The Ultimate Retail Technology Audit for a Smooth Holiday Season

Holiday season preparedness is crucial for retailers all over the world. This is often the busiest time of the year, and wowing your customers with easy-to-use technology, customer loyalty programs, and fast service is a must. Without offering these benefits to consumers, you simply can’t compare to competitors, and you could lose out on a larger profit margin. That’s why it’s so important to test your holiday season preparedness—even, especially, before the holidays get closer.

The sooner you complete an audit on your retail tech, the better. That way, you can discover your strengths and weaknesses and how they apply to your business. With years of experience handling retail technology for some of the best corporations and businesses around the world, we’re here to help you with our ultimate retail technology audit, so you can prepare for a smooth holiday season—and benefit from even larger profits when the time comes.

1. Do Your Point of Sale Systems and Tech Work Properly?

Number one on our retail technology audit is one of the most important questions on our list. Do your POS systems and other retail tech work properly? If your system is constantly failing you, that’s an easy “yes.” However, there are also more subtle ways that your technology is slipping away. This could include:

• Glitchy systems and slower tech speeds
• Constant updates needed
• Too many errors in your system
• Rising maintenance costs
• Outdated security

If you’re experiencing a few or all of these, chances are you need a more updated tech system. All of these issues tend to inhibit the customer experience and result in a declining customer base.

Related Blog: 5 Tips for Retail Technology Troubleshooting

2. Does Inventory Management Offer Real-Time Updates and Results?

If you’re not syncing all of your tech and getting real-time results, what are you doing? With all the new tech out right now, every retailer should have the ability to sync their devices, get real-time inventory statuses, and share data between tech. However, if your systems are outdated, you might not have this option—and you’re greatly missing out.

Without real-time product updates, it’s like owning a store while being blindfolded. An ongoing inventory list is necessary, and it takes much longer than it should to track. On top of that, you need someone to go through the inventory to mark it down. However, using real-time tracking saves you immense amounts of time and ensures you’re always in the know—which means consumers are, too.

The more accurate you can be with your inventory, the more your customers will appreciate your business and the transparency that comes with it.

3. Is Your Network Infrastructure Backed Up and Working?

As the backbone of your business technology, your network infrastructure needs to be backed up and working at all times. Even when it’s not working, you should have a way to back it up. Oftentimes, businesses have multiple fail-safes—like keeping all their data on the cloud while also having backup hard drives with their information just in case.

If your company data and network aren’t backed up or working properly, those are huge red flags that you need to fix—pronto. The best businesses have their data and infrastructure in order, even if it fails. Otherwise, you could lose crucial information that you, your employees, and consumers need to make decisions.

4. Are Online and In-Store Systems in Sync and Up-to-Date?

Older POS systems and other retail technologies simply don’t have the wherewithal to stay connected, in sync, and up-to-date when you need them to. They might randomly pop offline in the spur of the moment or decide they need an update right now, in the middle of a customer transaction. As a result, you have spotty service for your customers until you can make it right. Or maybe part of your system is down for the rest of the day, and your customers are left with a slow, tedious experience complete with super long lines, not enough cash registers open, and more. 

Keeping your retail technology in sync and up-to-date is crucial for delivering a positive customer experience to consumers. The faster, most efficient experiences are going to reward your company tenfold when consumers continue coming back due to a positive, flawless delivery.

Related Blog: Enhanced Efficiency and Customer Experience with Next-Gen POS Systems

5. Do Self-Serve Kiosks and Checkouts Run Smoothly?

Somewhat similar to the last retail technology audit question: are your self-serve kiosks and check-outs running smoothly, or do they slow people down more than increase efficiency? If your self-checkout experience is delayed or hard to use, consumers aren’t going to benefit and won’t see this option as a highlight. Instead, they might realize that other retailers do it better and could change their allegiance to another company.

If your self-checkout kiosks and registers are kept updated, they will perform better and offer a positive, more efficient experience that competes with others in your industry. Keeping your tech modern and up-to-date ensures that the entire retail performance and process runs smoothly.

Related Blog: Should You Roll Out Self-Checkout Kiosks Before the Holidays?

