The Retail Innovators
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Today’s “store of the future” is often considered to have technology like self-checkout shopping carts and camera-filled stores à la Amazon Go that allow for a completely touchless experience.
It’s obvious that COVID-19 accelerated the demand touchless retail as a result of consumers’ sanitation and safety concerns. Now, 87% of U.S. consumers prefer to shop at stores that have touchless or robust self-checkout options.
As counterintuitive as it may sound, touchless technology offers retailers additional – albeit contactless - touchpoints to interact with customers at every step of their journey. As of April 2021, 71% of U.S. consumers felt safe going to a physical store. But retailers can be doing more to ensure that every step of the customer journey is touch-free.
When a consumer enters the store and chooses to shop contactless, they can either open up the retailer’s app, or scan a QR code that is located at the entrance of the store. From there, the shopper can be identified and loyalty information can be accessed.
Once the shopper has grabbed their basket, retailers have a number of touchless ways in which they can continue to interact.
As a shopper scans barcode items, their pending order total will automatically update. In addition, mobile devices can alert shoppers of existing promotions on products they have already scanned, or share offers on similar items to increase basket size. For example, this could be a discount on salsa if chips are bought.
Another way retailers can serve their customers from afar is by providing item information and item location online. The retailer’s app can be set to the shopper’s current location or preferred store, allowing them to check item availability as well as the specific aisle it’s located on. This allows the shopper to continue their journey without having to locate an associate and ask them for assistance.
Once a shopper is ready for checkout, they have two options: first, they can choose “check out” on the app. From there, they move to a payment prompt and can complete their purchase. Second, shoppers can opt for the “just walk out” method, where no interaction is needed and their account is charged automatically. This may seem like technology of the future that giants like Amazon have already implemented, but all a retailer need is an integrated POS and payments solution.
Touchless payment modes can also speed up the purchase process, a common pain point for retailers. The same technology can also encourage customers to sign-up for loyalty programs all at the same time.
To further drive loyalty, many retailers miss the final touchpoint, which is after a shopper has left the store. Digital receipts can be sent via email or SMS, and may contain targeted offers or an update on loyalty points to incentivize a customer to return to the specific retailer.
Retailers with a strong mobile app presence are one step ahead when it comes to ensuring a completely contactless in-store shopping experience. However, retailers now have the option to integrate app-less technology across their business. This eliminates any barriers for customer interaction.
Regardless of which shopping method a consumer chooses, retailers must focus on every step of the customer journey – from when a consumer enters the store to when they are sent a post-purchase receipt. By eliminating friction and providing shoppers multiple options for how to shop, retailers are establishing a convenience and flexibility that will drive loyalty. Are you ready to get started?
Just three years ago, we officially launched CLOUD4RETAIL at EuroCIS 2018. Since that first splash, CLOUD4RETAIL has been used worldwide to power the modern retail experience, from touchless mobile payments to personalized digital engagements.
Our product continues to evolve to meet the market and while there are many reasons our customers select CLOUD4RETAIL, there are four we hear time and time again.
In October, RBR’s Global POS Software 2020 study revealed that GK Software confirmed its market position as the leader in new POS installations.
The report analyzed global point-of-sale installations of more than 75 vendors in six regions. In addition to receiving the top position in new retail installations, we were ranked sixth in total POS installations.
Across Europe, RBR found that we were responsible for more new installations than any other provider, with a total share of 20%.
CLOUD4RETAIL is the only POS to provide an enterprise-class, unified platform for every retail format: from quick- and full-service restaurants and convenience, to grocery, fashion and fuel.
According to McKinsey & Company, “The COVID-19 pandemic has reset the retail game board. The most successful retailers will be those that connect with consumers in new ways by leaning in on their digital, omnichannel and in-store technology ambitions.”
Our all-in-one platform is the only solution on the market that provides a single solution, eliminating the need for multiple POS systems and enabling rapid innovation. Plus, CLOUD4RETAIL is a headless commerce solution, ensuring retailers benefit from easy updates and new integrations.
