This document discusses how providing retail sales associates with mobile devices can empower them and improve the customer experience. It notes that consumers now have more information than associates when shopping due to being constantly connected. Mobile devices can give associates real-time access to product information, pricing, inventory levels, and customer data to allow them to better assist shoppers. This positions associates to influence purchase decisions rather than just complete transactions, potentially increasing sales and customer loyalty.

1. BEYOND MPOS
Diversifying Retail Mobile
Solutions for Greater ROI

2. 01 | BEYOND MPOS | Diversifying Retail Mobile Solutions for Greater ROI
Retail technology is progressing at a rapid pace, as
companies look for ways to remain competitive in an
ever-changing market. Consumer expectations have
evolved with the growth of the internet and e-com-
merce, due in large part to real-time access to infor-
mation at home, on the go, and in the store. Compe-
tition has increased due to the low cost of entry to
many retail channels, most notably, e-commerce, and
as a result, price has become a major focus of the
retail value equation.
With the exponential growth of social media, con-
sumers have much greater access to input and
feedback from others; be it through online reviews,
social commentary, or interaction with friends on
social media. As a result, orchestrating amazing
customer experiences is fast becoming as criti-
cal as price in determining the value of a product or
brand. While price remains a key factor in the pur-
chase decision, many other service-related elements
have become equally critical to a final decision to buy,
and as a result, to the retail organization as a whole.
A vast majority of sales still take place in the brick and
mortar environment, and there is still no substitute
for the tangible, hands-on experience the consumer
has while in the store.
Unfortunately, technology beyond point of sale
has been somewhat slow to work its way into the
physical store, due to a variety of technical and cost
considerations. This can, unfortunately, place the
store associate at a disadvantage, as consumers are
more connected and even more knowledgeable than
some store associates. In order to change this imbal-
ance, retailers are embracing the notion of providing
more tools to the associate to deliver the knowl-
edge of the enterprise to the point of decision.
Mobility offers the ideal platform for such initiatives,
as tools delivered on mobile devices can provide the
right information at the right time, and empower
associates to enhance the relationship with their cus-
tomers, and to deliver superior customer service.
BEYOND MPOS
Diversifying Retail Mobile Solutions for Greater ROI
Copyright 2015 Raymark Xpert Business Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

3. 02 | BEYOND MPOS | Diversifying Retail Mobile Solutions for Greater ROI
Copyright 2015 Raymark Xpert Business Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.
1
CONSUMERS ARE
CONNECTED
Today’s customers are connected
through mobility in their daily lives:
at home, in stores and on the go.
They have access to information
when and where they want it.
Consumers use their devices for
price comparison when looking at
a product, or to access real-time
reviews before making a purchase.
For instance, 82% of smartphone
shoppers use search engines for
browsing product information
in-store. A recent study stated
that 34% of consumers (and 90% of
smartphone shoppers) investigate
purchases online before making an
offline purchase, even though most
retail sales are still taking place in
the store. (Google)
As a result of this access to com-
petitive information, reviews, and
comparative prices, it is not uncom-
mon for a customer to actually have
more information about a product
than the in-store associates them-
selves. This has begun to negatively
impact the experience in the store,
as consumers expect a level of
knowledge from their associates
that is superior to their own and in
many cases do not find it.
2
PERCEPTION IS
REALITY
3
KNOWLEDGE IS
POWER
Why is in-store
mobility so important?
Another reason that mobility is
important in today’s retail environ-
ment is the unfortunate fact that
there is a very real disconnect in the
perception of the level of service
provided by the typical retailer. A
recent Bain & Company survey re-
veals just how commonly companies
misread the market. Bain surveyed
362 companies and found that 80%
believed they delivered a “superior
experience” to their customers. But,
when they asked customers about
their perceptions, they rated only
8% of companies as truly delivering
a superior experience.
Customers are not willing to wait.
And even the smallest wait feels lon-
ger to them than it actually is. In a
study published by the Association
for Consumer Research, consum-
ers and sales associates estimated
transaction time in a retail environ-
ment. Consumers overestimated
and sales associates underesti-
mated transaction times.
It’s easy to see where mobile
technology can come into play to
counteract long lines, especially dur-
ing peak periods.
A study published by the Harvard
Business Review found that, when
customers were surveyed, they
stated that 20% of the products
they wanted to buy were out
of stock. This was despite the fact
that, according to retail inventory
management systems, only 2-3%
of items ever ran out before being
replenished. (HBR, The Future of Retail)
The system’s numbers weren’t
wrong. Customers just couldn’t
find the products they wanted or
knowledgeable associates to help
out. Mobile solutions for inventory
management or even simply prod-
uct lookup can have a huge impact
on reducing these easily prevent-
able lost sales.
With so many SKUs and ever-
changing inventory, associates need
technology to help them locate the
stock consumers want at any given
moment.
Mobile solutions can give associates
the upper hand without needing to
leave the customer’s side, resulting
in more informed and more per-
sonal service.

