Taking the store to the customer
Retailers small and large understand the value of pop-up stores. Whether it’s to launch a new product, flush out the current season’s inventory, boost sales for the holiday season or simply get to know their customers better – one thing’s for sure, pop-ups are here to stay.
Where we find a lot of retailers struggle though is in finding the right solution to manage transactions made at the pop-up.
We’ve found that the retailers who do pop-ups well really nail these three elements as far as their Point of Sale goes:
1. Integration is essential
Many pop-up stores don’t use a Point of Sale system or they take payment in a way that is totally separate from other systems and this can cause several problems.
One of our customers, Event Cinemas, was using a very manual process to sell gift cards at pop-up stores. They were taking payment on a pin pad which was entirely separate from their ticketing and inventory system making reconciliation and attribution back to each cinema painful and expensive to resource in their accounting department. The entire process was inefficient and prone to error.
Event looked at other mobile apps and cloud-based web stores, but decided they needed more than that. They chose Black Label mobile POS system which was rolled out as a pop-up solution to 30+ cinemas around the country. They now have instant reconciliation with their back office and ticketing system.
2. Speed is key
Being able to set up a pop-up quickly and easily with minimal staff is obviously huge advantage for any retailer.
Event Cinemas really give their mobile POS a workout in the lead up to Christmas and Father’s Day where they set up in high traffic areas with a small number of staff. They’ve found that previously customers would see the queue and walk past, but now that they can serve them faster, they’re selling record numbers of gift cards.
The cinema has also extended the use of mobile POS to pop-up food and drink stands within the cinemas and events such as charity golf days and outdoor Moonlight Cinema events. These opportunities just wouldn’t be viable if they couldn’t roll out their mobile solution quickly and easily.
3. Consider the hidden costs
Traditional POS terminals are expensive and time consuming to set up, so a built-for-purpose mobile solution is naturally the way to go.
But astute retailers also consider the hidden costs. How much is it really costing in IT set up time and back office accounting effort? Complex set up and reconciliation are very real costs that are often underestimated or overlooked entirely.
How many staff does it take to set up and operate a pop-up store? Event Cinemas found that after implementing mobile POS, the entire process was more efficient which meant they needed fewer staff to resource their pop-ups which in turn reduced labour costs.
As customers are demanding more from their retail experience, and retailers are challenged with providing it, opportunity abounds for unique and creative pop-up experiences. But, it’s the retailers who apply the right technology for the right purpose who are best placed to grab those opportunities, so they can truly take their store to their customer.
Find out more about how Event Cinemas implemented mobile POS.