Pursuit Reveal Next Generation Online Sale Integration

Running on an iPad or other tablet device and launched in 2012, Lifestyle was the first product of its kind specifically designed for the jewellery business. The new version is being provided free to existing users.  

Mike Burns, Managing Director of the market-leading software house, states,

“The latest version of our iPad-based till and sales tool incorporates enhanced item-by-item presentation and benefits from user-feedback and our commitment to continuous development. It’s free to existing users for the reason that product and system evolutions of this nature are all part of the service Pursuit provides. “ 

Changing consumer attitudes and preferences, the value of the pound, political uncertainty and internet retailing are all reasons to put the traditional business model under the loupe. In that context, the reasons retailers are switching to our mobile EPoS technology are easy to understand. 

“With our Lifestyle product, every staff member can have their own personal till. The point of sale is wherever acustomer is in the shop.

Till functions are combined with quick-search records –complete with images –of the shop’s entire stock. As a selling tool, it is designed to transform the dynamics of staff-customer interaction and help make it easier for staff to steer the sales process. With matching and mix-and-match items, it is the perfect aid to upselling.

Retailers in every sector are now alive to the fact that the quality of the customer experience is more important than ever before. By eliminating the counter with thetill as the central focal point, mobile EPoS opens the way to entirely different concepts in shop layout and design –and the obvious must-have where a new shop fit incorporates booths or seated sales areas.

Today, a very high proportion of consumers of all ages use iPads and similar devices. They are also becoming the norm in businesses like restaurants for example, where waiters use them for taking orders for transmission to the kitchen. The time cannot be too far away when retailers that don’t use iPad-based tills will be the odd ones out.”

The new version of Lifestyle is one of two developments Pursuit is making available free to existing users. The other is its sales and stock performance analysis service. 

At J&W  live demonstrations of both, together with the new cloud and monthly rental based products introduced last year for retailers and the App for brand and wholesaler sales executives were demonstrated. In addition, Pursuit spotlighted the way its core system integrates online and shop sales into a single all-embracing sales and stock monitoring system.  

Mike Burns comments: 

“With Pursuit’s online sales module, there is a live two-way feed between sales and stock records. The information streams embrace both shop and online sales.

The whole online process is seamless and automatic. If the last item in stock is sold in the shop, Pursuit’s online module can immediately remove it –without staff intervention –from the website altogether, or the online sales software can be set up to flag the item as being sold out or back in stock soon.

As each online sale is made, it is instantaneously transmitted to the EPoS stock records accessed in the shop. In effect, the stock monitoring side of the system provides a live, rolling stock-take.

Inevitably, a big percentage of online sales are made outside shop opening hours. That’s why we’ve designed the system so it’s easy to set up remote access to online activity. An owner or manager could monitor online sales during the evening from home. This can be useful for spotting trends. If a particular product line becomes hot online during the evening, you might capture footfall by first thing next morning displaying the item prominently in the shop window and the relevant display cabinet.

With so much consumer purchasing now being done over the internet, there is an obvious question mark over how long jewellers who are reliant on a traditional shop and low-tech counter-top till approach can hold out."  

Jewellery and Watch Birmingham presents a good opportunity to weigh up the options –not just of products to stock but the technology that has been developed for the pure purpose of helping increase sales.