The allure of Ireland’s captivating heritage, adorned with mist-shrouded castles and frost-kissed natural wonders, remains undiminished. However, the bitter cold, shorter days, and the weight of soaring living expenses create a unique set of difficulties for these cherished sites. With that in mind, Retail Integration surveyed the Irish visitor attraction sector to gauge how visitor attractions handle these challenges and how they have used technology to adapt.

Winter Challenges: Adverse Weather and Lower Tourism Impact Visitor Attractions

Winter poses numerous challenges for visitor attractions in the Irish market, as adverse weather conditions, shorter daylight hours, and a decline in tourism numbers significantly impact visitor attendance. The unpredictable nature of winter weather, characterized by heavy rains, strong winds, and occasional snowfall, discourages many potential visitors from venturing out to explore attractions. Moreover, the limited daylight hours restrict the time available for visitors to engage in outdoor activities, reducing the overall duration of their visits.

This combination of factors leads to a notable drop in visitor numbers, presenting a considerable challenge for visitor attractions to maintain their operations and revenue streams during the winter months. Over 93% of respondents face a decrease in visitor attendance during the winter months, with most finding a large decrease in visitor attendance due to standard seasonal drop off and winter weather conditions.

To ensure visitor attendance during this period, all businesses employ heightened social media engagement, coupled with direct emails and strategic promotions or partnerships.  Only 25% of respondents continue to rely on traditional paid media campaigns during this period.

43% of respondents look to increase their marketing efforts over the winter period, with others focusing on a mix of offers and discounts, reduced prices, gift card sales and innovative seasonal events on site.

Inflation/ Cost of Living

The cost-of-living crisis in Ireland is impacting visitor attractions, leading to staffing challenges and a potential decline in visitor numbers. Rising expenses make it difficult for attraction employees to make ends meet, resulting in higher turnover rates and staffing shortages. Additionally, visitors’ constrained budgets may limit their spending on leisure activities, affecting revenue for attractions.

With Irish Households also recording high savings and with increased demand for experiences and events, we are in uncharted territories for the sector. Adapting to these challenges requires attracting and retaining staff, adjusting pricing strategies, and enhancing the visitor experience to navigate the cost-of-living crisis successfully.

Labor shortages impacting Irish visitor attractions

The survey revealed that a significant majority of visitor attractions, over two thirds, have been affected by labour shortages. The hospitality and tourism industry has experienced challenges in attracting and retaining employees due to various reasons.

The pandemic caused many workers to seek alternative employment opportunities or change career paths, causing a shortage of skilled and experienced individuals within the sector.  The current cost of living crisis in Ireland has also played a crucial role in exacerbating this situation. Rising living costs, particularly in major urban areas, have made it increasingly challenging for businesses to attract and retain employees.

Staff shortages can have a significant impact on visitor attractions. With fewer employees available to handle various tasks, attractions may struggle to provide high-quality customer service, leading to a decline in visitor satisfaction. Longer wait times, reduced operational efficiency, and limited staff availability for special events or activities can negatively affect the overall visitor experience. Reduced staff levels create an incentive to improve digital services such as online ticketing, digitally accessible guides and interactive displays.

How Irish visitor attractions adapt to the cost of living crisis

When asked about dealing with increasing costs due to inflation, the responses from Irish visitor attractions were varied. Two-thirds of the attractions reported that they had increased entrance fees to offset rising expenses. This approach aimed to balance the impact of inflation on their operational costs while maintaining revenue streams.

On the other hand, the remaining attractions took different approaches to address the issue. Some maintained their prices to avoid burdening consumers with additional costs, focusing on providing consistent value. Others opted to create new offerings at various price points to cater to a wider range of visitors and diversify their revenue streams. Lastly, some attractions made the decision to reduce their opening hours as a cost-saving measure. By adapting their strategies and considering factors such as consumer affordability, value creation, and operational efficiency, Irish visitor attractions aimed to navigate the challenges posed by increasing costs and inflation.

