More and more retailers are turning to `just in time' technology to
link up with warehouse ordering systems, suppliers, delivery channels and
financial systems.
``For a retail firm to have speedy, consistent
and reliable access to its business transactions such as sales and
inventory reports, it must be able to link all of its branches to its
business in real-time,'' said Ken Halpin, managing director and founder of
Celerity, a company dealing with retail supply chain management solutions
in Ireland.
In May, Celerity launched a new mobile sales ordering
service.
``Communication between buyer and seller was previously
limited to the mobile phone network,'' said Halpin.
``Now, with the
development of wi-fi and the installation of hot-spots in retail outlets,
companies have access to broadband to upload and download in synchrony. If
a company representative is with a customer, he can now access product
databases in real-time and find out what exact stock is
available.''
There are literally dozens of wireless products
emerging for use in the retail sector. A lot of these devices are bar-code
scanners, allowing floor staff to take stock inventories and receive
delivery details at the same time, or respond to consumer queries.
Laptops are also being used to carry out `live checks' in supermarket
environments.
The Musgrave Group has already introduced pilot-stage
wi-fi PDAs to facilitate re-ordering and stock control activities in its
Centra and SuperValu outlets.
According to Tony Griffin, head of
retail IT with Musgrave, the company will shortly roll out its new
radio-frequency (RF) handhelds across all stores. The devices, he said,
are both multi-user and multi-functional.
``The new system is
primarily intended to order products across the range,'' Griffin said.
``We deliver a significant percentage of our product directly to SuperValu
and Centra stores.
``Using the new device, staff working in these
stores will be able to use the new system to order from us. They will have
access to information like average weekly sales and order history as well
as more detailed sales history, cost price and recommended retail price.
"Basically, they will have access to a lot of important information
designed to help them with the ordering process.''
Fujitsu recently
launched its B-pad device, a wireless-enabled all-in-one product that can
act as a mobile PoS. It can also be used for shipping and
receiving.
It includes a laser scanner, magnetic strip-reader,
smart card-reader, and keypad with encryption for secure payment
transactions. It also has voice-over internet protocol (VoIP)
capabilities, eliminating the need for portable phones and
pagers.
Technology is no longer in the back office. It's now out
there on the shop floor. This is changing the way retailers do business,
making it possible for one staff member to carry out a number of jobs at
once.
Epson recently launched TM P60, a lightweight portable
printer with a number of unique features, including a full eight-hour
battery and partial auto-cutter. It can be used in conjunction with a PDA
for `queue-busting' transactions.
``The old receipts that got stuck
in the till, delaying customers and causing embarrassment for shop staff,
are gone,'' said Raj Parmar, marketing manager with Epson.
``The
paper is heated first in the machine to produce fast receipts. It can
produce a 50-line receipt in one second.''
In the hospitality
sector, Captiva Software will shortly launch its new hand-held Visual POS
Mobile.
The hand-held runs on radio frequency (RF)
technology.
``This allows waiting staff to take orders anywhere in
the building with the knowledge the order has been processed,'' said Eddie
Carty, marketing manager with Captiva.
``This is crucial to the
operation and will cut down on staffing problems and allow restaurants to
process orders more efficiently.''
The new device, he added, should
also allow staff to respond to special requests more quickly, improving
customer service.
``We are using the highest radio frequency
possible. This basically means the signal can bend around corners, go up
through different floors and so on.
"Even if the handheld goes out of coverage we have devised a clever way
of queuing the orders. This enables the waiting staff to simply move from
table to table without having to return to a fixed terminal to put their
orders in,'' he said.
According to Eamon Hession, founder and
managing director of Puca, a provider of mobile data solutions, the advent
of mobile technology has also ushered in a new era for customer loyalty
marketing.
``Over 80 per cent of the Irish population has a mobile
phone, and is never far away from it,'' Hession said. ``This generation
has fully embraced SMS messaging as an every-day communications
tool.
``Mobile-based loyalty can enable retailers to develop
one-to-one relationships with the customer initiating
communications.
``Customer-initiated marketing is achieved when a
consumer texts in a simple keyword such as `offers' to a short codes
number.
``An automated response is triggered by a tool such as our
own `txtdirect', which interfaces with a retailer's own promotional
database to send customer specific offers in real time.''
