The touch screen iPad Point of Sale, "POS" combines the best
experiences of online shopping, brick and mortar retail outlets,
customer relationship management as well as the unique knowledge of
retail consultants. The CIO of Urban Outfitters, Calvin Hollinger stated
at an analyst meeting that the retailer had purchased its last cash
register and would only purchase Apple iPads with POS. The CIO stated
that the Apple iPad POS costs only one fifth as much as a computerized
cash register which "could be turned on a swivel toward the customer who
could enter their personal information and use it as a gift registry
and so forth." The iPad POS can be stationed in one fixed location,
several fixed locations or carried throughout the store by a retail
employee.
The
cost of a cash register and the periphery equipment ranges between
three hundred to a thousand dollars while the cost of a wireless Apple
iPad cost's three hundred to five hundred dollars. The lowest cost
option is to download the POS application to a smart phone and acquire a
free portable card reader and pay a merchant card provider one to three
percent charge of each credit card swipe. The iPad POS technology can
even enable the brick and mortar retailers to adopt a low inventory or
"demo" strategy to be on parity with the lower cost online retailer. The
main advantage of the iPad POS is that the device is mobile, optimizes
space and provides access to real time data stored on the cloud as well
as product information on the Internet. Specifically the iPad POS
provides:
• Access to the cloud, product information, customer
history, real time inventory and prompt customer service to a convenient
touch screen source. Furthermore, the iPad POS software gives the
retailer real time sales and inventory reports which can be accessed
anywhere. For instance, the owner of a small coffee shop could be on the
beach with an iPad monitoring sales on a real time basis while they
take in the sun.
• The ability to collect customer data for the
company's customer relational management "CRM" software including the
customer's personal email, preferences and buying history in which the
retailer can easily send special offers or sell gift cards.
•
Either a printed receipt in the store or a receipt sent by email to the
customer who can happily save the receipt digitally thereby enhancing
the customer experience and customer loyalty.
• A better customer
experience. The low cost, low space features of the Apple iPad POS
allows more retail space to place merchandise as well as more places for
customers to check out and reduce wait time. For instance, a shopper
who has found the product they love which might not be in the color they
like or some other feature can now be satisfied by the iPad POS which
has real time product information. The iPad empowered retail employee
can promptly show the customer the product they want in the color they
want and induce them to buy by offering later pick up at the store,
immediate pick up at another store or delivery to their home.
No comments:
Post a Comment