If you're a specialty apparel store owner, you know how difficult it is to keep business thriving - especially against large retailers. Microsoft Retail Management System, an affordable, easy-to-implement software solution, can help you streamline business processes so your store grows more profitability.

Microsoft Retail Management System is designed to help you, the specialty apparel store retailers, improve business processes. Among other things, you can improve your apparel business by setting up specialized item matrices for easy look-up, create custom sales and inventory reports on what's selling and customize point-of-sale (POS) displays to help employees speak knowledgeably.

Click here for the Gift/Hobby Shop Retailer Specific Interactive Demo - Get Flash Player

Here's a checklist of seven, key benefits for gift and hobby store retailers from Microsoft Retail Management System.

1. Effective, inventory tracking

Apparel retailers need to know when to restock popular items — and when to eliminate items dragging down profits. Microsoft Retail Management System helps you get complete, accurate, and current information so you can make intelligent reordering choices. It's adaptable to your unique needs.

• 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.
• Produce assembly kits and items.
• Track inventory by specifics, such as weighed, measured, and by bin.
• Manage an unlimited number of inventory items and transactions.
• Place items on backorder for future deliveries from the POS.
• Automate your inventory replenishment based on reorder point/restock level or quantity sold. Compare multiple suppliers and their pricing on individual items.
• Create purchase orders that reflect the matrices you set up within your system.

2. Enhance your customers' shopping experience

• Your sales staff will have access to complete customer information that helps them sell more effectively. They will also be able to process complex transactions seamlessly. You can also:

  • Capture, show, or hide customer contact and demographics on the POS screen.
  • Instantly access a complete history of customer purchases, payments, and account information at the POS. Suggest relevant up-sells, sale items, and volume discounts to customers.
  • Reprint electronic receipts to resolve disputes, speed rebates, and verify purchase dates and amounts.
  • Target your mailings directly to customers' special interests.
  • Accommodate partial payments and account payments.
  • Handle work orders, backorders, layaways, and quotes. Grant automatic discounts and differential pricing to special customers. Serve others while keeping a stalled transaction "on hold."
  • Accept multiple tenders, credit cards, debit cards, coupons, gift vouchers, foreign currencies, and government stamps.
  • Sell when your network is down.

3. Save time and money

Jump-start productivity at your specialty apparel store with a solution that's easy to learn and use, yet offers the power and flexibility you need to adapt quickly within a changing marketplace.

• Installs and easily set up Microsoft Retail Management System Store Operations so that employees can learn POS functions in minutes.
• Lock out — or empower — any employee's access to sensitive data.
• Automate inventory management to reduce shrinkage and slow-moving items.
• Speed time-consuming tasks; for example, use wizards to bulk-update prices and inventory data.
• Know which employees sell best. Predict which days or hours to staff up — or cut back.

4. Use customizable management tools

You'll have the power to quickly identify sales trends and track results from sales campaigns because you'll have immediate insight into daily transactions and operations.

• Configure your point-of-sale screens to show exactly the information your cashiers and sales clerks need.
• Customize receipts and price labels with logos and promotional messages.
• Use various pricing structures for markups and discounts.
• Set up new sales and promotions — fast.
• Get intelligent information for buying with ordering levels, best-price suppliers, and automatic POS.
• Make our wizards do your work. It takes just minutes to input new items, manage inventory, and perform everyday chores.
• Create different security levels for each employee. Data fields can be hidden, view-only, or changeable.

7. Grows with your business

Ready to open a new store? You can help protect your investment and keep the same software and systems as your business grows into multiple stores and retail channels with Microsoft Retail Management System. Here's a few things to keep in mind:

• You can add new lanes or stores to your system with minimal disruptions to retail service.
• A common point-of-sale platform that spans single or multi-store locations is offered through Microsoft Retail Management System.
• Add customers and products to your system, and flexible Microsoft SQL Server technologies let you store and manage virtually unlimited amounts of information.
• Invest in your business, not in IT support. Microsoft Retail Management System does not require an expensive IT staff to set up and maintain, and it adapts to meet specific retail needs. As your business changes and grows, your Microsoft Certified Business Solutions Partner can provide support and assistance with customizing, integrating, and scaling your solution.
• Count on Microsoft. Start a long-lasting relationship backed by one of the world's leading technology providers. Microsoft Business Solutions is a family of connected applications and services for small and mid-sized businesses, with years of experience delivering business applications and services known worldwide for top quality.

Want an affordable software/hardware solution bundle for apparel retailers?

To smooth your transition to a computerized solution, P.O.S. Direct is now offering an affordable solution: Retail bundles. The bundles are all-in-one software/hardware solutions tailored to apparel shop owners. Learn more about the apparel bundles.

Besides Microsoft Retail Management System, version 1.3, you'll get in our deluxe apparel bundle:

• Attractive, color-coordinated point-of-sale unit. We know that specialty apparel retailers can be style conscious, so we're offering an attractive POS terminal with a small footprint. Your customers, and employees, will be impressed by its neat look. It creates a no-clutter atmosphere at the check-out line.
• Special trigger scanner. Your job at your specialty apparel store is hard enough, so we've included a rapid scanner that's ideal for accurately scanning merchandise — of all types, style and size of merchandise — and with the busy retailer in mind.

In addition, you'll get a retail-hardened, point-of-sale computer, LCD touch screen monitor with MSR, keyboard, cash drawer, line display, and required cable/accessories/mouse.

Already have some of the hardware components? Great.  Contact Red River POS about how to incorporate Microsoft Retail Management System.

You and your employees can learn POS processes in minutes, not days — so there's no need to worry about making the transition from traditional cash registers.