Other software vendors offer third-party shopping cart solutions. Some apparel management software vendors offer ecommerce and shopping cart integration with their system. Produce an online storefront: Store owners can enter the online shopping game themselves. To be successful today, apparel shops owners can react by investing in one of the following strategies: There are a number of reasons for this, including greater sophistication of online tools for shopping and a growing number of traditional retail clothing chains moving to online retail. Online research firm eMarketer predicts revenue around $40.9 billion in 2012, a 20% increase in growth over 2011. The system must properly apply the split payments to the correct ledger accounts.Īpparel is one of the fastest growing ecommerce segments. For example, a customer may want to pay with cash and two different credit cards. The system must be able to accept payment over several different methods. The inventory and POS system should list matching accessories on hand and available as special orders. In other cases, different manufacturers make accessories to "coordinate" with outfits. Many clothing manufactures provide matching accessories, such as belts. In addition, it should track existing inventory and make sales-versus-storage recommendations. The inventory should make recommendations for new orders. The store system should track sales history and monitor loyalty program points awarded and redeemed.įashions and accessories change from season to season. It is important to track special dates for targeted, personalized sale opportunities.Īs part of CRM and to further solidify customer relations, many stores have customer loyalty programs. The system should also track color, style, and designer preferences to notify customers when new shipments are due. In particular, they are adopting social networking by establishing Facebook pages and tweeting coupons to registered customers. The inventory must track each item as a separate SKU and maintain a separate reorder point.īecause of competition from online stores, warehouse stores and department stores, these retailers have aggressively adopted CRM. The general description is entered once, and the sizes and colors are listed as modifiers to the basic description. The key to a successful apparel inventory system is a matrix of modifiers. The customer should have the option to hold the item for pick up at another store or have it transferred to a store of the customer’s choice. If a customer needs an item that is not in stock at a particular store, the system should check all other stores.
If the store is part of a chain, the inventory system should have up-to-date information on inventory in all of the stores. The hold should automatically expire after a defined time if the item is not purchased or placed on layaway by the customer. The clothing store POS system should allow merchandise to be placed on hold, and identify it as such in the inventory. The layaway payments should be treated as deposits in the general ledger. The POS system should allow customers to put products on layaway and identify the item as such in the inventory system.
In addition to core business functions, retailers should evaluate the following functions to meet their unique requirements of a clothing POS solution: Layaway
Common features of apparel POS and inventory software
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