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Ingredients of a Comprehensive Retail Suite for SMBs

Here's a list of the modules SMB retail organizations need in a retail software suite.

Merchandising System

A merchandising system is just like a gizmo or device with which a retailer can manage and analyze inventory by product, location, demand, price, etc., throughout the enterprise. The merchandising management system helps retail organizations with coordinating every retail process to give business maximum return on investment (ROI). The main features in a merchandising system are:

• product information management
• enterprise data management
• purchase order management
• price management
• inventory management
• merchandise planning
• warehouse management
• allocation and replenishment
• distribution and fulfillment
• merchandising reporting

Store Operations

SMB retail organizations require a system to connect internally and externally, to ensure lean operations and the best customer experience. Store management requires a variety of capabilities ranging from cash to inventory management—and everything that falls in between. The following is a list of features that are key for the store operations module:

•  point of sale (POS)
• cash management and reporting
• inventory control / management
• multichannel / store services
• customer profile management
• catalog management
• back-office capability
• store planning
• marketing management
• a range of transaction scenarios
• multimode payment methods
• multimode gift registry
• loss prevention
• return process management

Supply Chain Management (SCM)

The main objective of the SCM module for retail organizations is to have enough product available in inventory at the right price to maintain the enterprise's overall customer satisfaction, profitability, and delivery objectives. In any retail environment, it's necessary to have the business strategy in line with business processes in order to design, develop, distribute, warehouse, and sell products (and deal with their return). There are a variety of supply chain models to choose from, depending on the needs of a particular retail enterprise. As the expression goes, "not all the figures in the hand are equal" (or, as parents know, not all children have the same personality and capabilities), and the same thing applies here: no supply chain model can exactly fit any other organization's requirements. Some of the key modules in supply chain for retail are as follows.

• demand forecasting
• advance inventory planning
• replenishment management
• supplier management
• vendor managed inventory (VMI)
• warehouse management
• trade management
• supply chain network optimization
• supply chain collaboration

Workforce Management

Retail organizations that have the best talent matched with effective business strategies (and revenue) will move ahead of their competition. Getting the best talent is important to retail organizations, as they will be using their workforce or human capital to create customer satisfaction and customer-centricity –generating sales, profits, and repeat customer visits. Here are the main areas of focus in retail for workforce management:

• recruitment (store, field, or corporate)
• workforce performance measurement  (store, corporate, distribution center, or call center)
• online training
• e-learning
• advanced employee scheduling
• workload coverage
• time and labor management

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

A retailer's main target market is consumers who, in the end, become their customers (given that success for a retailer is not just having the right mix of product and price, but also to retain customers). Retail organizations need to look at not only the product life cycle, but also at customer life cycles. The CRM module will help retailers keep up with the service demands of customers; also, it will be able to indentify customer's needs. Key areas for retail in a CRM solution:

• sales pipeline forecasting
• contract management
• customer loyalty management
• lead management
• return material/product management
• call center reporting
• marking campaign reporting

Financial Management

As for any type of organization, the financial module will give retailers a picture of how the enterprise stands in terms of cash, debt, and on-hand inventory, etc. Retail organizations need a financial management system in place to understand revenue generated by store location, but also to measure profits. The financial system does not end here for a retailer; one of the major aspects of financial management is its payment system. Key areas of a financial management system for SMB retailers are:

• budgeting and financial planning
• purchasing management
• invoice matching
• margin reporting (sales, markup, gross, markdown, etc.)
• profit reporting
• inventory reporting (stock turns, shrinkage, etc.)
• labor (commission, sales per labor-hour, etc.)

These are the modules that TEC's analysts are considering as they create the research Evaluation Center. Some apply to small to midsized retail organizations—but as we say, there is no such thing as one size fits all. Retailers may have a CRM, workforce management, or financial management system already in place, but would like to upgrade the functionality of merchandising and store operations. It will be very beneficial for these retailers to check out our new research Evaluation Center to discover the software providers for merchandising, store operations, or workforce management. Not only that, but retail organization can also run a side-by-side comparison of vendors like Celerant Technology, Epicor, Pronto, Retalix, etc.

TEC's research analyst team has been in contact with many retail software vendors that would like to contribute to the development of the retail research center.  Analysts from TEC would like input from other retail software vendors as well as retail organizations that are interested in contributing to this top–notch retail research evaluation center.