According to the responses gathered from visitor attractions, a significant majority of 87% reported that visitors were not spending less in cafes, restaurants, shops, or amenities. This indicates that despite various challenges and economic uncertainties, visitors have maintained their spending patterns in these areas. This trend can be seen as positive for both the attractions and the local businesses within or around them, as it suggests a continued level of engagement and willingness to support the local economy.

The findings also suggest that visitor attractions are successfully attracting visitors who are willing to engage in additional activities and make purchases beyond the entrance fees, further enhancing the overall visitor experience.

Embracing technology to boost visitor experience

Based on the responses received, it is evident that there has been a significant shift in the use of technology at visitor attractions.

A common change that respondents noted is the greater uptake of using mobile applications, which can provide various features such as downloadable audio guides, QR codes for easy access, and integration with services like MailChimp for efficient communication. The use of multimedia and digital signage has also increased, offering more advanced and immersive offerings that enhance the overall visitor experience. These technological advancements are driven by the growing customer expectation for new technology aspects to be integrated into their attraction experiences.

Additionally, there has been a rise in online ticket sales and bookings, especially since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Over 90% of respondents take bookings via their online booking system, with just over a third taking bookings over the phone or by email.

While taking bookings in person is still hugely important to attractions, visitors are now more inclined to pre-book their tickets online rather than opting for walk-up purchases on the day of their visit. This shift towards online ticketing has resulted in increased website sales, indicating a growing preference for the convenience and flexibility offered by digital platforms.

The awareness and utilisation of technology have become more prevalent within the industry, as visitor attractions recognise the importance of adapting to changing consumer behaviours and incorporating technology-driven solutions to meet customer expectations.

Resilience and Adaptation in Irish Visitor Attractions

As winter’s frost settles upon Irish visitor attractions, they face the combined challenges of adverse weather conditions and the cost-of-living crisis. The captivating allure of Ireland’s heritage remains strong, but the bitter cold, shorter days, and soaring living expenses pose unique difficulties.

However, despite these obstacles, visitor attractions are resilient and adaptable. They have embraced technology to enhance the visitor experience, offering interactive displays, augmented reality guides, and personalized recommendations. By leveraging user-friendly tech, attractions create lasting connections with visitors and extend their market reach.

Moreover, they have responded to inflation by adjusting pricing strategies, creating new offerings, and, in some cases, reducing opening hours.

By navigating the complexities of winter and the cost of living crisis, Irish visitor attractions strive to maintain their vitality and provide exceptional experiences for all.

Your partner year round

With Meridian Experience, Retail Integration has created an integrated, end-to-end retail and ticketing system for visitor attraction sites. This system enables Ireland’s leading visitor attractions manage every aspect of their business, from ticketing and admissions to merchandising, food and loyalty programmes. Retail Integration has worked with some of Ireland’s leading visitor attractions, including Dublin Zoo, Christ Church Cathedral, Powerscourt Estate, Trinity College Dublin, Russborough, Airfield and Rainforest Adventure Golf to name but a few. We have listened to our customers and know that merging ticketing, epos and customer communication is integral to driving the continued success of your visitor attraction.

For more information on how we can help you grow revenues, optimise back office operations and deliver a seamless customer experience across every channel, contact Retail Integration, or request a demo here.

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Retail Integration has been supporting many charity retailers across Ireland for over 25 years and with that experience, they have developed the Meridian Retail system.

Their powerful EPOS system provides all the functionality needed by charity retailers, from till systems and stock management to customer communication and online sales integration. It provides retailers with as much control as possible from their tills, allowing them greater control over resources and stock levels even across multiple locations and online.

Charity Retail Ireland is the voice of the charity retail sector in Ireland. It is an umbrella representative association of over 40 registered charities who operate nearly 500 charity retail outlets throughout Ireland.