6. Are Your Employees Trained to Use Your Tech?

Ensuring holiday season preparedness occurs includes making your employees aware of how to utilize the new technology. If your employees are constantly having a hard time navigating your systems, the reason for that could be outdated technology and capabilities, or it could be a lack of proper training. To remedy this, store managers should enact company-wide training for employees and ensure the technology matches the retail store’s needs. If your managers are struggling, it may be best to bring in a retail technology specialist. 

At RTI, our retail tech professionals can help guide you through new technology installations, how to use your current setup, and more. If you’re curious how we can help you handle these needs, check out our project management solutions here.

7. Is Your Data Security Trusted, Strong, and Secure?

This is another big question on our ultimate retail technology audit for a smooth holiday season. If your data security isn’t strong and secure, your company as a whole can’t be trusted. If a data breach occurs and consumers learn of it, it can make your reputation drop drastically. The fact of the matter is that customers won’t want to buy goods at a retailer that doesn’t protect their data. This could include credit cards, personal information in your loyalty program, and more.

If your data security isn’t currently where you need it to be, we’re here to talk. Our technology professionals can help you find a strong, safe data solution that ensures your consumers can trust you. You can find more information on our Network page to see how we can help.

8. Do You Have a Customer Loyalty Program Set Up?

Oftentimes, outdated point of sale systems lead to poor retail performance overall—especially if it doesn’t have the capability for customer loyalty programs. Then, there are some companies who have retail technology systems with customer loyalty programs that aren’t even set up. Whether you have the capability or not, starting up the program can make a huge difference in your profitability in the holiday season—and for the rest of the year.

Customer loyalty programs offer incredible incentives to consumers. Many of them work by rewarding loyal customers with savings, reward points, and other perks. The more they spend at your store, the more they are rewarded and incentivized to keep coming back. A loyalty program alone can help consumers choose you over your competitors.

9. Are You Tracking Data to Make Decisions Accordingly?

While this isn’t directly applicable to your consumers, tracking data and utilizing the results is crucial to determining how the holiday season will go. Using tracking data ensures you’re getting a better view of your inventory, customer experience, experience speed, and so much more. 

Store managers, owners, and retail decision-makers can gather all this data and use it to make better decisions moving forward—like ordering and supplying the proper inventory during the busy season, making changes to benefit loyal customers, and even finding ways to get customers through your door again.

If you’re not currently using tracking data to shape the way your business runs, you’re missing out on a whole category of information that benefits your consumers and company as a whole.

10. Do You Have Support Available in Emergencies?

Last, but not least, having a support system available in emergencies is crucial. Even the best, newest retail technology systems can sometimes have difficulties. Whether you have a system pop offline somehow, are experiencing difficulties with setup or maintenance, or more, it’s important to have someone to call when something happens.

Utilizing a comprehensive retail tech maintenance team that you can call or email at any time can give you the peace of mind you need to ensure your retail business continues operating smoothly. Expert retail professionals like our team at RTI are necessary to ensure your technology is up-to-date and your customers thrive at your retail location. 

Are You Prepared for the Holiday Rush?

If you answered “yes” to all these questions, you’re one of the few companies to do so, and your holiday season will be going a lot more smoothly than your competitors. However, if you answered “no” to any of them, you may want to consider working with a retail technology expert to up your retail tech game (and increase consumer loyalty). 

Answering “no” to a lot of these questions means working with a professional becomes even more imminent as the holiday rush approaches. Without this ultimate retail technology audit being checked off completely, your company is more prone to falling behind your competition and not meeting consumer expectations this holiday season. Fortunately, there’s a solution to get ahead.

The Ultimate Retail Technology Solution for a Smooth Holiday Season

The holiday season is closer than you think, and now is the best time to prepare yourself for the onslaught of shoppers about to hit your stores. You need to be prepared, and the best way to do that is to consider working with a retail technology professional to guide you through this checklist.

Here at RTI, we work with an assortment of retail companies to enhance POS systems, self-checkout kiosks, network infrastructure, and more. As a result, you’ll be able to better compete with advanced competitors in your industry, and your consumer loyalty has the power to soar. So, are you ready to work with an all-in-one retail technology solutions provider? Retail Tech Inc makes it our mission to help you from planning to procurement and more.

Contact us or explore our retail solutions to get started.