As an open platform for retailers operating globally, CLOUD4RETAIL is used in more than 60 countries and meets all legal requirements.
Consider our customer Tally Weijl, an international fashion retailer with more than 900 stores in 38 countries, plus a comprehensive online offering.
Tally Weijl selected CLOUD4RETAIL to interact with its customers across all channels and drive international growth. One of the essential building blocks is the centralized store-level GK Software solution, which can be customized in line with country-specific requirements.
Learn more about Tally Weijl’s implementation in their case study.
The Omnibasket Developers Portal, launched early this year, makes it easy for third-party solution providers to easily integrate their applications with CLOUD4RETAIL.
This provides flexibility and growth opportunities for retailers, who can choose from a growing number of applications that complement and easily integrate with GK.
“The GK Software Omnibasket developer portal and Innovators program are a revolutionary approach,” said Simon Butler, CEO of Abacus Lottery Everywhere, an early adopter of the new portal and program. “This could help enable solution providers to offer retailers significant benefits with very little effort and time to market, integrating into their existing platform.”
Worldwide, GK Software customers’ annual total revenue is $520 billion. We work with 24% of the global top 50 brands.
Our position as a top worldwide POS provider, support for all retail formats, help driving global growth for retailers and easy integration through Omnibasket are just four reasons customers select CLOUD4RETAIL. But the reality is there are many reasons to work with GK Software.
Learn more about CLOUD4RETAIL online, or get in touch with us to discuss how we can help grow your retail footprint today.
This relationship will help to provide retailers with an enhanced pathway to retail innovation using IBM's secured cloud technology and extensive industry services alongside the leading enterprise cloud solution for retail. As part of the collaboration, GK Software’s CLOUD4RETAIL, currently the solution most rolled out to major retailers worldwide in new projects 1 , is now accessible via IBM Cloud, accelerating hybrid cloud adoption within the industry. This global relationship also supports a joint go to market strategy which enables IBM’s Global Services (GBS) to build integrated solutions and innovative offerings for retailers.
CLOUD4RETAIL is GK Software's flexible, open commerce platform providing services for the operation of integrated unified commerce environments from in-store and online touchpoints through to mobile devices. The platform is enriched by innovative services such as AI-based dynamic pricing, personalization, fraud detection, and mobile applications. Now optimized on IBM Cloud, the industry’s most secured and open public cloud for business, the extensive expansion and customization options of the various CLOUD4RETAIL services, can be used on a wide range of devices.
GK Software will also extend the deployment flexibility of CLOUD4RETAIL by adopting Red Hat OpenShift, the industry's leading enterprise Kubernetes platform, allowing customers to run GK solutions across hybrid environments – from on-premises to multi-cloud environments and at the edge.
1) See latest rbr research Global POS 2020 (category new POS without installations in hospitality and fuel)
Michael Scheibner, Chief Strategy Officer of GK Software, says: "GK Software and IBM share a long partnership in the retail industry and many common customers. We are very pleased to accompany retailers on their transition to the cloud in cooperation with IBM. We believe that we can make an excellent offer for holistic omnichannel processes based on state-of-the-art technology, especially to long-standing IBM customers."
This position is also underlined by Luq Niazi, Global Managing Director IBM Consumer Industries; "The challenges facing many retailers are extensive; diverse customer expectations, intense competition, increased operational complexity and ongoing cost pressure, all while navigating the disruptions and uncertainty of today’s changing retail landscape. By adopting a hybrid cloud strategy with IBM and Red Hat technology, managed by IBM Services, CLOUD4RETAIL can enable retailers to modernize applications and connect multiple technologies and the resulting data across the store, offering a more personalized and secured experience for shoppers.”
For further information about IBM in the Consumer Industry please visit: www.ibm.com/industries/retail
Without a doubt, the past year and has been volatile for retailers as they were forced to adapt to changing consumer behaviors.
