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HP chooses Futura to produce 'POS in a box'

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HP has chosen Futura to design a simple EPOS and retail management system, Futura One, specifically for retailers with just one till.  HP and their partner Westcoast believe this will revolutionise the market for smaller retailers giving them strategic control of their business, to gain a competitive edge.

The new product includes a HP touchscreen EPOS unit; a receipt printer; barcode scanner; cash drawer and the Futura One retail software.  This has full POS functionality and all the tools found in sophisticated packages to streamline their operations.

Daniel Gowers, HP UK&I Retail Solutions Country Manager said: "We chose Futura because of their 30 years' of experience working with the world's leading speciality retailers, their proven technology and innovative management team.  They have pared back the tried and tested Futura system, to result in a stand alone, affordable product. We believe Futura One will give business owners infinitely more chance to manage and control their business, than just a cash register and spreadsheet."

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Futura One handles the product's complete life cycle, allowing items to be purchased, received into the business, sold, promoted and reported upon. This total control and visibility of products leads to better business decisions.  Its unique wizard helps get shop owners started, straight from the box.

Ian Royall, Managing Director of Futura Retail Solutions said: "Futura's proven technology is being used in 35,000  installations in retail outlets in 23 countries, and so we are delighted to have our 30 years of experience and retail strength recognised by a major IT presence like HP.  We think the product will be popular with one shop and speciality retailers in fashion, footwear and jewellery, convenience, gifts, music, books, stationery, art & craft, electrical & electronics, cosmetics, homewares and sporting goods."

New Version of Futura for 2012

NEW VERSION OF FUTURA’S RETAIL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM HELPS RETAILERS SAVE MONEY                                                                                         

-         With improved POS security and more promotional functionality

To help cut costs, act smarter, save money and avoid business failure, Futura Retail Solutions unveils a new version of its retail management software at RBTE 2012.   The new version, developed to meet the specific needs of UK retailers, offers an enhanced level of POS security to reduce shrinkage, give faster access to customer data and create more ‘value based’ promotions to help retailers to get and keep customers.

Lifestyle retailers such as Crew Clothing, 99p stores, Cath Kidston, Greenwoods Menswear, Herbert Brown and Linens Direct already use Futura as it is one of the most affordable, fully featured EPOS systems available. 

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Following customer input, including a major user with a 1000+ POS estate, Futura has increased POS security to help reduce fraud.  Tracking and authorisation levels have been upgraded to permit much stronger data mining and access control.  Additionally, technical settings to highlight suspicious user behaviour have been simplified.

Discounting, refunding and quick price changes at each till keep customer queues to a minimum, but now managers can retrieve customers’ gift card balances, gift voucher details and item information, much faster.  This not only saves time in accessing information, but also removes the need to add un-authorised staff to access the system.

 Ian Royall, Managing Director of Futura says: “We believe it’s our mission to give lifestyle retailers the right tools to improve efficiency and cut costs.  While Futura tracks customer purchase history, value and preference to show which offers customers like, these new ‘value based’ offers make it even easier to create compelling promotions to maximise customer spend. Futura’s intelligent stock replenishment algorithms help suggest allocations to store and web, helping to shrink stock exposure and achieve optimal stock levels.  Short term profit reports quickly identify top sellers and worst performers, giving managers the information to make further discounts or promotions and react faster to customer trends.” 

DM London Ltd chooses Futura for real time multi-channel stock availability

Pangbourne, 23 February 2012: DM London Ltd, the expert luxury and designer watch retailer, has chosen to replace Eurostop with Futura’s EPOS retail management solution to deliver ongoing improvements to customer service with real time stock availability across its channels. It is a multi channel implementation across DM London’s retail, concession and on-line business including thewatchgallery.co.uk and thewatchhut.co.uk and Selfridges, among others. 

Futura will be central to DM London’s multi-channel offering, supporting buyers and managing stock, replenishment and allocations in every channel to improve customer satisfaction. Importantly it will also provide real time stock availability across a number of partner websites including online fashion giant ASOS, Selfridges and John Lewis.

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DM London’s management team spent a year evaluating alternative retail systems before choosing Futura, as they wanted the right partner to “future proof” their business, with the capability to expand as their needs change.

