COVID-19 has changed much of consumer behavior and expectations when it comes to payment options both in store and online, and many of these changes are expected to stick moving forward. As we begin a new year, we predict the four payment trends that will become even more prominent in…
The Role of POS in Hospitality
In 2019, off-premises dining accounted for 60% of restaurant occasions. As a result of the pandemic, hospitality must be prepared for this number to continue to rise and remain permanent. What’s more, we’re finding that an increasing number of retail verticals are offering prepared foods and food service in order…
Meet Omnibasket, the New Collaborative Developer Portal that Empowers Cloud Innovation
Imagine any point in a customers’ journey with a retailer: the shopping basket should be present through every step. The reality is, this is often difficult to achieve, especially because needs are often developing more rapidly as developers have time to build solutions. We’re looking to change that. Omnibasket…
New Customers and Partnerships Illustrate How GK is Transforming Retail in the Cloud
The cloud has made it possible for retailers to offer new services and conveniences in their stores that were previously impossible. For example, the ability to centralize customer data from across channels and devices, as well as process that information quickly, allows retailers to reach individual shoppers with personalized messages.…
5 Tools for Mastering Dynamic Pricing in Grocery
One of the key reasons why retailers are focusing on dynamic price adjustments is the ever-increasing dynamic of the market and the increased competition. In most industries, flexibility and adaptability are important characteristics that define success, and the coronavirus pandemic has further accelerated this development. Customer demand as well as…
Cracking the QR Code to Advance Contactless Experiences
Since March, the way we shop has changed drastically. While not a new concept, “contactless” retail has arisen as a buzzword as retailers work to keep customers and employees safe. It’s now an essential feature in order to attract in-store shoppers and maintain consumers’ trust. Luckily, achieving contactless processes in…
Black Friday: Get noticed – five tips for a strong increase in sales
The busiest time of the year for retail begins in just under four weeks – are you prepared? A large German B2C online retailer recorded a substantial doubling of its shopping carts on Black Friday last year compared to “normal” days, and saw a sales increase of 160% for the…
Dark Stores Bring New Light to Grocery Efficiency
Dark stores are quickly becoming a must-have for grocers looking to improve efficiency and customer service in today’s market. A recent survey found that 68% of shoppers purchased groceries online for curbside pickup or delivery during the pandemic. This surge in online shopping has led many stores to temporarily turn…
Three C’s for Grocers to Achieve a Successful Holiday Season
As a result of the pandemic, holidays like Thanksgiving, Hanukkah and Christmas, as well as events like company parties, will likely have a virtual aspect to them. However, as friends and families remain distanced, the need to connect will be stronger than ever. Whether consumers are looking to keep old…
Three Ways Retailers Can React to an Unprecedented Holiday Season
It shouldn’t come as a surprise to learn that this holiday season will be unlike any other. And it will be high stakes, too – one in five retailers say their future is dependent on how well they do this quarter. Major concerns include if, when and how consumers will…
How Convenience Has Changed
The last time you were inside a convenience store, you may have been making an impulse purchase — a soda or a snack while you were filling up your car. Convenience stores are synonymous with spur-of-the-moment purchases, but now during COVID-19, that type of spontaneity can be rare. As a…
5 Ways Dynamic Pricing Can Help the Consumer Electronics Industry Succeed
While my last dynamic pricing blog dealt with industry-specific features of dynamic price optimization in the fashion industry, today we’ll look at consumer electronics. The consumer electronics industry is one of the most challenging industries I have encountered in the dynamic pricing project business so far. This is, because it…
The Best Weapon in the Fight Against Food Waste
Food waste is a massively pressing issue in the grocery industry. Shockingly, about one-third of all food produced goes to waste, according to the United Nations. Recently, The Consumer Goods Forum, consisting of 14 of the world’s largest retailers and manufacturers, launched a Coalition of Action on Food Waste to…
What Restaurants Can Learn from Grocery Innovators
Restaurants have suffered as a result of the pandemic, as many dining rooms have closed or operate at a reduced capacity. Restaurants of all sizes have had to adapt, modifying existing models and introducing new processes that streamline online ordering, payments and pickup or delivery. And it’s proving effective. Restaurant…
App or App-less Technology? That is The Question
It’s now been a decade since the ubiquitous iPhone phrase “there’s an app for that,” was first uttered. And with more than 8.93 million mobile apps available globally, it’s a phrase that’s held up well over time. But the popularity of apps means the market is now extremely saturated, and…
Satisfied Customers: Why We Do What We Do
Software providers can talk and talk all day about what makes their offering the best. But hearing from a retailer who implemented the technology and is actively seeing benefits with their customers is the true testament of value. The future of retail is developing at a rapid rate today, with…
Contactless Concepts Are the Forefront of Retail Innovation
According to research from the National Retail Federation and Forrester, since January, no-touch payments have increased for 69% of retailers. Of those that offer contactless payments to customers, 94% expect the demand to continue increasing over the next 18 months. COVID-19 has caused an aversion to physical touch in an…
How Dynamic Price Optimization Benefits Fashion Retail
In my last blog spot on coupons and bundles, we touched on industry-specific differences that can be crucial to a retailer’s success in the context of Dynamic Pricing. I would like to go into this more detailed and show you which industry-specific challenges and opportunities Dynamic Price Optimization brings with…
What Do Successful Retailers Have in Common?
