CLEVELAND — LakeWest Group, an independent retail management consulting firm, completed its 6th Annual POS (Point-of-Sale) Benchmarking Survey of the Top 100 Specialty Retailers, according to a news release.
LakeWest Group found that retailers continue to focus on enhancing customers' shopping experiences by differentiating service offerings, while remaining focused on their overall return on investment (ROI).
Respondents identified their top priorities as increased customer flow-through, better customer information gathering, hardware replacement, improved store labor management, and seamless channel integration.
Since customer expectations and satisfaction are increasingly dependent upon a seamless shopping experience across channels, retailers are placing heightened emphasis on multi-channel integration. More than one-third of the multi-channel retailers offer kiosks as tools for online shopping, product information or employee support.
To enhance the multi-channel shopping experience, more than 70 percent of the retailers offer the use of stored value cards (SVC) across channels in addition to offering cross-channel returns processing.
"Customer service continues to be the key priority for retailers as they focus on gaining a better understanding of their customer, improving inventory management, and more effectively managing store personnel," said Robert Antall, CEO of LakeWest Group. "As retailers look to differentiate their offering, they are addressing areas such as channel integration, customer purchasing patterns across channels, and providing special order options to the customer."
Better access to real-time inventory information across channels improves ROI and offers accurate product availability and special order capabilities. Inventory management tools used at the store level are often web-based and may be accessed by handheld wireless units. Currently, almost half of the respondents utilize RF handhelds for inventory functions with another 39 percent planning to implement RF handheld inventory functionality within two years.
One-third of the retailers will replace hardware and software in the next two years and nearly half of the retailers will upgrade their connectivity. Ultimately, this provides better service to maintain loyal customers and gain new customers, while also attaining an effective ROI.