Andrew Pratt, IT Manager of DM London says: “We chose Futura because it was the only complete package that ticked all the boxes, including affordability, reliability, ease of learning and its ability to reduce inventory without losing sales. A key requirement was the ability to quickly and effortlessly capture customer information to enable us to provide a better service, such as offering particular pieces to discerning clients.”

Andrew Pratt added: “We are also interested in Analyser, Futura’s business intelligence reporting tool for flexible dynamic reporting and are looking to pilot Futura’s planned RFID offering to help with our stock taking.”

Published in Retail Technology Review

Published in Retail Systems

Menarys launch new reward card to increase customer satisfaction

Using new integrated Futura4Loyalty with text alerts

Pangbourne, 25 July 2011: Menarys, Northern Ireland’s most popular department store group, has just installed Futura’s integrated loyalty module, Futura4Loyalty, to support a new reward card scheme across its store network.    Menarys will be using mobile, email and social media to text, email and post offers and build awareness of the scheme.

Branded ‘Reward Me’, the scheme provides customers with a flexible points based scheme which enables Menarys to collect and analyse customer data to see exactly what customers are buying and to create promotions and offers more precisely targeted to specific age ranges and regions.  Menarys are also benefiting from a knowledge transfer project with Ulster University to develop accurate customer profiles, which are key to success.

Jacqueline Beattie of Menarys said: “It’s very important for us to reward our customers.  We will now personalise offers and special promotions and send invitations to fashion evenings, advance notice of sale previews in exchange for contact details.  We believe that it is important to build a knowledge base and Futura4Loylaty provides an easy and affordable option.  By making our offers more relevant, there will be a greater take up, more customer satisfaction and so we confidently expect a quick ROI.”

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An integrated system, Futura4Loyalty, required no extra procedures or equipment at the till, it was easy to install and quick for staff to capture customer transactional information and contact details. To guarantee fast uptake of the scheme, there was an inter-branch competition at launch, resulting in many stores signing up over 200 customers on the first day with 5000 (in the first week) and 12,000 in 13 days.

Dolores Murtagh, Business Support Manager, added: “Because Futura is so familiar to our staff, they were very happy to push Reward Me as it’s no extra trouble for them to take details at the till.  If there is a queue at the till, the customer can instead take the card away and activate it by email or online for future purchases. We’re really delighted with this excellent take up and can’t wait to see the results of our first double points promotion.”

Menarys customers use a personalised loyalty card to collect points - 1 for every £1/€1 spent – and the system automatically applies standard or promotional points for each transaction.  When 100 points are reached, they are converted to a voucher worth £5/€5 and sent out quarterly, with written details of promotions, to each customer.  The vouchers are redeemable at any of its 20 stores in Northern Ireland and Eire and the first double point promotion went live on 3rd June.

Dolores added: “In future we intend to use Futura Analyser, to provide even more detailed understanding of customer buying patterns, to enhance customer profiles and so decide upon future promotions and incentives which will best reward our customers.”

 


Bosideng

Leading Chinese fashion retailer chooses Futura Retail Software for its London flagship store 

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Bosideng, one of China’s leading apparel companies with over 7,500 stores, is choosing Futura’s retail management software to power its London flagship store.  The six-story Bosideng Building at 28 South Molton Street, near Oxford Street in West End London, will devote three floors of retail trading space for luxury menswear including tailoring, casual wear and accessories.
The flagship store brings China’s leading apparel brand to the UK and will also house the brand's headquarters in Europe.  The store is scheduled for official launch this summer.
In addition to Futura’s EPOS and retail management software, Bosideng is purchasing Futura4Loyalty, a fully integrated reward card system that tracks individual customer spending activity, automatically applying loyalty points to each transaction to be redeemed in store to build customer loyalty.
Paula Moffatt,  Merchandising  Director said:

“Futura’s comprehensive reporting ability, unmatched merchandising qualities and affordability make it the natural choice for us. We plan to use Futura’s gift cards and loyalty system to drive loyalty and increase customer spending, particularly this summer when tourism should rise for the 2012 Olympics.”


Established in 1976 and a public company floating in Hong Kong Stock Exchange,  Bosideng had annual sales of Rmb 7.04 billion (£681 million)  for financial year 2010/11.>

Published in Retail Technology Review

Published on the (RBTE) Retail Business Technology Expo website

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