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Don’t Let Your Legacy POS Disrupt The Online And In-Store Experience

Branden Jenkins NetSUiteReplacing legacy POS (point-of-sale) is the most significant technology investment that brick-and-mortar retailers confront, a new study reveals. Legacy POS keeps consumers from getting the unified shopping experience they crave, while the cost and upheaval of replacing these systems stalls retailers from delivering that experience.

Yet there is a way to tackle both challenges with one approach. The benchmark report by RSR Research, a retail industry research firm, sponsored by NetSuite, reveals the challenges retailers confront and provides recommendations for delivering a continuous shopping experience across all channels.

Commerce Convergence: Closing the Gap Between Online and In-store, recognizes that the vast majority of consumers research their buying options online before purchasing in-store, where 90% of all purchases still happen. Consumers bring that research and their expectations of a continuous experience when they walk through your doors. They also bring a smartphone to access your web site, and your competitors’, to obtain additional product information.

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Unfortunately, legacy POS systems don’t provide store associates real-time access to a customer’s profile, order status or enterprise-wide inventory availability. Consumers therefore become frustrated that they know more than a store associate and have disjointed experiences between channels. Therefore, retailers miss out on cross-sell and upsell opportunities, and the chance to entrench customer brand loyalty through a personalized shopping experience.

Retailers are just as frustrated. The study found that 95% surveyed agree that the store and digital experiences must be brought together for one continuous, seamless brand experience. The same percentage of retailers said real-time insight into inventory levels and customer activity across all channels is important.

Yet 77% believe their legacy POS prevents them from providing that consistent customer experience across channels, and a similar percentage of retailers said getting new technologies rolled out to stores is a top challenge.

“When it comes to how to support the convergence of digital and the full shopping journey, retailers are stuck — waiting for something better to come along than the disparate systems they have,” said Steve Rowen, Managing Partner of RSR Research and a co-author of the report. “The reality is there are options out there, but even better performing retailers are cautious in approaching them, fearing both the cost and the pain of making the change.”

The top performing retailers in the study are far more likely to consider replacing their legacy POS, the research concluded. Replacing point solutions such as POS or e-Commerce may bring new functionality but won’t solve the bigger issue of closing the gap between online and in-store.

All retailers fret over the cost of “shoehorning new capabilities into an old platform,” Rowen said. And simply forcing e-Commerce into stores won’t address a consumer’s in-store needs, or a store associate’s position and responsibilities during their shopping experience.

So what did surveyed retailers say they want from the technology that will replace their Legacy POS? Real-time insight into inventory, customer activity and product information across all channels was their top requirement. “Simply put, retailers cannot service a customer anytime and anywhere without visibility into key information assets,” Rowen said.

Rowen and the report’s co-author Brian Kilcourse have identified the following key recommendations for modern retailers based on emerging behaviors of top retailers:

  1. Define what a seamless experience means in the context of your brand, design the total selling environment around that definition and then develop the technical roadmap to support your unique brand experience.

  1. Recognize the differences between in-store and e-Commerce order management systems to avoid adding complexity to in-store technology.

  1. Bring deeper engagement with more personalized attention to deliver a relevant and enjoyable customer experience.

  1. Make the same information that consumers have available to store associates and use modern mobile technology to optimize non-selling functions.

  1. Make inventory, product and customer data visible across the entire enterprise.

  1. Get past the desire to own the solution and deploy cloud-based technology.

Providing a unified experience across in-store and online is possible. It just takes a modern, unified system and a commitment from the entire organization.

Learn how to plan your transformation from legacy POS in this on-demand webinar titled, Unify In-Store And Online Systems To Transform The Customer Experience. Executives from RSR Research and NetSuite discuss how retailers can take advantage of modern platforms to streamline operations across all channels. Ryan Johnson, COO at Lovesac, also provides insights into how the modular furniture retailer unified its sales channels, delivered real-time inventory visibility for sales associates and consumers and continues to build brand awareness.


 

Branden Jenkins is General Manager of Global Retail at NetSuite, a leading provider of cloud-based omnichannel software that helps retailers transform commerce by seamlessly connecting every step of the business — e-Commerce, POS, CRM, order management, inventory, merchandising, marketing, financials and customer service.

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