Recently we blogged about why it’s important to have a contemporary EPoS system as part of your business. The software we supply, from Cegid, has many pros and we discussed some in our last blog piece (link at bottom of this article). Arguably the main ones are: Customer loyalty tools; fashion matrix management; item classification, season management; as well as effective price and discount management – providing powerful insights into future buying decisions.
Additionally the software is intuitive and easy to use for sports-store floor staff. However it should be noted that it is customised to your needs and integrations are developed by us to work in tandem with your other software (for example finance and CRM packages). As such, the solution is not an ‘out of the box’ as does cost more than the EPoS systems at the lower end of the market.
Spreading the cost of a system
Having worked with many sports retailers we understand the challenges and needs of sports retailers and are acutely aware that you may not have the disposable funds to pay for a contemporary EPoS system upfront. That is why we offer a finance package which allows many of our clients to pay for their software – and hardware – at a fixed monthly fee for a period of time that suits them; be it two, three, four or five years.
We favour business leasing as this is extremely tax efficient allowing businesses to account for this an expense and not capital expenditure that will carry a tax and administrative burden. For a single monthly tax deductible cost you get:
- Modern retail software suite
- All services required to plan, setup, implement and train users on the system
- Support and maintenance for the period of the lease chosen
- Excellent platform to launch advanced e-commerce options like click and reserve.
- MPoS systems for in store use
Enabling you to become a true omnichannel retailer
There are lots of buzz terms bandied around the retail industry. Omnichannel is one that’s been around a while now. We define it as ‘the consistent and seamless use of multiple channels in a customer’s shopping experience, such as bricks and mortar stores, online stores, mobile stores, mobile apps, and any other method of transacting with a customer.”
In addition to the software and hardware services we offer, we ensure your business becomes a fully fledged omnichannel retailer via the YourCegid software. We believe that there is significant economic value by providing such digital channels to traditional physical store customer and ‘recreating’ the shopping experience across channels.
‘Why does this matter?’ you may ask yourself. The answer lies with your target audience – sports equipment purchasing consumers. This demographic are now used to experiencing the omnichannel benefits from the larger retailers – such as Sainsbury’s, John Lewis, Next and, whisper it quietly, Sports Direct – which offer them consistent experiences whether it’s in-store, online, on tablet or on mobile. Failure to offer omnichannel features such as click and collect, click and reserve, loyalty programmes and gift cards via online platforms can now result in lost business.
The beauty of a system like Cegid’s Y2 software is that all these features are simple to set up and, once consumers are using them, will ensure an enhanced customer experience (which they may tell friends and colleagues about) and should lead to returning customers. And this isn’t our hunch. Research indicates that omnichannel customers are more valuable on many levels – they spend more time in store, on your website and, crucially, will spend more money on products when compared to a single channel retailer.
For further info on EPoS systems for Sports Retailers, contact Matthew via email at matthew@retailit.com. For our earlier article on EPoS systems for Sports Retailers, click here.
