If you stop to think about it, we must be a little crazy to expect so many things from store associates today.
We want them to be brand ambassadors. When your store is full of associates who love the brand and live it, they will draw in customers. Excellent brand ambassadors are like traffic magnets.
Of course, they need to be product experts. They need to keep track of what’s new, what’s unique to their location and what just went on sale.
Associates have to be omnichannel fulfillment specialists. Prepping click-and-collect orders, picking and packing ship-from-store orders, managing store-to-store transfers, etc. — the fulfillment scenarios really are endless.
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Oh! And don’t forget that they need to sell stuff! And process returns of stuff people don’t want! They likely need to host events, too, since store events are all the rage. Keep the stores tidy. Follow evolving protocols as they relate to loss prevention. Personalize the experience. Make sure shoppers sign up for loyalty programs and private label credit cards. And, and, and…
Are we expecting too much from store associates? Probably. Is that going to change anytime soon? Probably not.
The least we can do is set them up for success with the right technology. If you expect your associates to be retail superheroes, here are four things to look for when selecting a POS solution.
1. Ease of use without sacrificing functionality.
A friend of mine had a modern luxury SUV. With all the bells and whistles, the interior looked more like a jet cockpit than a car dashboard. And guess what? He couldn’t figure out how to work half the features, so he tired of the complexity and traded the vehicle in for a simpler model.
All that advanced functionality becomes a success inhibitor if it’s not easy to use. And think about how true that is in a retail setting.
When it comes to technology, associates expect to log in to a POS application and use it just like any other app they use on a day-to-day basis. A POS user experience should be so intuitive that a new associate can feel comfortable ringing transactions in just a few minutes.
But easy is only half the equation. Sales associates need robust POS solutions. Remember all the things associates are expected to do in stores? All the ways they need to serve customers? Your POS system needs to account for that.
Deep functionality, served up in a simple way. It’s a lot harder than it sounds. Associate POS adoption depends on getting the user experience right.
2. Customer and product information at their fingertips
What are some of the functionalities and data that your POS system needs to serve up? Well, let’s start with customer data. The POS should provide associates with real-time access to each customer’s history with the retailer, including all in-store and online purchases as well as active orders and loyalty status information.
Inventory information needs to be available to empower associates to save every sale when an item the shopper wants to buy is out of stock or even just out of sight.
With the right POS solution, associates can access real-time inventory data that shows items that are available at that store, available for delivery, available to ship to that store for pickup at a later date, and real-time availability at nearby stores for reserve and pickup.
3. Device flexibility for optimal interactions
Every retailer has different needs when it comes to serving customers. And even for each retailer, POS needs could vary store by store. For example, a retailer’s flagship locations could have POS software running on fixed tills and also on mobile devices to assist with line-busting and in-aisle service. That same retailer may choose to design its small footprint locations without a cash wrap in order to devote maximum square footage to selling space, necessitating POS on mobile devices only.
Whether you want fixed tills, POS on mobile devices only or some combination of the two, your POS system should allow associates to serve customers in the most optimal way for each location, with no loss of functionality on fully mobile devices.
4. Ability to sell even when offline
Want to REALLY stress out your employees and frustrate your customers? Have your POS lose its network connection — and with it, the ability to transact.
Did you just groan aloud? Me too. This is one situation you want to avoid at all costs. And believe it or not, for a lot of different reasons, retailers still deal with this issue all the time.
Except for the retailers that have already moved to an offline-resilient POS solution.
With an offline-resilient POS, the devices can run fully disconnected from the cloud. Each device can perform core transactional functions — such as the ability to accept card and cash payments and scan products for efficient checkouts — offline.
Transactions rung in offline mode are stored locally on each device and transmitted to the cloud automatically once the device re-establishes connectivity.
Done right, the offline POS experience should be so smooth that associates may not even know when their device is offline.
Lost internet connection is no longer your associates’ kryptonite!
Modern Store Associates Require Modern POS Capabilities
The past five years have been particularly hard on retail associates. The pandemic. Followed by a heaping new list of responsibilities. Compounded by staffing shortages.
We owe them our gratitude. Our respect.
And a POS system that reflects the modern demands of the job.
Dave Bruno is Director of Retail Industry Insights at Aptos, a retail technology company, where he spends most of his time these days putting his 30 years of retail and retail technology industry experience to work helping retailers as they embark on their store transformation journeys. The store continues to endure as the centerpiece of the vast majority of shopping journeys, and Bruno’s experience makes him ideally suited to help retailers prioritize their technology and experience strategies.
