GK Software will demonstrate its full range of SAP omnichannel POS and mobile solutions for retail stores and the enterprise, along with the new SAP dynamic pricing product by GK Software. The SAP Omnichannel Point-of-Sale application by GK and other GK solutions are native-integrated into the SAP retail system for a seamless end-to-end experience.
Named the strongest current offering in the Q3 2018 Forrester Wave for point of service solutions, GK Software was also recognized by IHL Group as a leader in innovation, market strength and market share for POS Software and SaaS in the Total Retail, General Retail and Food, Drug and Convenience segments.
GK Software boasts a dominant market position in Europe and has quickly become a key player in the U.S. GK Software now serves U.S. customers representing more than 34,000 locations, in addition to the tens of thousands of additional locations managed by partners.
“Each year, SAPPHIRE NOW is among the most important events for GK Software,” said Michael Jaszczyk, CEO, GK Software USA. “The conference is a unique opportunity to focus on the many ways that GK Software’s solutions can help retailers deploy complete enterprise and store solutions in the SAP environment.”
SAPPHIRE NOW and the ASUG Annual Conference are the world’s premier business technology event and largest SAP customer-run conference, offering attendees the opportunity to learn and network with customers, SAP executives, partners, and experts across the entire SAP ecosystem.
To further enhance end-to-end interaction with consumers, GK Software delivers personalization capabilities to retailers at every consumer touchpoint, powered by machine learning and AI
Raleigh, NC – December 19, 2017 – GK Software, a global leader in omni-channel retail, is bringing real-time personalization to the omni-channel ecosystem with solutions powered by machine learning and AI. By integrating the AI capabilities of prudsys AG, which GK acquired in November, into its OmniPOS platform, retailers can now create personalized customer experiences across any channel, including the store.
“Our expanded omni-channel capabilities present retailers the next level of consumer experience, increasing both loyalty and revenue,” said Michael Jaszczyk, CEO, GK Software USA. “Personalization based on AI was, up to now, a technology limited to one channel. Now, GK Software makes personalization truly omni-channel, both offline and online. We are enabling retailers to recommend products to their consumers based on their personal behaviors at every touchpoint.”
With GK’s expanded capabilities, retailers can use AI-enabled personalization features to fulfill the omni-channel promise of its OmniPOS and Mobile Customer Assistant store solutions, including:
GK Software will demonstrate its AI-enabled omni-channel solutions and mobile customer engagement platform (yMCA) as part of its OmniPOS at booth #3352 at the NRF Big Show, January 14-16, 2018.
About GK Software
GK Software breaks down the barriers to unified commerce with its OmniPOS solution for point of sale, mobile POS, mobile customer engagement and a full range of store/back-office solutions. The company is a recognized leader in omni-channel retail, offering a single, global software platform for all retail formats and touchpoints – which is why 10 of the Top 50 retailers worldwide rely on GK Software. GK Software is headquartered in Germany, with U.S. headquarters in Raleigh, North Carolina. For more information, visit www.gk-software.com.
Media Contacts
Stacy Lan or Jeff Ketner
Ketner Group PR + Marketing (for GK Software)
(512) 794-8876
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
To meet the needs of both its large installed base and new clients, the latest version of TransAction+ delivers powerful, flexible and secure payment management
Raleigh, NC – September 28, 2017 – GK Software, a global leader in omni-channel retail, today announced improved capabilities and services for its TransAction+ payment processing application, a market leader in North America. Designed to meet the demands of an increasingly digital and mobile operational landscape, TransAction+ is a flexible, configurable and secure solution that integrates point-of-sale systems with more than 40 payment authorization providers. Delivering both payments and non-payments interactions at the customer-facing device, users can fulfill any payment processing need without requiring the retailer to invest in additional infrastructure. Originally introduced more than 20 years ago, TransAction+ has successfully been deployed across thousands of locations by major retailers, restaurant chains, and independent operators. As part of GK Software’s dedication to meet the evolving demands of secure omni-channel commerce, TransAction+ now offers:
In keeping with GK Software’s dedication to meeting the modern security and regulatory requirements of its North American customers, TransAction+ is PCI/PA-DSS and PABP certified. It also supports End to End Encryption (E2EE) and EMV for the major US payments processors. The solution is continually updated and enhanced to support security, processor and card brand mandates as a part of standard product maintenance. “TransAction+ is an exciting solution for retailers and restaurants requiring more power, speed and security in their payments processing systems,” said Michael Jaszczyk, CEO, GK Software USA. “TransAction+ has been widely adopted by organizations across North America, and we’re thrilled to introduce an improved feature set that provides a new level of power and security without operational disruption.”
