By Andrew KEELING – Sales Manager – AURES UK
What exactly is the role of EPOS in modern retail? How is it evolving, and how will it add value in years to come?
These are questions which will no doubt be addressed at this year’s RetailEXPO event in London, when AURES will be exhibiting our latest EPOS hardware solutions. We will be joined by a number of our channel partners in POS software development, and together we can expect to be challenged by delegates to answer questions like those above in order to justify the ongoing importance of EPOS in the retail ecosystem.
One of those partners joining us at RetailEXPO is ESPERUS Systems, a London-based software house that specialises in business management solutions for the clothing and footwear industries. ESPERUS has long taken a ‘big picture’ view of the role of EPOS, eschewing the development of standalone applications in favour of a single integrated solution built around stock control.
We spoke to technical operations manager Bambos CHAMBI about what he sees as the main attractions of the company’s Genesis system, the value add that really appeals to customers and the ongoing role of hardware in delivering high performance solutions.
More than taking money
“These days taking money is a given,” he said. “Where we excel with our EPOS solution is the ability to capture customer data, record purchase history and then, using our system, customer targeting can take place. You can even see when the customer last visited as soon as the customer is identified at the till point. So, what a great starting point for the shop assistant!”
Bambos explained that this focus on data and real-time visibility across retail operations stems from ESPERUS starting out with stock control front of mind, designing a solution that would provide apparel retailers with simple, automated inventory management across stores and digital channels.
“The Genesis stock control system is the main hub that allows any organisation to manage their stock control efficiently,” he said. “Within Genesis, we offer a multitude of modules such as EPOS which is a real-time link to the tills whatever the geographical location may be. The real-time element allows the management structure to run sales report at a touch of a button from within Genesis or from any smart phone or device.
“Additionally, for organisations that wish to use Genesis in a more expansive business capacity we also offer a full stock replenishment module, purchase order module, wholesale module, Web management and distribution module as well as full range of stock control and merchandising reports.”
At AURES, we wholeheartedly agree that modern EPOS systems have to offer far more than transaction processing. In the digital age, data, business intelligence and information are the respective currencies that retail operators and their customers deal in. That is why we design our best-in-class hardware solutions to function as on-the-spot IT hubs which connect together all the different strands of retail operations – integrated touchscreen terminals which deliver advanced business computing capabilities in a shopfloor-friendly package, mobile POS for agile service solutions, self-service kiosks which blur the lines between in-store and online experiences.
ESPERUS has been exclusively selling AURES hardware to its clients for several years now, and Bambos agrees that the equipment has a key role to play in creating modern retail management systems. “We have found that the speed [of AURES terminals] is exceptional and these days aesthetics are key with any till hardware decision. We can safely say that AURES looks great and performs even better.”
AURES will be at RetailEXPO at the Olympia, London 1st and 2nd May 2019.