Since the start of the pandemic, gardening soared in popularity, as it was a safe activity to undertake while homebound. But it also has required gardening centers to change with the times. As a retailer, investing in tools to optimize your gardening business can make it more efficient and increase sales.
Customers’ expectations have grown, so it’s important to stay ahead of the curve. Let’s discover the most effective and innovative ways to do so.
Durable Hardware
Garden centers can sometimes be dirty, dusty and damp. Investing in durable industry-hardened hardware, such as NCR’s CX7, can give owners peace of mind when spills, dirt, and other outdoor elements make a mess. This way the focus can be on making sales and providing expert customer service, rather than all of that constant repairing or replacing.
Inventory Management
A great POS system will also help with inventory management. Regardless of the size of your company, an inventory management system is pretty vital. It keeps track of your gardening supplies, plants and outdoor furniture so you know when it’s time to re-order. When a sudden change in demand occurs, employees will be ready without sacrificing the customer experience and service. The RCS custom-built integration, MIMS (Mobile Inventory Management System), works in harmony with NCR Counterpoint to easily track inventory by type of product, size and alternate units of measure. Not to mention, it saves time, improves accuracy, and transfers data directly to Counterpoint via an API.
Meeting An Increased Demand
Consumers are no longer satisfied with just plants as an offering at a garden center. They want outdoor furniture, gardening supplies, trees, decor and decorations. Another way to provide the ultimate customer experience is to supply delivery options, especially for larger items. At RCS we see simplified delivery as an inescapable trend moving forward.
The Entire Experience
An enterprise-level point-of-sale solution allows garden centers to adapt easily to changing demand by analyzing and collecting customer data. Counterpoint is seen as an enterprise-level system because it’s not just point-of-sale. NCR Counterpoint can do it all, it connects to your ecommerce site, manages your warehouse, integrates with your accounting software, has a built-in loyalty program and much more! When you invest in a robust solution that can handle the entire customer experience you can focus more on what you do best, running your business.
Retaining Customers
Counterpoint’s built-in Loyalty Program is another way to attract and retain customers. Offering discounts, incentives, and rewards keep customers coming back to your garden center and not the competitors. This can be accomplished through apps, websites or cards.
Mobile sales are expected to almost double in the next few years. Mobile marketing can increase sales when you follow strategies such as creating “stores” on social media platforms like Instagram, accepting easy online payment options such as Apple Pay, and optimizing your company’s website for mobile sales.
Garden Center business owners must evolve to keep up with innovative technology to run businesses to their maximum potential. Decreasing operating expenses, increasing employee productivity, and managing inventory will prepare your business for 2023.
