Answer: Not necessarily. While there are many industry-specific software packages available, many of them don't offer all of the features available in a general retail software package. Often times, a general retail software package can do everything that industry-specific software can do, plus a whole lot more. Ask yourself what features you need now and in the future. Do you want a customer loyalty program? Do you need faster credit card authorizations over the Internet? 

Make sure that you don't lock yourself into industry-specific retail software that can't handle all of your needs.

Our comment: A system by Retail Technology Limited provides you with the best of both worlds; the vast functionality of a general retail system such as Microsoft Dynamics Retail Management System or Microsoft POS 2009 plus shoe and fashion specific functionality that  Retail Technology Limited has added!

Answer: Like buying a car, it just depends on what you want. What features do you need? How fast do you want it to go? Should you purchase an extended warranty? The more features you want, the more your retail POS system will cost. A single-user software license can cost between £500 and £2,500. Do you need new POS terminals? Add £2,000 to £4,000 per workstation. What about new scanners, cash drawers, and printers? Add another £900 for each workstation. Extended warranties can easily add £300 per year, but are worth it if your workstation ever goes down. A top-of-the-line extended warranty will cost even more, but may be worth it if it's one that offers next-day delivery for a replacement workstation.

Before you buy any retail point of sale system, do the research. Choosing the wrong retail POS system can cost you thousand!

Our comment:  Retail Technology Limited's top of the line offering in point of sale hardware is the A20 by Toshiba. We can offer a next business day on-site warranty. Alternatively, RTL also offers modular point of sale  systems typically with Dell Optiplex PC (with three year next business day on-site warranty), Epson receipt printer, Honeywell scanner and cashdrawer.

Answer: First and foremost, take the time to understand the specific needs of your store. Establish your total technology budget. If necessary, break it down into the things you need this year and things that can wait until next year. Find reputable technology companies with years of expertise in the retail industry. Ask for references and call them. Many customers are happy to talk about their business challenges.

Consider all factors, such as retail software, technical support, service after the sale and point of sale hardware.

Our comment: We actively encourage you to talk to our existing customers.

Answer: The single biggest mistake retailers make when choosing a new retail POS system is buying the point of sale hardware before the retail software. The retail software you choose to run your retail business may not be compatible with your new point of sale hardware. Not all scanners, or card readers will work with all retail software packages. Buying both the point of sale hardware and the retail software from the same vendor can reduce or eliminate compatibility issues and can often reduce your overall technology costs.

Our comment: In the vast majority of cases, RTL supplies and installs both hardware and software thereby ensuring 100% compatability between the two at a price that is within your reasonable budget.

Answer: A retail POS system can help you increase your profits in many ways. Quicker, more reliable checkouts mean less manpower is needed. Sales reports allow you to maximize you inventory levels and control costs. Built-in loyalty programs encourage higher ticket averages and repeat business from your customers. Integrated ecommerce services generate additional revenue from Internet sales.

Talk to your technology consultant about other ways a retail POS system can help increase your bottom line.

Our comment: If your sales of classic mens' shoes represent 20% of your sales total but mens' shoes represent 30% of your stock value, that would indicate that you're overstocked on mens' classic shoes leaving you with fewer resources to purchase more of better moving merchandise!

Answer: A good retail POS system increases your efficiency by eliminating unnecessary work. Instead of using separate systems for your retail, mail order, ecommerce, and wholesale divisions, choose one retail software package that can manage your entire business. Choose a retail POS system that increases your speed of service with faster ticket entry, on-the-fly data entry, and data-driven lookups.

Make sure that the retail software you choose can automate all of your process-oriented tasks, such as physical count, purchasing, label printing, and customer loyalty.

Our comment: A fully integrated webstore by Nitrosell allows you to run bricks and mortar stores as well as an e-commerce site, all with the same data!

Answer: Learning the basics of a retail POS system is just as easy as learning to use a cash register, and if someone makes a mistake, it's much easier to correct that mistake on a point of sale system—plus you'll have a detailed transaction record of the mistake.

