When orders are entered at the stores into the POS systems, the new Order Management System (OMS) can enable both the Warehouse Staff as well as the Store Staff to view the status of outstanding orders and access them to perform various functions.

OMS Accessibility:
Both Warehouse and Store staff will have access to the OMS system as it resides on the server. Warehouse staff will have their own functions (color coded in "blue") and the stores will have access to other functions related only to them (color coded "green") although they can view the status of the orders in case they need to inform the customers.

Store Staff Functions:
At POS level, once entering a new order, you can specify the delivery options such as:
• Home Delivery
• Customer Pickup at Warehouse / Other Store locations
• Customer Pickup at the store where order is entered
Once goods are in the warehouse:
• Call customers and request final payment for orders with a balance to be paid
• Call customers to notify them of the goods that have arrived at the store for pickup

Warehouse Functions:
• Warehouse staff can view orders that are ready for shipment (for cases when inventory is available at the warehouse and order balance is zero)
• Notify store staff to call customers that have a balance remaining for their order to either come into the store to pay their balance or pay by phone
Once the order balance is zero:
• Notify customers & arrange home delivery
• Arrange truck deliveries (by postal code to pick the optimal routes)
• Stamp order as "complete" after delivery paperwork is complete
• Auto complete POS orders by turning them into a "Sales Transaction" after which the item is removed from inventory and the store is credited with the sale.

Please click this link to view more features available for the Aralco Back Office

Aralco Back Office Features

Over the years we have witness retailers work diligently to figure out what to buy, when, how many, from who and for which store. It's quite a task for any buyer. Some businesses involve many staff to run various reports, analyze what was sold, where, by which store them see the current on hands and put the two figures together and come up with a calculated guess as to what to do next.

This of course is what companies do who have resources dedicated to this task. I dread to think what the others with limited time and staff do.

Years ago, we worked with a very knowledgeable buyer who had worked most of his professional life in a large and well known North American based department store. He had semi-retired and started to helped his wife run a six store retail chain. He wanted to apply the decades of experience he had gathered and work with Aralco to develop a very easy to use and yet sophisticated and extremely powerful "Inventory Replenishment System".

We worked through all his complex formulas and methodologies and eventually we came up with the first draft back in 1996. Since that date we have installed the system in a handful of places who frankly have told me "they cannot run their business without it"!

Of course it's not our mandate to "push" technology on to our clients and unfortunately whenever we did try, the retailers invariably told me different reasons why they wouldn't want to use such as tool, some would say "I don't want the computer to write cheques out to my suppliers" or "How do I know if the computer is accurate"?

Eventually we perfected this tool to a point where it actually let you see the exact reasons why it would suggest the order quantities so it ensured the user that it is working accurately. We also placed many "User Definable Controls" to "Tweak" the system to their individual needs. The system would prepare Purchase Order ONLY when the retailer with approve of its recommendations and give it the "go ahead".

In November 2009, we finally convinced a client of 11 year who has a complex, "Matrix" product line with up to 4 inventory dimensions to give the system a try. After a very short time, their full-time buyer managed to do purchase orders (automatically generated) and what used to take 35 hours per week ended up taking 2 hours. The management was astonished to see this new revelation. "The cost saving, speed and accuracy was simply amazing"!

In recent talks with some clients, it became apparent that through the use of some of these effective tools, Aralco can certainly provide much more than the "basic necessities" of a POS System. In this example, it can help you "Optimize" your inventory levels and increase your "bottom line".

A similar system is available for retail chains where the system would help with "Stock Balancing" across your stores to make sure each have got the right number of units on hand to meet their forecasted/ targeted sales.

There are several ways you can maximize your return on investment on a POS system by simply following loss prevention techniques and strategies.

Reducing inventory shrinkage can dramatically increase a store's profit. A customizable inventory management and reporting system can identify high risk transactions, missing inventory and training problems which can be associated with inventory shrinkage.

For example high risk transactions can differ depending on the type of operation. A $200 transaction could be labeled high risk at a discount store but be common practice at a furniture store. Other high risk transactions could include over-rides and large discounts and exceptions. With this information on hand managers can identify problem situations. Customizable reports can list all transactions from select cashiers to identify problems with training.

An easy way to prevent theft is to print barcoded receipts. Printing barcodes on receipts is an extremely effective way of boosting loss prevention on returns. Barcodes are extremely difficult to forge. If you print barcodes on receipts, each receipt will bear a unique identifier which links it to a specific transaction.

When customers return an item and present the barcoded receipts, sales clerks simply scan the receipt barcode to bring up the transaction. All details of the transaction are brought up on the point of sale system. Staff can use this information to ensure that the correct amount is refunded; the method of payment is pre-selected. Barcoded receipts also prevent duplicate returns because once an item is returned it is removed from the list of returnable items.

To learn more about loss prevention check out the Retail Loss Prevention Conference on September 18 in Toronto hosted by The Retail Council of Canada.

Fully integrating your ecommerce website to your inventory management system will save you a great deal of time and frustration and keep your customers happy.

With full integration, customer orders are automatically sent to the inventory management system and ready to be processed. Customers are happy to see their orders filled and shipped quickly. Staff can also be assured that inventory levels are always accurate.

Real time communication between the ecommerce site and the inventory management system ensures customers always view the latest inventory levels, product pictures, descriptions and retail prices.

