The self-checkout kiosk showcasing TAKU, Samsung & Moneris technology
TAKU Canada Ltd. is excited to announce a new self-checkout system in Canada together with Samsung Electronics and Moneris Solutions Corporation. This all-in-one kiosk is designed to help merchants across Canada sell more, even while significantly lowering labour costs.
We know how difficult it is to hire, train and keep staff today. Our new self-checkout solution is designed to solve the problem of labour shortages without increasing the technical complexity that merchants often face when they sell in-store and online.
The sleek and modern design of Samsung’s hardware pairs perfectly with TAKU Retail’s clean and easy-to-use screens. Combined together with Moneris payment solutions, the TAKU Retail platform helps merchants offer in-store, online and self-checkout, all under a single login. No more logging into separate systems and checking multiple reports.
TAKU Canada and its sister company ACE POS has been perfecting retail commerce for over 45 years. The experience gained through nearly 5 decades is how we have built the best self-checkout system on the Canadian market to reduce lineups.
Sign up today to start selling more with less staff.
Independence day is just 3 weeks away! This year is sure to be an exciting one. Lockdowns are over and much more people will be looking to celebrate than the last two years. While everyone is out celebrating with a heart full of patriotism, it is the best time for retailers to take advantage. Learn how to boost your 4th of July sales by reading more.
Independence Day promotions
Promotions are a staple for any holiday. If you are in the retail game, chances are you already know this. But a little reminder never hurts anyone. To get ready for the fourth of July, consider some special promotions you could offer.
Ideally these promotions should involve Independence Day related merchandise. If you don’t have items that relate, or you can’t offer promotions on those items, don’t worry. People will appreciate a good promotion regardless. Your 4th of July promotion could be a simple BOGO (buy one get one) offer, slashed prices on certain items, or even bundling some products together.
To get customers to come to your store, you could host a barbecue. After all BBQs are tradition on Independence Day. There’s a saying: “nothing is better than free food”, and we are confident your customers will agree. Offering free food is one of the best ways to get customers into your store. Since your store might be closed on the holiday, you could host the barbecue the day before or a couple days before Independence Day.
Social media tactics for Independence Day
As a business owner in this day & age – you should already know the importance of using social media for marketing. So take a look at some of our favorite tactics to use this Independence Day.
An exciting contest will always garner interest. Now you can easily leverage this idea to build interest in your business. Having a giveaway or a sweepstakes would be a great way to get customers to interact with your business. Get shoppers to follow, and repost your post to be entered in the contest. While you’re at it, you could advertise your barbecue on the post; kill two birds with one stone.
Paid ads to promote
Even though paid ads can be competitive, they also deliver results. They work even better when you target local audiences as there’ll be less competition. It also saves you money as you are more likely to reach your target audience. Now you could do organic social posts as well, but paid ones guarantee that they actually show up on people’s feeds. So use ads to promote your 4th of July sales and promotions.
4th of July pricing strategies
Life is getting expensive thanks to inflation, so consumers are always on the lookout for savings. So offering consumers great 4th of July sales is an awesome way to get them to purchase stuff. There are a couple of different pricing strategies you could use this Independence Day – here are some of our favorites.
Independence Day is chalk full of patriotism, so take advantage of it! Offer discounts on merchandise in your store that are made domestically. Support the American economy in these tense times, and also drive up your own sales! If this is doable for you, we highly recommend this pricing strategy.
For a more in-depth look at loss leader pricing, check out our blog post on this subject. But you can easily use loss leader pricing as a tactic to get more sales in your store. Once again you can use 4th of July related items in this, or just use other products. For example if you sell sparklers in your store, you could sell them at a loss while having lighters/matches being sold at a slight premium right next to the sparklers. As usual, be sure to try and keep these items deep inside your store. This way shoppers are forced to browse your other merchandise as they make their way towards those items.
