Inventrak Blog

Though you may not be familiar with Software as a Service (SaaS), you probably have heard the popular buzz word – “on demand”.  Yes, SaaS technology enables “on demand” possibilities for every business. It has actually grown increasingly popular for all sizes of businesses. 

How does SaaS benefit retail businesses compared to current retail technology?

On demand access to your database.  You can manage inventory and pricing even if you are abroad; you can use your smart phone to access all sales, inventory and customer information whenever you want.  

Recently, at Best Buy, the Palm Pre was supposed to sell for $199 but a lot of consumers bought them for $99. Best Buy Marketing Manager John said, “Without releasing confidential numbers, all I can confirm is that the price was honored until removed from the system. Not sure how we reconcile further?” They had been dealing with the pricing problem for a few days. 

If they had real time pricing management capability, much of their loss could have been avoided. 

On demand scalability. The SaaS model allows merchants to scale up and down based on the needs of the retail business. It is like a customized Google page, where you can add whatever applications you want; on your SaaS system, you can add whatever modules you want. Moreover, no worry about IT problems when you expand your business, SaaS database is scalable. 

Lower IT cost. This is one of the main reasons that some retailers begin to go to SaaS. SaaS technology reduces total cost of ownership by eliminating the initial capital expenditure to buy and establish infrastructure in-house. It also reduces operational cost by reducing infrastructure maintenance.