Retail Management Advice: Marilyn's Blog

What Hours are You Open?

2011-11-04T23:34:51Z

When Are You Open?

Its 3 weeks and counting until Black Friday.   This year more large retailers are starting their sales at 12:00AM on Friday the 25th.   And while I'm not suggesting you do that, maybe it is time to look at your store hours over the holiday season.

Are you open hours that are convenient for your customers?   Or convenient for you?   The days of mom being home and able to shop during the weekday are long gone.   And a lot of times weekends are taken up with kids' soccer games or other commitments. So look around you and see what hours other local retailers are open.   If you are not open at night during the week, can you pick one or two nights - Thursday & Friday maybe - to stay open until 8 or 9P during the holidays.   If you're not there, customers will just move on to someone who is open.

Get people into your store on that extra night you are open by doing something special. Have free gift wrapping and cider & cookies.   Donate a portion of your profits to charity one night. Sponsor a "Giving Tree" for foster kids.   Ask for food donations and give a 10% discount.

Competition is high for the consumer's dollar.   You can't compete with the big guys on $, nor do you want to.    But you might need to stay open a few extra hours so customers can get to your store.   In my case, I'm an early morning shopper - so I can bet the crowds. On Sunday mornings, a lot of small retailers don't open until noon.   By then I'm done shopping and on my way home. So during the holidays maybe you need to look at opening a little earlier on the weekends.

Remember the whole objective is to make it easy for a customer to shop with you and keep them coming back.

Have a good weekend.

Marilyn

Layaways???

2011-11-04T22:37:04Z

What? Layaways? YES!!!!

A returning trend over the last couple of years has been the use of layaways for customers. The once popular payment method lost its usefulness in the 1980's & 90's when credit cards became the most popular way to pay.

Move forward to 2008 and the economic downturn. Large retailers saw layaways once again as a way to help their customers, and keep their sales numbers up. Per the NRF, Sears and Kmart have had success with the return to a layaway program. And this year Walmart is making a big advertising push for layaways. If you haven't seen their ads yet, you soon will. They are on TV about every 5 minutes .At least on the channels I watch. And I'm a pretty typical consumer.

So the good news for CounterPoint users is that layaways are built into your software. Just a couple setup steps and you are ready to go. Hang a sign up, stuff a flyer in your bags, send out an email (hmmm maybe I need to sign up for Customer Connect) and let your Facebook or Twitter fans know that they can buy from you and make payments. This is a good way to get them committed to a purchase, so that don't keep looking. The budget-minded shopper will really appreciate this and you might get a customer for life!

So Halloween is over and crunch time is almost here. What can you do to get more sales this year? Maybe layaways is an option you are missing.

Give us a call and we can help you get it setup. 800-672-4806 or support@ccscentral.com.

Marilyn

"Flash Robs"

2011-10-29T00:59:00Z

Flash Robs - Group Theft Attacks!

Social media has changed our way of life. "Flash Mobs" - the impromtu gatherings of participants, from dances in shopping malls to uprisings in the Middle East have become a way of life. Now law enforcement officials are warning of a new trend: "Flash Robs".

They are saying retailers this holiday season need to protect themselves against a new group of unwanted visitors; swarms of teenagers and young adults who plot via Twitter, phone text and Facebook to descend on stores and steal merchandise and money. According to the NFR, in some cases injuries have resulted from the size of the crowds. While most attaches have been on department stores and big-box chains, they recommend that the small retailer have a plan to keep this from happening to them.

Some recommendations are:

Avoiding putting merchandise by the door
Position workers near key areas of the store and valuable merchandise
Keep good visibility through out the store
Stock only what is needed on the floor
Maintain low levels of cash

So a new but scary phenomenon. CounterPoint can help you stay on top of your store's inventory and cash flow in many ways. The newest one is SmartAlerts that will email or text you warnings to help you know what is happen in your store without always being there. Two that come to mind are notifications of low stock on premium inventory and when cash in drawer has gone over a set level. Helping you keep a tighter control during the holidays goes directly to your bottom line. So if you would happened to be hit by a "Flash Rob" or just the normal issues that come up during your busy season, CounterPoint can help you be prepared.

Call us to see how SmartAlerts can help you. 800-672-4806 or email sales@ccscentral.com.

Effective Problem Solving - Keep it Clear and Simple

2011-05-28T10:18:37Z

Navigating The Error Message Maze (Windows Word Document to Samba CUPS Printer)

Okay here goes, I can finally print my document after two hours of typing and tweaking.    I just have time to make my meeting if all goes well. Print ...   Good my screen shows the printer and the pages are counting off.   Now to pickup the copies.   What!   Nothing in the tray.   Hmm ... maybe its stuck.   Let's check the tray feed.   No jams, all looks fine there.   What about the spooler.   Let's see: lpq says No Entries.    Maybe the printer was not ready yet, when I printed, I'll try it again. Print ... That's probably going to get it.   Let's see the tray again.   Great still nothing.