Bulk purchase discounts
Offering cheaper prices when customers buy in bulk is an age-old pricing strategy. Use this classic strategy with a 4th of July promotion. It’s classic to have bonfires on Independence Day. So let’s say you are a hardware store, you could sell fire wood and offer discounts when consumers buy in bulk. Since shoppers will be looking to buy fire wood anyways, you can make sure they buy it from you with this discount. As an additional tip, you could sell your fire pits right next to the discounted wood. This type of bulk discount could be applied to other items like one-time cups (since people will be having barbecues and picnics). Like we already mentioned, make sure you are placing these discounted items in the back of your store so customers browse through your products.
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There are so many different types of deals, promotions, and advertisements you could use to boost your 4th of July sales. We named some of our favorite tactics in this blog, but if you come up with other tactics – be sure to share them in the comments below! We are wishing you all a happy Independence Day this year.
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Canada Day this year is looking to be an exciting one. Now that lockdowns are over, people are looking forward to celebrating the holiday in large numbers. Holidays are always a great way to create some marketing buzz for your store. It is an ideal time as a retailer to boost your Canada Day store sales. Read more below to find out how.
Tips for boosting sales on Canada Day
There are many easy ways to increase Canada Day sales. Take a look at some of the best tips below.
This first tactic will probably make you go “duh!”, but sometimes it’s worth it to point out the obvious. Prepare special promotions related to Canada Day. These promotions could include offering a free gift with purchase, or buy one get one (BOGO) free promos.
The promotions should ideally be for products related to Canada Day. However, it doesn’t HAVE to be only Canada Day related items. Find ways to get people in to your store with the idea of Canada Day. However if you have products that are popular for Canada Day, be sure to include them in some way for your promotion or event. This could be anything as simple as offering a holiday bundle, or simply discounted pricing for those items.
Hosting an event could be as simple as hosting a barbecue. Having a barbecue with free hot dogs is always a great way to get customers to drop by your store. Since most stores are closed on Canada Day, we would suggest hosting any promotional events the day before Canada Day – or the whole week before. Just make sure you are doing something exciting to get shoppers in to your store.
If you have a business in 2022, then you already know how important it is to have social media as a marketing channel. Check out the social media tactics below to boost your Canada Day store sales.
Paid ads on social media can be pretty competitive, but they deliver results. You should be advertising your Canada Day promotions and events for the entire week before they happen. The reason to go with paid ads, is that it guarantees your message will appear on people’s feeds. Unfortunately, there is no guarantee that organic social media posts will reach shoppers.
If you are a local business, make sure to target nearby locals with your ads. This way you aren’t spending money to reach consumers who aren’t likely to come into your shop anyways.
A good contest always gets people excited. Naturally, you’d want to use this excitement to boost your Canada Day sales. Make sure to advertise your other promotions when you promote your giveaway as contests are a great way to get people to share your posts. This tactic is a great 2-in-1 as you can both generate awareness for your brand, and communicate your promos to your audience.
Pricing strategies
With inflation on the rise, people are looking for the best deals. And the best way to get them is during holidays. And, of course, Canada Day is no exception. Here are some some tried and true tactics.
Volume based Canada Day sales
Giving discounts when people buy in volume is a classic pricing strategy. Why not add a little Canada Day flair to it? Sell items people are likely to buy around Canada Day with a volume discount. For example, if you are a grocery store you could offer discounts on hot dog/burger buns when people buy multiple units. It is likely that many people will be hosting barbecues on Canada Day, and will be looking to purchase these items. Offering a discount on a bulk amount will ensure that these buyers are purchasing from you. The same type of bulk discount could be offered on things such as decorations.
As always, with any in-store promotion, make sure that you put your discounts deeper into your store (ideally at the back), to encourage shoppers to walk your entire store.
To leverage the patriotic energy of Canada Day, you could offer discounts on merchandise that is made in Canada! Not only is this a great marketing tactic to drive up Canada Day store sales – but it also supports the Canadian economy. This is a great way to really engage in the patriotism related to Canada Day while also providing great deals for consumers.