About GK Software
GK Software breaks down the barriers to unified commerce with its OmniPOS solution for point of sale, mobile POS, mobile customer engagement, payments and a full range of store/back-office solutions. The company is a recognized leader in omni-channel retail, offering a single, global software platform for all retail formats and touchpoints – which is why 10 of the Top 50 retailers worldwide rely on GK Software. GK Software is headquartered in Germany, with U.S. headquarters in Raleigh, North Carolina. For more information, visit www.gk-software.com or contact GK at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Media Contacts
Aidan Griffin or Jeff Ketner
Ketner Group PR + Marketing (for GK Software)
(512) 794-8876
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
A significant portion of that growth has come from the core business related to the GK/Retail solutions, which increased by an impressive 27%. One important development in the 2018 financial year was the company's breakthrough in the USA, a key market where GK Software won four new customers including two of the country's top 20 grocery retailers. This trend is continuing in 2019, with a further two new US customers already having been signed up, plus the company has added a new South American cloud customer to its portfolio this year.
GK Software also made significant investments to strengthen its market position in the 2018 financial year, particularly in terms of expanding the cloud capabilities of the GK/Retail solutions and integrating its recently acquired expertise in artificial intelligence and mobile solutions into its product portfolio. Besides this higher level of product investment, the main causes of the earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) – at just €1.6 million – falling short of the board's expectations can be identified as the declining sales in the IT Services segment and a number of sales opportunities which were expected in 2018 but failed to materialize.
Overall, the board of directors regards the 2018 financial year as very successful. Therefore, the medium-term forecast for the 2020 financial year, which was made in the 2017 full-year results, remains unchanged: the 2020 revenue should be one and a half times that of the 2017 revenue and the profit in the core segment should be approximately 15% (EBIT margin on operational performance). The GK/Retail turnover is likely to grow further in 2019. This year is a key step in the company's journey towards achieving its profitability target for the 2020 financial year, so the board expects the company to exceed the 2018 results.
The financial statement was published earlier today at https://investor.gk-software.com/de/veroeffentlichungen/financial-reports?task=download&cid=661.
April 10, 2018
GK Software, a global leader in omni-channel retail, today announced the availability of cloud4retail in North America, the first fully hosted and managed service for a true enterprise point of sale (POS) solution, GK/Retail OmniPOS. Deploying cloud4retail allows retailers of all sizes to use any combination of GK’s leading omni-channel applications in a fully-managed cloud environment for increased scalability, agility, accessibility and security, all with a reduced burden and cost to the retailer’s IT infrastructure and staff. The platform delivers full omni-channel capabilities, including personalized recommendations, marketing automation and dynamic pricing driven by AI and a robust mobile architecture to manage any transaction anytime, anywhere.
Through the SaaS framework, GK Software covers the complete operation of the cloud4retail platform, including all maintenance and professional services associated with setting up stores and users and running both the technology stack and the application. This leads to a significant reduction in operational and labor costs over time, eliminates the severe cost of regular hardware upgrades and eliminates the requirement to maintain technical expertise in-house. Ultimately, the comprehensive service allows retailers to focus on their core focus of selling products.
cloud4retail comes with standard availability in the SAP® HANA Enterprise Cloud or Microsoft® Azure Cloud environments but can also be customized to meet the needs of any existing IT infrastructure. This creates a fast time-to-market with the needed flexibility for implementing new business processes. The system meets international IT security and data protection guidelines, includes multi-level security scenarios for smooth operation, and promises high availability with high-end backup and recovery mechanisms.
“Retailers today require far greater scalability, flexibility and power to meet the demands of the emerging unified commerce environment,” said Michael Jaszczyk, CEO, GK Software USA. “cloud4retail allows them to break free from the limitations of legacy, on-premise platforms and capitalize on the efficiencies of a fully-serviced, cloud-based framework while enjoying the benefits of best-in-class point of sale capabilities.”
