Intelligent Retailing with Pegasus Pets

Posted on April 12, 2012 by Rosalind

Pegasus Pets – To Morcambe and beyond with Intelligent Retail’s Connect EPoS

Electronic point of sale systems have become integral to the modern retailer. The demands for a till system that can provide a variety of operations is incredibly important. It needs to integrate with online services and be easy to use, while providing customer incentives.

For retailers such as Pegasus Pets, they’re able to bring their business bang up to date. This large pet shop is based in Morcambe, Lancashire. Not only supplying nearby customers from the store, but also further out into Lancashire, Cumbria and the Lake District. Pegasus Pets provides its customers with basics such as tinned and packet pet food, collars, accessories, fish tanks and vivariums for reptiles. Owners of all kinds of pets have come to regard Pegasus Pets as the place they go to first for supplies.

As you’d imagine, a popular shop like this is very busy, and there’s very little time to devote to training on a till system. Fortunately, Connect by Intelligent Retail is a system that’s able to provide ease of use with a minimum of training time. You don’t have to be particularly tech savvy, as even the most basic of computer use will help operate the system. Connect has been designed to be intuitive and practical.

For a shop like Pegasus Pets, the demands to provide a smart and effective service for a wide customer base. But it’s not just regional customers that the shop provides products for; Pegasus Pets also has an eCommerce site, www.pegasuspets.co.uk. When it comes to stock management between a bricks and mortar store and a retail website, things can get tricky. Fortunately, Connect is able to handle order information from different channels. For example, if someone orders dog food on Sunday night, a note will appear ready on Monday morning. This means that the item will be taken from stock and ready to pick and pack.

Innovations like these have invigorated businesses, opening them up to online opportunities that have been difficult to manage in the past. Intelligent Retail’s Connect system also allows for true multichannel, providing smart upload of product information not only to the shop’s till, but to the website, or even to an eBay shop or Amazon marketplace store.

Such innovations have helped to make Connect a truly premium service that’s tailor made for independent and small retailers across the UK.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | Comments Off on Intelligent Retailing with Pegasus Pets

The Importance of Trade Fairs

Posted on April 2, 2012 by Rosalind

As a retailer, you can rely on magazines and the internet to help you source products. However, nothing really matches going to a trade fair and seeing for yourself how products look and feel. Getting to really know the products first before you commit to selling them in your shop is essential. It also means there’s no nasty surprises, such as realising an item isn’t quite what you expected or you perhaps overestimated the popularity of the products.

You also get the chance the meet the suppliers themselves and therefore build friendly and long-lasting working relationships. There really is a lot of value in chatting face-to-face with the people you’re going to be dealing with later on, and you can get a much better idea of whether it’s really going to work for you.

The Autumn Fair is held at the NEC in Birmingham and is the largest home and gift buying event of the season with over 1,600 UK and international exhibitors. This trade fair also grows continuously with each passing year and the location is perfect for retailers across the country to access easily. Tthe popularity of this trade fair ensures you can be pretty sure that you’ll be able to discover the very best products to sell in your store.

Trade fairs such as these often have a lot more to offer than just products though – you’ll find live shows and catwalk shows in fashion sectors, insightful seminars and demo areas where you can pick up practical tips like gift wrapping and much more.
The seminars can cover a broad range of subjects from how to improve your website, to getting more visitors to your website. Intelligent Retail are a company that cover these sorts of subjects in their seminars for the Autumn Fair.

Throughout the fair, there are ‘feature areas’ designed to help your buying decisions and they are brilliant interactive zones to show you exclusive products and live demonstrations. Sign up free to visit the Autumn Fair and you’ll be able to get lots of guides to ensure you don’t miss anything.

There is so much to learn and so much to see at the Autumn Fair that one day is simply not enough! So book a short stay at a hotel or B&B close by to really get the most out of this great eye-opening event.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | Comments Off on The Importance of Trade Fairs

Computer EPoS program for shop owners

Posted on October 18, 2011 by Rosalind

If you’re in retail then you just have to use any method to streamline the amount of time required to manage your business.  Years ago stock management and money management was done manually, with a mixture of methods ranging from manual cash tills to electronic versions of these tills, but with the invention of cheap, readily available computing power it’s now possible to have a fully functional Electronic Point of Sale system combined with integrated stock control using a computer EPoS program running on a variety of operating systems on a home PC system, laptop or even a tablet PC.