Okay let's check the log files to see what's up: tail -20 /var/log/cups/error_log says:

"
E [21/May/2011:15:33:55 -0700] Unknown configuration directive MakeModel on line 6 of printers.conf.
E [21/May/2011:15:33:55 -0700] Unknown configuration directive Type on line 10 of printers.conf
E [25/May/2011:04:08:25 -0700] Bad IPP operation name "CUPS-Get-Document" on line 31!
E [25/May/2011:06:04:31 -0700] CUPS-Accept-Jobs: Unauthorized
"

Oh, Oh this looks like its going to be a project.   Better reschedule my meeting.   Let's Google some of the messages.   "Bad IPP operation name", "CUPS=Accept-Jobs: Unauthorized". Looks like lots of feedback. Hmm... most of these ideas are leading me deeper and deeper into more and more esoteric areas and articles. Pretty soon I'll be trying to learn how to rewrite the driver.   This can't be it.

I know, I'll reinstall the CUPS software and recreate the Linux and the Windows printer link again.   Print ... Still nothing in the tray. Nope that's not it.   What about trying the CUPS web-client interface?   http://localhost:631.   Great interface.    Lots of tabs and tools.   Click, View, Click, View ....   This is a quagmire also.   What next.

I better try to get some help with this. Let's call CCS Retail. What would you guys suggest? "Well one simple thing you could check, even though the messages are leading you somewhere else, is device permissions.  Did you just do some Gentoo Linux emerges for updates recently? "    Let's see /dev/lp0 has permissions 660.   That does NOT look right.   I'll change it to 666 to open it all the way up.   Print ... Wow there it is - at last.

What;s the point to our little story?   The software layers in your systems all have error processing steps and messages that are relative to their view of the information they see and create.   To a CUPS driver it may seem like "Bad IPP operation name".   This may lead into unnecessary levels of detail and loss of productive time.

How do we avoid this and get to the real problem of the incorrect device permissions quicker?   The best way we know at CCS Retail is to ask someone with the knowledge or experience with these types of problems to act as a consultant or guide for advice or hands-on resolution.   Try to discipline yourself to not get caught up it the frustration of the moment and start burrowing into the center of everything.

Google and other search engines are great resources. But if you are just pea-shooting at the problem with an esoteric error message you are likely to just burrow in deeper.   Would CCS Retail know from the error messages in the log file that it was device permissions.   Since they solve these types of problems frequently, the odds are favorable.   Would they know when to stop using a thread and wasting time at the right point.   Again the odds are favorable.

In our CCS Retail Support Department we spend our day solving problems and accumulating the knowledge that keeps our customers running.    Give us a call when you are stuck.   Make sure to keep track of any errors you get to help us get you going again quickly.

Marilyn

Microsoft warns of hack attempt on Windows Live, Google, Yahoo, Skype, Mozilla

2011-03-24T02:31:52Z

Microsoft issued a warning today that nine fraudulent digital certificates were issued by root certificate authority, Comodo Group. Although the certificates were quickly revoked, their initial release still poses a threat to browser users, including users of Internet Explorer. This is not a security flaw in Microsoft software, the company says, but it released a security update for Windows all the same.

The nine fake certificates affect the following Web sites, Microsoft says:

login.live.com (Windows Live)
mail.google.com
www.google.com
login.yahoo.com (3 certificates)
login.skype.com
addons.mozilla.org
"Global Trustee"

Fraudulent certificates give hackers the ability to spoof content, phish, or insert themselves in man-in-the-middle attacks, collecting information that users think is being sent over a secure link from browser to Web site. Browsers which have enabled the Online Certificate Status Protocol (OCSP) will automatically invalidate these certificates and block them from being used. IE7 and later supports this by default, as does Firefox 3 and later, Safari on Mac OS X (but it must be manually activated), Opera 8 and Chrome.

http://www.networkworld.com/community/blog/microsoft-warns-hack-attempt-windows-live-goo?source=NWWNLE_nlt_daily_pm_2011-03-23

Increasing Inventory Turns

2009-03-30T23:33:35Z

Inventory Turns is a key metric used in the retail industry, and is considered to be the number of times the inventory cycles or is replenished throughout a year. This can be calculated by dividing your average annual cost of goods by your average inventory.

For example, if you sell widgets with an annual cost of goods of $1 Million, and carry an average inventory level of $250k, then your inventory turns is 4.

There are a number of tools within CounterPoint SQL that will allow you to increase the number of turns and decrease your average inventory level, thus increasing your sales and profits. These tools include, but are not limited to:

The identification of slow moving products
The elimination of low-profit items
The automation of purchasing processes
Identification and promotion of high-profit items

By accomplishing the above objectives, CounterPoint SQL will give you the information you need to make purchasing, vendor management, and sale/mark-down decisions.

In the example above, if this company were to decrease the average inventory to $200k (by 20%), and increase cost of sales to $1.2 Million (roughly 20% more sales), their turns would have increased from 4 to 6! This is entirely possible with the proper use of the many features within the software.

Contact CCS Retail Systems, Inc. today for a demonstration of the specific features that can positively affect your bottom line!