All GK Software solutions are designed for use in traditional in-store scenarios and also for deployment in the cloud. Now, the cloud4retail platform allows retailers to deploy the entire suite of GK Software’s omni-channel applications in a fully-serviced cloud environment, including:
September 12, 2018
CITCON, the leading cross-border mobile payment company in North America, today announced a partnership with GK Software, a global leader in omni-channel retail. Through the partnership, GK’s North American customers will be able to immediately connect and accept payments from over one billion users of Alipay and WeChat Pay, the preferred payment options for Chinese consumers.
GK Software’s TransAction+ payment processing application, which integrates with a variety of point-of-sale systems, is a turnkey, robust and secure enterprise level payments solution used by leading North American retailers and restaurants. TransAction+ is a light solution that delivers a seamless experience for merchants without additional development work. By integrating with CITCON’s API, the application now supports efficient access to both Alipay and WeChat Pay transactions.
“We are thrilled to work with CITCON to deliver improved payment options that meet the needs of global customers in North America,” said Todd Barstow, Vice President of Sales, GK Software USA. “With TransAction+, CITCON will be able to deliver the fast, frictionless payment processing experience that both shoppers and retailers demand."
Alipay, the world’s leading digital payment platform operated by Ant Financial Services Group, provides in-store payment service in more than 40 countries across the world. Through Alipay’s geolocation-based “Discover” function and push notifications within the app, Chinese consumers can also locate merchants nearby, receive promotional information and make purchasing decisions. WeChat Pay is a fully integrated payment solution within WeChat, one of the world's fastest growing social apps with one billion active users. Adding the integrated payment solution allows merchants to better service millions of Chinese tourists, local Chinese residents and students in the U.S. and tap into a larger revenue stream.
“China has been the world’s number one outbound tourism country for five consecutive years, with spending from Chinese tourists abroad making up 21% of all tourism spending,” said Wei Jiang, President and COO, CITCON. “Understanding the consumer preference, making it easy and convenient for them to pay and keeping them engaged by leveraging the social and marketing capabilities are key for retailers to succeed with Chinese consumers. We are excited to partner with GK Software to bring this unique solution to merchants and help them capitalize on the massive market opportunity.”
Silicon Valley-based CITCON is the mobile payment solution leader for merchants to accept the fast-growing mobile wallets at the global scale. In North America, CITCON is the first and largest authorized merchant acquirer for Alipay and WeChat Pay, two of the most popular mobile wallet providers in the world with over 1 billion active users and over $800 billion mobile payment volume. CITCON provides both in-store, and mobile / web / E-commerce payment solutions for thousands of merchants including renowned brands such as Caesars Entertainment Group, DFS, i-Shoppes, Pacific Gateway, China Unicom, YamiBuy among others, covering a wide variety of business sectors such as Retail, Hotel, Food & Beverage, Transportation, Entertainment Education and E-commerce. CITCON management team consists of payment and technology veterans from VISA, PayPal, eBay, Uber, JD, Western Union. CITCON is backed by top notch Silicon Valley venture capital firms and received strategic investments from two public-traded multi-billion- dollar technology companies in China. For more information, please visit http://www.citcon.com.
With the emergence of fully managed cloud options like GK’s cloud4retail service that deliver enterprise POS functionality of solutions like OmniPOS, you may have more questions than ever to answer when deciding not only which vendor partner to work with, but also the infrastructure and management approach that aligns most closely with their business goals and needs.
To that end, these are the nine questions every retailer should ask themselves and potential vendors before making a commitment:
Fully managed cloud services now deliver all the functionality that on-premise enterprise systems do and are worth exploring for all but the absolute largest retailers. By answering these questions, you may be surprised to find that you are positioned to break free from the limitations of legacy, on-premise platforms and capitalize on the efficiencies of a fully-serviced, cloud-based POS infrastructure.
GK Software’s cloud4retail service is specifically designed to allow retailers of all sizes to use any combination of GK’s leading omnichannel applications in a fully-managed cloud environment for increased scalability, agility, accessibility and security, all with a reduced burden and cost to your IT infrastructure and staff.
