Ready for a challenge

Retail IT directors are finding it harder and harder to get budgets agreed for technology refreshes. However, Richard Cottrell, Sales and Marketing Director at Vista Retail Support, says that retailers should not rush into any investments as we go through a transitional period.

The economic slowdown means that retailers do not have large sums of money to invest in new technology. Instead retailers are, wherever possible, looking to sweat their assets to get the most from their EPOS.

It’s the responsibility of EPOS providers to support their customers and put forward ideas that can help them maintain their performance. Retailers should only look to invest when the technology is right for their business.

The first issue retailers have to overcome is to assess the longevity of the hardware that they’re currently using.

If a retailer’s Board of Directors won’t sign off new investment then they need to ensure that they can extend the life of their current technology. The more shrewd retailers are focused on not letting their Point of Sale hardware fail rather than reacting when it does. Just like central heating, their EPoS fails when they need it most, in periods of peak trading. This is Christmas for most but for garden centres and DIY outlets the Easter period, is when they experience the highest failures.

EPOS providers should also be working with their retail customers to plan preventative maintenance programmes to proactively replace components that have a high failure rate when under pressure during peak trading. It’s a small investment in time and money to ensure that when you need it most, the mission critical hardware that you rely on is fully functional allowing the retailers to provide a fast and effective customer experience.

One of the few investment decisions being considered at the moment is the introduction of Hand Held Terminals (HHT) into a range of retail and hospitality outlets.

However, companies need to be sure it’s adding real value. As people become more “wireless savvy” with their mobiles, Blackberries and PDAs, they expect more mobility in all aspects of their lives. When paying by card in a restaurant it is now the norm to use a wireless Credit Card Terminal, while having your order taken on a HHT is also becoming more frequent. For the customer it speeds up the service and for the retailer it minimises mistakes made due to staff inaccuracies who are under pressure. As we’ve seen from experience, however, there is a high failure rate from these HHT’s particularly in the early days of use. Butter-fingered staff, hard wooden floors and high technology products do not make good bedfellows. Some very inventive ways of stopping accidental damage have been produced but we’re still seeing high levels of call outs for HHT compared to traditional terminals that are safely secured to the counter.

Another vogue initiative is the introduction of Kiosks into customer areas to help the sharing of information with customers within the store environment. In their most basic form they’re little more than a web browser in a shop but the more sophisticated products are now offering full customer interaction with a retailer. The ability for the customer to view their loyalty account, look at stock in other local stores and if necessary web orders, all help the customer have a single view of the retailer.

Unfortunately, customers don’t always pay the same care and attention to these technological advances as staff. Retailers have experienced customer damage ranging from chewing gum in the keyboard through to ‘kiosk rage’ where screens have been smashed and even attempts to remove the whole kiosk.

As retailers introduce more of these types of products into stores, greater emphasis will need to be on the ability to support the products once deployed.

While the in store marketing team may well want the kiosk to be compact and convenient, the technology may disapprove of that style environment. One retailer recently designed a kiosk that was so compact that they needed to take the small rubber feet off of the processer unit to allow it to fit into the space. Unfortunately that meant that the cooling fans had access to an air flow so within 45 minutes the units over heated and shut down. A few minutes with a technology environmental specialist would have saved them significant time and money.

With any new technology retailers must think long and hard about the benefits it will provide the business in its day-to-day activities. Customers are focusing more than ever on service during these difficult times and your technology needs to be providing added value to the business at an affordable cost.