What Can you Learn from Sales History?

2009-03-27T00:17:36Z

Of the hundreds of reports that are included in CounterPoint SQL, many are geared toward sales history. Studying your sales trends can tell you a lot about your businesses. They enable you to effectively manage your store, and remain prepared for the future.

Sales history reports are tools to help you manage your current inventory and make buying decisions. You can better plan for sales and incentives, manage clearance and markdown items, market to new prospects, and even help drive repeat business. The bottom line is these reports will improve your profitability.

How do these reports accomplish these goals? Ask yourself the following questions:

Do you know who your best customers are?
Do you know the last time each of them were in your store?
Who is your best sales person?
What is a good target for sales?
- Sales Volume?
- Profitability?
- # of tickets?
- # of lines?

Who is your best vendor?
What is your inventory turn rate?
- How does that compare with others by industry or by product category?
What product category has the most sales?
What product category has the most profit?

Using Sales History reports to answer these questions will have the following affect on your business (in no particular order):

Increase the amount of each transaction
Get your customers to shop more often
Increase referrals – free advertising to increase your volume
Do internal staff training – find out who is best and leverage them
Set data-driven goals for each salesperson
Measure key metrics about your business

Collecting and analyzing would be quite daunting for a manager without a tool like CounterPoint SQL. Reports such as the Flash Sales Report, Sales Analysis By Group, Sales History by Customer by Item, the unique CounterPoint Dashboard and many others can empower you to take control of your sales and profits!

Call CCS Retail Systems today for a free personalized demonstration that will show you the power of knowledge and awareness when it comes to managing your store!

1-800-672-4806

Cut Your Keystrokes - Save Time

2010-08-31T15:59:45Z

SNIP-ITPRO Keystroke Productivity Utility Improves Productivity in Front and Back Operations

Any repetitive keyboarding can benefit from this great little Windows Utility. Store your messages and commands for Counters, Back Office, or Technical Tasks, any time text needs to be re-entered for any reason (a snippet). A great productivity tool. See the product and get a download at http://www.snipitpro.com/index.html

All your favorite Snippets in one place.

Snip-It Pro is a snippet manager with features designed to make you more productive. It provides a single place where you can store all the useful bits of text that you need.

For clerks and administrators, your favorite comments/phrases, promotional messages, Order/Sales comments, Purchasing/Accounting comments, search filters, etc. You can then find them online in one place.

For IT personnel, save your system commands, SQL queries, program functions, XML configuration, regular expressions, and useful code. You can then find them online in one place

Save Time and Keystrokes

Why type when you can Drag and Drop? A new templating features allows you to add placeholders that can be replaced before use. Assign hot keys to snippets and save even more time.

Are you managing your vendors, or are your vendors managing you?

2009-03-20T07:44:24Z

The average retailer says there are two types of vendors. Those that are even smaller than the retail stores they supply, and those that are much larger. The smaller vendors tend to be largely under-financed and unorganized. They also seem to have little understanding of customer service, and are always making excuses of why they can’t meet your needs. The larger vendors have spent a lot of time and money building their brand, and tell the retailers how they need to operate.

It does not have to be this way! There are features within CounterPoint SQL that will allow you to monitor and manage your vendor relationships. These vendor relationships shouldn't’t be measured purely in gross profit percentage or dollars. The key factor of your profitability is gross profit return on inventory investment.

Ask yourself these questions about your vendors and the products they supply:

What type of inventory investment must you sustain?
Do they reliably ship on time?
What is their average lead time?
Do they frequently mis-ship?
How consistent is their quality?

Reports within CounterPoint SQL can answer these questions quickly and frequently. It’s difficult to calculate how much you can save through more efficient vendor management. Even if you estimate it to be as little as 5% of your annual sales, this feature alone is enough to provide a return on investment on the purchase of your system well within your first year. Call us at 800-672-4806 or Email CCS Sales today to look at the potential return from the other features of CounterPoint!

Radiant Payment Services: Another Added-Value

2009-03-06T21:42:51Z

You can now use CCS Retail Systems, Inc. as a one-stop shop for all of your point of sale and technology needs. Radiant Payment Services, backed by Radiant Systems, helps businesses like yours safely and efficiently process customer transactions and leverage the information related to those transactions.

With nearly one billion credit cards now in the hands of American consumers, it is important to have access to the most robust payment options available. RPS uses precise load-sharing technology to maximize your protection against processing downtime. You will be able to accept Visa^®, Mastercard^®, American Express^®, Discover^® and JCB^®. By accepting Debit Cards you are able to avoid potential losses associated with fraudulent checks and the risks of running your operations with large amounts of cash.

Combine Radiant Payment Services with CP Gateway, and you will be able to increase the speed of the credit card authorization at the register to less than 2 seconds! This helps you get more customers through the register, and avoid losing customers due to long lines.

Call CCS Sales for more info on how a combination of CCS Support Services, CounterPoint SQL software, Radiant Payment Services and CP Gateway can help improve your business!