Epicor Introduces Retail Enterprise Store Central, Mobile Marketing

Epicor Software Corp. introduced Epicor Retail Enterprise Store Central for the multi-channel retail enterprise.

The solution, via a unique multi-channel transaction adapter, simplifies the task of enabling the full spectrum of POS and enterprise sales functions across stores and channels, allowing retailers to more effectively manage transactions and customer engagement. It serves as a single integration point for transaction “basket” logic; the adapter integrates data from all channels in real time, ensuring accurate inventory information and pricing information across channels, and thus blending the e-commerce and brick-and-mortar experience for simplified shopping and streamlined information management. The solution also alleviates the problem of having to deploy separate POS platforms to handle in-store and web/online transactions, respectively, and provides a seamless shopping experience for customers.

The show was also the setting for Epicor’s demonstration of its mobile marketing capabilities via live text messaging that showed retailers how to employ more creativity and strategy in this process. Noting that the U.S. read rate for opt-in message is already very high at 95 percent, Epicor says retailers are still often missing the real opportunity of this marketing method by employing “underwhelming” text messaging efforts that are not successful in driving revenue or conversion.

Epicor’s Mobile Marketing solution is designed to help retailers develop personal connections with customers, encouraging more interaction with the store and better brand and customer loyalty. Guided by in-store displays, customers can text a key word to a short code to get information about that product. They will receive a text message with an embedded link to a mobile optimized web page where they can view product information, pricing, consumer reviews and ultimately purchase the product. Consumers may also find features such as store locators, “send to friend,” and sign up for text message alerts for on-going specials, offers and promotions.

In mobile news on the store side, Epicor also demonstrated its retail applications on the Apple iPad and Apple iPhone, devices that retailers can use to place orders, process sales transactions, and support other retail applications such as business intelligence, enterprise selling and customer relationship management from any location.

for more information: www.epicor.com