ACE Joins TAKU

ACE Joins TAKU

We can finally share the big news with everyone. We are pleased to officially announce that our sister company ACE POS Solutions Ltd. is now part of TAKU Canada Ltd.

In these inflationary times, this will help us with our ongoing efforts to keep admin costs down and to improve our service to you.

So what does this mean for you? There are four things of note:

  1. We have combined forces to provide you with better support. The leaders will continue to operate and manage TAKU Canada Ltd. with a team that is 100% based in Canada.
  2. We are not merging our two software platforms, TAKU and ACE. Each product line will focus on the continued development of its core products, and our customers will have a choice of solutions based on business fit.
  3. By merging our teams together, we can offer better migration assistance between platforms.
  4. Your billing from us stays the same, but the email on the invoices will change to billing@takulabs.io, and we will be offering more self-service options to make it more convenient for you.

We will be improving our websites along with revamped social media. Stay tuned for more freebies and special offers!

Retail Glossary
Products with Variants: New TAKU Feature

Products with Variants: New TAKU Feature

If you carry a lot of similar products with different options, inventory can be hard to manage. We’re excited to announce that TAKU now has the ability for you to create products with variants to group similar goods that are sold with different options such as color or size.

TAKU product variations

Product with variants, sometimes known as matrix products, allow retail stores to manage every unique combination of options as its own “variant product.”

Variants vs options on TAKU Retail

Every variant product has its own “child SKU,” with its own inventory and price, while sharing attributes with an associated “parent SKU.” Variant products help stores track inventory more accurately. But they are most important for e-commerce or self-check kiosks as they allow shoppers to select different options from the same product page.

While it’s common for cloud-based retail systems to have many limitations on how product variants can be created, we’ve built TAKU to be super flexible and easy to use. Compared to other platforms, TAKU lets you:

  • Create new matrix products with up to 4 options (e.g. size, color, etc.) with unlimited unique “variants” or combinations
  • Add or combine existing single products into new parent SKUs while keeping past sales history
  • Unlink “child” products from an existing “parent” SKU and continue to sell them as single products, again while keeping past sales history
  • Easily make “parent” or “child” products inactive when options are discontinued
Unlinking child products from parent products in TAKU

What makes it even easier? While product details of parent SKUs are automatically applied to child products when adding new options. Certain details, such as stock quantities, price and images of child products, can be adjusted for each SKU as well.

Learn more about how you can start using our flexible product matrix feature by checking out our TAKU help articles here.

Loss Leader Pricing in Retail

Loss Leader Pricing in Retail

Originally published on December 10, 2019.

What is Loss Leader Pricing?

Loss leaders in retail are items or merchandise that are offered either at a significant discount, at minimum profit margin, or sometimes even below cost to entice shoppers to make a purchase.

This pricing strategy has been used by many big box retailers and discount stores to encourage impulse buys and has been met with great success.

Simply put, the intention behind this marketing tactic is to bring shoppers in-store and once they’re there, encourage purchases of higher margin items to make up for the profit lost on loss leaders.

Examples of Loss Leader Pricing

You have probably encountered loss leader pricing more often than you would think while shopping. Can you think of a sale that seemed too good to be true? Your local grocery store may have been selling eggs at a steep discount or your favorite clothing brand may have sent you an email advertising their sweaters at a ridiculously low price point. 

These deals may have you thinking “there’s no way that the retailer is making any money on these items”. And in most cases, you’re right! Let’s take a look at some common examples of loss leader pricing in retail. 

1) Grocery Store Staples 

Grocery store staples such as milk, meat, and eggs work really well as loss leaders. Because they are regularly bought commodities, discounts and low prices are sure to attract shoppers. These items are strategically placed at the back of the grocery store to promote impulse purchases. Because shoppers have to walk to the very back of the store to purchase these staple goods, it is likely that they will be enticed to purchase other items as well. 

milk as a loss leader

2) Printers 

Printers are also commonly used as loss leaders to encourage shoppers to purchase complementary items like ink and printer paper. While printers are often sold at or below cost, the price of ink is extremely high. Loss leader pricing is used to get shoppers to purchase the printer, and create the demand for ink which again, is relatively expensive. 

printers as loss leaders

3) Gaming Consoles 

While the price of gaming consoles may seem high, they are actually sold at or below cost. For example, Microsoft Xbox gaming consoles are strategically sold below cost to encourage consumers to buy higher margin video games.

gaming consoles as loss leaders

The Pros and Cons of Loss Leaders

Advantages:

1) Sell Slow Moving Inventory

If you have a slow moving or overstocked inventory item, choosing to price it as a loss leader can help you move it faster. This will result in more shelf space, less inventory, and an increase in cash flow. 

2) Promote Complementary Items

Strategically choosing your loss leaders can help you increase sales of other items in your store. For example, let’s say you’re looking to increase the sale of a certain brand of women’s razor blades. In this case, you would price the associated razor as a loss leader. Once consumers buy the razor that complements those razor blades, they’ll have to come back to purchase the blades as well (which you can choose to sell at a higher margin). 

Disadvantages:

1) May Hurt Your Brand Perception

Drastically discounting items can affect how consumers view your brand. Many shoppers associate lower prices with poor product quality. And overusing loss leader pricing can give consumers the wrong perception of your retail store. Remember people want high quality merchandise at good price points, not garbage.

2) You can Lose Money

There is risk associated with loss leader pricing – which is why you must closely monitor sales of complementary products and of the loss leaders themselves. There is a chance that customers will only purchase the loss leader itself in high quantities. Meaning lower or no sales of complementary, high margin items which results in less profit for your store overall.


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