Farm Shop Scenario

As one of the country’s leading suppliers of retail and hospitality solutions, RMS have been providing the best EPoS systems and specialist software to our diverse range of clients for many years.

And with OpSuite EPoS we are proud to offer the premier retail management solution in the marketplace. It is a firm favourite with omni channel retailers because of the competitive advantage that it brings. This fully integrated system seamlessly controls products, pricing, orders, reservations, customer records, suppliers, shops and eCommerce stores.

We thought it would be a good idea to illustrate the many benefits of OpSuite by looking at a relevant industry scenario to show you just what it can do in a normal working day.

‘Company Farm Shop’ does not actually exist but this type of operation and its complex daily requirements certainly do!

A day in the life of ‘Company Farm Shop’

‘Company Farm Shop’ produce a wide range of fresh produce on their adjoining family farm including fruit, vegetables, meat and dairy. They have also just opened a craft brewery which sells a range of award-winning Company Ales, these are very popular in the Farm Shop as well as in the adjoining Company Farm Café.

This family business has evolved over the years from being a one-dimensional butchers farm shop into much more of a rural ‘destination shop’ where customers can buy a huge variety of fresh local produce, enjoy a coffee and a cake or lunch before stocking up on craft beers.

But as the business has evolved and grown, so has their EPoS requirement. Company Farm Shop moved over to OpSuite because it can manage all its new requirements and more. Not only that, OpSuite brings added functionality and flexibility which have opened new opportunities and growth potential too.

The following shows you how OpSuite seamlessly supports this busy Farm Shop on a typical working day…………

Cashier Judy arrives for work and gets ready for another busy day in the Farm Shop. As she opens the till, she knows that customers will start to arrive early, and it is really helpful and time saving that the till has a prepopulated ‘default’ float.

Judy has her own username on the system along with everyone else in the team, this means that everyone has their own unique log in. This helps the business to be able to track all transactions and customer journeys, useful if there is a refund, but more on that later in the day!

As customers start to arrive early, Judy knows that the system can process each transaction by cash or card seamlessly. Many customers do pay by card and because the system is fully integrated this means that it speaks to the card machine speeding up the process, removing the possibility of errors that can come from manual keying.

A customer phones to buy a Company Farm Hamper for a birthday present and Judy takes the call, and because the system is fully integrated with the card machine, a customer not present (CNP) transaction is easy and fast to process and once again it removes the possibility of errors in manual keying.

After a busy spell, a regular customer comes in to return a dozen eggs, some of which were broken when she got home yesterday. This was part of her larger shop but because partial refunds are easy with OpSuite, the transaction history was easy to find, and the customer received a refund on their card in no time. And because the system is linked to stock taking, the returned/damaged goods are recorded appropriately and automatically.

After a busy start to the day, Judy heads off for her tea break before handing over to Shop Floor Assistant Jack, who quickly logs in using his unique user number.

Since the weather forecast is promising hot weather for the weekend, there is an increased demand for meats and cheeses from the deli counter for picnics and barbecue packs of meat are in huge demand along with cases of beer! And because the Challenge 25 is built into the system, Jack can automatically check if the customer can legally buy alcohol.

But combinations of fresh produce that are sold by weight are an absolute breeze to deal with. Because OpSuite is fully integrated to Avery Berkel scales, Jack can simply scan the items from a printed label, meaning that customers can be dealt with quickly, reducing waiting times on a busy day like this.

With fresh fruit and salad items in big demand, the ability to weigh loose items at point of sale is a big advantage for the team of cashiers and it is easy to manually search and add items. No bar code – no problem!

As Judy returns, Jack heads back onto the shop-floor to assist customers and provide any help that they might need. Jack uses a hand-held device to do stock taking and later in the day he will also use this to do price reductions on fresh products to be sold that day. This also enables him to quickly print off shelf edge labels for marked down stock items.

Jack also helps customers to find items that might appear to be out of stock, a customer is looking for a bulk supply of local gin which they are buying as gifts for their friends and family at their Wedding Anniversary party. Jack checks stock at the warehouse and via the online store and arranges for the bottles to be ready for collection the next day. This means that the customer is happy, and a valuable sale is not missed.