We are delighted to be a Corporate Partner of Charity Retail Ireland and together we will continue to support and work with charity retailers across Ireland.

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With that in mind, Retail Integration is carrying out a survey of the Irish visitor attraction sector to gauge how businesses are handling the challenges and opportunities of Winter 22/23, and to gain insights they can share with you and other visitor attractions.

We would really appreciate it if you could complete our 3-minute survey here- https://lnkd.in/dW44rFie.

Once we have completed the survey process we would be delighted to share the research report with you.

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With lower visitor numbers, attractions have the opportunity to create unique and seasonal events, which are in higher demand now more than ever. A recent report revealed that 72% of millennials prefer spending money on unique experiences. With many potential benefits to visiting attractions off-season, membership and reward programs can be a great way to highlight the benefit of these unique experiences and maintain visitor numbers year-round.

Create seasonal experiences

Creating themed events during the off season is a great way to provide a new experience to past customers. In a study into seasonal tourist areas in Australia, 70% of visitor attractions were found to stay open year-round. Of those that stayed open, 39% ran seasonal special events, with the local community being a key source market for these events.

Venues and attractions can create seasonal events to match their own unique offering. From Santa visits in December, Egg Hunts at Easter time, to Harvest displays in October, these experiences can take advantage of the extra space and capacity afforded by quieter periods. For example, the team at Dublin Zoo welcome back the Wild Lights experience every year. Taking place from October – January, the Wild Lights attraction operates outside of normal working hours at a typically quieter time of year. Bringing in over 210,000 visitors in 2018, the night-time attraction has a different theme every year related to Dublin Zoo.

Highlighting the outdoors

After spending two years in and out of lockdowns, consumers want to be outdoors, even in the winter. According to a recent report from Fáilte Ireland, demand for outdoors is expected to continue to grow for the next five years. Seasonal attractions can be set up to be comfortable no matter what the season with outdoor heaters or additional wind or rain protection.

Build your customer database year round

Building a robust customer database with comprehensive visitor profiles allows you to market your personalised experiences more effectively. Using the example of Wild Lights, this family event takes advantage of the Christmas school holidays and presents a unique outdoor event, and can be targeted at local visitors, who are more likely to be repeat customers. By capturing customer details at earlier visits, families and local visitors can be specially targeted with these events.

By capturing this customer information at the point of sale through your connected membership and award programs, you can build your customer database year-round.

Driving low-season visitor numbers with loyalty programmes

With an integrated loyalty program, it is easier to drive repeat business and highlight special seasonal events. In a previous article, we looked at how repeat customers typically spend 31% more than new customers, meaning these valuable customers are a welcome boost at quieter times for your visitor attraction.

However, for simple cash purchases, visitors will not need to give their contact details. You can incentivise this in a number of ways. Paperless ticketing is a great way to create customer profiles, as tickets are sent straight to their email address. This is also a good way to show your green credentials, by cutting down on paper waste.

By connecting your ticketing system to your website, you can build customer profiles wherever tickets can be purchased. You can also incentivise visitors to buy online to “skip the queue” at busier times of the year. This is also very useful for visitors bringing their whole family, or for those who have children with special needs. For these customers, allowing them to purchase online and skip the queue can cut down on wait time and reduce stress, making seasonal attractions an even better option for them.

Ahead of quieter periods, loyal customers can be sent special awards such as seasonal attraction preorders, discounts or a free cup of coffee or hot chocolate in your café.

Driving low season visitors with Meridian Experience

Combining integrated loyalty programs with seasonal events means you can have a reason to reach out to customers year-round and encourage repeat business. Meridian Experience, our proprietary ticketing software for visitor attraction sites brings all the functionality you need to run a successful loyalty program and promote seasonal events. Meridian Experience also connects with your website, so you can build your database wherever your customers are.

Contact the Retail Integration team today to discuss how we can help you drive business for your visitor attraction all year round.