But while retailers were heads down and looking for answers to their technology limitations, analyst firms were recognizing GK Software for existing solutions already solving the problems COVID-19 exacerbated.
Most notably, Gartner released a guide on pricing and promotion solutions and IHL Group explored the market leaders in order fulfillment; both named GK Software as a leading provider in the space.
COVID-19 turned BOPIS and curbside pickup into mass-adopted services in 2020. And these services are now a solid part of consumer's shopping habits, as 75% of shoppers have used in-store or curbside pickup in the past six months.
For retailers, the shift in behavior required retailers to respond with streamlined fulfillment processes. IHL Group's Competitive Market Leaders report identified the key partners for digital order fulfillment at a store level. The report ranked vendors based on the average percent their customer's revenue comes from digital sales completed by store fulfillment, and included GK Software as a top company.
The industry's focus on curbside demonstrates that physical stores still play an essential role for retailers. But the traditional store has evolved to be much more than a location for shoppers to browse and buy the items they need.
Retailers must now have an established architecture that achieves omnichannel commerce, as well as new fulfillment options like curbside. GK Software's CLOUD4RETAIL platform supports retailers as they enable a unified commerce experience.
Over the past year, grocery prices have increased by 2.6% overall,according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Shoppers' increased price sensitivity, as well as the volatility of the market and competition has led retailers to focus on dynamic pricing. This allows them to better serve customers and retain loyalty while also improving profit margins.
Customer demand and the availability of certain products can change daily, making it almost impossible to manually run a meaningful forecast of purchase behavior based on typical seasonal trends.
GK Software's Dynamic Pricing solution was recognized in Gartner's Market Guide for Retail Unified Price, Promotion and Markdown Optimization Applications. The AI-enabled solution allows retailers to optimize their omnichannel pricing strategies in real time and at scale, based on the full scope of their available customer and market data.
As you look to prioritize your technology investments, it can be overwhelming to balance the demands of today along with expectations for the future. GK Software can help you implement solutions that address both. After all, we are an analyst-recognized provider. So why not work with the best?
This growth has seen the company’s EBIT nearly triple to 3.20 million euros (Q1 2020 = 1.06 million euros). The EBITDA was 5.13 million euros, an increase of nearly 2 million euros over the previous year (Q1 2020 = 3.26 million euros) that can be attributed to sales growth of 4.9 per cent to 30.45 million euros (Q1 2020 = 29.02 million euros).
These results were achieved on the basis of two new customer acquisitions in Germany and Mexico, strong business with existing customers, and the ongoing implementation of the measures in the company’s efficiency program. The company’s performance also backs up the Management Board’s forecast for the whole of 2021, which continues to be supported by a strong sales pipeline and additional sales from Deutsche Fiskal starting in the second quarter. The sale of AWEK microdata has no impact on the forecast.
The quarterly report is available for download at https://investor.gk-software.com/en/publications/financial-reports?task=download&cid=844.
AWEK microdata is a wholly-owned subsidiary of GK Software, focused on the development, sale and management of euroSUITE, the solution for medium-sized retailers. It was taken over in 2012 in connection with the acquisition of AWEK GmbH. At the end of the 2020 financial year, the company had 41 employees at the Hamburg and Bielefeld business sites and contributed less than five percent to the revenue and earnings of the GK Software Group. The transfer of business will take place on 21 May 2021.
The GK Software Management Board would like to thank the company’s management and employees for the work carried out in the course of its affiliation with the Group and wishes them every success in the future.
The back-to-school shopping season is expected to look different again this year.
Like last year, buyers’ needs will be impacted by whether learning takes place in person. Presently, school administrators are expecting a mix of in-person and remote instruction during the upcoming fall semester.
In addition, consumer behavior is continuing to evolve. Shoppers are slowly returning to stores as vaccines rise. And, at the same time, many new shopping behaviors are expected to stick, such as curbside pickup and an increased use of ecommerce.
