The ProphetLine POS/Retail Management Company spent much time and money using some of the best retail minds to give retailers reports that make sense. Our primary consultant was Alan Fisher of Retail Business 101. A report should be a concise summary of easy to understand data to make positive decisions from, not just a list with hard to understand information. All of the Point of Sale information is aggregated into the comprehensive Retail Stock Ledger. ProphetLine then takes this information and builds quick view reports that allow you to identify problems in your inventory and the necessary actions needed to correct the problem. Click the Retail Stock Ledger link to get a better understanding of what goes on and why. You can drill as deep as you want into the Retail Stock Ledger or build Open To Buy Plans with confidence your numbers are correct.

Good POS Software should have some reporting views that allow you to look at the overall health of your business at a quick glance. ProphetLine is constantly finding ways to make available valuable information for the busy small business person. All of these new reports are based on the comprehensive Retail Stock Ledger. My favorite is the Compare Sales, Profits, and Inventory Percentages. This report gives you a quick view of a department or class contribution to a retailer's revenue and inventory value. For example, if a department has 20% of your inventory value and only accounts for 5% of your overall revenue, you have a problem. You can then drill deeper and find the problem in the Retail Stock Ledger.

- Alan Fisher
www.retailbusiness101.com

I have always been astonished to watch salespeople from some software companies review reports with retailers. They seem to assume that quantity of reporting and level of detail sell systems. Unfortunately, many retailers also equate quantity with quality. Once the software is installed, faced with thousands of combinations of reports, the retailer runs no reports, using the computer system simply as life-support for a series of procedures. The same uninformed decisions are made, maybe just a little faster.

- By Jeff Haefner

Here are 15 quick and easy tricks that I've noticed other successful retail businesses doing to keep their customers coming back for more. This works because when you let your customers know that you appreciate them, they'll show that they appreciate you by purchasing more of your products and will become a loyal customer, guaranteed.

Some of these tips require retail technology and some don't.

Here you go:

1. Always say hello. Your sales people, your cashiers, and all your employees must always say hello.

2. Acknowledge your customers children.

The make it or break it of a POS implementation is not so much the function of the software as the willingness of the client to change and adapt their business processes to fit the new retail management software. All POS software products have strong points which made you select them in the first place and small deficiencies you were willing to overlook in the selection process to get the new and improved functions. To try and have the new software work just exactly like the old is a recipe for disaster. By the time you program for the old functionality, de-bug and go way over budget, the gains in productivity are mostly negated. The POS software you select to improve your business should be 95% of what you are looking for, straight out of the box and return on investment must be your top priority.

Many businesses offer their customers a lot of benefits, but do the customers know about them? From time to time, it is a good idea to step on the other side of the counter and see your business from a 'customers' perspective.

This takes a different mindset, as employees and owners of a business 'see' the 'store' more frequently than an average customer, but do they really see the 'store' as a customer does. Take a step back, walk outside, maybe drive around the block and park your car as if YOU are the customer. Now take the time to 'see' what your customer sees"¦