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Based in the heart of the Avondale Forest, Wicklow, Beyond the Trees Avondale are one of Ireland’s newest attractions. The only fully accessible treetop walk and viewing tower in Ireland, the attraction provides a stunning experience for visitors. Retail Integration were delighted to provide our Meridian Experience ticketing system for the client.

Flexible ticketing system for visitor attractions

With high levels of interest in Beyond the Trees Avondale ahead of its opening, it was important the client had a robust and flexible ticketing and retail system in place at launch. The Meridian Retail ticketing system was rolled out for the comprehensive features it offered. The system is fully integrated with the client’s website and it allows customers to buy tickets at the visitor centre, or online ahead of time.

As with many outdoor visitor attractions, certain elements can be limited due to weather conditions, such as the spiral slide at Beyond the Trees Avondale not opening during wet conditions. For this reason, it is especially important that customers can easily amend their bookings online. With Meridian Retail, customers only need their booking reference and email to amend their tickets, up to 24 hours in advance. Customers can purchase gift vouchers just as easily as tickets, and check their balance through the Beyond the Trees Avondale website using their gift card code and pin.

For a modern visitor attraction, it is important that customers can pay for tickets and gift vouchers, online or in person. Additional attractions can be paid for on the day, including the spiral slide at the Viewing Tower, which Meridian Experience allows customers to pay for via cash or contactless.

Retail Integration Managing Director, Pat Heslin said:

“In May 2022, we were delighted to deliver our ‘Meridian Experience’ multichannel ticketing and retail platform to Beyond the Trees Avondale. The flexibility and configurability of our Meridian Experience platform allowed us to successfully deliver a system that met all their specific business requirements.

“From the very start, what Beyond the Trees Avondale have done has been incredible. The queues are out the door and the site is proving immensely popular, so to be a part of that and deliver a retail and multichannel ticketing system that provides significant operational, revenue and customer experience benefits, is incredible.

“It is great to be able to help facilitate their success and it has been fantastic to be involved. We look forward to working with the team at Beyond the Trees Avondale and wish them every success in the future.”

Continuously innovating for our customers

With over 25 years of experience, Retail Integration is one of Ireland’s leading providers of ticketing and retail systems for visitor attractions and specialty retailers. Meridian Experience is the ticketing system of choice for many of Ireland’s top visitor attractions, such as Teeling Distillery, Fota Island, the Aviva Stadium and the National Museum.

Meridian Experience is our integrated, end-to-end retail and ticketing system for visitor attraction sites. This system enables Ireland’s leading visitor attractions to manage every aspect of their business, from ticketing and admissions to merchandising, food and loyalty programmes. Learn more about Meridian Experience here.

View the full article from Premier Hospitality here.

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For a modern business to exist, traditional POS systems have been replaced by Electronic Point of Sale (EPOS) systems.

What is a POS and an EPOS System?

POS refers to the location where a customer purchases goods or services, most commonly a traditional cash register and card machine. The focus of a POS is almost exclusively on carrying out transactions.

An EPOS system is a modern electronic update of the traditional POS system, and is a combination of the hardware and software needed to carry out transactions and streamline the management of a business. EPOS systems come with the added benefits of many integrated features that can allow retailers and attractions to run their businesses more effectively. EPOS systems can control stock management across all your locations, and offer detailed reports as well as customer management.

What are the differences between POS and EPOS systems?

When thinking of upgrading from a traditional POS to an EPOS system, it is important to know how the two systems vary.

Flexible payment options

POS systems typically take payments via a physical cash register and card machine that accepts debit and credit cards. An EPOS system will take a more comprehensive approach. As well as accepting all leading credit and debit cards, they will go much further and accept contactless payments, online payments and integrate with all leading merchant gateways, opening the door for any possible payment system.

With a traditional POS system, adding on new features such as gift cards or loyalty programs means adding in a new system, and attempting to connect this to your till systems. This can become increasingly complex when gift cards need to be used online or across multiple branches. A comprehensive EPOS system will offer gift cards and loyalty programs as part of their offering and will be connected to tills across all your branches and online. With integrated customer and order management, you can send paperless gift cards directly to a customer’s email, meaning lost gift cards are a thing of the past.