Retail sales are also beginning to increase after experiencing a 9.8% surge in March compared to a 3% drop the month before. This increase is the largest since May 2020, when stores reopened after pandemic closures. It was also dramatically larger than the 5.5% Wall Street analysts expected. This growing trend signals good news for retailers during this year’s back-to-school shopping season.
As mentioned previously, 69% of administrators are implementing a combination of in-person and remote schooling, as hybrid learning models allow families a choice in schooling and much-needed flexibility.
To support this model, educators plan to work towards ensuring all students have the technology they need to complete schooling at home.
Either way, prevention measures will likely still be necessary as many children remain unvaccinated. Currently, the CDC recommends a range of mitigation strategies including mandatory masks, good ventilation, regular handwashing and continued social distancing.
Recent research from NRF hints at new shopping methods that are expected to stick. For example, 65% of consumers pay for a delivery shipping service, with a quarter paying for more than one. In addition, seventy percent of consumers have used BOPIS and found it improved their shopping experience.
As for online shopping, consumers spent $861.12 billion online with U.S. retailers in 2020, up 44% from $598.02 billion in 2019, according to Digital Commerce 360.
Since the upcoming school season is expected to be a mix of in-person and remote learning, back-to-school shopping habits from last year can give us insight into what to expect this year.
Growing children need new clothes whether they are at school or at home; last year, 47% of consumers surveyed said they were spending more on clothing, and 59% said higher spending would come from school supplies like pencils and notebooks, according to NRF.
For parents expecting students to be at home, 72% of respondents planned to buy items to help with remote learning, such as computers, home furnishings and other supplies. Thirty-six percent are expected to buy laptops, 22% speakers/headphones, 21% tech accessories and 17% printers.
In 2021, the best plan is to be prepared for anything to happen.
We’ll likely see shopper behavior continue to evolve, with consumers using a variety of purchasing methods. And with a mixture of in-person and online learning expected, what consumers are buying is likely to be diverse as well.
To learn more about how to prepare your stores for a flux of in-store shopping, check out our recent blog that provides tips on contactless POS, electronic receipts and mobile tools.
If you’re looking to learn more about how to personalize the online shopping experience, check out this post on our blog.
With Memorial Day serving as the unofficial start to summer, convenience retailers have less than a month to ensure their stores are ready for the road trips the season will bring.
Fifty-two percent of convenience store retailers say that summer travel will be close to pre-pandemic levels, according to NACS. And as of March, Deloitte noted 33% of U.S. consumers had plans to rent a car in the next three months.
However, consumers' habits and expectations have changed drastically since their last road trip, so convenience stores must be prepared to meet their new needs.
In the same NACS study mentioned above, retailers surveyed anticipated growth in categories including cold beverages, coffee and pre-packaged foods. This can be tied directly to the fact that they expect families to make a pit stop during road trips, as they'll be looking for refreshments and foods that don't require any extra preparation. Mr. and Mrs. Jones might want coffee after an early morning start to their road trip, but their kids might ask for a muffin or breakfast burrito.
When opting for a convenience store over a fast food restaurant, fuel is often a major motivator, as consumers can fill both needs with one action. Retailers must have a unified POS that can account for both a fuel transaction as well as an in-store purchases. This enables the kind of frictionless experience customers demand: whenever, wherever and whatever the payment requirement.
Contactless payments can be used to offer order ahead options and reduce the length of checkout lines.
Instead of wasting time letting her children pick out snacks, and then wait in a potentially long line to check out, Mrs. Jones can use her phone in the passenger seat to preorder – and pay for - exactly what they want. This ensures they're back on the road faster than ever, which is particularly important as the pandemic has increased consumers' desire to limit their time spent indoors.
As a result of this need, retailers must ensure their business can support a number of payments – including tap-and-pay credit cards, mobile pay and even QR codes. What's more, they must be able to add these and any other new capabilities without a disruption to their current processes.
Since consumers are already using their devices for preordering and payments, convenience retailers can further drive loyalty by reaching these shoppers directly on their phones. If Mr. Jones usually fills up his car with a specific retailer, this road trip is a perfect chance to drive further loyalty.
