The recent Aberdeen Group report of the same name makes interesting reading. 175 retail companies from across the globe were surveyed. The fact that only 22% of the respondents were from Europe does mean that the results need to be treated with caution by UK retailers. This geographical distibution may explain some results which look slightly odd but more of that later.
Top interesting facts:
* Retailers are sweating their assets!
- 60% of retailers have EPOS systems which are over 5 years old
- 35% of those have EPOS systems which are over 10 years old
* Processing promotions including coupon based promotions is still sufficiently challenging to warrant inclusion
Items that may not ring true in the UK:
* Aberdeen split retailers into Best in Class (top 20%), Average (next 50%) and laggards (bottom 30%). The average improvement in basket size for the last year for best in class was quoted as 19.5% – extremely impressive for any retailer! I wonder how many British retailers achieved that.
* Across all three divisions the penetration of gift cards was greater than universal (does that mean integrated?) PIN entry devices. Is the UK behind on gift cards and ahead on Chip & Pin? Or maybe my gut instinct is wrong…
Recommendations for moving POS forward:
* Monitor customer satisfaction at the POS using a random sample. Also monitor basket size and speed of transactions. Set goals for all these measures.
*Integrate your POS into other channels. Consider using SOA (Service Orientated Architecture) for this.
* Use information from the POS to plan promotions. Share the knowledge across departments (IT, marketing, store operations, buying)
* Other POS functionality to consider – contactless payment, loyalty schemes, CRM, mobile POS, guided selling prompts and PCI compliance (customer service does not stop at the front office, providing security for customers’ data is part of the service!)
