Retail & Sports Systems, a specialist developer of solutions for sports retail, has forged a relationship with EPOS manufacturer AURES Technologies.
In just three months, RSS has deployed new hardware at four of its sports club clients.
AURE’S Yuno terminalsare now in use at Sheffield United FC, Swansea City FC, Barnsley FC and Brentford FC.
New partners in the supply of specialist retail EPOS solutions for sports clubs, stadia and other sporting venues, Retail & Sports Systems (RSS) and AURES Technologies have reported a positive start to their activities and early rollouts of their joint offering.
Richard Waltham, founder and co-owner of RSS, explains the rationale behind the new partnership. “When we founded the company in 2009, we opted for Toshiba hardware. Over time, what had been an excellent on-site engineering service dwindled and became cost-prohibitive so we took our business to another third-party supplier. Unfortunately, we experienced build quality issues here and the products were not attractively styled, so decided to look around for a supplier that was more suitable for our environment.”
Waltham’s search led him to AURES. Since concluding the partnership agreement, he has discovered that its technology can be rolled out quickly and effectively. TheYuno terminal has been selected as RSS’s de facto entry-point machine for sports clients, with plans to deploy the AURES Sango for premium enterprises such as top-end football clubs or transaction-heavy, high-street retailers.
RSS is also recommending upgraded POS receipt printers to its clients, the new AURES ODP 333 thermal printer. Silent and ergonomically-designed to maxmise valuable counter space, the cubic ODP 333 has a very small footprint.
“We’ve achieved more than we could have hoped for in the first three months of rollouts,” says Waltham. “What sealed the partnership with AURES was their 3-year onsite warranty with expert engineering back-up. AURES technology also looks good and the company offers different models to fit the different business segments we work in.”
RSS, which boasts 20 sporting clients, is now regarded as the leading sports retail POS solution provider and is the preferred partner of TicketMaster. RSS’ inhouse-developed web system enables clients to sell merchandise online and integrates with onsite EPOS as a single entity. “We come across many clients with two systems – one for onsite EPOS and a separate one for online sales. Stock control between them can be a nightmare. We plug the gap and provide both our web system and our EPoS, which is optimised for sports retail. We also link to other programs such as CRM, access control and loyalty.”
Richard Waltham continues: “The sports retail environment is unique, in so far as all sales take place in a 2-hour period once a fortnight. The tills usually sit idle during the week then it is ‘all systems go’ for a short burst on match days.”
The Liberty Stadium home of Swansea City FC and The Ospreys Rugby Club is the first RSS client to go live with Yuno. The new retail system is installed in the club’s recently-opened store and integrates with TicketMaster Single Sign-On and Sports Alliance Club Loyalty Cash Scheme. Fans accessing the www.swansdirect.com web site have access to functions such as loyalty cards, shop by player and TicketMaster’s e-Ticketing.
Barnsley FC also uses Ticketmaster at its Oakwell home ground. Systems are tightly integrated here too, with the Yunos being used to sell both tickets and merchandise. “Barnsley is the first club to sell tickets on the till using the Yuno, so here the machines are busy all week.”
New Yuno hardware has also been deployed by RSS at Sheffield United’s ground and at Brentford FC’s Griffin Park stadium.
The RSS clients have responded warmly to the Yuno. “All our clubs like the Yuno. It delivers good performance and it’s an ideal match for our retail systems. And where we’ve needed to call for onsite engineering, we’ve had a good experience with any issues quickly resolved. We made a good move to AURES,” concludes Richard Waltham.