Knowledgeable staff increase sales by 25-50% (TimeTrade, 2013)
Apex IT’s Trade Counter Software will give your sales staff the tools to extract as much value from your customers as possible.
Your Trade Counter is central to your retail experience in-store. This blog will demonstrate how Trade Counter software will improve customer experience. It will also outline the benefits associated with Apex IT’s Trade Counter Software, the features and the User Interface.
Poor consumer experience in-store can have disastrous impacts on your competitiveness &
customer retention. Investment in comprehensive Trade Counter software can make or
break your retail experience. Interprise Suite’s Trade Counter Software is designed for retail
environments and supports businesses dealing with consumers (B2C) and trade customers
(B2B).
We have customers such as builders merchants, plumbing merchants and heating supplies merchants currently using our trade counter software.
Apex IT’s research has found there are two core variables for all retail stores to focus on. These variables need to be addressed in order to improve and maximise your in-store experience. Failure to address them will impact your competitiveness.
1.) Staff knowledge and access to product information.
What does this mean for Builders Merchants, Heating Supplies Merchants & Plumbers Merchants?
When customers come into the store, they will ask about items.
If your staff cannot answer the question, this creates friction for selling your products.
Let’s run through an example: a builder might be looking for a sealent.
The one they are looking for is not on the shelves.
They will come to the trade counter and ask if there is any stock.
If your team cannot:
a.) locate the stock
b.) suggest an alternative if it is out of stock
You run the risk of losing their custom. They will likely walk out and go to a local competitor or national chain where they will be better served.
The customer might require information regarding items, maybe even cheaper alternatives/substitutes.
Apex IT’s Trade Counter software can provide you with a list of all substitutes, and allow you to locate where stock is held and how many you have left.
Having this information on the trade counter speeds up the processing of customers’ requests and reduces wait times.
By making recommendations, if products are out of stock, you are providing superior levels of customer service.
2.) Improving checkout times at the till
Builders, Plumbers & Heating Engineers are busy.
When buying items, they don’t want to be waiting a long time to be served. It is up to you, the merchant, to make sure you do everything you can to process their purchases as fast as possible.
It won’t matter how many staff you have, if they cannot answer customer questions, find stock easily etc your staff will always process orders slowly. Slow order processing at the trade counter negatively impacts your customer experience (TimeTrade, 2013). If your trade counter is always slow, they will likely take their business elsewhere (TimeTrade, 2013).
Both of these variables can be supported with the right operational software – namely, a comprehensive trade counter.
In Timetrade’s (2013) white paper, 70% of the retailers surveyed estimate customers wait 5 minutes or less before abandoning their purchase and leaving the store. Furthermore, when looking at the #1 reason as to why retailers lose customers, 75% of retailers claim those losses are due to wait-related issues.
Wait times manifest in a multitude of ways, the most notable being when staff are trying to find stock, find information regarding items or your business, and finally, check out queue times (Timetrade, 2013). Therefore, if you are concerned with customer retention and improving competitiveness in-store, improving your operational efficiencies is paramount.
Builders Merchant
Heating Supplies Merchant
Plumbers Merchant
To secure customer satisfaction, it will be necessary to have a trade counter that can scan
items by barcode – reducing manual search times.
Interprise’s trade counter also has a wild search facility that searches multiple aspects of an item.
Secondly, display information regarding stock items, stock quantities and stock location.
This information lowers customer wait times for finding stock and getting it to the counter, helping to reduce customers abandoning purchases.
Thirdly, access to product documentation such as conformity, product specifications and instructions/manual documents will also permit your staff to answer in-depth questions relating to products.
This is important as staff who are knowledgeable, can answer questions and satisfy requests are found to increase sales by 25-50% (Timetrade, 2013).
We have a variety of businesses benefitting from Interprise Suite’s Trade Counter ranging from Builder’s Merchants, Tile Supplies Companies, Kitchen Supplies & Engineering Supplies. If you want to see what our customers are saying about us, check out the testimonials section on the homepage.
Simple Trade Counter Design
Simple Design means onboarding new staff is simple. They can serve customers at the trade counter like your more experienced staff
Personalised Customer Experience = More Revenue + Brand Loyalty
Find customer information on the trade counter such as:
No More Non-Stock entries at the Trade Counter
All stock that is booked in will be ready and waiting for you to use on the Trade Counter
Improve Checkout Speeds
Link a barcode scanner to your Trade Counter and scan items through rather than manually searching
Grow your Newsletter
Your newsletter is a crucial tool for marketing to, engaging with & growing your customer base.
Interprise Suite’s Trade Counter allows you to capture new customer details such as:
Right at the Trade Counter. This means you can grow your newsletter subscribers.
Auto-Calculate change for cash sales
Get your change amounts right every time.
No more human error or miscalculations at the Trade Counter
Negotiate at the Trade Counter
Based on user permissions, your staff can give customers discounts at their discretion.
You can create rules which stop sales from going through at a:
Etc.
Know how much profit you are making
On the Trade Counter you can oversee the profitability of each transaction.
If you want to hide the true level of profit from staff, you can provide the Trade Counter and sales staff with an inflated cost.
Recommend Substitute Items
Recommend Items Frequently Sold Together
Link up a barcode scanner for fast & efficient input
of items onto Trade Counter Invoice or use wild
Search
Create NEW customer records at the till – allowing
you to capture customer details
Access customer account information for pricing,
purchase history, address details & more
For regular customers, put all their Trade Counter
Invoices onto their customer account to be paid at
a later date
Comprehensive search capabilities; filter by item,
category
Create a favourites section for items typically
purchased by a customer
Multiple payment options such as cash, cheque &
account
Access product specifications, instructions, and
conformity documentation from the Trade Counter
Oversee profit margins from within the Trade
Counter, you may also restrict visibility of this
information depending on user role
Create Quotes & Invoices; convert quotes to trade
counter invoices.
Create returns on the Trade Counter & raise
credit notes
Wild search for items, check stock levels &
location
Use Interprise Suite’s Import Wizard to bulk
import new items, prices & specifications. All the
new items imported into Interprise Suite will be
available on the Trade Counter – keeping product
lines up to date
For items without barcodes, Interprise has UPC &
barcode label creation capabilities. This allows
you to scan all items rather than having to spend
time searching at the till
Amend product descriptions on the fly
Utilise Units of Measure for items
Import supplier prices & flush sales price lists with
Interprise’s Import Wizard