4. 03 | BEYOND MPOS | Diversifying Retail Mobile Solutions for Greater ROI
HOW CAN INVESTING IN
ASSOCIATES YIELD BIG RETURNS?
Mobile technology to influence the buying decision.
Mobile technologies bridge the information gap between con-
sumers and associates and pave the way to superior customer
service. Retail mobility empowers the store associate by pro-
viding the knowledge of the enterprise to the associate at the
point of decision. This puts the associate in a position to not just
facilitate a sale, but to actually influence the buying decision, and
establish long-term relationships with a customer.
The associate IS your competitive advantage.
Mobile technology for associates is a great way to help elevate
the overall store experience, empowering ordinary associates
with the tools and technology needed to provide outstanding
service. Alison Paul, a retail consultant for Deloitte, says that tra-
ditional retail needs to be retooled, and an important part of that
retooling is investment in employees. “Retail has had a culture
of keeping labor costs under control,” says Ms. Paul. “But there’s
a slow revolution happening. There’s been a shift from retailers
pushing goods to consumers being able to pull what they want
from a variety of different places that didn’t exist five years ago.
Retailers are recognizing that their key differentiator
could be that person standing in the store.” (Time)
It’s about building relationships, not just executing transactions.
So, what can retailers do to up their game when it comes to
customer experience? LuxurySociety.com reports, “Provide
sales associates with powerful mobile devices to influence the
customer decision by building relationships, not just executing
transactions. In order to dramatically increase customer reten-
tion, educate and equip the sales team to use mobile devices to
collect relevant customer data and to communicate with clients
respectfully and intelligently.”
Copyright 2015 Raymark Xpert Business Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.
“Provide sales associates
with powerful mobile
devices to influence the
customer decision by
building relationships,
not just executing
transactions.
In order to dramatically
increase customer
retention, educate and
equip the sales team to
use mobile devices
to collect relevant
customer data and to
communicate with clients
respectfully and
intelligently.”
LuxurySociety.com

5. 04 | BEYOND MPOS | Diversifying Retail Mobile Solutions for Greater ROI
Copyright 2015 Raymark Xpert Business Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.
1
POINT OF SALE
The first priority for many retailers is
mobile POS. With 79% of retailers
planning to integrate MPOS by
2015 (Forrester, Mobile Point of Sale
Solutions for Retail), it is fast becom-
ing apparent that mobile POS is an
imperative for modern retailing.
Mobile point of sale not only speeds
up the transaction time for many
sales and helps to reduce lines, but
it also enables associate to provide
better customer service.
Although it’s true that mobile tech-
nology provides important benefits
for retailers, it is important to rec-
ognize that the potential of mobil-
ity in retail stores is not limited to
mobile POS. Mobile devices in retail
have the same potential to be the
all-in-one tools for store associates
as they are in many of our personal
and professional lives.
2
INVENTORY
3
CLIENTELING
Thinking Outside
the MPOS Box
Cross-channel product location is
another important solution for the
in-store retail mobility strategy.
Providing access to this information
adds greatly to associates’ ability
to close a sale, either by locating to
the available stock in the store, or
across stores or e-commerce sites.
Associates can even place or fulfill
omni-channel orders from a mo-
bile device, making the endless
aisle a reality. These solutions also
provide for intelligent alternative se-
lections, as well as up-sell or cross-
sell suggestions, so the empowered
associate can not only make the first
sale, but enhance the sale.
Mobile solutions for managing in-
ventory can also benefit the retailer
by enabling faster, more accurate
receiving, transfers and physical
counts, effectively enabling associ-
ates to focus more of their time on
the selling floor.
Perhaps the most compelling of
all mobile solutions for associate
empowerment relates to concepts
typically referred to as clienteling
and assisted selling tools.
Using these tools, associates are
provided with solutions that help
to influence a customer through
the entire customer lifecycle – from
the first sale, the repeat visit, to
continued loyalty and even brand
advocacy.
These solutions help to combine
the operational aspects of the
retailer with the personal customer
information to truly personalize
the experience for each and every
customer.

6. 05 | BEYOND MPOS | Diversifying Retail Mobile Solutions for Greater ROI
Copyright 2014 Raymark Xpert Business Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.
MEETING THE
CHALLENGE
WITH THE RIGHT
TECHNOLOGY
1
DATA
AGNOSTIC
Data agnostic software pro-
vides the ability to access
data from existing solutions,
as well as consume data from
within. This becomes critical
in achieving a holistic view of
the customer and for omni-
channel consolidation.
These capabilities are made
possible through design
patterns that separate physi-
cal data from a logical data
model, through open APIs by
third-party public applications
and by web technologies such
as RESTful web services.
2
OS AGNOSTIC
AND NATIVE
The ability to run the same
application on a PC, tablet,
and smartphone and provide
the same code base and user
experience is important for
adoption and lower TCO. Mo-
bile deployments should also
run natively on the device, in
order to provide the best user
experience and performance.
These capabilities are en-
hanced by the HTML 5 stan-
dard and by development
tools that enable applications
to be compiled for a variety of
platforms, and then installed
as native apps.
3
DEPLOYMENT
AGNOSTIC
The ability to host the
solution, deploy it on premise,
or to create a hybrid environ-
ment provides added
flexibility to retailers wishing
to reuse existing hardware to
keep recurring costs down,
or those who wish to offload
maintenance work to a third
party.
This is possible through new
orchestration capabilities,
federated security, Web API
layers with RESTful services
and more.
4
FLEXIBLE AND
EXTENSIBLE
Future-proof mobile retail
software will provide the
ability for retailers to add and
remove features, modules
and/or apps, but also to cre-
ate and publish capabilities
developed internally.
The ability to migrate to a fu-
ture OS or hardware platform
with minimal effort will also
be important in protecting
the investment.
The good news is that
technology is up to the
challenge.
The last few years have
introduced a number of
development platforms, tools,
and new capabilities, which
can provide solutions that
meet the following four
elements.

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