Modern shoppers expect more out of retailers than ever before, but all too often customer expectations go unmet. Customers want a shopping experience that is fast, convenient, easy and in some instances, personalized. Unfortunately, many retailers still use slow and out-dated point-of-sale systems that lack the functionality retailers need to fulfill their customer’s expectations.

No matter what kind of size of operation, retailers are seeking solutions so that they can lucratively complete the supply chain cycle of procurement, transaction and replacement and build customer connectedness. In order to do so, they must have uncompromised; real-time visibility via their POS activities.

With the Alpha Bay, Adaptive Integrated Retail System—AIRS®—system, real-time data at the POS gives retailers the technology innovations they need to increase revenue by greatly improving the customer experience.

Checking out is not only the last experience retailers have with every customer, it is a lasting experience. Unfortunately, retailers don’t have the technology they need to provide a great check-out experience for their customers.

Everyone has been held up in line while a cashier calls for a manager to do an override, approve a transaction, or simply find a price. Customers have already spent enough time shopping; now all they want to do is pay for their goods and go home.

AIRS® For Every Retailer
Tier 1: For Retailers >$5B in Annual Sales and/or 250+ Stores

Tier 2: For Retailers >$500M in Annual Sales and/or 50-250 Stores

Tier 3: For Retailers with <$500M in Annual Sales and/or 5-50 stores

Tier 4: For Retailers with <$50M in Annual Sales and/or <5 Stores

Associates also have the ability to temporarily add an item into inventory, search for an item by title or category, and dynamically look up prices, all from their Point-of-Service terminal with sub-second response.

In addition, instant access to customer information and the ability to automatically dispense or e-mail those coupons or receipts instead of having them print out at the register increases customer satisfaction by making shopping convenient.

In the recent Store Systems Study, conducted in 2009 by IHL Group and RIS, a detailed look at POS trends and insights indicated while there is a great deal of variability with what is important from one retail vertical to another, the common denominator for their success was real-time data integration.

Cited examples included, “…with Convenience/Gas retailers, over 80% identify as loss prevention as key area of focus for next functionality of loss prevention. With department stores, Inventory visibility; Save the Sale (ship from another store or ship from online); Employee portal; and CRM/Loyalty. With Food/Grocery, there were two standout responses, CRM/Loyalty and ability to incorporate Mobile Payment technologies. “
A large part of gaining customer loyalty is the ability to provide customers with what they want, when they want it. Unfortunately, retailers don’t always have all the inventory data they need.

Out-of-stock situations cost retailers millions of dollars in lost sales each year. Because AIRS® Point-of-Service shares a single data base with all locations of a retail enterprise, retail employees can instantly access real-time inventory information in other stores. If a product is out of stock in the store, employees can access inventory information and instantly locate the product in another store, in the warehouse, or in the distribution center. Customers can choose to have the product delivered to their home or pick it up at the store of their convenience.

AIRS® Point-of-Service makes it easier to close the sale, increase revenues, and improve customer satisfaction. Employees are no longer limited by the inventory in the store or the lack of real-time inventory and can easily fulfill a customer’s expectations. Another cause for out-of-stock loss of sales is inventory information that does not match the actual in-store inventory count.

At the recent National Retail Federation Loss Prevention Conference in Los Angeles, Dr. Richard Hollinger from the University of Florida presented the preliminary 2008 results regarding inventory shrinkage as a percentage of sales (retail) came in at 1.52%. Extrapolating this percentage out against total industry sales in 2008, gives a dollar figure of $36.53 billion. These losses are due to employee theft, shoplifting, administrative errors, and vendor fraud.

Many times retailers are unaware of an out-of-stock situation, causing lost sales opportunities. This also results in decreased customer loyalty when customers go somewhere else to find what they want. AIRS® Point-of-Service has a powerful business intelligence engine that analyzes the difference between inventory and sales to see shrinkage levels. Using this information, retailers can more easily maintain store inventory levels and more consistently deliver what customers expect. In addition, the AIRS® Loss Prevention Agent can dramatically reduce shrinkage.

AIRS® Point-of-Service is a real-time retail system that increases retailers’ revenue by dramatically improving the customer experience.

AIRS® Point-of-Service rich functionality includes:

  • Actionable CRM: Coupon and loyalty management
  • Authorization/security control
  • Biometrics payment
  • Check-imaging (e-Checks)
  • Contactless payment
  • Customer history tracking
  • Debit card processing
  • Flexible customer loyalty program
  • Flexible, customizable front-end
  • Gift card/store value card activation
  • Integrated message center
  • Inventory visibility
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  • Loss prevention
  • Real-time exchange of information between stores and corporate
  • Real-time querying
  • Reduced training time and costs
  • Refunds/returns management with fraud alert/protection
  • Role-based security
  • Rules-based promotion
  • Save-the-sale tools
  • Signature capturing
  • Stock inquiry
  • Up-selling/Cross-selling capabilities
Learn More About AIRS®