How Tech Helps Retailers Get & Stay Organized

Technology has been a gift and a curse for retail stores.

On the one hand, the Internet has given rise to online sales giants like Amazon and pushed formerly hot-selling items like CDs and DVDs into the digital realm. This has undoubtedly made life harder for retailers, which now must find new ways to attract customers into their physical locations and compete against leaner competitors that don’t have to warehouse inventory on site.

But a new wave of tech products are making things easier, particularly when it comes to managing customer relationships, organizing data, and keeping track of inventory. All smart businesses now use technology to stay organized.

Customer Relationship Management

To see the power of technology, you only need to look at Salesforce. This customer relationship management platform has revolutionized how companies can target customers and manage business relationships. Small retailers can now maintain detailed, organized data on demographics, purchasing tendencies, and other historical trends that make it easier to understand exactly why people choose to buy products.

In modern business, knowing you customer is critical, and technology has made doing so in a methodical, organized way easier than ever. Instead of this information residing in the minds of a few key workers, it lives in the cloud and allows for true institutional knowledge retention — which in turn makes employee turnover less stressful.

And it isn’t just Salesforce. Groupon’s “Swarm” allows retailers to physically track shoppers in their stores, and Collect’s apps help companies offer rewards and personalized offers to their top customers. New technology like this allows even small merchants to affordably acquire the type of business relationship information that once required huge investments.

Data Storage & Data Security

There is much more to analyze than just customer demographics and contact information. The best companies use technology to analyze and leverage all the numbers at their disposal, from budgets and earnings forecasts to employee productivity and web traffic figures.Enterpreneurship.org sums it up well: “At the core of every real entrepreneur’s vision is a business, and at the core of every business are numbers — metrics that indicate what’s going on and whether the company is on track or off track.”

Determining which numbers matter most to your company will be key to long-term success — and so will making sure this data is protected. Every company needs secure enterprise backup services that can encrypt the data that is the lifeblood of many businesses today. With cheap, reliable options, no company can forego data protection. Customers are easily spooked by privacy breaches. So as much as having a robust data set can add competitive advantage, one hacker or human error can do even more damage if your data is not secure.

Inventory Management & Order Fulfillment

Gone are the days when store managers had to count boxes by hand and write down the results with pen and paper. Today, all inventory can be scanned, sold, and shipped using technology. You shouldn’t have to go to the store room to know how many large, green T-shirts you have left. You just need to click a few buttons on a smartphone. Barcode scanning software, RFID, and point-of-sale systems are something every retailer should consider.

More merchants are also using for rapid order fulfillment and other perks that help them stand out from competitors. Giants like Amazon and Macy’s are chasing same-day delivery and Deliv and IBM are trying to bring similar options to more retailers. This trend will only make consumers more eager for fast order fulfillment, and the companies that keep pace will win their hearts and minds.

Photo Credit: Image provided by Social Monsters with permission to use.