Category Archives: Articles

5 Reasons to Upgrade Your POS System

upgradeHaving the right tools to run your business is essential – You need suitable inventory, hardworking staff members, a reliable way to keep records, and a POS system to process transactions. Sometimes you need to hire some new staff members or order new products for your inventory – But how do you know when to upgrade your POS system?

  1. Your current POS system is outdated. If it is older than your youngest employee or intern, it is definitely time to switch. Do you remember wondering if your current POS system could withstand the Y2K changeover? If so, you’re probably due for an upgrade.
  2. You need multiple systems to run your business. You have a POS system for your registers, you have accounting software for your payroll, you have a few others to manage your inventory, vendors, and warehouse distribution. If this sounds like your business, then it is time to switch to one POS system that can perform all of those functions seamlessly and easily. Doesn’t keeping your shirts, pants, shoes, and jackets all together in one closet make getting dressed a lot easier?
  3. The employees using your system get frustrated with it. Maybe the inventory from your warehouse is never up to date because it doesn’t take into account online orders. Maybe doing stock counts on pen and paper with no images of the items gets difficult. Keep this in mind: Your cashiers are the last people your customer interacts with before leaving your store. If they are frustrated during that final transaction because of something regarding your POS system, then they may not be leaving your customer with the best impression. Happy employees generate happy customers. Happy customers generate profit.
  4. The support for your current POS system does not meet your needs. Every time you call you speak with a different person, so they don’t know about how your system crashed last week and how that crash could be related to the current problem you’re having. You try to ask for the person you spoke with last time, but you don’t remember his name and the person you’re on the phone with can’t look it up for you. Upgrading to a new POS system and having a support team that assigns your business a specific technician can relieve many of these headaches in the future.
  5. You want to be able to use tablets and smartphones. Have you noticed that more stores are checking out their customers on tablets and smartphones, but can’t even imagine that being realistic for your own business? If you have an up to date POS system, then you can use the latest technology as well.

 

Time to upgrade

If you would like to speak with someone about upgrading our current system, please give us a call at 860-781-6470 or email us at [email protected].

How to Boost Your Retail Sales After the New Year

This article provides great ideas to boost sales in a typically slow time for retailers.

Are you doing anything to boost your sales this January?

“Plenty of people will be heading into stores in January to exchange unwanted items, cash in gift cards or spend gifted money. With the right approach and some advance planning, you can continue to capture their attention, and their dollars, well into the new year.”

To read more click on the link below.

How to Boost Your Retail Sales After the New Year.

11 WAYS TO ATTRACT SHOOTERS IN THE SLOW MONTHS | The Range Report

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We think this NSSF article is quite helpful for the Firearms industry, providing tips to generate additional traffic flow throughout the year.

Here’s a tidbit from the article:

Every business experiences slumps and slow times related to the calendar, season and weather, as well as the busy lifestyles of today’s consumers.

Your shooting range is no exception.

If you have an outdoor range, you know the challenge. Cold weather often keeps shooters indoors or at home, waiting for spring to get outside for some target practice or recreational shooting. Likewise, summer heat can scare shooters indoors or persuade them to wait for cooler autumn days.

Indoor ranges experience parallel problems. When beautiful weather beckons in spring and fall, it’s very inviting for shooters to do their thing outdoors. If you are located in a northern state with long or bad winters, summer shooting traffic can be an issue too. People prefer to be outdoors because they’re cooped up for so much of the year.

Bottom line: No matter the time of year, what you are (indoor, outdoor or both), or where your range is located geographically, you can always use more customers filling lanes, buying products and providing revenue. The path to that result involves developing promotions that create excitement and value, and give shooters good reasons to come to your range.

Here are 11 promotional concepts to attract more shooters to your range at traditionally slow times and to leverage holidays and life events to generate additional traffic flow.

To read the full article and see the promotional concepts, click this link:  11 WAYS TO ATTRACT SHOOTERS IN THE SLOW MONTHS | The Range Report.

How Big Is Christmas For Retail? – Forbes

Annual Average +/- Monthly Sales Comparable Data

Do you agree with the findings in this article? How is your retail business affected by the season?

Christmas is big, no doubt about it. How big depends on what type of retail. Highest honors for big holiday volume goes to sporting goods, electronics, and clothing, but general merchandise and non-store retailers (like Amazon) are close behind. Lower holiday season sales occur at car dealers, building materials stores and gas stations…

How Big Is Christmas For Retail? – Forbes.

The Shopping Decision Tree

The Shopping Decision Tree

The Shopping Decision Tree | MIT Technology Review.

In Lieu of the upcoming holiday shopping season, we found this infographic from MIT Tech. showing their findings on how shopping decisions are made. An interesting look into how technology plays a role into how shoppers are making their purchases. Brick and mortar stores are still the preferred choice.