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App-titude Adjustment
Need a little more drive in your sales? These free to low-cost apps can make quick work of your most annoying retail headaches.
Cash Register
(MyAppIdea)
The Solution To: Losing track of your sales records.
The Method: All you have to do is input your available items and bam! Instant inventory. You can even keep multiple inventories for multiple stores.
The Driver : The cash register function quickly adds up sales totals so you never miscalculate again.
The Bonus: The email function allows you to send sales reports to your computer or receipts to your customers.
The Cost: $1.99, iTunes
Starting a Retail Business
The Solution To: Launching your business without a strong direction.
The Method: A resourceful guide to help you make the choice to start your first store or open another. Provides the important questions you need to consider before starting a business, reasons why you should start a business today, and others.
The Driver: After deciding to start a business, the guide can help create an impressive marketing plan, help maximize sales, and more.
The Bonus: The information is easy to read, interesting, and will help you better understand what it takes to own a retail business.
The Cost: $1.37, Android Market
Inventory Droid
The Solution To: Losing track of your inventory.
The Method: All you have to do is scan the item, categorize it and add to your inventory list. You can even add UPC information, as well as group items by quantity and cost.
The Driver: Storing your inventory information is one thing. Having it easily accessible at your fingertips is another. The search feature makes finding anything a snap.
The Bonus: The app integrates with popular UPC databases such as Google and Amazon so that most item fields fill-in automatically.
The Cost: $4.99, Android Market
Retail Business Evaluator
The Solution To: Not knowing how to keep your store profitable.
The Method: Insert your labor expense, advertising expenditures, operating suppliers cost, projected sales revenue, and presto—the app will tell you if you should expect net profit or loss, your profit percent, and what your break-even point is to stay in the black.
The Driver: The ability to easily input and change your numbers means you can test to see how changing your costs will impact your profit. Great if you’re scouting a business or picking a new location.
The Bonus: It’s free, simple, and easy to use—perfect for the stressful times when you’re crunching numbers.
The Cost: Free, Android Market
Retail Math
The Solution To: Forgetting how to calculate initial markup percent.
The Method: Retail Services Consulting has compiled all the retail formulas you need to successfully analyze your business on the go. Every formula has a definition and simple calculator right next to it.
The Driver: Seasonal calendars and seasonal-specific formulas, as well as monthly formulas mean you’ll never need to look up a formula again.
The Bonus: A monthly inventory and sales tracker is built into the app so you can apply the formulas directly to your sales numbers
The Cost: $1.99, iTunes
Ring it Up
The SolutionTo: Coming off as disorganized.
The Method: RingItUp is a point-of-sale application designed specifically for iOS. The app can even import and export .CSV files if you need to keep track of inventory on your PC.
The Driver: Built-in barcode scanning and integration with five payment processing apps means you’ll never turn down a door-to-door sale again. Also has an HD iPad-specific version.
The Bonus: Support for AirPrint means you’ll never have to connect to a printer again. Print directly from the app to any AirPrint-supported printer.
The Cost: $29.99, iTunes
iRetail Calendar Pro
The Solution To: Forgetting another team meeting.
The Method: iRetail Calendar helps you keep track of your entire schedule—from the smallest lunch dates to important board meetings.
The Driver: Ease of search. All you have to do is search for a person’s name, a location or any detail and the app can find the meeting.
The Bonus: You can pack as much detail into each date as you want—adding marketing information, sales events you want to keep track of, and coworkers you need to follow-up with.
The Cost: $1.99, iTunes
Retail Inventory
The Solution To:
Miscounting inventory.
The Method: Retail Inventory is a free inventory-scanning app for users of the Cashier Live system. Uses the iPhone’s camera to scan UPC codes and enter inventory data.
The Driver: Data is synced instantly with your account, meaning the inventory is accurately updated in real-time—saving you time and headaches.
The Bonus: You don’t even need to use Cashier Live. The app will export inventory to the point-of-sale software you already use.
The Cost: Free, Android Market and iTunes
Square
The Solution To: Saying no to credit card use.
The Method: Square lets you process credit card transactions from your phone.
The Driver: Square has simplified its transaction fees, meaning every swipe from every card is a low 2.75% rate.
The Bonus: The app and card reader are free and the system can be set up in minutes. The newest version even allows customers to open a tab and pay at checkout.
The Cost: Free, Android Market and iTunes
LightSpeed Mobile
The Solution To: Trying to keep track of sales through your iNotes app.
The Method: LightSpeed Mobile connects with LightSpeed POS, one of the first point-of-sale solutions designed specifically to run on Apple hardware devices.
The Driver: Advanced point-of-sale features like e-commerce integration and the iTunes-based inventory view will make you forget you ever ran a point-of-sale solution on a normal computer.
The Bonus: Users of the LightSpeed system can run the application on their iPhone, iPad, or Mac computer.
The Cost: Free, iTunes