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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.
In order to understand the basis of POS logic, we must go back to 1879, when the cash register was invented. Stores would manually keep track of the number of sales and the amount of each sale that was made. In the 1900s, the traditional cash register evolved into computerized point of sale systems, complete with credit card terminals and touchscreen displays.
In June 1974, the first product, a pack of Juicy Fruit chewing gum, was scanned at a POS in a supermarket, but it would take until the mid 80’s before the barcode technology was widely adopted. Some retailers, like German Aldi Nord would not use barcode scanners until 2003 because their cashier were trained to be faster than a scanner. In 2014, just a few years ago, mobile point of sale (mPOS) made a huge impact by replacing clunky registers and bulky computers with sleek tablets and phones.
As you can see, we’ve come a long way since 1879. Today, we are getting ready for the future of POS. According to Grand View, Research, Inc., the global POS terminals market size is expected to reach $116.06 billion by 2025. The future of payment has a lot in store, including AI, image recognition, smart cards, shelf-label readers, PIN On Glass and more. The possibilities are endless as we explore new ways to create a frictionless POS experience.
Now, if you really look at all the new technology behind, for example, Amazon Go’s cameras and shelf sensors, you’ll see that the “Business Logic” behind new-age Frictionless Stores is actually the same as the logic behind the barcode scanner. Really, these new innovations are just another way, although really cool way, to identify a product, just with different clients, peripherals and frontends. The core of the POS will always be the same and the underpinning logic can’t be eliminated.
So, what does this mean for retailers? Today, integration with new technologies and systems requires a new perspective on the same logic. When deciding to implement a new system, retailers are making a platformdecision, not a POS systemdecision. In omnichannel retail, there should be consistent Data and Business Logic throughout all channels, from Brick and Motar stores to Webshops to Mobile Retail.
While the logic will be the same, the store of the future will be built on the “Invisible POS” – many retail verticals will soon switch to this system to make checkout as frictionless as possible. In many ways, invisible POS is like when you drive on a toll road. Instead of having to pay in cash at the booth, you can zip on by with the tag on your dashboard. The experience is the same when you go into the shop and you don’t have to pay at the cash register. Customers don’t want to go back to fiddling with cash. The store of the future must be frictionless, enhancing customer experience while benefitting retailers with a more convenient payment experience.
GK Software is giving retailers the ability to deploy retail concepts on any hardware device to meet the demands of modern shopping preferences - all with the same quality and service of a stationary POS. With GK’s point of sale solutions, retailers can be confident about enhancing the customer experience with frictionless POS.
To learn more, reach out here.
Below, I’ll explore three reasons why retailers should consider integrating a powerful, branded mobile application, and how they can leverage it to create a more engaging in-store experience that capitalizes on the deep shopper-phone connection.
In its simplest form, personalization requires anticipating what users may want or need based on what retailers already know about them. And when directly targeted to an individual shopper, most are open to receiving personalized offers, as it’s viewed as a retailer providing a service rather than an unwanted, generalized message.
While we all know personalization is important, a retailers’ ability to leverage consumer data and personal shopping history quickly and easily is essential in order to offer unique promotions to consumers – anywhere, at any time. For example, as a shopper enters the grocery store, location-based geofences or instore beacons can remind them that Halloween is approaching, and send a coupon for candy directly to their in-store app. Tests have shown that the redemption rate of coupons presented to customers while shopping is magnitudes higher then with traditional check-out couponing. With multiple in-store beacons throughout the store, customers can be encouraged to visit several locations in the store receive special offers, just like a scavenger hunt.
The main functions of loyalty programs, digital or physical, have remained the same for retailers: they serve as a way to identify repeat customers and their shopping habits. However, consumers now expect more targeted, relevant offers and rewards in exchange for their personal information.
Shoppers will always have their phone on them but might not want to carry around a physical card or even their clunky wallet. In tandem with personalized offers on mobile devices, integrated loyalty programs help provide a new level of excitement and value for shoppers on the go. One example of a well-performing mobile loyalty program is the Starbucks app. According to eMarketer, 23.4 million people will use the Starbucks app to make a purchase at least once every six months, and its usage is ahead of both Apple Pay and Google Pay. So, why is it so successful? Not only does the Starbucks loyalty program allow shoppers to pay with their phones, each purchase accumulates points-based rewards – striking the perfect balance between convenience and consumer benefits.
It’s important for retailers to remember that simplicity is key. Shoppers are constantly bombarded with information and new offers coming their way, so putting coupons and a rewards program alongside a payment method can bring a new level of integration and seamlessness into retail stores. By focusing on convenience, consumers will only be looking at you, and not the competition.
Consumers have noticed how frictionless the checkout process is on an e-commerce site and expect the same in person. But it seems inevitable that whenever they’re in the biggest rush, they’re stuck behind someone who’s trying to make a return, or has sent for someone to retrieve a critical item they forgot. Thankfully, according to IHL, Mobile POS Software is one of the fastest growing areas in retail technology, so waiting in a checkout line will soon be a thing of the past.
When smartphones are used as a self-scanning device, the pain points involved in a traditional checkout process are eliminated. By turning mobile phones into tools and not distractions, the customer experience is instantly improved as shoppers check in with a QR code to connect with a store’s POS system. Then, consumers can freely scan items as they shop, and pay for them without interruption.
What retailers once thought was enemy number one – mobile phones and pervasive web access - has become an essential tool for traditional retailers, as it’s the gateway to an omnichannel experience. Customers are actively looking for tools and apps that provide them a frictionless trip to the store, which explains why GK Software’s Mobile Customer Assistant app has been launched over 168 million times. This year alone, Mobile Customer Assistant has completed nearly 10 million loyalty transactions and redeemed more than 1.4 million coupons in just one month. Used in over 13,600 stores, our platform seamlessly integrates with existing enterprise systems, so there’s less work on the retailer’s end.
To discuss the landscape of mobile customer solutions, or to find out how GK’s Mobile Customer Assistant can impact your business, feel free to reach out.
However, as these growth-minded online brands venture into physical retail, they will be competing with retailers that have already existed in the brick and mortar space for decades. They can’t afford to make costly mistake, but simultaneously require a higher level of expertise than startup-oriented systems often provide. These systems limit features or control, but the retailer doesn’t yet have the need yet for on-premise solutions. But what else is there?
When it comes to most applications, point of sale included, retailers looking at new formats and markets are best served by investing in fully managed cloud services that deliver enterprise functionality without needing to build out their own expertise or infrastructure. Features such as buy online, pick up in store connectivity and unlimited scalability can be guaranteed with ease. By investing in a service that is fully managed, retailers are essentially “renting” the expertise that is essential for their success.
For example, as retailers start expanding to physical stores, they do not have staff readily available to understand or operate on-premise solutions. With GK’s fully-managed cloud software, retailers can obtain the same level of expertise as established retailers with large IT teams. Regardless of team or store size, retailers can be confident about expanding to brick and mortar stores without a massive upfront IT investment.
While cloud services come with a standardized configuration, there is still a freedom for retailers to develop their own parameters and functionalities with ease. This allows for retailers to maintain a friendly user interface, but still be able to create distinguishing factors that help them stand out against competitors.
If you’re an online retailer considering opening stores, or rapidly expanding your store count, I highly recommend that you consider a fully managed cloud service as opposed to an on-premise solution. It requires a fraction of the internal resources to deploy and manage, leaving you to do what you do best: sell products.
Please feel free to reach out to learn more about GK’s managed POS services and how we can work together to achieve your expansion goals.
The Retail Innovators