How is the automation of offline stores: three real examples

Image: malan10 , flickr

In our blog on Habré we have already told how the service maintenance of commercial equipment is arranged in the retail market. This time it will be about how stores implement business automation projects. Using the example of real retail chains, we will talk about why companies are thinking about automation, what difficulties they are waiting for on this path, and what they get in the end.
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Running an automated store from scratch

Last year, Pilot completed a project to automate a network of several stores that sell cosmetics, perfumes and household goods. The retailer company wanted to introduce a new brand of stores to the market and immediately offer customers a high quality service, including by automating business processes.

After studying the market and competitors, an ERP solution was selected, and then the search for software and equipment for the front-end solution began. The speed and quality of customer service is provided by the front systems. If the cash software works poorly, then errors will occur when the goods “break through” and, as a result, the queue. Therefore, when the task is to enter the market and demonstrate the high quality of services, business prefers not to use handwritten software, but uses industrial solutions that have been used on the market for many years and are actively developing.

Also, Russian retailers prefer, whenever possible, to use domestic software - foreign developers are not always aware of the intricacies of the current legislation in the country, so their products may not fully comply with it. In addition, laws and regulatory requirements may change, but it is not very profitable for foreign vendors to quickly respond to these innovations and make changes to the software. As a result, the companies that use it, have to pay separately for the refinement of large sums. Therefore, the question of further support when working with a foreign vendor comes to the fore. We should not forget about currency fluctuations, which can adversely affect the costs of acquiring foreign solutions for retail automation.

All the above described led to the fact that the company chose the Profi-T cash program from the Pilot company as the front automation solution.

Among other important requirements that the retailer made to the infrastructure during the described project:

• Presence of ample opportunities to manage POS-equipment - IT-integrators often offer business software that can only work with specific equipment, usually produced by the same supplier. That is, you need to buy the cash register itself with the additional equipment for the cash program, which is not always convenient. In our case, the software should have been able to work with different hardware, not only supplied by us. At the same time, in the end, the customer still chose our software and cash equipment - for example, CCP POSprint FP510-F and the Profi-T system, which we modified in accordance with the requirements of the new law on online cash registers.
  
  
• The ability to manage promotions - competition in the perfumery retail market is not as great as in the grocery trade sector, but still significant. Therefore, companies are actively attracting customers in various ways, including promotions (we recently talked about how electronic price tags can be used for this).
  
  
• Having a built-in loyalty system - the company wanted to be able to provide customers with personalized discounts and bonuses.
  
  
• Ability to integrate with external systems - in the future, the launch of an online store was planned, therefore the infrastructure of the trading network should be prepared for integration with the systems that will be needed for its operation.
  
  
• The ability to scale the system - if the solution is successfully launched in pilot stores, the customer planned to develop the business more intensively. Therefore, the implemented system should work equally well in the case of 3 stores, and in the case of 300.

At the first stage of the project it was necessary to draw up a detailed terms of reference, it should contain answers to questions about:

• how the ticket office should sell and beat checks;
• how are the returns;
• what are the roles of store personnel in the system;
• what opportunities it gives to marketers of the company.

For example, having studied the market segment in which the customer worked, it became clear that the loyalty system should be based on bonuses - the customers of the chain’s stores make purchases every two to three weeks, so they benefit from both regular discounts and points, that you can accumulate and spend in the future.

In the case described, it was important to organize the possibility of creating complex mechanics — for example, adding discounts for specific products or groups of goods online. This is necessary so that the store can conduct price wars with competitors - having seen the action in their stores, quickly adapt their prices so that buyers do not go to them.

A separate process - the organization of data exchange with the ERP-system and cash register software. Here the data transfer formats are configured, the information that goes into the uploads is set, the temporary exchange settings are set.

After the launch of a pilot automated store, some business processes had to be adjusted. For example, it turned out that it was more convenient to manage the printing of labels and price tags for goods from the cash register software, and not from the back office tools as originally planned. Also, adjustments had to be made due to changes in legislation. Thus, the introduction of the FZ-54 delayed for us the implementation of the integration of retail infrastructure with an online store. Instead, we took up the organization of data transfer to the tax in accordance with the new requirements.

As a result, six months after the completion of the project, the network reached a payback period, having beaten off the costs of building the infrastructure - not least the financial results were made possible by competent automation.

