News

Report: Multi-channel must be seamless, customer-centric

April 7, 2008

SARATOGA SPRINGS, New York — CORESense, a software-as-a-service multi-channel retail management system company serving small to medium-sized specialty retailers, announced the results of the AberdeenGroup's "Migrating to Customer-Centric Point of Sale" benchmarking report. The study, which included responses from more than 175 small and mid-sized retailers, identified key methodologies and practices leveraged by retailers in upgrading to and deploying next generation customer-centric retail management systems.

According to the report, best-in-class small and mid-sized retailers increasingly utilized multi-channel integration to create a seamless and consistent cross-channel shopping experience. Nearly one-third of retailer respondents cited the ability to access Web sites, catalogs and fulfill Web-generated orders at POS as critical to their success. The survey also revealed that 70 percent of retailers consider a multi-channel customer as more valuable and profitable, as they tend to spend more when offered the ability to shop through different channels.

"Consumers today expect retailers to provide access to information on purchases, returns, exchanges and available inventory regardless of the sales channel involved," said Jason Jacobs, chief executive of CORESense. "To satisfy customers, a retailer must have a seamless real-time connection between their back office, point of sale, call centers, Web store and other online marketplaces such as eBay or Amazon."

AberdeenGroup's study also noted that best-in-class retailers are twice as likely as others to have customer-centric technologies that facilitate a consistent approach toward fulfilling customer needs at the POS. These capabilities include order management, loyalty programs, guided selling and payment acceptance standpoint.

The "Migrating to Customer-Centric Point of Sale" report, underwritten by CORESense, was conducted by the AberdeenGroup, a leading independent provider of fact-based research and market intelligence, between December 2007 and January 2008. Three key performance criteria were used to identify these best-in-class retailers:

• More than three quarters have 80 percent or more customers that meet customer satisfaction goals
• Averaged one and a half minutes POS checkout time for brick-and-mortar stores
• Averaged 19.5 percent improvement in transaction size compared to previous year