small retailers need to embrace digital tools to thrive. Although it touches on Small Business Saturday, its focus is on how these business technologies can help independent retailers in their daily operations now and in the future. The technologies – contactless payments, omnichannel customer experience, and data collection systems – are all available through modern retail management platforms.
All these technologies got added boosts from the pandemic and subsequent retail closures and restrictions. They are key to small businesses building for the future.
Contactless payments were gaining traction before the pandemic, but shoppers’ desire to avoid touching practically everything gave it a big jumpstart.
Omnichannel sales were adopted when many brick-and-mortar stores closed for safety reasons. This combined online sales into in-store processes and helped many shopkeepers stay in business. Complete POS systems make real-time tracking of inventory sold online and in-store automatic.
Data collection became vitally important to small businesses that saw benefits from the shop local movement of consumers. Collecting shopper information is made simple through point-of-sale systems and it helps merchants develop relationships with consumers and turns browsers into loyal customers.
Many stores already operate on management platforms or point-of-sale systems that, if properly used, can streamline most retail operations. So, just learning how to fully optimize their capabilities is an effortless way to ensure a business’s future success.