No two retailers are created alike. Their customers’ unique needs and the type of services they offer will lead to different strategies. But at the core of all successful retailers lies one idea: they understand the importance of being able to conduct retail efforts anywhere, at any point in time.…
Brick and Mortar’s Next Chapter: Frictionless
When thinking about a consumer’s shopping experience within a brick and mortar store, retailers’ efforts are often segmented into two differing approaches: a focus on scanning and contactless, or immersive and personal technology. Contactless versus immersive tech Scanning and contactless technology work to drive convenience and cut down on time…
Steps to BOPIS Success
Recently, we published a blog on the new look of buy online, pickup in-store (BOPIS) services post-pandemic. We explored how a flexible, standalone BOPIS solution can make integration and deployment easier than ever. This is essential as BOPIS has become a critical service for many retailers to generate sales while…
Coupons & Bundles – Success Drivers for Crucial KPIs
When it comes to dynamic price optimization, the three crucial KPIs are sales, profit and purchase frequency. In pricing theory, it is said that in principle, any two of this KPIs can be raised together, but never all three. If you look at a single item, this might be true.…
The EMV Deadline Has Been Extended: Now What?
Visa has once again delayed the EMV deadline for fuel retailers. This time, from Oct. 1 2020 to April 17, 2021. But what does this exactly entail? Given disruption due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the six-month extension provides retailers much needed additional time before the liability of fraudulent transactions shifts from…
Headless Commerce is Next Frontier for Enterprise Retail Platforms
Modern retail demands flexibility and control. Especially in verticals such as grocery and convenience, consumers expect retailers to make it as easy as possible for them to get what they want, when they want it and how they want it. Thus, the more high-value services a retailer can provide, the…
The New Look of BOPIS
This probably isn't your first time reading about how COVID-19 has served as a catalyst for technology adoption across retail. But what hasn't been addressed is whether or not specific consumer behaviors embraced during the pandemic will turn into habits that last long-term. For example, as retailers worked to keep…
To Achieve Frictionless Retail, Both Edge and Cloud Computing Are Necessary
To achieve a future of frictionless retail, retailers must first be able to understand when and how to leverage centralized cloud infrastructure and when to defer to decentralized edge networks in the store. While the adoption of the cloud has led to unprecedented enterprise agility and intelligence, there are many…
The Future of Frictionless
We’ve spent some time looking at the types of shopping behaviors and trips that define the overall retail landscape, the unique areas of friction that create frustration for each one, and the roadblocks for achieving frictionless retail. We’ve concluded that in the context of both online and in-store retail, true…
Common Roadblocks to Frictionless Retail
We recently discussed how shopping behavior impacts frictionless needs and the technology options retailers should consider to eliminate pain points in the shopper journey. Consumers expect a seamless journey at all touchpoints, and if a brand fails to deliver on this, they will lose to their competitors and fail to…
What Do Dynamic Pricing Systems and Recommendation Engines Have in Common?
At first glance, Dynamic Pricing Systems and Recommendation Engines may not have too much in common. Dynamic Pricing is meant for targeted price optimization so a retailer can sustainably grow revenue and profit. Recommendation Engines, on the other hand, ensure that customers receive excellent online service, even though there is…
Frictionless Technology Options to Address Your Shopper’s Unique Pain Points
In our last blog, we explored how shopping behaviors impact frictionless retail needs. We looked at eight different types of purchases that uniquely affect the shopping experience a customer expects. We also explained the common friction points retailers need to address for each of these customers. Today, we’ll identify…
Intelligent Markdown Pricing – now the watering can has finally worn out
I can report from the experience of many projects: Markdown Optimization is one of the topics that retailers are particularly concerned about – across all branches. Because markdowns – and especially write-downs – limit gross profit. Therefore, it is important that retailers proactively manage their sales and keep write-downs as low…
What you need to optimize your prices using an AI – Recipe idea & ingredients
One of the reasons why retailers increasingly rely on AI-based Dynamic Pricing is the huge amount of data and influencing factors that need to be considered for price determination: Article master data, purchase prices, sales quotas, inventory levels, competitor data, promotions, real-time transactions, historical data, seasonal trends, regional factors, weather…
GetMyGooods: Instantly Deliver BOPIS Service
If you haven’t heard already, we recently launched GetMyGooods, an app that plays a critical role enabling simple grocery ordering and pickup while ensuring the protection of everyone involved. The app is designed to provide retailers a way to instantly deploy buy online, pick-up in store service by eliminating the…
Using Dynamic Pricing successfully – a holistic strategy will make the difference
In my recent posts I have shown which insights you can gain with the help of price elasticity and how this helps you to better understand your entire product range and to price it accordingly. The splitting of your product portfolio into article roles, such as common and focus articles…