Comprehensive stock management

A fully integrated EPOS system not only integrates with all major payment providers, but it manages all your reporting, sales and stock software. This allows the system to automatically adjust stock levels across your entire business whenever a sale is made or an item is returned. With POS systems, stock management can be a manual task carried out periodically, and open to human error, or involve adding a separate system.

EPOS systems also provide real-time inventory and sales reports to identify where items are running low and need to be restocked. Real-time inventory tracking also allows your customers to look up items via an integrated e-commerce website, improving customer satisfaction as you can provide them with the products they need.

With traditional POS systems, inventory management errors could lead to shelves being full of dead stock, too much stock or not enough stock, leading to unhappy customers and extra time fixing the issue.  Integrated stock management and reporting can also show trends in particular products, highlighting items to be restocked, or items that are poor sellers. With one comprehensive system, price changes can be made from one central location and applied to your entire business in real-time.

Run your business more efficiently

One of the main benefits of switching to an EPOS system is the amount of time and money it can save your business. Automating large parts of your business can help it run more efficiently and cut down on unnecessary costs. Whether it is stock-taking, generating reports or dealing with customer returns, many businesses still rely on manual, human processes and paper systems to track the health of their business, likely as a result of using a traditional POS system.

An EPOS system brings all your old systems together in one interconnected system, with more accurate real-time data making this information accessible for review from any of your locations. This provides greater insights to your business’ performance with less manual effort, allowing you to resolve issues as they arise.

Keeping your business relevant with Meridian Retail

How consumers shop and their expectations are evolving rapidly. With an outdated POS system, growing your offering means adding new systems and additional admin to get them in line with your existing systems. A modern EPOS system such as Meridian Retail comes with many additional benefits such as integration with eCommerce shops, ticketing solutions, paperless receipts, gift cards, receipts, appointment shopping and many other benefits that can keep your business ahead of the competition.

Meridian Retail is our proprietary EPOS system designed for specialty retailers and visitor attractions. With over 25 years of experience, our platform has been built with the needs of our customers in mind. Meridian Retail has been implemented by many of Ireland’s leading specialty retailers.

Talk to our team today about upgrading to a modern EPOS system and transforming your business. Contact Retail Integration today on +353 1 429 6800 or email info@retail-int.com.

The post What is the difference between POS and EPOS systems? appeared first on Retail Integration.

The National Wax Museum Plus at Westmoreland St is an exciting and interactive experience. In operation since 1983, it is one of Dublin’s most popular visitor attractions. Sitting nearby in Templar Bar is the Irish Rock N’ Roll Museum Experience. It is a behind the scenes look at Ireland’s rock ‘n’ roll history, as well as an immersive and theatrical experience.

To manage these two distinctive attractions, our client required a robust ticketing and retail system, which they found in Meridian Experience.

Flexible ticketing system

With two very different attractions to be managed from one system, Meridian Experience needed to be customised for each, offering appropriate branding, and bringing in relevant logos and images. The system also needed to offer different details for each business, including tour names, pricing, and ticketing options as well as separate calendars.

As with all visitor attractions since COVID, it was very important that the ticketing system could take pre-booked online tickets, along with accepting all major payment methods, including contactless payments. A recent study by AIB has highlighted the importance of accepting contactless and digital payments. Since the limit on contactless payments has been increased, consumers under the age of 25 are using Apple Pay and Google Pay for 37% of all transactions, and consumers aged 25 to 34 are increasing use of the digital wallet increasing by 43%. Consumers are also spending more, with the average amount being spent by these methods up 24% for Apple Pay and up 35% for Google Pay.