Many of today's user-friendly retail POS systems feature touchscreen technology. Your cashiers can use their fingertips or a mouse to touch the large, color-coded buttons to process sales. Any concerns you have about training seasonal employees or volunteers will be relieved when you see how easy touchscreen interface is.

Our comment: RTL's system is designed to be intuitive and very easy to follow with logical steps for all processes!

Answer: There are lots of retail industry trade shows across the country every year. There are trade shows for general retail as well as for specific retail industries. Find retail trade shows in your area that plan to have at least one technology vendor demonstrating retail software and/or point of sale hardware.

Additionally, most technology vendors will be happy to give you a free demo of their retail point of sale system at your request.

Our comment: RTL exhibits twice annually at Moda held in August and February of every year and we are more than happy to arrange an on-site demo or if you would rather watch a personalised demo on-line, we can arrange that too at any time that is convenient for you!

Answer: While an electronic cash register is a suitable way to track money, installing a retail POS system will simplify your life as well as your customers'. With a retail point of sale system, you'll streamline operations, increase checkout times, make more money, increase efficiency, keep better inventory records, and have the most robust reporting capabilities right at your fingertips. The right retail point of sale system will pay for itself over and over again with its functionality.

Our comment: A retail system helps you achieve a better stock turn and a better achieved margin. These two will pay for the total cost of ownership of your system very quickly indeed. Think of what it means for your business to increase your margin by three percentage points and to increase your stock turn from twice a year to three times a year!

Answer: More than likely, you can't afford not to have a retail point of sale system. Today's retail POS systems come in all sizes and are designed to fit businesses of any size—from single location mom-and-pop shops to the mega-chains with thousands of locations. Do your research, distinguish your wants from your needs, and talk to some technology vendors. You'll find that there is a retail POS system out there that meets your needs—and your budget.

Our comment: It's hard to have a hard and fastned rule about the level at which you should or should not consider investing in a retail system. We suggest that a single store with a turnover of more than £300K will definitely benefit! Also, if you have more than two locations, management of stock will be aided by a good system such as Retail Technology's!

Answer: The extensive reporting capabilities built into better retail software packages offer business owners and managers an in-depth look at their businesses. With a few clicks of a mouse, you can drill down into multiple layers of your report or create boardroom quality graphs and charts.

While you may not need every single report available in a particular retail software package, you do want to choose the retail software package with the most flexibility. Retail software that integrates with the industry-leading Crystal Reports® engine offer the most customization capabilities. If you want to be able to customize the built-in reports or create your own reports from scratch, make sure that the retail software you choose can handle it.

Our comment: Retail Technology's suite of reports covers all key performance indicators important to shoe and fashion stores. All reports are shown in a Internet browser and the data can simply and quickly be imported into Microsoft Excel. The database used in the system is industry standard Microsoft SQL Server which is totally compatible with Crystal Reports®.

Answer: Any retail software package with inventory management and reporting features will have some underlying database. This database is where all of your items, customers, and sales history are stored. The underlying databases differ among various software manufacturers.

The key to choosing the right database lies in its format. You want to choose a broadly-understood data format that offers compatibility with third-party software applications. With the right data format, you can view your data just about any way you want to. For example, a retail software based on Microsoft SQL may offer compatibility with Crystal Reports® or Microsoft® Excel. Compatibility with third-party applications gives you unlimited reporting and analysis options.

Be sure to choose a database architecture that ensures data integrity, so you know your data will always be accurate and reliable.

Our comment: Retail Technology's system is powered by Microsoft Dynamics Retail Management System or Microsoft POS 2009 and driven by industry leading Microsoft SQL server technology!

Answer: A scalable retail software package will grow with you as your business grows. Choose a retail point of sale system that can readily accommodate additional users, additional workstations, and additional stores. When considering your future growth, keep in mind features you may one day need, such as multi-currency support or support for multiple tax rates across different regions. If history is a concern, make sure that the retail software you choose can store years and years of data.