The all-rounder price elasticity and its role in strategic assortment analysis
In my last blog post I introduced the mathematical concept of price elasticity and the benefits it brings to AI-driven price optimization. As promised, in my post today I explain how you can use price elasticity to create a strategic basis for the use of an AI pricing solution. With…
Price elasticity – THE all-rounder for AI-controlled price optimization
In my blog post today, I would like to present THE all-rounder for dynamic price optimization: The Price elasticity. Mathematically as well as strategically, it is capable of great things! I am convinced that there is no other approach that works as efficiently, economically and above all sustainably as the…
Reinforcement Learning – What Distinguishes a Real AI from The Wannabes
You know what my first point of contact with AI was? It was in 1991, when I was 7 years old and completely enthusiastic about K.I.T.T. – not (only) about the car, butespecially about the concept of an “intelligent” companion, who is always there, helping and supporting where mankind reaches…
General Approaches to Dynamic Price Optimization: Rule Engines vs. AI-Controlled Price Optimization
One of more common, traditional approaches to establishing price differentiation comes in the form of rule-based systems, or rule engines. They implement predefined pricing rules in a prescribed pattern. These systems often set item prices exclusively based on competitor prices, which the system’s rules are set to exceed or undercut…
GK Software's Coronavirus Response
Given the current situation with the COVID-19 outbreak, it’s important to us that you know we have taken numerous measures to ensure your health, the health of our employees and the smooth operation of our customers' stores. We are diligently following the recommendations of global government and health authorities in…
What is Dynamic Pricing?
Dynamic Pricing is the proven “corner store” principle – rethought for the digital age. Small corner stores always used a somewhat volatile pricing policy based on experience and gut feeling. For example, close to closing, they generally offered bread or fresh products at a discount in order for the retailer…
2019
Frictionless Checkout for the Convenience Store
What shoppers are looking for when they step foot in a convenience store is in the name: convenience. They’re looking for an easy, quick experience – whether that’s filling up their tank, grabbing a few items they need, or both. But if shoppers head into a store and see a…
Fully Managed POS for When Ecommerce Gets Physical
As legendary online brands like Warby Parker and Amazon expand into physical retail, they face a highly complex process of integrating their established online infrastructure with their emerging in-store infrastructure. And for other smaller retailers who are expanding to physical stores and looking to implement click-and-collect, they require a system…
9 Questions to Ask When Evaluating a New POS Software Solution
We recently heard from a leading retailer that the next point of sale software they invest in will likely be their last. Why? Because they expect it to deliver every functionality they need today, at a fair cost, and grow with them and evolve alongside their needs. With the emergence…
No Checkout? Please. No POS? No Way.
Recent headlines show that more and more retailers are implementing new checkout concepts in the store. Cashierless checkout technologies behind store concepts like Amazon Go are quickly gaining popularity in an effort to meet consumers’ expectations. Mobile POS, associate mobile devices and smart carts are also helping retailers take away…
2018
The Importance of Data – Both Past and Present
We all know that a personalized shopping experience supports long-term customer loyalty – its what customers expect, and they reward those who provide it. In fact, 44 percent of consumers say they will repeat a purchase after a personalized shopping experience. By building up trust and a deeper relationship with…
How and Why to Own In-Store Mobile Engagements
Cell phones have become a fundamental companion for in-store in store shoppers, as they rely on them to research product information and reviews, conduct price comparisons, hunt for coupons, build recipes, and much more. But mobile devices must be made a complementary part of the brand experience, and not a…
3 Ways to Apply AI for Real-Time Retail: Part 2
AI has become a well-discussed term in recent years, finally moving from sci-fi pipe dream to real-deal opportunity for businesses to improve efficiency and service. As everyday shoppers, we experience the effect of AI as recipients of personalized advertising and product recommendations. That’s not all it can do, though, as…
3 Ways to Apply AI for Real-Time Retail: Part 1
AI has become a well-discussed term in recent years, finally moving from sci-fi pipe dream to real-deal opportunity for businesses to improve efficiency and service. As everyday shoppers, we experience the effect of AI as recipients of personalized advertising and product recommendations. That’s not all it can do, though, as…
Getting Your Backend IT Ready for the Grocery Revolution
The concept of the grocery store hasn’t changed all that much over the last few decades. Yes, we’ve seen mega-chains add grocery to their one-stop-shop approach and the emergence of online grocery has upended some traditional perceptions of how people choose to shop. But today, we’re facing a more fundamental…
The Opportunities and Challenges of Scan-and-Pay Technology
Today, the use of technology such as mobile devices and touchscreens is pervasive, with the vast majority of Americans owning smartphones. Because of this, customers are starting to accept and embrace technology into their shopping routine. As scan-as-you-shop technology gains popularity, we will see personal applications become the standard (as…
