The Retail Buzz

One Step Retail Solutions CEO Scott Kreisberg Named as Chairman of the Retail Pro Business Partner Advisory Council

Retail Pro International announced that One Step Retail Solutions' CEO Scott Kreisberg has been elected by his peers as Chairman of the Retail Pro Business Partner Advisory Council.

One Step Retail Solutions has been Retail Pro's "Global Business Partner of the Year" for the last four years. Retail Pro's Business Partner Advisory Council is an honor and achievement for a select number of very successful Retail Pro software service providers throughout the world, signifying they have been through extensive training, delivering outstanding customer service, and focused on the issues and needs of small to mid-size retailers.

As Chairman of the Business Partner Advisory Council, Mr. Kreisberg stated "The Council looks forward to working with Retail Pro to even more fully service the specialty retail industry and help to create a resurgence and rebound for retailers all across the country."

One Step Retail Solutions Named As An HP Elite Partner

Hewlett-Packard (HP) recently named One Step Retail Solutions as an HP Elite Partner, designating HP’s highest level of sales and technical certification requirements.

The HP Elite Partners have an extensive proven industry qualifications validated by HP. One Step’s collaboration with HP enables the company to deliver collaborative point of sale (POS) service offerings relating to POS hardware solutions for small to mid-size retailers, providing tailored solutions fully supported by HP.

One Step Retail Solutions has serviced the retail industry for 25 years, and is one of the nation’s leading resellers and service providers of point of sale solutions for the retail environment, providing retailers with on-going consulting, training and technical support to thousands of retail stores across the US, as well as in Europe.

One Step’s track record of satisfied HP POS customers combined with HP Elite Partner designation positions One Step as an experienced partner able to fully support customers in the selection, installation and configuration of customized HP solutions in their IT environments.

About One Step Retail Solutions:
One Step Retail Solutions is celebrating its 25 years of experience in the retail point of sale / inventory control industry, with over 3000 stores currently being serviced and supported across the US. As one of the largest retail service providers in the United States, it has supplied retail technology solutions to large name retailers in apparel, sporting goods, museums, jewelry, shoes, entertainment venues and sports arenas. Its corporate headquarters are in Phoenix, Arizona with offices in Los Angeles and New York. Website: www.onestepretail.com.

About Hewlett-Packard
HP was founded in 1939 and is a technology company that operates in more than 170 countries around the world. HP explores how technology and services can help people and companies address their problems and challenges, offering consumers a wide range of products and services from digital photography to digital entertainment and from computing to home printing. This comprehensive portfolio helps HP match the right products, services and solutions to their customers' specific needs. Corporate headquarters are in Palo Alto, CA. Website: www.hp.com.

One Step Retail Solutions is having its BIG Year-end Specials on POS Systems. Retailers can take advantage of getting a complete POS system (hardware, software, and pro services) and big savings.

Check out the Year-end Specials now!

Get the most from your retail technology systems in order to increase your survival potential. Use this retail checklist to gain a competitive advantage in 2010:

• Ensure your retail technology equipment is PCI Compliant

• Use reliable retail-hardened POS hardware to run your POS system

• Add more POS stations to help prevent long check-out lines.

• Upgrade your POS software to the latest version to better manage inventory, customers, and vendors

• Get any customized programming that tailors your system to meet unique or specialized needs

• Have an efficient reporting tool with your POS software to gain valuable insight into your business

• Optimize merchandise distribution to increase sell-through and prevent markdowns

• Ensure merchandising and finance are working together as an integrated system

• Have reliable, up-to-date security systems set up (loss prevention systems) for both your hardware and store

• Back up your files and POS system regularly (Retail Backup recommended)

• Integrate credit card processing and gift cards with your POS system

• Integrate your online store (e-Commerce) with your POS system using EDI (Electronic Data Interchange)

• Keep Technical Support contracts in place to get the help you need to run smoothly

• Review your Returns Policy to minimize returns fraud

Here are some tips for 2010:

• Gather customer information at point of sale to use for targeted promotions

• Track your customer purchases and review customer's history at POS to improve customer relations

• Have a customer loyalty program in place

• Hold periodic events at your store

• Have contests with either employees and/or customers

• Run reports regularly to gain insight that helps you manage your business better

• Train your sales employees on basic customer service and find ways to reward them for this

• Minimize return fraud using upgraded POS software and security systems

• Expand your channels of retailing (videos, blogs, social networking, etc)

• Do planned pricing to unload stock through scheduled markdowns

• Offer classes to individualize your store

• Use framed signage to show why your merchandise is unique

• Provide a shopping experience that includes respect, honesty, and trust

Visit our website for informative articles, whitepapers, and retail industry eBook - all complimentary of One Step Retail Solutions: http://www.onestepretail.com/

Our latest retail industry article by retail expert Scott Kreisberg talks about an "inflection point", which occurs when an industry or segment faces lasting changes so large and significant that it calls for companies to adapt with a new strategy or ability to compete, or face what becomes an irreversible decline and failure.