We have written a whole blog on loss leader pricing, what it is & how to use it. Not to overuse the barbecue example, but as a grocer you could sell condiments (mustard, ketchup, etc.) with loss leader pricing. Consumers will want to come buy the condiments from you for their barbecue, and will most likely pick up higher priced items for the event at the same time.
There is an abundance of promotions, marketing and pricing strategies you could use this year. It is important to start planning for Canada Day promotions in advance. Make sure people have time to actually notice your offers. And be sure to mix up some of these tactics together to boost your Canada Day store sales.
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Many people think that shipping out an order is the same as ‘fulfilling it’. In reality fulfilling an order means much more than shipping a package out. In retail, the term “fulfillment” refers to everything a retailer does from the moment a customer places an order. While many think that order fulfillment means shipping out online order from a warehouse (this is likely because of Amazon fulfillments centers), this is actually only one of many ways to get orders to a customer.
For example, retailers with existing physical stores can also fulfill online sales by packing online orders for in-store pickup. In comparison, in-store pickup is generally a lot cheaper than shipping online orders out from a warehouse as you don’t need to pay for packing materials or shipping fees.
As we’ve mentioned – fulfilling orders includes the process of receiving an order then getting it to the customer. It can also include supply chain tasks such as inventory management, quality control and customer support as part of order fulfillment.
The term “order fulfillment” tends to sound complex and seems only suitable for very large businesses. In reality, fulfillment is something businesses have been doing for decades now. In the past, customers often made orders through phone calls, fax machines, or even coming into the store. Stores would prepare these orders for pickup or ship out. In other words, stores had to “fulfill” these orders.
The difference today is that most order fulfillment is for ecommerce and that most retailers have a catalog of their products online because shoppers expect to be able to see what products a store carries. This is why it is so important to have an online catalog that shows off all your merchandise. While an online store is great, having any product showcase (e.g. Google’s free See What’s In Store feature) helps nearby stores be found online. And a modern omnichannel retail system makes it easy and fast to display POS products online in a few clicks.
While there are many different steps in order fulfillment, the main ones are:
Purchasing goods from suppliers
Receiving goods that are purchased
Storing purchased goods until they are sold
Picking and packing goods when they are sold
Getting goods to customers
Most physical stores are familiar with steps 1 to 4. However, since the pandemic, the way many brick & mortar retailers are handling step 5 has changed. While merchants relied a lot on shippers and last-mile delivery services (e.g. DoorDash) in the beginning of the pandemic, as the cost of packaging materials and fuel surcharges has increased, more physical stores are looking at in-store fulfillment options today. For example, with BOPIS orders (buy online pickup in-store), ‘shipping out’ is replaced with customer self-pickup or in-store fulfillment.
It helps you compete with bigger ecommerce companies as you can give your local audience a custom and personalized experience during pickup
It’s faster for nearby shoppers to get their orders
It helps you get rid of shipping costs to send products out or return products
It helps you make bigger sales since shoppers often buy additional items during pickup
It lowers return costs as orders picked up in store have lower return rates
Some challenges around in-store fulfillment
In-store fulfillment isn’t all rainbows and sunshine. There are some challenges you need to be aware of if you are going to be fulfilling orders from in-store. Here are some roadblocks you may face:
The need to change the store layout to make it faster for pickup shoppers
The need for better back office processes to allow for quick picking and packing once an order is received
Linking data between store POS systems and online stores
Many POS systems do not offer the tools needed to track everything you need for in-store fulfillment. Modern omnichannel POS systems such as TAKU make order fulfillment a breeze. They make it possible for you to:
Manage all of your in-store and online inventory in one place
Sell any inventory in your POS online with just a few clicks
Always know exactly how much available inventory stock you have with real-time on-hand quantity
Automatically showcase products and real-time stock availability in Google searches, Facebook Shop or Instagram Shop
These are just a couple of the benefits retail stores will gain from using a modern cloud-based system today. Click here to learn more about how TAKU can help you save money and sell more today.
Confused by some words in the retail industry? Read up on the essential retail terms and their definitions with our Retail Glossary here!