Retail Integration Managing Director, Pat Heslin said:

“It is great to be a part of two of Dublin’s most distinctive visitor attractions. The flexibility of our Meridian Experience multichannel ticketing system was the perfect solution for the National Wax Museum Plus and the Irish Rock N’ Roll Museum Experience. Our system has been built from the ground up for our customers, and this is exactly the type of project that we love.”

Conor Reid, Digital Marketing Coordinator, The National Wax Museum Plus and The Irish Rock n Roll Museum said:

“We have worked with Retail Integration for many years now and we cannot recommend their support team enough, they are brilliant to deal with and assist with any issues in such a timely manner. Most recently, we deployed the Retail Integration Meridian Experience multichannel ticketing system on both The National Wax Museum & The Irish Rock ’N’ Roll Experience websites. The implementation of the system has enabled us to free up staff time, provide an enjoyable customer experience and increase revenue. We look forward to working with Retail Integration long into the future.”

Retail Integration delivers end-to-end retail and ticketing system for visitor attraction sites

With over 25 years of experience in developing our own proprietary EPOS, retail and ticketing software solutions, we are the partner of choice to many leading visitor attraction sites and specialty retailers.

Meridian Experience is our integrated multichannel ticketing solution for visitor attraction sites. This system enables visitor attractions to manage every aspect of their business, from ticketing and admissions to merchandising, food and loyalty programmes. Meridian Experience has been implemented by many of Ireland’s largest and best-known visitor attractions, such as Kylemore Abbey, Dublin Zoo and Blarney Castle.

If you would like to grow your visitor attraction, contact Retail Integration, or request a demo here.

The post Providing a unique offering for two of Dublin’s leading museums appeared first on Retail Integration.

Patrick Heslin, Managing Director, Retail Integration was featured on The Retail Tea Break Podcast

In episode 31 of The Retail Tea Break podcast, Patrick Heslin MD of Retail Integration chats to Melissa Moore about embracing technology to future proof businesses.

Retail technology can be so much more than a fancy till system, used in the right way it can enhance the customer experience and future proof the business. In this episode of The Retail Tea Break porcast, Melissa Moore speaks to Patrick Heslin about how he and the Retail Integration team support their customers and their customers’ customer too!

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How gift cards can grow your business

Gift cards are cost-effective to implement and while they are not a new concept, they sit at the heart of a modern omnichannel retail ecosystem, as they can be both sold and redeemed instore or online.

Build brand awareness and bring in new customers

On average, over half of people buy gift cards to give to someone else.  Word-of-mouth is one of the strongest advertisements for a business, and being given a gift card is a firm endorsement. For customers who love your shop or attraction, they can share their experience with friends and family through gift cards, helping to grow your customer base.

Gift cards can also be an integral part of your customer loyalty programs, being offered for repeat visits, multiple purchases or as part of larger marketing campaigns.

Grow revenue

Gift cards provide additional revenue when they are purchased, but they can also generate above average order values when they are redeemed. As many customers view gift cards as “free money”,  it’s been found that 42% of shoppers often spend more than the amount of the gift card.

They are also a great gift idea for last minute shoppers, as they are an easy purchase if clearly advertised by the till or on a website checkout. Also, if stocks are running low or on time delivery can’t be guaranteed in the run up to Christmas, they ensure you have something in stock for last minute shoppers.

Driving your omnichannel strategy

When integrated with your EPOS system, gift cards can be sold online or instore and redeemed across any of your branches. Gift cards are a great incentive for customers to join your CRM, as both customers and retailers can track purchases and the amount remaining on the gift card.

They are also a great way to manage returns. If a customer needs to return items that have passed their return date, offering a gift card is a way to maintain that customer relationship and also keep their money in your business. Paperless gift cards can also be a part of your offering. By issuing these to a customer’s email address, they can be added to your CRM and provide additional marketing opportunities.

