Retail Business Management Software Evaluation
IntroductionRetail business is getting more exciting with each passing day due to increase in consumption and the changing attitude to live-it-up. At the same time, the business environment is getting more challenging as every businessman wants to utilize the opportunity. The results are increasing competition, more products in every category, volatile pricing environment, changing business processes, lack of consumer loyalty etc. Under these circumstances, the retail business management tool assumes greater significance as it
becomes more strategic to your business. The choice of good retail business management tool combined with the correct implementation of the same can result in great business benefits to lower investment, increase sales, lower operating cost resulting in business growth
The purpose of this white paper is to share our views on what a retailer must consider before deciding on the retail business management software. We hope this white paper helps retailers in deciding on the right retail business management software to manage and grow their business. Your feedback and suggestions are welcome and please send the same to feedback@gofrugaltech.com
Top Considerations
As a retailer evaluates the different software tools available to manage and grow his business, the
overwhelming consideration for most of them is the suitability of the product to manage the business. While it is very critical to evaluate the suitability of the product, there are other factors that must be considered. They are
Continuous Evolution of the product & services Maintenance & Support as per your business needs Effective use of Capital [Capability of tool to lower investment per unit / rupee revenue] Features to increase sales Efficiency of Operation [Operating cost per unit / rupee revenue] In the following sections, we will look at the above in more detail
Continuous Evolution - Is the Product Future Proof ?
S.No Requirement Vendor Capability
Reason for Requirement 1 Expandable options to
integrate the business management tool with web commerce and mobile commerce [business to consumer] solutions. This will help your business have a web presence to service web-in customers and have mobile-in customers
The penetration of Internet and mobile are increasing each day. Like we saw growth in telephone orders [phone-in] over the last few years, there will be significant growth in web-in and mobile-in consumers over the next 3-4 years
2 Options to use standards based business to business electronic data interchange tools for improved trade agility,
It is getting increasingly difficult to get people to do repetitive, manual work. It is also getting harder to train them on these. The cost of data entry mistakes, combined with the cost of reverse logistics due to order
increased order and delivery accuracy, lower supply chain costs with lower cost of operations [due to reduced data entry work]
or delivery error are increasing the adoption of B2B EDI tools
3 Integration of SMS (short message service) to improved management of customer relationship, vendor
relationships and also to notify business owners and
managers of exceptional
events, business summary and other alerts
SMS is becoming a way of life, with the universal use of mobile phones. SMS can be used effectively to manage and grow your business. Customers can be sent sales promotions, reminders and greeting messages. Suppliers can be sent stock and payment alerts. Owner/Managers are sent business summary, exception events, etc.
4 Support for trade collaboration processes and practices
Collaboration is becoming critical to business success today. Trades offering complimentary products and services, traders operating in different markets, addressing different types of consumers etc. collaborate to lower their cost of purchase, lower their investment or to offer services to their customer base. All these collaboration is happening with telephone and/or mobile phone today with manual processes. Support for such collaboration as an extension to the business management tool is a mandatory requirement today 5 R&D investments to offer
business best practices to suit the changing business climate and local cultural/legal
environment needs
The business processes, technology used and the management practices are changing with times. The software vendor should invest on R&D to continuously invent, learn and implement the best practices in the trade
Maintenance and Support
S.No Requirement Vendor Capability
Reason for Requirement 1 Support process - i.e. how
are issues reported by customers responded to and resolved
Organization should have good systems in place to be responsive in support. Only good system give organizations to deliver timely response and resolution to problems reported
2 Support Tools - i.e. The issue reporting and resolution tools
Should have email support [very cost effective for non-critical issues], telephone support [when urgent response required], knowledge base [to search and find solution for the problem faced] etc. Vendor should provide resolution through telephone, remote troubleshooting using remote desktop technologies and direct field visits, when required 3 Support service level
agreement & escalation mechanisms
Should have a well defined service level for different support subscriptions, based on your business needs. This is to make sure there will not be any disruption to business. Also, a clearly defined escalation process for escalating
critical issues, delay(s) in response etc. 4 Does the vendor release
maintenance patches to fix bugs / issues in the product
