US retailers are anticipating strong demand tomorrow as the Thanksgiving holiday moves into Black Friday — supposedly the day retailers start to go into the black for the year — with consumer stocks leading a rebound on Wall Street on improving data on jobs, personal income and spending.

US economists are also hoping consumer spending will make up for pervading weakness in business investment and the housing market. But it is not yet clear if consumers, who accounts for 70% of economic activity in the US, are willing to take up the challenge.

“We feel better about the economy and the holiday season than we have in some time,” the National Retail Federation’s Scott Krugman told the Detroit News.

This retail season is expected to be the strongest since 2006, according to the International Council of Shopping Centres, with sales at stores expected to increase 3%. The National Retail Federation estimates holiday sales to reach $447.1bn (£283.7bn), up 2.3% on last year.

But after two years of anaemic sales, retailers are not taking any chances. While 31% of households plan to shop tomorrow, compared with 26% last year, retailers are concerned that shoppers have become inured to Black Friday deals, which sometimes surface as early as mid-summer.

“The word ‘sale‘ is pretty much meaningless today,” said Tod Marks, a Consumer Reports senior editor. “That doesn’t get people to raise their eyebrows. Retailers need to up the ante to get people to take a second look.”

Taking advantage of shoppers‘ desire for deals and willingness to camp out all night to get a discount flat-panel TV, some retailers now open on Thanksgiving itself, a move akin to doing business on Christmas Day.

Analysts say the growing popularity of online shopping has contributed to the acceptance of shopping on a day traditionally reserved for eating. Wal-Mart, the largest US retailer, now opens at midnight. But the so-called “doorbusters” – heavily discounted electronics goods that typically draw consumers prepared to queue up – will not go on sale until 5am because of a stampede for TVs at a Long Island branch two years ago that resulted in a security guard being trampled to death.

Retailers say they need every advantage they can get to get people shopping, whether or not that overturns tradition. Still, some retailers are resisting pressure to open on the holiday. “Somebody else is chasing a dollar? Let them do it,” Kevin Mansell, chief executive of the discount chain Kohl’s, told the Wall Street Journal. “I think our associates, and frankly our customers, deserve time with their families and that’s what Thanksgiving is about.”

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Vishal Retail Chairman and Managing Director Ram Chandra Agarwal said the company is yet to receive the latest order of the Court that stayed the proposed sale, following a plea by Deutsche Bank. “There is no formal information about the same and we shall act accordingly once the formal information is received,” Agarwal said.

The announcement to sell the different operations of the company was made despite a restraining order by the Delhi High Court in May. On May 11 this year passing an interim order, Justice SK Mishra had directed Vishal Retail to not to sell or dispose off its assets till November 25, after a plea filed by the Singapore-based DBS Bank to wind up the debt-ridden retail chain.

In its latest announcement, Vishal Retail had said while TPG will buy the wholesale trading, institutional sales and franchise operations, Shriram will get hold of the ‘retail trading undertaking’ of the retailer. Last year, the company underwent a corporate debt restructuring programme to clear its Rs 730-crore debt. The company’s scrip on Monday closed at Rs 50.55 per share on the Bombay Stock Exchange, registering a low of 1.75 per cent, compared to the previous close.

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Future Group registered an SSS growth of 30-40% during Independence Day sales. While it recently concluded its five-day long ‘Mahabachat’ across its outlets (Big Bazaar and Food Bazaar), Shoppers Stop and Hypercity is continuing with their annual sales. For Shoppers Stop, the sale ends on September 5.

Reportedly, Future Group was targeting Rs 800-crore sales during the five-day promotional period. Kishore Biyani, founder & CEO, Future Group, said, “These activations and promotions give boost of almost 30-40% to the same-store-sales growth as well as the overall revenues of the retail business.”

Although Biyani refused to divulge the revenues earned during the five-day offer, Rakesh Biyani, CEO of the Group’s retail business, said it was the largest trading week for Future Value Retail. A spokesperson confirmed that the company did a business of Rs 100 crore across its 132 Big Bazaars and 185 Food Bazaars on the Independence Day itself. For these activities to be successful, a lot depends on the negotiating power of a retailer with its suppliers.

The fortnight sale at Hypercity, headed by BS Nagesh, started from August 14. It had offered an up to 50% discount on apparels, accessories, home ware and appliances to gadgets across all its stores. However, for Shoppers Stop, which posted a better-than-expected SSS growth of 21% in the first quarter of FY11, the sale is biannual and would extend till September 5.

Govind Shrikhande, managing director, Shoppers Stop, said, “We don’t have a particular figure as far as expectations from these sales are concerned. Typically, these sales, along with summer and winter sales, contribute to about 20% to the overall business.”

The biannual sale at Shoppers Stop is under apparel and non-apparel verticals across 80 product categories, excluding cosmetics. For Hypercity, this would be its annual sale since it is mostly into food grocery, which is not seasonal.

