12 MULTICHANNELNEWS
RINGING THE CHANGES AT THE TILL
I
n an age where retailers must manage multiple points of interaction with the customer, one electronic point-of-sale (EPoS) provider is questioning the approach of traditional till estate management models. POS-LINK has been producing
innovative EPoS software for fashion and speciality retailers for 25 years. Its latest software editions have been developed on a SQL Server platform to provide its retail customers with its most fl exible and robust software yet. Paul Rolison, managing director of POS-LINK, said the choice of database platform was specifi cally geared towards enabling a multichannel approach to the market. “Retailers essentially want their till estates to manage transactions, provide information, and enable great customer service, and that’s what we deliver,” Rolison told Retail Technology. “The benefi t is that we can manage, maintain and support the front-end till system and nothing essentially needs to change at the back end – till estate outsourcing in essence.”
POS-LINK operates a back-offi ce
intermediate server, which manages its service and passes the EPoS data back to the retailer in the formats required for their back-offi ce systems, with no need for servers to be located in stores. Likewise, back-offi ce data is processed and delivered to the till estate with the status of individual tills controlled by a management dashboard. He added: “We’ve even created an
EPoS application that is self-suffi cient. It replicates instore and to the server so that – provided it has power – it can always carry on doing its job, without needing a network connection. New or replacement tills can be up and running in minutes using a rapid deployment methodology we developed.” This is why Rolison believes till
estates have, or should, become just one of the tools to enable a customer to buy an item of stock through whatever channel they wish, wherever it may be in the business, in any store and in any warehouse.
As a result he said retailers should consider that they can upgrade their till estate without changing their back- offi ce systems. “Our EPoS software can readily integrate with existing channels and systems to interrogate real- time stock availability, place an order, and accept the payment, while not forgetting to capture and consolidate customer information across channels simultaneously,” he added. POS-LINK’s hardware partner also
supports Rolison’s ethos of fl exible systems that maximise the value of return on till information over capital returns on investment. “It is important they are modular, with easy-swap components so tills can be up and running again quickly after replacing a part, and without having to change an entire till,” he said. “The EPoS hardware we supply is also fanless, which means there are less moving parts to replace. This a particular advantage to have in fashion retailing, as the clothes fi bres can get everywhere, as our engineers will tell you!” Even the ongoing development of POS-LINK capabilities supports Rolison’s assertion that retailers should strategically re-prioritise till data over the actual till estate itself. While POS-LINK already offers addition EPoS modules for loyalty and gift cards, Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliance services and IT helpdesk capabilities, it is also working on facilitating wireless customer recognition.
“One of the things retailers
The UK’s largest online kitchen appliance e-tailer DRL Limited has forecast £250 million worth of sales for this fi nancial year. The 10-year-old, Bolton based company has seen like for like sales
dramatically increase since March, in contrast to competitors Comet and Currys who have both posted losses. To achieve this ambitious growth, DRL is expanding its in-house marketing team to manage Google advertising, social media, e-mail marketing and the construction of a new web platform.
RETAIL TECHNOLOGY JULY/AUGUST 2011
particularly want from their EPoS systems is to make sure it is giving them good customer intelligence,” Rolison concluded. “Any system that can collect customer information swiftly so staff can communicate with customers on a personalised level instore will only deliver more value to the retailer in terms of using the process of information gathering to drive higher sales.”
◆ Jessops has extended its contract with Fredhopper for another year. The e-commerce technology company will continue to provide onsite search and navigation functionality to Jessops’ online store. Simon Joseph, associate director of
e-commerce at Jessops, said: “Its accuracy allows our customers to fi nd products faster, which has a direct relationship to conversion.”
◆ TUI Travel’s Specialist Holiday Group is using TagMan across all its sites to manage tracking tags better and gain complete path-to-conversion reporting. As a result of this complete view of the journey its customers take to a sale, TUI has transformed its digital marketing strategy, including a 30%-saving in commission payments to click-per-action (CPA) partners through accurate deduplication.
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