Many retailers still neglect the basics of store operations. Often feeling held back by the costs of replacing or enhancing dated legacy systems (POS, ERP, WMS), retailers maintain the status quo and dangerously compromise the customer’s in-store experience with persistent poor shelf availability and poorly informed staff. Hence, their customers reduce their spending by almost 50%* because the item they want is not on the shelf. Extending the functionality of existing POS systems is an easy and cost-efficient way to improve on-shelf availability.

Mobilise existing store systems

This can be achieved with minimal disruption to business as usual, using a combination of mobile applications, mobile devices and barcode/RFID tagging.

Simple and cost effective mobility applications, allied with appropriate technologies and linked to appropriate back end systems can eliminate the obstacles posed by inflexible legacy POS infrastructure.

This can allow the retailer to transform the processes which deliver customer and financial value within the store by:

  • Giving store staff real-time access to product information or availability data, which ensures they are better informed than customers.
  • Enabling fast access to wider inventory visibility either within the store, other stores, in-transit or DC located stock, so that store staff have the opportunity to save the sale by proposing alternatives.
  • Optimised staff time management, to maximize the potential for customer dialogue and improved sales levels through integrated task management.
  • Higher on-shelf-availability with more stock visible for sale on the shop floor, enabled by system directed replenishment (store staff receiving alerts to replenish items).
  • Maximizing on-shelf-availability and giving retailers the ability to synchronise back of store and shop-floor replenishment processes rapidly and efficiently.

A scalable approach

In-store mobility solutions often exist as a library of in-store applications that run on all leading industrial and consumer devices. For retailers looking for a phased approach, it allows them to start small (e.g. with a mobile inventory app) and then add apps for other processes such as click & collect or returns management later on.

Feel free to get in touch with one of our retail experts for a free consultancy session on how to maximize your in-store fulfilment – or check out how ZetesAthena helps you improve your on-shelf availability.

*Source: Gartner Research: Multichannel Fulfillment and Returns, 2014