Almost every company faces ongoing changes of one type or another in its
industry, and retail is no exception. However, various news and events of the
past year or two make me think that there are fundamental permanent changes
going on that will leave some retail chains behind if they are not on top of it.

I am not referencing the banking crisis or recession itself, which we will
eventually pull through after some period of time. Nor am I referring only to
some of the long-term trends we outlined in our report “Six Biggest Challenges
Facing Retailers Today”, which is available on our website.

Issues such as dealing with national chains and big box retailers have been
on the table for a while, and most smaller and mid-sized chains have figured out
how to successfully deal with that type of competition.

What I am referring to is the type of change called an ‘inflection point’
as defined by Andy Grove, the long-time CEO of Intel, in his book “Only The
Paranoid Survive.” This occurs when an industry or segment faces lasting changes
so large and significant that it calls for companies to adapt with a new
strategy or ability to compete, or face what becomes an irreversible decline and
failure.

Such an inflection point may bring even greater opportunity than before
for organizations who do figure out how to take advantage of it.

Read full article

An article by Scott Kreisberg takes a look at factors that weigh in for improving the bottom line for a retail store.

There has been a tremendous amount of discussion by economists and government experts in regard to the type of recession we are in, as well as the possible ways we could come out of it.

The good news is that it seems to be a fairly unanimous sentiment that we are at or very near the bottom. Plus there are other positive signs such as retail sector sales picking up slightly (with autos excluded) in both August and September. However, there are varied opinions and speculation as to where things go from here.

This is pretty clearly demonstrated in the different models, or 'shapes', that the recovery might take, which have come to be characterized by various letters of the alphabet.

It is likely that many of you have seen these so I will only briefly touch on what they are. We have the classic 'V' shape recession, which is a clear downturn and bottom followed by clear and sustained recovery, the 'U' which is a longer time spent at the bottom and in recovery, and the 'W' or double-dip.

Read full article ...

One Step Retail Solutions, a leading reseller and service provider of retail point of sale software systems, recently launched a Retail Executive Advisory Panel (REAP) to conduct routine retail industry studies among retail leaders.

Retail executives participating in REAP will take advantage of being part of a panel of their peers to gain and share knowledge of retailing, including approaches to new and innovative retail strategies. Members of the Panel who participate in the studies then receive an Executive Summary of the study’s research findings, which provides them access to information from other top retail executives.

One Step’s objective is to bring top level retail executives together in a forum for pursuing excellence in their own retail business. Believing that these executive’s opinion measures heavily on the retail landscape, One Step plans to make strides in gaining more insight into what current challenges retailers face and what they are doing or not doing to boost their bottom line.

A new monthly newsletter publication, The Retail Executive, will get mailed out primarily to REAP members, providing another form of sharing articles and knowledge from top retail experts and REAP members about the retail business. The publication will also distributed to retail CEO’s, CFO’s, CIO’s and other top level executives in the industry who are not a member of REAP but wish to subscribe to the newsletter.

Information about joining REAP and subscribing to the newsletter is at the One Step website: http://onestepretail.com/OSD/REAP/

Recent article by Peter Pishko:
"It's Over and Done But The Heartache Lives On"

Consumer confidence is up once again, albeit a small increase attributed to the Cash for Clunkers program initiated by the Federal government.

We have gone through all of the hard decisions during the past 12 months, cutting to the bare bones of our organizations, jettisoning some staff and operations that should have been cut from our organization long ago, but also letting go of some talent and expensive endeavors or plans for expansion that in these economic times are not cost effective; all very smart moves for survival, but now where do we go?

The decision to cut staffing levels at our executive levels have made for some grateful employees who are 1) very happy to be employed, 2) loyal employees because the loyalty thing goes both ways, 3) over worked because they are picking up tasks and functions their former colleagues, bosses, underlings used to perform.

Our store level employees have been cut to bare bones, staffing is at a minimum, affecting customer service and loss prevention. One employee reported to me that they have no security in their building on a regular basis, maybe two or three times a week for 6 hours.

