Inventrak Blog

The retail cloud and Small and Mid sized business

Tag >> SaaS
Oct 06
2009

SaaS Technology Makes Retailers “Greener”

Posted by Donna Tang in SaaS, retail cloud
Donna Tang

Recently, Chris Thorman posted an interesting blog “SaaS v. On-premises Software: Which One is More Green?”  He compared energy consumption of a business before and after they adopted the SaaS system. “That’s a 93% reduction in overall energy consumption,” Chris wrote in his blog.

According to Chris, the energy consumption reduction comes from:

Economies of Scale: businesses dump their own servers and share their software vendor’s server. As more and more users begin to share the server, the average energy consumption of each user decreases dramatically.

On demand computing:  computing resources are made available to the user as needed.

93% reduction is a very impressive number, isn’t it?

Actually, in retail field, there are more and more retailers beginning to adopt SaaS based retail management systems. There are a number of reasons why they choose SaaS based retail management systems over traditional ones, including real time reporting. However, few retailers realize that SaaS Technology can make them greener.  

Imagine how much energy consumption you can save annually with a SaaS based retail management system!  Let your store go green with SaaS technology!

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Apr 06
2009

An Easy Way to Increase Sales 25%

Posted by Colleen M in SaaS, POS, myblog, Inventory
Colleen M
Who couldn’t use some extra cash these days? Of course everyone has been examining and experimenting with different ways of making and saving money- in your business perhaps you have tried various methods to increase your cash flow.  Likely these have called for some substantial changes made in regards to your business practices. This is understandable, as great challenge requires great change.

But wouldn’t it be great if you could make more money with something simple? You hear about “Small Ways to Save the Planet” or “Easy Ways to Burn Extra Calories” but where is the “Simple Ways to Increase Cash Flow?” Your argument may be that it’s not that easy. Says who? One easy way to boost your sales is through a well-known and under-utilized process: Up selling at the register!

In a recent blog post, small business writer Bill Sifflard points out the value of item suggestions at the register level. “If your sales people simply suggest a related follow up product or “plus sell” with every sale,  statistically they will increase their gross sales volume on average by 20%-25%.”

Consider for a moment how simple an action this is for such a large payoff. By suggesting even one additional item to your customers based on their purchase, you are able to increase your sales by up to 25%! Of course your team will have to anticipate rejection, but as Sifflard points out, “If 3 out of 10 [customers] bite, you have an all-star batting average.”

These suggestions are easy: If they buy tennis shoes, suggest socks; if nail polish, nail polish remover, etc. As Sifflard reminds us, asking “Anything Else?” at the end of a transaction hardly counts. Suggest specific items to customers based on their current purchase, popular items, or sale items.

Some POS systems  even come equipped with a Related Item Recommendations feature that suggest items based on items previous customers purchased, products related by item type, or management recommendations. It’s a great cheat!

Don’t underestimate the power of up selling! It could mean a 25% sales increase to your business!
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