Jack also takes the opportunity to persuade the customer to join the Company Farm Loyalty Scheme and he can quickly sign up the customers at the point of engagement via his hand-held device. This is a great opportunity to reward the client for their business so that they can be kept in touch with special offers, promotions and invitations to new product launch evenings which are held a couple of times a year.

Back at the warehouse the team are busy picking and packing items to make up and fulfil the online orders from the Company Farm website that have come in the previous evening and are getting these ready to be picked up by the couriers that afternoon. The order from Jack comes in for the gin at the point of customer engagement and the team pack the items ready for delivery to the store for customer collection the next day.

Jack has added a personal message to the order, and this provides the team with the opportunity to include a handwritten card wishing them a Happy Anniversary to be packed and included with their order. With this system in place, he has managed to turn a potential out of stock missed sale into a happy customer and he has made sure that they are engaged in the future too.

Because the warehouse stock is fully integrated with the shop, stock can be tracked 24 hours a day and a sales opportunity like this is never missed.
The team at the warehouse can also update online product descriptions and this information is also used in the store too.

Something that is a very popular purchase on the online store are the various denominations of Gift Cards for Company Farm and they can be redeemed in the store, the brewery, the café or indeed when the customer purchases via the online store too.

Back on the checkout, Judy can easily process these Gift Vouchers when customers are paying for their goods. She can also sell Gift Vouchers too and produce Gift Receipts if the customer requires them.

In the Café, many customers choose to use their Gift Vouchers for a Lunch or Afternoon Tea as these are extremely popular as birthday or Christmas presents from customers who love Company Farm and its products.

The other great benefit about OpSuite is that it has the ability to offer ‘table management’. This means that the party of 6 workmates who have just come in for the Friday Steak and Chips special are handled quickly and efficiently. Because questions can be added with modifiers to the order, how the steaks are to cooked and which sauces and sides each person would like is added to the order and this automatically goes through to the chef and the team in the kitchen as a printed order.

This speedy and accurate system is great for all customers, but it is much appreciated by business customers who have more limited time. Company Farm have a loyal business customer base as a result.

As you can see there is a lot going on in the customer facing points of the business but there is also a busy team behind the scenes who are making sure that the whole business runs smoothly. The back-office team of David, Susan and Michael use OpSuite to do this and the system supports the team 24 hours a day and seven days a week.

They can check the dashboard for notes and alerts on price changes and cost changes and they have the ability to respond accordingly. This is then carried through to all retail points of contact automatically.

Even out of hours, this never stops, buyers or product managers can create purchase orders to replenish the stock and to receive purchase orders too. They can also change item information en masse across the whole operation.

With the huge upsurge in demand for cases of beer and barbecue packs, the team can increase production and transfer stock across sites as required quickly and efficiently to maximise on the trading conditions.

New user information is automatically added to the system and this information is used by the marketing department on targeted promotions in the future.

With the upcoming Bank Holiday, they can also create special offers such as a free ice cream with lunch or an extra pack of sausages with your barbecue pack on Bank Holiday Monday. This is all automatically integrated into the system with no chance of staff not knowing or forgetting.

As the day comes to a close, the back-office team can use the price reduction module to check stock levels and mark down produce as required. This considerably helps to reduce wastage and contributes greatly to their green working practices.

After such a busy weekend, the finance team can use the system to run sales and stock reports whenever they want to. This also helps the team to analyse the most profitable parts of the business and make adjustments and projections for the future.

SUMMARY

As you will see in this hypothetical scenario, businesses just like ‘Company Farm Shop’ which have various facets to them are omni retailers and they require an omni retail solution.

We hope that this practical example illustrates just some of the many benefits that OpSuite can bring to a Farm Shop business like this. This scenario only scratches the surface of what is possible, but it does help to explain why it is a firm favourite with retail stores that also have a hospitality offering combined with online sales.

If you would like to have a chat with us about OpSuite and what this premier retail solution can bring to your business, please don’t hesitate to give us a call.