As the pressure to perform in the retailindustry increases with rising rentals, more competition, higher customerexpectations and evolving trends, retailers are finding it increasinglychallenging to manage and grow their retail business.


With the convergence of the demand chain whichstarts from the customer through to the distribution channel and the supplychain which starts from the suppliers to the stores, having an integratedefficient system and business processes in place is an important determinant toretail business success.


With a significant technological advantage and agood retail management software solution that complements their retailstrategy, retailers will be able to gain control of their business operationsthrough a single point of view, optimise resources, increase processefficiencies and lower costs.


However, an inherent fear of complex andtime-consuming implementations with high costs is often a deterrent to makingthe required IT investment. Retailers sometimes make-do with a mini billing orsmall inventory system which may be able to support the business in its startupbut fail to support the business growth with relevant functions and reports asit scales up. There are others which invested the time and resources to implementan expensive system only to realise that the system is not addressing itsretail business needs comprehensively. In such cases, many retailers have thenrefrained from looking at other options.


Investing in a robust and integrated retailmanagement software system could benefit a retailer in many ways.


  • Increased profit margins through better understanding of buying trends and stocking based on consumer preferences
  • Increased sales as a result of better inventory control, reduced stock-outs, lost sales and happier customers
  • Control of inventory will help to streamline your warehousing and store space
  • Control on pilferages through intelligence gathered on pilferage-prone items and locations so that more checks and measures can be put in these problem areas
  • Managing the merchandising mix so that it reduces the problem of over stocking or under stocking
  • Minimum stock outs which leads to increase sales as customers are able to purchase what they want instantly
  • Understanding the customer purchasing pattern to plan an optimum merchandise mix
  • Tracking customer buying history allows you to discover who are your loyal customers and execute targeted promotions to maintain their loyalty.


Addressing the needs of the evolving retailindustry, ETP International has developed the ETP V5 Retail Management Softwarewhich covers all the key functionality required for retail companies and isbuilt to help retailers align their business processes with their strategies.Its integrated yet modular approach allows retailers to deploy ETP V5comprehensively or modularly as per their requirements.


ETP V5 helps to streamline areas such asinventory and merchandise management, customer service and point-of-sale,loyalty and customer relationship management, cash management, marketing andpromotion planning, merchandise and OTB planning, CRM and loyalty management,warehousing, inventory allocation and distribution, product life cyclemanagement, procurement and MIS reports. With the components integrated into asingle database with a single sign-on, management benefits from an integratedview of people, processes and goods moving at different speeds across differenttime zones and different languages in different countries at any time. Coveringa wide spectrum of functionalities in a retail organisation, ETP V5 also addsvalue to corporate functions such as human resource and training, finance,marketing, and more.


Being an international software solution companyin the World, ETP provides retail solutions to the retail industry leadersusing its ETP V5 retail management software as a platform.


Source: www.articlealley.com