A retailer can offer discounts on any items he's previously purchased, or promotions for similar items. For example, offering a discount on his preferred bag of chips to go with a sandwich or a BOGO on candy can incentivize Mr. Jones to stop with that specific retailer on his road trip. What's more, Mr. Jones and the retailer both reap benefits of this type of loyalty.
The summer season is approaching quickly, and the Joneses, along with many other families, are preparing to hit the road. Make sure they stop and do business with you – whether that's for fuel, snacks, prepared meals or all of the above – by preparing your point of sale, payments and mobile offerings.
Not sure where to start? We can help.
The 'Bundesfachschule des Lebensmittelhandels – food akademie Neuwied' has been teaching relevant knowledge for the food retail sector for more than 80 years and offers various degree programs and further training courses. Retail corporations like REWE or EDEKA work closely with the educational institution with regard to transferring knowledge. Students, who are being trained to become state certified retail management experts, are gaining insights into the world of intelligent IT systems and how they can simplify processes in the food retail sector during this semester. GK Software is supporting the retail managers of the future so that they can gain some knowledge about IT solutions for the food retail trade.
The material related to the "Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the Food Retail Sector" topic area, which is part of the "Data Processing in the Retail Trade" seminar, is designed to show the students which application scenarios for AI simplify the procedures in practice and which sales-promoting measures retailers can integrate within the shopping process. The future retail management experts can discover, for example, how intelligent till systems, personalized customer experiences or dynamic price management in a supermarket can help increase sales and enhance customer satisfaction.
Thorsten Fuchs, the College Director at the 'food akademie' in Neuwied, comments, "The cooperation arrangement with GK Software SE is a real benefit for our federal technical college. Intelligent data processing is an important topic for the food retail sector. Innovative solutions, which support retailers during their daily procedures within supermarkets and provide greater value added for customers, are an important factor to enable corporations to remain competitive in the future."
Herbert Zinn, a Member of the Supervisory Board at GK Software SE, adds, "The extremely practical training at the 'food akademie' pools skills from all fields of the food retail sector and prepares the students for their future tasks in the best possible way. We're delighted to be able to provide support with expertise related to intelligent IT systems during this semester."
The cooperation arrangement between GK Software and the 'food akademie' in Neuwied is taking place for the first time this year and will be continued during future semesters, if successful.
The Federal College for the Food Retail Sector has existed in Neuwied to provide advanced and further training for the food retail trade since 1936. The guiding principle of "From practice for practice" has dominated teaching here for more than 80 years. You can find more information about the Federal College for the Food Retail Sector at www.food-akademie.de
GK actively helped with organising this process in order to be able to offer the jabs as quickly as possible. All the employees at the second-largest business site in St Ingbert will have probably received their first shot too by the middle of May; most of these vaccinations have been organised with the help of the company physician. The employees' readiness to be vaccinated within the whole company is very high and the vaccination services have been welcomed with great enthusiasm.
All the employees were already given the opportunity to work from home because of the Covid-19 situation in the middle of March 2020; the technical facilities, which already existed, were expanded for this during a single weekend to enable the more than 1,000 employees around the world to work away from their normal office premises. A comprehensive hygiene concept was drawn up for the 24/7 support departments, which have to be manned at all times, in order to guarantee that they continue to maintain operations without any interruptions. The workers in these departments ensure that the business-critical IT systems for GK Software's large retail customers, which are essential to keep public life going, are always able to operate. There have been no cases of infection, which can be traced back to people using a workstation within the company, as a result of the measures that have been introduced. Thanks to adopting responsible behaviour patterns, the number of infections among people working from home has been significantly lower than the average general figures.
Thanks to the progress made within the general vaccination programme and the support for this from company physicians and family doctors, GK Software assumes that most of its employees at its German business sites will have received their first jab during the next few weeks. The vaccination programme will have probably been fully completed at the large business locations in the Vogtland and Saarland regions by then.
The Retail Innovators