BOSTON, MA – June 9, 2010

Data from Aberdeen Group‘s November 2009, Automated and Connected Store report indicates that only 65% of retailers measure and track CRM data in stores and other sales channels, leaving a large customer mindshare gap and lost revenue opportunity. What’s worse is that over half (52%) of retailers do not possess customer-experience related information processes and technologies in stores and channels that enable timely responsiveness towards customer buying trends and shopping experience. Customer-focused retailing will be the core theme at Aberdeen’s upcoming Retail Summit, on June 17 and 18 in New York.

“Our data shows that retailers are conscious of the customer-related complexities that are posing a constant roadblock in the growth of their businesses,” says Sahir Anand, Research Director, Retail Research and Chief Author of the report. Aberdeen Group data indicates that the foremost pressure related to the shopping experience of customers is a highly competitive cross-channel retail space that is presenting a wider and more complex basket of shopping choices for customers (48%). Shopping choices have diversified in the last few years due to popularity and adoption of the following:

• Online and call center shopping
• Proliferation of retail categories in non-traditional retail formats (i.e. drug stores and grocers selling general merchandise, office supplies, among other categories)
• Growing purchase influence of a new generation of shoppers (i.e. Gen Y or millennial generation)

The second highest customer pressure for almost a third (30%) of retailers relates to the inability to obtain adequate customer shopping insights from customer shopping data that is collected from a wide variety of sources such as point-of-sale (POS), online, call center, merchandise, supply chain, and other secondary sources such as industry data co-ops. Retailers have always found that customer data and related analysis is hard to handle. In the case of several large retailers that sell more than 30,000 stock keeping units (SKUs), customer demand and forecast data can run into a few billion records. Aberdeen Group data shows that 63% of leading retailers identified the inability to access information about customers during the full buying cycle (i.e. before, during, and after sales experience).

“More often than not Laggard retailers blame disparate sources and enormity of customer data as the primary reason for lack of adequate consumer insights that inhibits new customer acquisition, customer retention, and re-activation,” says Anand.

To obtain a complimentary copy of the report, visit http://www.aberdeen.com/link/sponsor.asp?spid=30410182&cid=6364&camp=2

For additional access to complimentary Retail Research, please visit
http://research.aberdeen.com/index.php/-retail

About Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company

Aberdeen Group is a provider of fact-based research and market intelligence that delivers demonstrable results. Having researched more than 30,000 companies in the past two years, Aberdeen is positioned to educate users to action: driving market awareness, creating demand, enabling sales, and delivering meaningful return-on-investment analysis. As the trusted advisor to the global technology markets, corporations turn to Aberdeen™ for insights that drive decisions.

As a Harte-Hanks Company, Aberdeen Group plays a key role of putting content in context for the global direct and targeted marketing company. Aberdeen Group’s analytical and independent view of the “customer optimization” process of Harte-Hanks (Information – Opportunity – Insight – Engagement – Interaction) extends the client value and accentuates the strategic role Harte-Hanks brings to the market. For additional information, visit Aberdeen http://www.aberdeen.com or call (617) 723-7890, or to learn more about Harte-Hanks, call (800) 456-9748 or go to http://www.harte-hanks.com.

The online magazine includes information about specialized retail software, hardware, and mobile products as well as software for various niche markets including auto repair, liquor store, salon, consignment, and restaurant.

While the site itself was formerly operated for several years by a software company, it was recently acquired by the current owner who is working to revive the domain as a resource site. Some of the features of the new site include articles by contributing retail experts such as Doug Fleener, Don Capman, and Chester Ritchie. The areas of the site that are anticipated to draw in visitors are “Getting Started,” “Success Stories,” and “Managing a Business.”

Publisher Craig Aberle, a veteran of the point of sale industry since 1985, is very excited about the news magazine: “This site will be totally focused on point of sale from the perspective of the business owner. Those are my roots and I am happy to have the privilege of serving business owners.”

Aberle, a three-time Inc. 500 winner, has a strong entrepreneurial drive and has built and sold three businesses to public companies over his 30 years career as a business owner. Aberle also publishes another online magazine – www.barcode.com and authored a book, “How to Computerize Your Small Business” (published by John Wiley and Sons). His main objective with the site is to bring in visitors and entrepreneurs seeking the most valuable information for improving their business and learning about the growing trends of the industry.

See www.pointofsale.com for news, products and information!

About Pointofsale.com: It is a sole entity which is independently owned and operated. Pointofsale.com prides itself in providing breaking news in the point of sale and barcode industries, including expert advice, as well as the latest trends in mobile applications and business solutions. Site visitors can become members and comment on any news stories or postings on the website to encourage discussions in the online community.

Lower Costs for POS systems is a big push these days. That’s why IBM is getting a good reception for its Linux and MySQL components, which cost less than Windows and SQL Server.

RFID is a buzz for the bigger guys, but it’s not clear that you can cost-justify it for the average retailer. It’s also not clear what efficiencies there are for the customer, not just the retailer.

Workforce Management becomes a big issue as you grow. Elephant Pharmacy is growing past 100 employees, so this will be key for them in 2007.

POS systems feed a data stream of what is selling, where, and why, so management can make better employee scheduling decisions. You can even figure out that a given store is having a slow day, and send some of the staff home for the day. You can even check productivity by individual clerk. But Millen warns that you can make wrong assumptions here: A clerk who seems from the POS reports to be less productive than others could just be a clerk who is doing an especially good job of customer service — not something you necessarily want to discourage. So you’re getting more, better, and more timely data; but it’s still up to you to figure out what it really means.

Loss Prevention — Sophisticated POS systems, properly used, can make a big difference to loss prevention. First, half of your shrinkage is due to paperwork error — a good POS system will tackle that problem.

Second, half of the remaining shrinkage is typically due to employee theft, including fake discounts for friends. If you use the cash management and other features built into your system, you have a chance of detecting this. But you have to have in place strong loss-prevention policies. Otherwise that “override code” will kill you.

Promotions can be a big problem too. The software should allow flexibility, and be able to handle count mixes, for example, without the employees having to do the math and without lowering security. You don’t want employees giving 80% discounts without filing an incident report.

System confidence is the important factor in loss prevention. If everyone is being tracked consistently, and they know it, this helps control theft.

At Step One POS, our mission is to take the confusion out of buying complete POS systems and point of sale (POS) hardware–to help people, in plain, understandable language, determine what they need for their specific situation. A female-owned business, Step One has been providing point of sale software, hardware and cash registers to retail businesses since 1996. We have installed, supported and trained on POS systems for hundreds of clients across the United States, and we have hands-on experience with a wide variety of retail and restaurant businesses.

We listen, answer questions, and go the extra mile to help you find the most efficient and cost-effective solution for your situation. Your Point of Sale system should provide speedy and efficient transaction processing. Let us worry about getting you the right equipment while you focus on managing your business.

From cash drawers to magnetic stripe readers to drawer tills, spare POS parts, and paper, the right selection of new or replacement POS equipment can enhance your operation. However you need to make sure you have the right equipment the first time.