Launching an ecommerce website is like opening another store that is accessible to anyone in the world 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Opening such a store costs a fraction of what it costs to open a brick and motor store.

You'll experience greater sales and increased revenue, with little overhead. Fewer employees are involved in fulfilling an internet sale, making them less costly and more efficient. And widening your target market means you'll attract more customers to your brick and motor store.

An ecommerce store can also fuel traffic to your brick and motor stores. Customers often shop around online for the best prices before stepping into a store.

Ecommerce websites are also powerful customer relationship management tools. Through the website customers are obliged to provide personal information such as address, email and phone numbers. You can send them company newsletters and other marketing material.

Doing business online has become more affordable and is extremely secure. Aralco offers a turnkey solution with a fully integrated website that utilizes the most secure online payment protocols.

Sales reports you generate with Aralco help you understand sales trends, identify best-selling items and recognize hard working sales staff. Sales reports are an essential tool to Retail Inventory Management software.

You gain a better understanding of sales. For example you can quickly find out what are the best and worst selling items, departments and stores. You can determine which members of your sales team bring in the most sales. You can also quickly assess which departments are the most active, which stores attract more customers and view the total gross profits for all locations.

The flexibility available in Aralco sales reports is enormous. Reports can be customized to any industry.

Creating sales reports is easy to do, using the report wizard. You can also quickly enter formulas to calculate elements such as gross profit dollars or gross profit percentage. Once you have set up a favorite series of reports for your company, you can run the reports on an automated schedule.

Reports can be highly detailed, allowing you to view receipts for each transaction, or you can view summary reports, offering a global view of sales transactions. Reports can be exported to Excel, saved in HTML format and emailed.

Sales trends are clearly illustrated in two-dimensional and three-dimensional bar graphs, line charts, pie charts and step charts. The Aralco reporting tool is also equipped with security features that let you control report viewing access.

Aralco reports are dynamic. In a detailed report you can click on a product name and view the inventory for this item in all stores in real-time. For each transaction you can view a copy of the receipt. Click on a customer name to view their up-to-date purchase history.

Sales reports help you make important business decisions in terms of inventory, staffing, purchasing and understanding your client needs.

Sales reports are an integral part of the Aralco Back Office System.

If you are thinking of expanding your business to include franchises, the Aralco Retail Inventory Management system is equipped at dealing with multiple inventory zones.

You can set up inventory zones for independent franchises so that staff assigned to an inventory zone will only be able to access information associated with their zone.

Staff assigned to an inventory zone won't be able to view the sales, reports, customers, or purchase orders etc. from another zone.

This feature is particularly useful if your company distributes goods to independent franchises and you want to use the same database to manage inventory from all in zones.

You can allow corporate employees to view inventory in all zones.

You can also have stores that are not part of an inventory zone. In that case, employees from all zones will have access to information about stores without zones, as well as the stores in their own inventory zones.

Set up inventory zones and manage employee groups in the Back Office System.

Every week in this Retail Inventory Management and POS blog we will present an Aralco feature and describe how it can help you in your business activities.

An electronic traffic counter can help you determine your busiest times and which departments receive the greatest traffic. With this knowledge you can staff accordingly, saving you precious resources.

The way it works: You can place the traffic counter at the store entrance to tally the number of store visits. You can also move it around the store to capture a detailed view of your retail traffic. Once you have collected a significant amount of data you can compare it to your store and department sales. The results of the report will pin point your store's slow and busy times of the day and days of the week. With this sophisticated report you'll gain insight into your store operation.

The auto-purchase order feature alerts you when items in stock dip below their set thresholds. This occurs when the intelligent stock replenishment system reviews past sales history, set min/max inventory levels for each product and location, supplier lead times, sales factors, etc. The system can also be programmed to adjust for seasonal and economic changes.

When managers receive these alerts they can review the automated purchase orders and override items if necessary.

The auto-transfer feature uses these reports to drive transfers of products from over-stocked stores to under-inventoried locations. When the goods are received, you can use the auto-distribution feature to print recommended distribution lists.

The automatic stock replenishment system ensures efficient use of inventory, reduces need for markdowns and prevents over ordering. This system is ideal for businesses that order repeat items.

For more information about the Auto-Replenishment System and to add this feature to your system please contact Aralco at info@aralco.com or 1-877-ARALCO1.

The user designable data capture feature lets you customize product, customer and special transaction screens. With customized screens you get more powerful reports tailored to your unique operation.

In the product screen you can add fields to help you describe your products. For example, if you sell carpets, you can add fields such as, width, length, area, origin, pattern, colours, quality, fabric and designer. Using a new Aralco feature, you can search for products in the POS using any of these user-definable product categories. If a customer walks in looking for a carpet from a specific designer you can quickly look up carpets in your inventory to match their request.

If you would like to gain more knowledge about your customers, you can add fields to the customer screens. For example, if you operate a paint and decorating store you could keep a history of the paint tints your customers purchased. If they return to buy more paint in the same tint, the information you need is at your fingertips.

You can also use customer preferences to target customers in future ad campaigns. Keep checking the Aralco News page for more information about more user-designable capture screens under development.

For more information about user-designable data capture screens and to add this feature to your system please contact Aralco at info@aralco.com or 1-877-ARALCO1.