Let's face it. Software does have bugs and so it is important that the vendor releases patches for bugs reported by customers
5. Is there a easy tool to apply and revert patches using which patches can be downloaded and applied by the business person / his EDP staff
This way, the business can update the software based on the issues faced by it, based on its own needs and convenience
6. Does the vendor offer support service level as per your business need or provide only one product for all businesses
Some business handle large volume transactions, that require no disruption to invoicing. These business require very quick resolution to any issue that affect invoicing. They require different service level compared to another business that can wait. So, vendor must offer different service level where the price is dependent on the service level required
Effective Use of Capital [Lower Investment per Unit of Revenue]
S.No Requirement Vendor Capability
Reason for Requirement 1 Features to improve
inventory turn / rotation of capital
By increasing inventory turn, retail business reduces investment on the product and also can earn higher return on investment per year. So, the business management software should have the ability to measure and improve inventory turn
2 Features for efficient and optimal reorder / replenishment
By optimizing the effort required for reorder / replenishment, the frequency of reorder is improved resulting in higher inventory rotation. The suitability of reorder process, the ease of reorder tool and the effective tuning of reorder module to suit your business needs are very critical in optimizing the capital
3 Effective identification & management of non-moving inventory
Non-moving inventory must be identified at the earliest and managed i..e either sales promotions done to liquidate them or they are returned early
4 Trade Collaborations The biggest asset of a retail business is its location and the foot print the business generates. A retail business can collaborate with other businesses to get lower cost of purchase, to book orders for high value products or low volume products or for products that have storage requirements etc. Due to such collaboration, there can be more effective use of location
Increase Sales
S.No Requirement Vendor Capability
Reason for Requirement 1 Efficiency of handling
customers & queue at the billing counter [checkout process]
Customers should get a pleasant shopping experience. The efficiency with which customers are handled including the waiting time at the counter are very important in this respect. If customers have to wait longer at checkout counters, they may not return to the store
2 Multi-channel sales :
Effective walk-in, phone-in, web-in and mobile-in customer handling
While the traditional way of shopping [walk-in] still continues, customers also want their retail vendor to offer home delivery based on telephone, web and/or mobile orders. So, it is important to offer these
3 Can you record customer inquiries
This will help evaluate what new products need to be carried. As there are many new products introduced in the market, it is important to learn customer needs and wants and address the same
4 Can you measure lost sales opportunity either due to out of stock or due to low stock of a product
The software should record both stock-outs and low stock conditions. This will help identify the limitations in the reorder / replenishment process and address the same
5 Customer Relationship Management
Does the software make it easy to manage customer relationships. Sales offers, promotions, loyalty, greetings to customer on special occasions, festival offers etc. should be supported
Efficient Operations [Lower Operating cost per Unit of Revenue]
S.No Requirement Vendor Capability
Reason for Requirement 1 Reduction in
labor / staff
required to operate and manage
business
It is hard to find people & harder to train them. Also, more people means more complexity of managing the business. Also finding, training, retaining and replacing staff is one of the biggest operating cost of a retail business. So, one of the important criteria is to evaluate the business management tool to make sure how much of your business it can automate and how much staff it can reduce 2 Effective utilization
of space
By increasing the inventory turn / rotation, the retail business can stock more product category / products. This results in more effective utilization of space and lowers the operating cost per rupee revenue
3 Supplier
Management Cost Effective reorder / replenishment, efficient and accurate accounting of purchase, purchase return, promotions and other transactions with the supplier leads to reduction in supplier management costs 4 Lower cost of
sales
Due to increased automation of sales and customer interface processes and due to increased volume of transactions handled, the cost per rupee revenue is lower
5 Reverse Supply
Cost Due to identification, quarantine and return of non-moving, expiry, breakage and damage goods the cost of return comes down i.e. lower warehousing and handling cost on returns
Current Product Capability
S.No Requirement Vendor Capabilit y
Reason for Requirement
1 Business Process Automation
Support
Does the tool support all critical business processes of my business i.e. it must automate the frequently practices business processes efficiently
2 Business
Control / Security
Does the tool provide all control I require to manage my business. Controls in terms of security / access control and authentication for staff to perform authorized operations and to deny unauthorized operations
3 Operational Reporting
Does the tool provide all operational reports required as part of day to day management of the business
4 Management