Today, the use of technology such as mobile devices and touchscreens is pervasive, with the vast majority of Americans owning smartphones. Because of this, customers are starting to accept and embrace technology into their shopping routine.
As scan-as-you-shop technology gains popularity, we will see personal applications become the standard (as opposed to dedicated use devices), which will help to start the shopping trip at home with intelligent shopping lists, easy click-and-collect services, and event and context-based shopping that offers customers deals based on personal preferences. With more and more grocery retailers beginning to roll out these new e-commerce options, let’s take a closer look at why retailers should keep a close eye on scan-and-pay’s growth and benefits, and what they need to consider when implementing this technology in their stores.
Despite popular belief, scan-as-you-shop technology is not primarily for labor savings. While most grocers mistakenly believe that this is the biggest advantage, I think the biggest advantages for grocers implementing this technology are increasing customer satisfaction and converting customers into loyal fans and brand ambassadors. Ultimately, moving employees away from manning registers allows retailers to reallocate their labor resources to more service-oriented roles that add greater value to the store experience.
Furthermore, grocers will have the ability to add the convenience factor so consumers can pre-order their grocery items and not have to wait in line. Mobile self-scanning and mobile consumer apps are the biggest weapon for traditional brick-and-mortar retailers who are fighting against online competitors. With scan-and-pay, customers can conveniently order anywhere and pick up items immediately (and not have to wait for delivery) while being able to add forgotten items by scanning in the store. This is a far better experience for customers than just ordering online.
As with any other emerging technology, there are kinks that need to be worked out in order to fully realize the benefits. Only once all components are mature enough can the experience be so much more efficient for the retailer and convenient for the customer that mainstream adoption becomes widely discussed and comes to fruition.
The first step in this process is that grocers must make sure that they have harmonized backend systems to avoid any significant pitfalls. The backend for those applications must be a service-oriented POS platform. Otherwise, there will be inconsistencies and reduced functionality. Prices and promotions (mix and match, etc.) must be consistently applied in real time – and displayed accurately to the customer. If prices and basket totals are not as expected, customers will lose faith in the system and abandon it.
Another pitfall grocers must consider is having poor performance and usability. Unreliable networks, slow response times and poor interfaces will actually turn a promising initiative into a negative customer emotion, steering customers away from the store.
Finally, grocers should avoid creating an island application or siloed applications. Instead, there needs to be one harmonized backend that operates under the same business logic to drive POS, Mobile Scanning, Self-Scanning and more. Separate backends will lead to inconsistencies, higher implementation costs and data replication issues. A unified backend allows grocers to start a transaction on any client and finish it on every other client. This should be one of the golden rules when implementing this technology because it opens up the possibility of unlimited use cases across each channel in an omni-channel platform.
Please feel free to leave a comment or reach out to me directly to discuss the landscape and future of scan-and-pay or how you can start to explore its potential impact on your business!
It might not seem like it, but grocery is really one of, if not the most, complex retail segment. With a variety of services offered in the store – from banking to gas to coin machines and pharmacies – grocery stores are often a central hub for community needs. They are also reliant on preserving tiny margins on each product in a huge variety of categories, managing relationships with a large host of suppliers and brands, and serving evolving customer needs and catering to changing tastes and preferences.
Maintaining efficiency in each of these areas is critical to maintaining profitability and promoting sustained growth. But none of it is possible without the right IT backend, an environment under significant stress – and opportunity – due to the proliferation of new technologies in the market today. New Capabilities Require New Infrastructure
New processes like Scan and Go checkouts that eliminate the hassle of waiting in line are a huge new opportunity that can help provide better service and engage customers on branded apps. “Buy online, pick up in store” brings similar benefits, but it requires a completely different application set. The list goes on and on.
So how can retailers identify the best approach to upgrading legacy infrastructure to keep up with all the great new services that for now are a bonus, but soon will be table stakes? Ultimately, grocery retailers need to establish a singular, enterprise-wide platform that scales and adapts to changing needs as fast as their customers change their own expectations. Platforms like GK Software’s OmniPOS reduce the pressure on a grocer to constantly build, upgrade and manage their own architecture, and provide access to cutting edge applications such as those described above.
