Features of the Microsoft Retail Management System Apparel Edition

Efficient Inventory Tracking and Replenishment

Apparel retailers like you need to know at the drop of a hat, which styles are hot and which ones are not moving. To effectively meet customer demand, Microsoft Retail Management System Store Operations gives you the agility and the confidence that the information in your system is complete, accurate and most of all, current.

• Easily track and manage hard goods, soft goods, and convenience items
• Work with Matrix and lot Matrix methods
• Simplify inventory tracking with serialized items and multiple serial numbers
• Easily produce assembly kits and items
• Manage an unlimited number of inventory items and transactions.
• Put items on backorder for future deliveries from the Headstart
• Support multiple suppliers for each item
• Easily create purchase orders that reflect the matrices you set up within your system
• Define the Matrix properties of your inventory in a way that makes sense to you

Enhance Customers Shopping Experience

Sales staff can learn how to process complex transactions seamlessly and access complete customer information that lets them sell more effectively. The Microsoft Retail Management System Store Operations also works with the Microsoft Office System, making it easy to create and deliver communications that connect you with your customers.

• Capture, show, or hide customer contact and demographics on the Headstart screen
• Instantly access a complete history of purchases, payments, and account information at the Headstart
• Accommodate partial payments and account payments
• Suggest relevant up-sells, sale items, and volume discounts
• Target your mailings directly to customers’ special interests
• Grant automatic discounts and differential pricing to certain customers
• Reprint electronic receipts to resolve disputes, speed rebates, and verify purchase dates and amounts
• Serve others while keeping a stalled transaction on hold
• Accept multiple tenders: Credit cards, coupons, gift vouchers, foreign currencies, and government stamps
• Sell even when your network is down
• Build rapport and up-sells using customers buying histories
• Leverage customers buying histories to easily market to their preferences
• Remind customers of items they normally purchase and may have forgotten
• Handle work orders, backorders, layaways, and quotes

Save Time and Money

Jumpstart productivity with a solution that’s easy to learn and use, yet offers the power and flexibility you need to quickly adapt to a changing marketplace. Store Operations installs and sets up easily, and employees can learn Headstart functions in minutes

• Lock out, or empower any employees' access to sensitive data
• Automate inventory management to reduce shrinkage and slow moving items
• Speed time consuming tasks; use wizards to bulk-update prices and inventory data
• Know which associates sell best. Predict what days and hours to staff up — or cut back
• Check availability for a customer's specific requests

Customizable Management Tools

Get help managing every aspect of your store easily and efficiently. You’ll have immediate insight into daily transactions and operations; just as important, you’ll have the power to quickly identify sales trends and track results from individual sales campaigns

• Configure Headstart screens to display exactly the information your clerks need
• Customize receipts and price labels with logos and promotional messages
• Utilize flexible pricing structures for markups and discounts
• Choose several different ways to set up new sales and promotions — fast
• Streamline buying with ordering levels, best-price suppliers, and automatic Headstart
• Make Store Operations wizards do the work for you. It takes just minutes to input new items, manage inventory, and perform everyday chores using the wizards
• Protect menus and fields with built-in security features based on cashier security levels. Data fields can be hidden, view-only, or changed to suit your needs

Quick, Comprehensive, Flexible Reports

Accurate and timely data will help you make better decisions. Know exactly what sold best in every department, category, and season; quickly decide what to buy or mark down, and track return on investment for marketing initiatives

• Generate sales and inventory reports that help make it easy to decide what to buy or mark down
• Track return on investment from your ads, mailings, promotions, sales, and discounts
• Preview, print, or export data in multiple formats
• Filter, hide, sort, and group data the way you like to see it
• Add logos and graphics to formal reports
• Drill down to modify the database directly from reports

Centralized Information and Easy Connection to Other Systems

Whether you want to generate custom sales reports, send financials to your accounting program, or sell through an ecommerce storefront, Microsoft Retail Management System Store Operations can help. Built on the latest Microsoft technologies, this integrated solution keeps information moving smoothly across your entire business. With the help of a Microsoft partner, you can connect easily with other applications, platforms, and peripherals

• Microsoft Retail Management System Store Operations can be integrated with legacy systems, accounting or financial software, Electronic Draft Capture (EDC), credit card services, and e-commerce storefronts
• Make in-store traffic, catalog sales, phone, and e-commerce orders feed each other
• Manage accounts receivable in Store Operations, then trade summary Headstart data with popular accounting software to eliminate double entry
• Use EDC and integrate with leading credit card services to reduce fraud and keyboard errors
• The rmsWebLinx program enables you to smoothly integrate web sales from your internet store
• Use the Microsoft Retail Management System Store Operations Headstart as a data collector for back-end Electronic Retail
• Planning (ERP)/Customer Relationship Management (CRM) applications
• Set up your system to enable PDA and mobile/wireless stations
• Ship and track orders online

Expand Economically

Microsoft Retail Management System Store Operations conforms to the way you sell and work by providing you with the information tools retail blockbusters use; customer purchase histories, electronic receipts, gift certificate tracking, and more. With the help of a Microsoft partner, you can enhance your solution to include business-to-business, e-commerce, and CRM/ERP connectivity. As your business grows, you can add new lanes or stores to your system with minimal disruptions to customer service.

Store Operations offers a common point-of-sale platform that spans single or multi-store locations. You can start with basic point-of-sale functionality, and later tap into a broad set of retail management tools available, or add Microsoft Retail Management System Headquarters as your business requirements change.