In life, more often than not, the secret to success is all about timing. Being in the right place at the right time can bring with it a whole host of benefits and opportunities that otherwise may never have presented themselves.
What’s true in life is true in retail.
If you can get the right store associates in the right place, at the right time (and doing the right thing), you’ll increase sales, reduce costs and optimize your business.
Here are four reasons why your POS and workforce management (WFM) software should be best friends:
1. It will boost your sales
When your POS talks to your WFM software you can see, in real time, the volume sales, how each store associate is performing and how the store is performing against the budget for the day.
With this information to hand you can, over time, build an incredibly clear picture of your peak sales time and your top sellers.
As Jonas Lindblom, owner of TooEasy - the experts in retail workforce management -, says: “The most important thing we try to promote for retailers is that you should have your best sellers out on the shopfloor at your busiest times. This is one of the most effective ways you can optimize your sales. It can be devastating to have your best salesperson working at the wrong time.”
2. It will help you control costs
When your WFM software is integrated with your POS and its sales data, you can easily see your busiest times of day and the times when your store is quiet. This means it’s much easier to get accurate staffing levels.
If you're understaffed, you’ll miss out on sales and your customers are likely to have a poor experience (think long lines and no store associates on hand to answer questions). Whereas, if you’re overstaffed, you’ll be wasting money on unnecessary staff who, in turn, are more likely to be bored and have their morale drained as a result.
Alongside this, smarter scheduling based on sales data can also help you avoid costly overtime.
Jonas Lindblom adds: “Labor costs are one of your biggest - if not the biggest - overheads. Over the past five years, there’s been a big focus in the retail industry on the workforce. You can save a lot of money and reduce your costs by making sure you have the right people working the right hours.”
3. It will enable you to do more with less
The role of the retail stores is changinging. With the continued growth of ecommerce, physical stores are becoming destinations where consumers seek out experiences rather than just another sales channel.
“I believe we’re going to see less people working in stores as the role of the store changes,” says Jonas Lindblom. “That’s why you need to have an even greater focus on having the right people working at the right time.”
When you can see in real time how your sales data correlates with your staffing levels and who you have working, you can make better decisions and do more with less.
4. It will empower your associates
It’s not just your business that will benefit from this integration, your associates will too. Firstly, when your schedules are optimized around sales, there will be less ‘dead’ time when store associates are idle. Secondly, you can use your real-time sales data to incentivise performance. It’s a win-win.
In Summary
Thanks to a new partnership and integration between Sitoo and leading retail workforce management software provider, TooEasy, doing this just became a whole heap easier.
The integration between Sitoo and TooEasy comes out-of-the-box and is simple, straight-forward and easy to implement. The partnership is born from the same values of having a laser-focus on customer-driven development.
By combining your POS and WFM software you can level-up the performance of your stores, optimize sales and control your costs.
Speak to one of our retail experts today to find out more about how this integration can benefit your business.
