LightSpeed debuts advanced cloud reporting for retailers

18 Jun '14

4 min read

LightSpeed, the commerce platform for serious retailers, launched Advanced Reporting for LightSpeed Cloud, as well as increased momentum for its cloud business line and transaction volume. As a follow-up to the launch of its brandable iPad POS application, this announcement adds big data analytics to LightSpeed's cloud-based POS system, giving retailers real-time insight into sales, inventory trends and customer preferences so they can make better decisions about their business.

As evidence of the increased demand for cloud-based POS tools that go beyond the transaction, LightSpeed is seeing 70 percent of new customers opting for the cloud. In addition, revenue from its cloud line of business has increased 398 percent in the last 12 months. The company is also revealing that its 19,000 stores are processing $7.3 billion in annual transaction volume, up from $6 billion earlier this year.

Brick and Mortar Moves to the Cloud

Increasingly, independent brick and mortar retailers are turning to cloud-based technologies that can help create the highly personalized customer experience once only possible online or to larger retailers with deeper pockets. According to Accenture, the retail cloud market is expected to reach more than $15.1 billion in 2015. When LightSpeed introduced its cloud POS in 2013, it enabled independent retailers to manage their business, engage customers, and check them out, all from a web browser or an iPad.

In addition to the ease, agility and cost savings inherent to the cloud, LightSpeed now provides retailers of any size with actionable data analytics -- including insight and predictive visibility into sales, inventory levels, employee performance and customer preferences -- to help them grow their business and better serve their customers.

"We implemented LightSpeed because we absolutely needed a cloud solution that could fit the needs of our growing brand. With our rapid expansion -- adding five stores in four years -- we knew we would need one holistic view of all of our inventory, sales and employees," said Wesley Uthus, co-owner of Minnesota-based fashion boutique PRIMP. "Now, with LightSpeed, my partner and I know what's going on across all our stores at all times down to very specific detail. We can make informed decisions about which store needs our attention most on any day of the week. It helps us determine where we need to focus our resources to keep business running smoothly and profitably."

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