The Retail industry is undergoing a profound transformation, pushed by technologies like E-Commerce, mobile devices and social networks that are revolutionizing the way people shop. Many retailers, both traditional stores as well as E Commerce companies, are trying to respond to this new world and struggling with their legacy Retail management systems (traditionally showing a high degree of customization), which are too rigid to support these new needs. Retailers looking to escape from their legacy systems face significant challenges around cost, time-to-market, flexibility and/or lack of a complete functionality, which are delaying their decision, resulting in a big risk for their future growth.
The new Openbravo for Retail solution was designed to meet these challenges, and three months after its launch, the inputs from the market are very positive, as we confirmed at retail events in Hong Kong, Paris and Mexico. Openbravo for Retail provides the required agility and affordability, along with an improved shopping experience, a key element to develop consumer-centric strategies, a key strategic challenge for retailers today. Big retailers visited us in these shows and confirmed their interest, seeking a solution able to improve their store and headquarters operations.
Full web capabilities, usability thanks to the use of mobile devices and On Demand are the most highlighted features by retailers who have showed interest in the solution. New pricing (simpler and more flexible) has also been very well received.
Openbravo on Demand is becoming one of the most important adoption drivers for retail. By
providing the best of the SaaS and traditional deployment worlds, and
benefiting from its Cloud nature, On Demand shows clear affinities with the
Retail business:
- Highly distributed scenarios, e.g. multiple stores and mobile requirements
- Easy to integrate Web POS with existing back office through a single, secure web services based integration point in the cloud
- Seasonality aspects, along with the typical retail HR challenges (many part time employees or peak times require ability to cost-effectively scale up or down on demand)
- Quick up-and-running for new store openings (traditional stores, pop-up stores), due to back office being implemented as a managed cloud service
- IT staff reduction or time invested in higher value activities
- Big Data influence, being able to access to more powerful servers offering higher analytics capabilities at a lower cost
Openbravo for Retail helps also E-tailers. Many of them lack a proper back office system, which is required when they:
E-tailers benefit directly from the Openbravo 3 advanced interoperability capabilities, which make it easy to integrate with existing commercial or custom made E-Commerce platforms, for example Magento, the world leader open source E-Commerce platform, for which an integration module already exists.
- grow in the number of served orders,
- expand internationally,
- initiate a multi-channel strategy, or
- simply want to offer the best sales experience backed by quality and on-time information about stock, product characteristics, prices, etc.
E-tailers benefit directly from the Openbravo 3 advanced interoperability capabilities, which make it easy to integrate with existing commercial or custom made E-Commerce platforms, for example Magento, the world leader open source E-Commerce platform, for which an integration module already exists.
Additionally, we see traditional retailers increasingly recognizing the E-Commerce potential and initiating projects to implement a complete multichannel solution. Many of these retailers are frustrated by the cost and complexity of their legacy systems, and are looking to modernize their operations--often starting at the store level. Deploying Openbravo for Retail's Web POS can be a natural first step, since it provides a single point of integration to an existing back office, with easy real-time integration through RESTful web services.
From a product perspective, our Roadmap includes great new features that are improving the retail functionality in valuable ways and are helping to build our vision. Gift card support, Advanced Promotions and Discounts, and smart phones support are coming soon!
Although not limited to Retail, the highly strategic Openbravo Mobile project will enable Openbravo 3 to be efficiently accessed from tablet and small-sized mobile touch devices. This will represent a huge improvement for Retail Managers (Store Managers, E-Commerce Managers, Franchise owners…) being able to access all back office information from everywhere with their smartphones. Updated information about its possibilities and a technology overview are available.
From a training perspective, a new Openbravo for Retail functional training has been delivered, and is the first in a new series of Retail courses - a must for all of you who want to learn about the detailed functionality, or are selling and/or implementing Openbravo for Retail.
Do you want to learn more about Openbravo for Retail ? :
- Try it!: test it online (Back Office and Web POS) or locally by asking for a Free Trial License
- Learn it!: check all our public Openbravo for Retail wiki materials (like User Guide or Configuration Guide) , and enroll in the Openbravo for Retail training.
If you are evaluating Openbravo for Retail for use in your company and have questions, please fill out our customer contact form or contact any of our official partners in your region.
If you are an IT company interested in becoming a partner or affiliate of Openbravo and develop a new business opportunity in the Retail industry, please fill out our partner form. We are looking for partners in several regions!
Happy Retailing!
Kind Regards,
Xavier Places Cano
Retail Industry Champion