The COVID pandemic has forced many retailers to advance their process of digital transformation or risk going out of business. In this brief blog, we focus on the importance of having the right underlying technology to support your growing retail business.

Social distancing and record home deliveries during the lockdown period meant raising the bar on e-commerce, as well as modernising existing management systems to include new technologies - cloud, big data, and all the rest.

The critical starting point in digitising a retail business and encouraging digital transformation is relying on capable business management software that meets the growing needs of your retail concern.

If you have not changed or updated your business software in years, consider how the current system fits in a changing business landscape. Your solution should be highly functional and adaptive to your current digital requirements.

• Is the business system built on an open and flexible IT architecture?
• Does it integrate all aspects of retail operations from procurement to POS?
• Does it provide a consolidated 360-degree view of the business?
• Does it support smart and efficient operational processes?
• Do you achieve better and more convenient customer interactions?
• Does it improve customer touchpoints and client services?
• Is it helping to go to market faster or entering exciting new markets?
• Can it bridge the gap between all online and offline channels?

If you are still relying on siloed legacy systems to do your accounting, invoicing and payroll, you need to reevaluate in favour of a whole retail technology ecosystem that unites
the front and back office. This will improve the accuracy and speed of all operations and give management a central viewpoint of everything that happens in the business.

IQ Retail has developed fully integrated retail management software and add-on solutions for your business or franchise. It has recently upgraded its software systems to run on 64-bit systems and deliver faster dashboard displays and powerful analytics.