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5 Benefits of having a Reporting Solution for
Specialty
Stores
 As
we have mentioned before here in the ReThink Retail
Blog, employees have a higher rate of committing fraud
than shoplifters. This is a widespread issue in the
grocery and drugstore industry, particularly due to the
number of items purchased in a single order. However,
apparel and other specialty stores have just as much to
gain from using a reporting solution, because they are
able to track more than just your transaction log. The
data can provide you much needed insight into customer
purchasing habits and the success of promotions.
What exactly are the benefits of Intelligence-based
Reporting tools for specialty retailers you ask? It
would take entirely too long to list them all out, so we
narrowed it down to our top five:
| 1. |
Customer Purchasing Patterns.
A reporting tool allows for visibility into the
different combinations of purchases during a period
of time. For example, are customers purchasing a
certain color shirt continually? What about a
specific style of shoes or sportswear? This
information not only tells you what customers are
buying, but what they have the potential to buy.
Easily spot trends and predict what your customers
will want before they even know they want it. |
| 2. |
Increasing Security and Loss
Prevention. Some tools can integrate security
and alarms & access control along with the functions
of the reporting tool. There are few tools that can
do this, one of them being our own Retail 20/20
solution. The tools that do have this functionality
allow you to monitor who has been in and out of the
stock room, who has been in the store safe, and who
has been in any other protected area of the store. |
| 3. |
Tracking Operational Issues.
All negative actions by employees aren’t
necessarily fraud, often they can be training
issues. Reporting tools allow you to monitor your
employees’ performance in real-time, this way you
can instantly know if they need more training or a
talking to. Some reporting tools can also provide
you with insight into scheduling and store traffic,
giving you information to make the best management
decisions. |
| 4. |
Promotional analysis. Much
like what we discussed in benefit #1, promotional
analysis gives you valuable insight into the sales
you run. Some tools will even keep trends on how
much was sold, so the next time you run a promotion
on the same product you can be sure the shelves
won’t be bare. After a sale has started you can see
if there are any issues in real-time, so you can fix
them before they affect your bottom line. |
| 5. |
Ease of Investigation.
When you are trying to justify hard decisions, you
need proper evidence and content. Reporting tools
can provide case management integrations that are
compliant to federal laws and regulations. This
makes it easy to track multiple cases, and allows
you to ensure that they are being handled properly
from anywhere. With the detailed evidence provided
by reporting tools, you can be sure the right
decision was made. |
When it comes down to it there are many reporting tools
out there, and they can be very beneficial to specialty
retailers. You already have a POS sale system and video
cameras throughout your store, why not make them work
for you. Our solution, Retail 20/20, works by combining
the two in an easy to use web-based reporting solution.
Retail 20/20 is able to integrate with any t-log, most
cameras, and many other data inputs. Make your hardware
work for you.
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