Migration from foreign software with preservation of equipment

Another customer working in the grocery retail sector addressed us last year with the task of migrating to our checkout software from a foreign solution. In this case, the reason for the move was one - the high cost of paying licenses due to the ruble / dollar exchange rate. Often, foreign vendors spend on software refinement for money, as a result, the company had to constantly pay the software supplier to meet the new requirements of Russian regulators.

At the same time, it was necessary to preserve all existing equipment and business processes that took shape over the years. A number of requirements were presented to the new solution: the system had to support the equipment already available to the customer, comply with the laws and requirements of regulators (, -54), have the functionality of delimiting employee access to the front and back office systems.

As a result, the unified system combined all the devices used in the customer’s stores, even those that previously had to be managed separately, including information kiosks, price checkers and scales. In addition, it was possible to abandon the equipment that has become unnecessary - the old software did not know how to carry out card refunds at the same cash desk where sales are made, the store had to keep a separate bank terminal for this task.

Shop managers were able to view reports on the work of cash desks and cashiers and adjust employee access rights to different systems. They could now regulate the load of cashiers - with the help of the queue control tools built into the software at the cash desks. Among other innovations - the ability to print price tags from the cash software, this backup feature is useful when the VO (Back Office) is temporarily unavailable for the store.

Also, new loyalty management tools have appeared. Shares that worked in the old software could save, adding to them new ones that could not be organized before. For example, “happy hours” at certain times of the day to stimulate a number of product categories (discounts on fresh pastries in the evening).

The company was able to seriously save on the refinement of foreign software, this money was enough, for example, to open new stores.

Automation of individual processes: the integration of loyalty systems

It also happens that companies use external systems that need to be integrated and automated within a single solution. This is the task that the customer has set up for us not so long ago - a dealership autocenter that provides services for servicing and selling related products.

The company used several loyalty systems at once - self-written to provide discounts to regular customers, as well as a number of partner ones - for example, Aeroflot Bonus and Thanks from Sberbank.

There were quite complex rules for applying these bonuses - for example, if a customer is awarded miles by an aeroflot, the granting of “Thank you” points is prohibited. The process of applying loyalty systems was not automated, so each time the dealership employees made decisions about scoring, guided by a paper flowchart. To do this, use a separate cash register for printing checks.

It was necessary to create a solution that could automatically calculate discounts with all requirements taken into account, enter data into the ERP system and print fiscal documents.

To solve this problem, a bunch of cash software "Profi-T" and the printer POSprint FP510-F were used . Our front-end software can work with various external programs, so we managed to automate the process of scoring in accordance with different rules, while minimizing the participation of dealerships.

Conclusion: 5 Tips for Shop Automation

In conclusion, we will list the main tips that will help avoid errors in the automation of the infrastructure of stores:

• The marketing functions of the software are very important - the competition in Russian retail is high, attracting buyers becomes more difficult. Therefore, the store front systems must have rich marketing functionality that allows you to customize flexible promotions and conduct price wars with competitors.
  
  
• You should not use a handwritten cash register software - everyone should do their work, and the retailer’s tasks do not include writing software. We have repeatedly encountered a situation where companies migrate to our solutions from samopisny software - its creation and support by its own developers is too expensive, and business functionality is often not very extensive.
  
  
• Foreign solutions are difficult and expensive to maintain and refine - when choosing software from foreign suppliers, it is necessary to understand that in the future its refinement for Russian realities will require serious investments.
  
  
• It is important to understand whether the solution can work with the current hardware - when migrating to a new front-end solution, it is important that the system can work with the equipment already available in the store: cash registers, price-checkers, weights, electronic price tags (we wrote about it here ).
  
  
• You need to think about scaling from the very beginning - when you start a store, you need to understand whether it will remain unique or, over time, the business will grow into a network. In the second case, the cash software should allow to manage the equipment in each outlet. If the initially selected software does not know how to do this, then it will have to be replaced, and migration will always involve additional costs.
  
  
• The system must be expandable - when automating a store from scratch, it is difficult to take into account everything that may be needed in the future. Often, additional requests come up during the implementation (add work with cash depositing to cash register software, set up video surveillance at cash registers, flexible rights settings for employees, etc.). To satisfy them, software should be able to increase its functionality.