IBM Consumer Survey

The IBM Institute for Business Value conducted a survey of 30,000 U.S. retail consumers to understand what drives consumers’ behavior and spending patterns across several retail categories, grocery being one of many. This survey showed that consumers have changed shopping behavior but rely on retailers they trust.
• 59 percent of consumers have less discretionary budgets than in the previous year
• 91 percent of consumers are sacrificing in some spending areas
• 31 percent of consumers increased spending at primary retailer over the past two years
The current market conditions have forced consumers to make tradeoffs and change their spending habits. The IBM survey data indicates that shrinking wallets have compelled shoppers to make more cautious buying decisions, restricting their purchases to essential items. Retailers must expect and plan for these modifications in behavior.
Visit http://support.stcr.com/Newsletter/ShopperAdvocacy.pdf to read more about the IBM survey and their findings.

POS Maintenance

Holiday season shopping means a high volume of sales in a short period of time. With a high workload and little down time, registers may endure stress levels that can lead to malfunction or breaking. When one component of a lane breaks or stops working, the lane is rendered useless. Fewer lanes available can lead to longer wait times for customers. The last thing a customer wants after shopping all day is to be waiting in line.

With the proper care your registers can endure the stress of the holiday shopping season. Here are some tips to keep your current hardware in top working condition. Check your connections on pin pads, keyboards, scanner scales, monitors and all other components on a weekly basis. Be sure to clean and wipe down cashier stations regularly. Clean up any spills in proximity to any hardware immediately. Have your cashiers and managers report any small incidences or minor malfunctions right away, to prevent them from becoming a much larger issue.

By carrying hardware maintenance on equipment your store will be ready. Without maintenance you may still receive service but at the cost of parts and labor Hardware maintenance agreements can be viewed as an insurance policy for your POS system. You insure your home, car and personal health so why not your business. Call your STCR representative at (607) 757-0181 for more information.

IBM SurePOS 500

IBM recently announced a sleek, powerful new line of point-of-sale systems (POS) with advanced features and functions designed to help retailers create smarter, more dynamic and efficient business operations capable of helping reduce costs, manage risk and energize the consumer buying experience through improved customer service and shopper checkout time.

This latest edition of the IBM SurePOS 500 is among the first retail systems to deploy next generation infrared (IR) touch screen with inadvertent touch screen technology that reduces the risk of unintentionally registering a touch. The innovative touch screen never needs recalibrating, therefore improving accuracy and speeding up transaction times. The highly accurate display permits maximum light transmittal and significant glare reduction to create the highest possible image quality, even in sunlight. In addition, due to retail hardening on the touch screen, it is totally sealed to resist damage from accidental spills.

The IBM SurePOS 500 Express is the industry's leading compact point-of-sale system designed with small to midsized customers in mind. The new Express model provides clients the ability to capture real-time information and new insights at the POS that drive effective customer service initiatives and help ensure the right merchandise is in stock at the right time. By providing employees greater access to product and customer information at point-of-sale, retailers can deliver better customer service, improve employee productivity and, ultimately, deliver smarter business outcomes.

IBM is the only retail vendor to offer retail hardening, deep sleep automation, tool free serviceability and Light-Path and Remote Management capability on a single platform. The unique combination of innovative IR touch screen technology, tool free retail-hardened system design, a biometric fingerprint reader, along with Remote Management Agent and Light-Path diagnostics, is designed to keep point-of-sale systems up and running. IBM clients get a level of reliability, performance and security that is unmatched in the industry.

STCR Business Systems has been selling, installing and supporting cash register systems for 42 years. We are an IBM Premier Business Partner with the in-house expertise to install IBM systems and train your personnel in the most professional manner. For more information about the SurePOS 500 Series, contact STCR Business Systems at (607) 757-0181.