Our comment: Retail Technology's customers are spread throughout the UK, Ireland and Europe and we have vast experience in dealing with every conceivable retail structure! Microsoft Dynamics RMS and Microsoft POS can deal with virtually anything as we know these products inside out!

Answer: PCI, or Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards, is a strict set of standards designed to protect the cardholder's data from credit card fraud and misuse. The PCI Security Standards Council is an organization dedicated to the development and implementation of security standards for protecting credit card data. PCI Data Security Standards are developed and implemented by a collaborative effort from American Express, Discover Financial Services, JCB, MasterCard Worldwide, and Visa International.

If your retail software isn't compliant with PCI, you may be subject to hefty fines. It's critical that you choose PCI-compliant retail software that will protect your customers' credit card information as well as your business.

Our comment: Microsoft Dynamics Retail Management System and Microsoft POS 2009 are at the forefront of PCI compatability!

Answer: Backups are critical. They protect your valuable business information from the unforeseen. Disasters—from fire and floods to system failure or theft—can strike anyone, anytime, anywhere. Choose a retail POS system with easy-to-perform backup procedures. Keep a running log of your backups and make sure that someone is responsible for the backups. It's also important to store your backups off site.

Our comment: We provide our customers with USB memory sticks that are clearly marked for each day from Monday through Sunday. These USB sticks are small and can easily be taken off-site. Loss of data because of hard disk drive failure is commonplace which is no problem...if you have a backup!

Answer: If you want your clerks to be able to process sales without a server, choose retail software with lane redundancy or an offline mode. When point of sale workstations are 'offline' (i.e., not connected to the server), clerks can continue ringing up sales. When the connection to the server is reestablished, data from the local workstation is synchronized or replicated with the data on the server.

Our comment: A system by Retail Technology allows you to continue to operate the point of sale in offline mode should the link to the server be interrupted for any reason. Be aware of so called "real-time" systems which may cause your operations to grind to a halt. Then it will be "Real disaster"!

Answer: Yes. When you purchase new retail software, you get the latest software release that's available on the date you purchase it. As new features are added to the retail software in subsequent releases, only those users with active subscription services will receive those updates. And no matter how good the retail software is, it may have a few bugs in it all.

Your subscription service will provide you with product updates, new features, and bug fixes for as long as your subscription service is active. Subscription services also encourage software companies to continue to invest resources in improving their retail software.

Our comment: Microsoft operates so called software enhancement plans which keep your software up-to-date and allow the customer further enhanced priviledges.

Answer: No. You should choose retail software with integrated ecommerce features. With an integrated system, you can use one retail software package to manage both your web store and your brick-and-mortar stores. An integrated ecommerce solution eliminates the extra effort and expense of maintaining inventory in multiple systems.

Our comment: Retail Technology is a Gold Certified Nitrosell partner offering a fully integrated webstore with both Microsoft RMS and POS 2009! Alternatively, Retail Technology offers a clever routine to provide your existing shopping cart with all the necessary data!

Answer: Talk to more than one technology vendor. Just talking to vendors doesn't cost a thing, and you'll learn a lot about retail software and point of sale systems in the process. Don't just consider the retail POS systems available from each vendor. You also need to consider the vendor's location, areas of expertise, and number of years in business. Does the vendor offer extended support hours if you need them? If you have stores in multiple regions, can your vendor support all of your stores? Make sure that the vendor you choose can grow with you as your business grows.

Most importantly, choose a company you trust. The company you choose will be responsible for keeping your retail point of sale system running for the next 5-7 years.

Answer: Whether you buy or lease a retail point of sale system depends on your budget. Many technology vendors today offer flexible leasing options for retail POS systems, including 100% financing. By leasing the retail software and/or the point of sale hardware, you can reduce the initial start-up costs associated with a new retail point of sale system.

Our comment:  As a Certified Microsoft Partner, Retail Technology's customers are more than likely able to qualify for a Microsoft Finance solution!