The introduction of this sort of integrated technology means that not only does the retailer benefit from knowing immediately what is in stock and what isn’t, a computer EPoS program can allow true multichannel selling across a variety of offline and online selling channels, so websites like Ebay and Amazon as well as Google Products and a fully functioning eCommerce website can all be tied into the same system.  Why is this good?  Well, because all channels are tied into the same computer EPoS program the system can control all channels, which offers ‘drag and drop’ from a central interface to these external websites and also all orders decrement the same stock tree – there’s never a problem of overselling stock or confusion of where the sales came from and everything can be accounted for.

This in turn means that the retailer can spend more time business planning and less time trying to find out who bought what and if there is any stock to fulfill the order!

For the bridal costume jewellery retail business this type of technology is fantastic as it really streamlines things – let’s face it many jewellery retailers hold hundreds if not many thousands of items in stock, so being able to tell instantly if something is in stock or not is a major advantage!

We’d recommend that everyone get’s a good computer EPoS program for their retail business!

Posted in News and Updates | Comments Off on Computer EPoS program for shop owners

Costume Wedding Jewellery

Posted on September 12, 2011 by Rosalind

If you’re looking for a great range of costume wedding jewellery then look no further than Ulla Jewellery in Greenock, Scotland. Ulla offer a wide range of delicate costume wedding jewellery which has been designed to make a statement – with Swarovski crystals and beads which complement gold and silver detailing, all wrapped up with a selection of design touches which make this jewellery perfect for your special day.

You can find the full range of costume wedding jewellery at the www.ullajewellery.co.uk website which offers free postage to UK addresses as well as secure online shopping.

Posted in News and Updates | Comments Off on Costume Wedding Jewellery

December Birthstones

Posted on December 31, 2010 by Rosalind

On the seventh day of Christmas, what better topic to start with than the birthstones for December?

Turquoise is the main birthstone for this month, and as befits a winter talisman, it has long been thought to relieve depression and confer protection against misfortune or harm. This lovely blue stone is seen as a sign of friendship when given as a gift, as it is said to bring faithfulness and constancy in relationships — a quality you may well wish to reinforce when you’re celebrating more than just friendship.

Turquoise jewellery display.

Turquoise jewellery for sale at Greenwich Village. Image © Sarah Ross

As one of the oldest gemstones, turquoise has been regarded as a holy stone for thousands of years by many cultures across the globe. In fact, it wasn’t until the 14th century that a decline in the Roman Catholic Church’s influence allowed turquoise to be widely used in Western secular jewellery. Though real turquoise can be fragile and somewhat expensive, a wide range of treated, colour enhanced, reconstructed or imitation turquoise is available, allowing beautiful sky-blue jewellery to span a broad price range.

Other birthstones for December across various traditions include ruby, blue topaz, onyx and zircon. Those born this month fall under the star signs Sagittarius and Capricorn, the latter of which we’ll cover in January. Topaz, beryl, lapiz lazuli and citrine are significant gemstones for Sagittarius, while the lucky metal and colours for this sign offer extra inspiration: tin jewellery may not feature prominently in your dream wedding, but shades of light blue and purple could well fit a winter wonderland theme. Dandelion and narcissus are the Sagittarius flowers, and while I couldn’t imagine the former in any but the quirkiest of bouquets, the latter features in many gorgeous designs. Narcissus may have connotations of vanity, but it also has positive meanings pertaining to the sweetness of whoever receives it.

Spring wedding bouquet with narcissi.

Spring wedding bouquet with narcissi. Image © Karen Morgan.

Happy holidays, and happy new year for tomorrow!

Sources:

Barbara Case. (2007) Making Jewellery with Gemstone Beads. UK: David & Charles Ltd.

Hachette Livre UK. (2006) Wedding Bouquets. UK: Octopus Publishing Group Ltd.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turquoise

Karen Morgan: http://www.flickr.com/people/46603454@N02/

Sarah Ross: http://www.flickr.com/people/23680544@N07/

Posted in Birthstones | Tagged , | Comments Off on December Birthstones

Welcome to Bridal Costume Jewellery!

Posted on December 16, 2010 by Rosalind

Welcome to Bridal Costume Jewellery, an informational site on the myriad beautiful styles of costume jewellery available to all brides-to-be, with a focus on the traditional meanings behind semi-precious stones and symbolic designs. Every aspect of a wedding is steeped in custom and tradition; if you want the jewellery you wear on the day to match your bouquet and engagement ring in more ways than one, watch this space!

Best wishes

Rosalind

Posted in News and Updates | Tagged | Comments Off on Welcome to Bridal Costume Jewellery!