As the CEO at Perpule, Abhinav Pathak is resolving to make offline retail better by driving new and enhanced models of engagement and redefining commerce that happens at the billing counter

2018 was a great year for the ecosystem of Indian fintech and retail technology services. Retail unseated ecommerce from the top of the list after years of dominance, given the improved business models, changing demographics and increasing per capita income.

The surge of ‘Digitisation’ and upgradation of technology have also played a crucial role in propelling the retail industry forward. The trend will continue in 2019 with the retail industry that has morphed into a modernised version of its former self in the recent past.

This year, the market will be defined by emerging technologies like mobile based point of sale solutions, cart checkout and food orders. These improvements are changing the way consumers interact with their favorite retail brands and restaurants. To face the quickly evolving market, retailers must adapt to new shifts in the digital space and consumer preferences.

The retail sector is now further focusing on trends like experiential and mobile POS solution. It is better to remember that the customers of today prefer an interactive experience with the product or brand and with the traditional ways of a fixed cash till, interacting with the store agents becomes difficult. Despite the advancements in mobile and online payments over the last few years, the physical point of sale(POS)remains ripe for disruption.

The physical POS remained a heavy piece of hardware connected to a receipt printer until the new year

when products like the UltraPOS by Perpule, etc. are making their way as replacement systems primarily based on cloud and mobile technology are omnipresent and practical enough to consider for almost any retailer store/restaurant owner.

Big Data
The introduction of live dashboards to monitor and analyze buying patterns, trends, and more in the retail industry is revolutionary and promises to have a significant impact on the future of retail in India. Technology like this helps retailers understand their customer expectations as well as reduce losses due to poor inventory information. An actionable dashboard of retail sales, orders, and customer traffic helps businesses make the right choices for higher revenue. Moreover retail store staff can plan their daily targets and marketeers can eliminate under performing campaigns.

This year the market will be defined by emerging technologies like mobile based point of sale solutions, cart checkout and food orders

Store Space
It depends on what you want and what you need to do for you when you select a POS system for your business. The nextgen POS systems are more than just a tech upgrade when you can virtually move the payment away from the checkout lanes, reclaim valuable store space and remove friction from sales. Improved flow of information and reduced hard cash further helps retail store owners to deters shoplifting. Retail businesses can truly achieve lower CAPEX and OPEX, reflecting to their added revenue.

Cash flows and Store Management
Whether placed instore, at a pop-up in the aisles or from a mobile device, point of sale as advanced as the UltraPOS automatically synchronizes all your orders. The software makes cash monitoring registering adjustments and staff changes very easy to handle. The omnichannel POS provides live reports that lets you easily track customers, payments and sales made both online and instore. Also, features like seamless integration with ERP, CRM are a break through.

The way retail stores sell is changing rapidly with features like automatic GST calculations, fulfilling order from anywhere discount reports, setup promotions, loyalty programs, club wallet upi and card payments, email marketing, customer profiles and overall transparent day-to-day store functions.

POS systems are finally ubiquitous and practical enough for nearly any retailer to consider. The success of products like Amazon Go and UltraPOS by Perpule will be a wakeup call for all the retailers in 2019. If you are a business owner, you will want to take proactive steps in your retail store, with the year in full swing to ensure advanced retail with intuitive interfaces and cloud based POS software that allows you to access the system from any device.