The decision to terminate employees is not an easy one; it has been shown that it is often more stressful to let staff go than to actually be the one being let go. Yet our employees carry on and they are asking the same questions we do: where do we go from here?

The defensive moves have been made, but the game is not won on defense alone. Time to return to our playbooks and take a look at the offense and who to put into the game, evaluate the whole playing field. We have survived but the game is not over...

Read rest of article ...

Watch our latest recorded Webinar, "Social Networking for Retailers" about the social media revolution and how retailers can utilize these channels to increase sales.

The Webinar discusses Web 2.0 strategies in the 21st Century and the shift in the way businesses communicate with their public. It shows how we've moved from "push" marketing to "pull" or "engagement" marketing.

Find out how to best use social media in your retail business, how to select the right social media channels, set boundaries, and establish a game plan to implement these social channels in your retail business.

Watch Webinar

New product release! One Step Retail Analytics!

One Step Retail Analytics is a solution that includes a new Retail Pro 9 Appliance with the new exclusive reporting engine.

One Step Retail Analytics provides the capability to build, modify, pivot, sort, rank, drill down, and process the data from your business.

• Increase efficiency and sales by quickly investigating hunches or changes in trends using a pre-built data mart and drill down analysis
• Manage using key performance profiles like turn, GMROI, sell through, days of supply or stock to sales by vendor, dept or merchandise
• Pivot, sort, rank data to get the view of your business you need to make the right decisions
• Build reports specific to your needs and your business

Read all about the new Retail Analytics!

The Smart Retail Web channel will be premiering Season Two of Smart Retail on October 12, 2009.

The webisodes, hosted by retail expert Scott Kreisberg, is a production of One Step Retail Solutions that broadcasts on SmartRetail.tv every Monday. The show features independent specialty retail stores and how these retailers stand up in the new era of retailing.

The new season revamped its format to add even more entertainment and lively interaction with specialty retail stores.

Watch new trailer of upcoming season!

One Step Retail Solutions is presenting a complimentary event for their Retail Pro customers called "Reaching Vital Milestones" at their annual Roadshow on September 15, 2009 at Dave & Buster's in Irvine Spectrum.

The Roadshow focuses on using technology and social media to increase profits and efficiency in a retail business. Highlights of the day include:

• Retail Pro User's Panel
• Social Media for Retailers Workshop
• Learning More About PCI Compliance
• How to Make the Most from e-Commerce
• WebCCTV Security Systems
• Retail Pro 9 and Business Intelligence
• Retail Pro Training Session
• Q & A with Kevin McAdam and Charles Wood

Sponsors of the event are:
The Bart Group, Retail Dimensions, Quadrox, Network Video Management, Retail Pro

Internet TV Focuses on Smart Retailers

In a recent featured article in CA. APPAREL NEWS, it reviewed Smart Retail, the new Internet TV series hosted by Scott Kreisberg.

"Scott Kreisberg, chief executive officer of Glendale, Calif.-based software distributor One Step Retail Solutions, grew frustrated hearing all the doom and gloom coming from the retail sector over the past several months, so he decided to do something about it.'

"Scott talks about technology and what can be done with it, but none of it is a sales pitch. You have to be smart to get through this recession. Technology enables you to be really smart and strike better deals with vendors and manage inventories better. It becomes vital, and we'll be seeing some amazing things that retailers are doing to attract new customers and see why they are doing well even during these tough times."

Smart Retail broadcasts a new episode every Monday. Visit the Internet TV channel for latest episodes and to stay tuned for upcoming shows. http://smartretail.tv

See full article ...

As the old saying goes, "more is better" and this is truly the case for retailers who need to make profit-enhancing decisions quickly and with ease. That's where Retail Pro Business Intelligence (BI) comes in.

The BI module is designed to bring Retail Pro 9 users a distinct advantage for managing their business whereby they can monitor and analyze vast amounts of data in a snapshot view, enabling them to respond quickly to changes in their business conditions.

Since retailers need to be alerted to potential problems and make better, more informed decisions, BI is a tool that will provide valuable insight and actionable information to allow fast response in business conditions.

With independent industry research indicating a ROI of up to 2,000%, a business intelligence application should be a key component of a retailer's architecture.

Read article "Does Business Intelligence Give a Retailer Insight Into The Future?

For more information, contact a Sales Representative at One Step Retail Solutions and see how Business Intelligence could help your business. Send email to sales@onestepretail.com or call (800) 266-1328.