Retail Systems Magazine

Have you got IT covered?

You may be forgiven for thinking that it’s all doom and gloom out there on the High Street, as many retailers buckle under the pressure of the recession. And it's true, the industry is facing a tough year ahead. Here, Richard Goodall, group sales and marketing director at PCMS, looks at how the ambitious retailer can capitalise on the downturn and come out the other end thriving

Recent headlines have been dominated by the collapse of some of the UK’s highest profile retailers and the repercussions have been felt throughout the marketplace. The picture painted by the media has been bleak, but there are many retailers that are still holding their head high and weathering the storm. Businesses need to face the problem head on and put strategies in place in the immediate future. Survival now will mean growth later.

If there is one thing that everyone operating in the retail sector can agree on, it’s that the High Street is changing. And it can’t just be put down to the economic situation, although one could argue it has fast-tracked the change. So what is shaping the industry? The landscape of the High Street is changing due to demands from the customer. Consumers have considerably less time available and therefore want to be in and out of a shop as quickly and painlessly as possible.

Technology will play a critical part in meeting these changing demands. Identifying and grabbing hold of differentiators such as technology is key for businesses to keep afloat and while reinventing store layouts and investing in staff are positive steps, they can be costly and only a short term solution.
Today’s customers demand that the purchasing process is quick and efficient and they will go where the queues are not and they won’t stand for hassle with refunds. Pace of transaction, the ability to update pricing quickly against availability and stock levels, seamless refunds at any outlet from a specific chain and the ability for logistics and front of house EPoS to be working effortlessly together - all of these are dependant on an IT system that is fast, reliable and innovative.

Central role

The savvy retailers out there have realised that IT has a central role to play and that a streamlined approach is important to the customer. Hassle at the till and problems with refunds will drive customers towards the competition that can provide the service they’re looking for. IT also provides an essential function in allowing counter staff to pull together diverse information from across the retail portfolio through one central point. It can also allow full integration with the supply chain to enable the quick replenishment of stock.

For the SME retail player, outsourcing is an option that will enable them to embrace and exploit the latest IT developments. By using a retail IT expert, SMEs can gain flexibility and cost-down options, allowing the business to concentrate on its core competencies. Smaller businesses will be feeling the strain more than most as they stand up to the retail industry’s giants, so it’s important for them to be proactive and look to outsource in order to cut costs and offer the service customers want.

Furthermore, multi-format and multi-channel retailing are becoming central to the industry and retailers need to keep up with these market trends. Therefore, the SME retailer, in particular, must embrace these consumer demands by employing innovative and imaginative IT systems. This may not be achievable for many small businesses in-house, so looking to a third party and outsourcing IT systems will allow the SME to compete with larger retailers.

Yet finance can be hard to get without compromising the stability of a business and loans are hard to come by. So for retailers that recognise that IT holds the key to the future, actually making that investment is difficult. But there are options out there. Indeed, certain hardware manufacturers may finance the deals or businesses can look for managed service deals that are charged for by the month. For smaller businesses with less capital, simply changing the software and keeping the hardware could save up to 60 per cent of the full cost.

There is no doubting that these are uncertain times for the retail community and that consumers will continue to push retailers to deliver first-class standards. So businesses must take steps now to increase customer loyalty in order to survive and then thrive. And that means prioritising IT, technology and customer services.

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