All You Need To Know About Retail Management System

In the retail industry, there is a need to keep up with multiple clients’ wants while staying ahead of the competition. This can prove daunting as there are many moving parts with a high tendency for human error to creep in. This is where technology comes in. With the use of specialised solutions, namely a Retail Management System, these businesses have been able to unlock new levels of operational efficiency.

These Retail Management Systems (RMS) are software applications that help businesses keep track of their sales, inventory, customers, and employees. It is a critical tool for managing a retail business, as it helps businesses run more efficiently and effectively.

A good retail management system can be used to monitor sales data, customer information, inventory metrics, and employee information. It can also be used to generate reports, set up alerts, and track trends in the retail industry.

If you are a retail business owner, then it is important to understand what a retail management system is and how it can benefit your business.

Keep reading to learn everything you need to know about Retail Management Systems and see if it’s a right fit for your business!

What is a Retail Management System?

A Retail Management System is a platform, either custom-made or predesigned, which combines multiple modules and their respective functions to aid in the day-to-day operation of a retail store or chain of stores. It comes with simple and complex functions that erase human error and improves operational efficiency.

With a Retail Management System, you can access detailed information based on the retail process of your business, right from the production phase, down to distribution and customer feedback.

This system ensures that customers get the utmost satisfaction in their shopping experience, while also making your business operations seamless and more profitable.

The benefits of a Retail Management Systems.

Here are some benefits you stand to gain when you use a Retail Management System in your business.

1. Retail Management System promotes organisation in your stores. So customers can find it easy to locate any product they need. Your products can be grouped into different categories such as age groups and gender.
2. Ever experienced shoplifters in your store?

A Retail Management System can help you avoid such occurrences as it keeps track of all your products and sales, by assigning a unique SKU (Stock keeping unit) to each product. And of course, the use of surveillance cameras will always prove helpful.

1. RMS promotes efficient business operations by improving internal and external communication, allowing you to easily control business advertisements or campaigns, including analysing results and predicting future performance.
2. Retail Management System reduces costs, which makes it a choice software for many retailers. It saves time that could have been used managing multiple systems, and it also helps to avoid IT maintenance.
3. RMS streamlines transactions, making buying and selling much easier, and customer experience more personalised.
4. Retail Management System has a convenient inventory management feature that helps mitigate errors. An RMS software can display every detail about products in stock, so you can be informed when they are running out. This feature can help to avoid waste and surplus in your stores.
5. RMS makes payments easier for your customers through several gateways such as cards, digital applications, vouchers, and cash. This makes money and account management easier.
6. RMS helps administer rewards to loyal customers, while also monitoring the points they earned and the redemption of each point by the customers. An excellent RMS should also be able to possess multi-store and multi-currency options for international customers. It should also support discounts for consumers, and promotions programs for items in a store.
7. Using a Retail Management System promotes customer experience. After all, the development of such software was primarily to give consumers great experiences when they shop.

 

The features of a retail management system

You may be wondering what exactly an RMS tool is and how it works. Well, it is a digital application that comes in various types depending on the business it is used for. At Hidden Brains, we have software developers that can design the RMS tool that suits your business, making your operations easier and smoother than ever.

Here are some features of this robust management system:

• Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

CRM is a tool businesses use to improve their interactions with their customers. Through this, retailers like yourself can analyse and understand customer behaviour to guide their business decisions.

This software optimises customer relationships and interaction between you and your customers, to retain your consumer base. It reveals the details on how your consumers were contacted, your previous communications with them, when and what was purchased, the means of payment that was used, and consumer choices.

CRM also provides customer details for marketing and other business campaigns.

• Inventory Management

Inventory management is one of the primary features of a Retail Management System. It tracks every customer’s order from the point of purchase to order fulfilment.

Inventory management also provides inventory analytics that informs you of the products that are most popular among your customers.

With such detailed information about your customers’ preferences, you can be guided on the kind of items you should place in your stocks.

While there are RMS systems that feature their unique Inventory tools, some systems are designed to integrate with external Inventory management software.

• Point of Sale

This is yet another primary feature of Retail Management System. With a Point of Sale, transactions can occur from you to your customers, including collecting customer data. In other words, the Point of Sale system streamlines every sales process.

Integrating a POS system and in-store sale operations with a Retail Management System automatically brings all your retail operations into a single platform, making your access and analysis of all transactions more efficient and seamless. Some features of retail POS software are:

1. Purchasing items through automated and manual channels.
2. A supply chain management that monitors, and controls the shipping and return of products.
3. Definition of stock prices, features of items, and discounts when shopping.
4. Retrieve control for all the operations and users in the system.

• Employee and Vendor Management

With a retail management system, you can manage your employees and vendors effectively. For instance, your employees can view their job responsibilities and schedules when they log into an RMS, while vendors can view inventory levels and reorder products if necessary. This increases productivity and accountability in your workforce.

• Reporting and Analytics

A Retail Management system draws information from different platforms into a single place. It presents complex data in an understandable and simplified manner, helping you to make informed decisions about your business.

The data provided shows the interrelation of different aspects of a business, such as online and in-store customer behaviour. It helps you to understand your customers’ behavioural patterns. That way you can use the information to attract and retain them.

• Cross-Selling and Upselling

Cross-selling and Upselling involves persuading your customers to buy a complementary and similar product to their current purchases.

An ideal Retail Management System can boost the operations of your sales representatives when they cross-sell and up-sell to increase revenue and customer satisfaction.

Factors to consider before implementing a Retail Management System

Here are a few factors to consider before making a move to implement this RMS software in your retail business:

• Costs

Installing a Retail Management System can cause a substantial amount, especially for a top-level one on the market. However, the benefits you would derive from implementing it surpass the purchase and installation cost. So, consider it a necessary investment for better efficiency and effectiveness in your business.

• Training prerequisite

Although Retail Management System is easy to use and understand, it requires substantial experience, an open mind, and change adaptation from your workforce for it to be utilised successfully. Therefore, you will have to take them through RMS training.

• Customisation

Retail Management System gives you the freedom to customise its modules to suit the needs of your business. However, getting advanced customisation would require that you get experts to do the job. And what other experts aside from your go-to software provider – Hidden Brains? Our developers would not only provide the best RMS in the market but also customise it to suit your needs and requirements. They would also be on standby for any future upgrade you may need for the software.

With Hidden Brains, you can hire professional developers who specialise in building state-of-the-art Retail Management Systems to boost your business operations and revenue. We also have a ready-to-install retail management solution just for you.

To begin, simply visit our website at https://www.hiddenbrains.africa/ to schedule a free 30 minutes consultation with an expert or send an enquiry to [email protected]