Here’s what any grocer ready to leverage the technology of tomorrow today needs to do to create an IT backend ready to handle its rigors:
By creating a backend infrastructure that is modular, pivotal and managed in real time, retailers can leverage in-store, mobile and online applications to create a cohesive, streamlined and rewarding experience to customers that also provides the insights and efficiency that the modern landscape requires.
All relevant processes can be made available as services which can be accessed and used at any location and on any device. It’s also vital that they can be installed centrally or locally and with or without a user interface. These services are available to all systems in the omni-channel environment in real time.
Grocery shoppers don’t usually plan too far ahead, likely visiting your store – either in person or online – multiple times a week to buy their meals and essentials. To provide all the necessary data and service at any time, your backend must be specifically optimized for high availability. All key components of the platform should be cloud-compatible and scale according to demand by connecting additional network nodes. It’s also important to include load balancing to optimally distribute the load over the network.
Even the most complex corporate structures can be managed efficiently with a small footprint.
Platforms like OmniPOS offer multi-client capability that can run different business areas or sales lines in parallel on one database installation. This lays the foundation for running the solution on a software-as-a-service basis or even in the cloud. The Backend must be client agnostic, serving todays and future clients across all channels.
Creating a retail environment for the modern age is all about feeding (no pun intended) the expectation a customer has for their experience with your organization. With the level of complexity surrounding grocery and all of its nuances, associated services and pressures, grocers need to establish sound fundamental IT backends that allow them to scale and meet any need at any time without significant disruption.
If your organization is interested in deploying a single IT platform capable of managing the pressures of today, the expectations of tomorrow and the unknown beyond, feel free to reach out for a conversation about how GK Software can help.
However, catering to each customer’s individual needs is often easier said than done. What do retailers need to do to track the right data about their customers? How do you measure success? What are the next steps and tools you need to achieve these results? Let’s take a deeper look at these questions and why utilizing both historic and present-day data yields maximum outcomes for retailers.
First-party consumer metrics are powerful indicators that retailers can use to predict future buying behavior. Retailers can collect and analyze what customers are looking at and purchases to anticipate users’ needs and wants. To do this, it’s important for retailers to increase their appeal to mobile customers by offering an innovative mobile platform that gives rewards and keeps them coming back. Not only does a mobile customer solution make the shopping experience convenient for the consumer, but it also allows retailers to collect the data they need to appeal to shoppers.
For example, understanding the types of product a shopper buys on a regular basis, such as toilet paper, eggs or toothpaste, and the frequency and timing of when they purchase it will allow you, the retailer, to send personalized offers to their in-store app or mobile device at the exact time and place shoppers want. Retailers can also look at conversion rate, cart abandonment rate and other key metrics to understand each shoppers’ interests and preferences. By analyzing past behavior, retailers can make sure the offers are catered to each customer based on what each individual has looked at or bought before.
Present data holds the key for allowing retailers to unlock the full potential of using real-time data to learn about the customer in the here and now. With today’s latest technology, retailers can better understand real-time, in-store customer behavior at the same level at which they track online behavior to improve their personalized offers and increase loyalty.
Leveraging personal shopping history can help inform the unique offers sent to consumers as they shop anywhere, at any time, but by adding geofences to the mix, retailers can also provide even more specific targeting at a hyper-specific location-based level – with offers sent straight to a shopper’s phone. As soon as a user is in close proximity to the store, retailers can alert the customer with the latest promotions on their mobile device to get them in the door, or wait until they’re at the shelf to convert a potential sale in the moment.
The analysis of real-time shopping behavior is far more complex than analyzing past activity, but with the right solution, retailers can easily create a deep relationship with their customers.
GK Software’s Mobile Customer Assistant is available to help retailers collect the data they need to personalize a unique and seamless experience for their customers. GK’s Mobile Customer Assistant has processed more than 9.9 million loyalty transactions and 8.2 million coupon redemptions just this year, and we’d love for you to take advantage of the growing customer demand for these capabilities too.
By providing insightful past and present data, GK’s MCA enable retailers to implement successful end-to-end communication strategies that lay the foundations for long-term and sustainable customer relationships.