RPG group-led Spencer’s Retail has about four to five major yearly events such as Republic Day in January, Independence Day in August, Regional new years in April, the festival time in October and New year in December. A Spencer’s spokesperson said, “These annual events have always been sale boosters since all of them are major buying instances for the consumers. We induce more buying by giving offers/discounts in relevant products. The recently concluded Independence Day promo at Spencer’s registered a 20% increase in footfalls.”

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Most retailers have at least 1 station per store for check out as well as another system in the back office for store managers and inventory use. On the flip side, larger retailers average 25 to 100 + stations per store. But these days, without the right POS solution, retailers potentially forfeit thousands of dollars in profit.

The best POS systems link sales, inventory, purchasing, loyalty and bookkeeping and are able to plug-in to the business’ high speed internet connection. They can process credit card and check authorizations very quickly, as compared to the usual dial-up connection of an ordinary “black box” credit card terminal.

POS Software - All in One Retail Point of Sale Software - Credit Card Processing - Store Management Features, 90 Days Money Back, Free Updates/e-mail Support/video Tutorials

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Retail Price: Varies based on product options

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Needless to say, before embarking on a store systems purchase in these times, a retailer will need to talk with industry colleagues, solution providers and analyst to determine what solutions fit their business, enable them to differentiate in the market and most importantly, meeting their objectives for long term growth and scalability. In addition, store systems strategy for the coming decade will require retailers to be mindful of the digitally savvy consumers.

Be cautious, therefore, about setting up with any proprietary POS software systems.  These systems are designed to run only under that merchant processor and you will be locked in to any future processing rate increases they decide to impose.  To upgrade or replace them down the road would be a costly effort. As the industry has demonstrated over the last 15 years, spending less up front will cost more down the road.

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POS Terminal: How many should I purchase?

1. Peak customer volume – When handling peak customer volume, you need to have a plan to be able to sufficiently serve them all.
2. Number of employees taking orders – One station per 3-5 servers would be sufficient in a table service environment. High volume areas such as bars and cashier stations may need to have a dedicated station for that purpose. When switching from a standard cash register to a POS system, many people unintentionally forget that their POS system is not only used to conduct sale transactions but for order entry as well.
3. Restaurant layout – A good restaurant layout affects your employee’s service. So if you have a bar, assigning a separate station for your bar tender would be easier since he can serve customers from there quickly.
4. How and where you plan to have customers pay for their meals – Having proper locations where customers can pay for their meals is also important, you don’t want to keep them waiting do you? For paying at the front, you should have one or two dedicated cashier stations to allow speedy transactions.

What type of POS computer should I use for my business?

Desktop – The standard desktop type has the following pros

• Least expensive computer option
• Has onsite warranty for 3 years
• Takes more space but can be hidden away under a counter
• Flexible enough for adding extra ports
• Latest CPU speeds and memory
• Screen and computer are separate; if ever technical difficulties occur, it’ll be isolated.

Small form factor (SFF) – Originally phrased as shuttle form factor, a smaller type of computer.

• More stylish than the desktop
• Has 3 years standard onsite warranty
• Saves more space
• Fewer options for expandability
• Latest CPU speeds and memory
• Screen and computer are separate; so you can easily isolate which ones has technical difficulties.

All-in-one terminals – Combined touch screen and computer.

• More efficient because it requires fewer wires least space, even more stylish
• 1-2 Year Manufacturers Warranty (Not onsite)
• Comes standard with sufficient ports for almost any operation
• CPU speed is generally slower than the other two options but sufficient for the Point of Sale needs.
• Screen and Computer are one unit

How many cash drawers are ideal for my retail business?

This is probably fairly self-evident, but unless your servers carry their own cash bank you should have a cash drawer at every station you want for ending transactions.

Should I have Credit card processing on POS?

• You can easily process and track record of every credit card transactions using your POS system in one location.
• With the advance of high speed internet transactions processing time can reduced to 3-4 seconds per transaction.
• In case you do not have high speed internet, a standalone terminal can be used for processing.

How many printers must a typical restaurant have?

• Having one kitchen printer would be sufficient for your restaurant, not unless you have different sections serving different dishes inside your kitchen then it would be better if you place printers on all sections.
• For example, appetizers can be printed on one printer and have your entire main dish printed on another.
• We recommend dot-matrix printers over thermal printers for kitchens and bars because their loud printing alerts cooks and bartenders that an order is coming through and because tickets printed on thermal paper become unreadable when exposed to heat.

Is it essential to have more than 1 receipt printer?

• Since you’re going to have more than one station, you would likely need more than just one receipt printer.

Do I need a back office computer?

• A back office computer is good for allowing managers to run reports, access the system to make changes to menu, check inventory levels, or adjust employee time clock times, without disturbing servers and cashiers.
• It’s not quite necessary to have a back office computer for your restaurant, if you only have 2-3 stations. It is however a great idea to host the database on a back office computer if you have 4 or more stations so that none of the stations has the additional load of running the database.

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