Drive sales post-holiday

2021 was the strongest year on record for gift card sales, with a 114% increase on sales for November to December compared to the previous year. With such strong gift card sales in the latter part of the year, many retailers enjoy increased traffic early Q1, which can help offset that typically slower sales season; and as those customers redeeming typically spend more, it is a welcome bonus in the post-Christmas period.

Get an EPOS system that accepts gift cards

With the clear benefits of gift cards for retailers and visitor attractions, it’s important to integrate these with your EPOS system. At Retail Integration, our Meridian system includes gift cards as part of its core EPOS and ticketing software.

With Meridian Retail and Meridian Experience, retailers and attractions can offer gift cards online and instore. With their advanced suite of features, gift cards can be offered physically or paperless and can be integrated with your customer profiles and eCommerce store.

Retail Integration is the partner of choice for many of Ireland’s leading specialty retailers and visitor attractions. We have helped many clients implement gift cards to reach their goals, whether it is building customer relationships, generating more revenue, or increasing traffic to your business.

If you want to grow your business, talk to our customer service team today to see how we can integrate gift cards for your business. Request a Demo or contact Retail Integration here.

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What are the advantages of using an EPOS system?

A modern EPOS system provides many benefits to retailers that go far beyond just taking payments. The array of features offered by an EPOS system can include customer data management, stock management, pricing, staff profiles and loyalty programmes, etc.

Manage your business better with data analysis

With one system managing tills and back office, an EPOS system records all the data on sales, stock and purchasing, allowing specialty retailers access to detailed reports covering how their business is performing. When new items are added to stock, scanned and purchased this will be tracked by the EPOS system. Stock levels can then be monitored through stock reports, indicating when inventory needs to be replenished.

These real-time reports help business owners make accurate decisions about their business, such as new product campaigns, pricing and promotions.

Improve the customer experience

With rising customer expectations, customer care is a significant metric for repeat customer visits. Strong customer care is in the top three priorities for retailers in a study carried out earlier this year. Customers expect items marked in stock online to be available in store, and will be turned off by long queues at the till. An efficient EPOS system can help reduce these pain points.

A modern EPOS system will provide a smooth omnichannel shopping experience as it is integrated with your eCommerce platform and multi-branch stock levels. This will allow stock levels indicated to accurately reflect what is in the store room, and if something is available in one branch customers can be told what branch they can find it in.

Furthermore, modern EPOS systems offer advanced functionality such as paperless receipts, and gift cards in place of refunds on out of date returns.

Boost customer loyalty programmes

With the value of customer loyalty, it is more important than ever to have an EPOS system that incorporates some level of customer loyalty schemes. A modern EPOS system will allow a degree of customer management and create profiles so you can better understand customer shopping trends. This allows retailers to identify loyal customers and reward them with benefits from a customer loyalty scheme.

Customer benefits can include broad catch approaches like seasonal or birthday discounts, or bonus points for every purchase. By tracking the customer’s shopping history, customers can also be given discounts for specific product ranges. In this way, your EPOS system can provide tailored promotions for every customer, helping retailers stand out from the competition.

Increase efficiency and accuracy

A strong EPOS system is an integrated solution offering benefits to all levels of a specialty retail business. EPOS systems can boost efficiency across all levels of the business with a myriad of features that go beyond till systems, such as employee management, and multistore management to label printing and processing tourist tax refunds. These are all tasks that would have required many manual hours to execute. By having all of these features built into one system, a business with multiple branches across the country can carry out these tasks from one central location, reducing manual hours, reducing human error and improving the accuracy of each task.

Transform your retail business with Meridian Retail

Retail Integration’s Meridian Retail system is a powerful yet easy to use EPOS system that has been used by some of Ireland’s leading specialty retailers for over 25 years including Eason, Avoca, Nourish and Great Outdoors.

It provides all the advanced functionality needed by specialty retailers to manage their business with the ability to control as much of this as possible from their tills. It includes extensive reporting, powerful stock management, online integration and multi-store capabilities.

To see how Meridian Retail can transform your business, contact Retail Integration today.

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