SkyStreet Retail product review

Who's it for?

SkyStreet Retail software is best suited to mid-sized retailers with general stores such as furniture, fashion, sporting goods, toys, etc. These retailers may have a single or multi-store, as well as single or multi-channel capabilities.

It is particularly suited to retailers in the furniture industry. The logistics component of the software allows a furniture retailer (and all retailers) to easily manage the delivery of products to the consumer. This often happens from multiple locations or from a central warehouse, which SkyStreet Retail makes very simple. SkyStreet Retail also allows the EPoS operator to choose the ‘fulfillment’ (or delivery) method of an item line by line within the sale. Most other EPoS systems require the operator to produce a new sale for each different fulfillment method.

Who's it not for?

SkyStreet Retail software is not designed for food retailers, grocery retailers or the hospitality environment.

What features does it offer?

• Point of Sale (PoS)
  SkyStreet Retail's PoS aims to be easy to use across multiple devices such as a till, kiosk and mobile. It provides useful business information surrounding products, pictures, stock levels and pricing to help drive sales growth and its many in store tools include upselling and cross selling.

• Mobile PoS
  With its mobile capability SkyStreet Retail's PoS can engage and interact with customers on the showroom floor giving staff the freedom to create new sales anywhere, anytime. It works on most tablets, including iPad, Microsoft Surface and Android, and is particularly handy for use at pop-up shops, trade shows and fairs.

• Stock Control
  SkyStreet Retail offers smart, comprehensive stock control that can manage a number of tasks like importing, re-ordering, store replenishment, stock transfers, fulfilment, centralised product administration, price and promotion management, to help save you both time and money. In particular, its inventory optimisation system aims to improve ‘return on stock’ and ensure you get the right stock at the right time.

• Loyalty & Marketing
  Intelligence about customer purchase behavior is on hand with this feature so that you can build loyal customers that keep coming back and up sales by providing better customer service. Its tools include customisable point systems, powerful reporting and data intelligence, batch generated incentives such as vouchers and bonus points, as well as email and newsletter communications.

• Reporting
  SkyStreet Retail aims to make ‘profit enhancing’ business decisions quick and easy through Point of Sale Reporting and Point of Sale Analytics. On the reporting side it offers remote and real-time dashboards, reports and business intelligence via the cloud. While its analytics surrounding customer, inventory, sales, financial, staff and suppliers can all be used for reporting.

• Logistics & fulfilment
  Order fulfillment and warehouse logistics are considered a particular strength of SkyStreet Retail's software. Its listed features include: receipting import containers and purchase orders; support with high volume and ad hoc store transfers, with detailed visibility and tracking of multi-store stock transfers at all times; warehouse stock allocation, picking, dispatching and receipt, and home delivery and order fulfillment features. At PoS it also allows you to control the source and fulfillment location of each inventory item within a customer order, choose fulfillment methods, see live ETA dates for inbound containers, and enjoy automatic stock transfers.

What are the benefits?

• Real time and remote access
  To help make decisions surrounding every aspect of managing your business, from efficiency to customer service, the Retail Cloud delivers real-time access to all operational and financial data, 24/7 from any device, any location.

• Accurate database
  A single and centralised pool of inventory, customer and transactional records are provided in real time so that your ‘decision-making’ data is always accurate.

• Reliability and security
  SkyStreet Retail claims to have a 99.9% network uptime guarantee – via $85M Data Centre as well as a state of the art security infrastructure that offers your business the best change of system and data security.

• Omni-channel efficiencies
  Retailers with omni-channel requirements can see real time stock levels on their website, along with accurate store and online order history details.

• Scalability for growth
  New store locations as well as pop-up shops, kiosks, and mobile selling can all be managed via the Retail Cloud.

• Lower IT costs
  As a cloud based solution there are no hardware investments in expensive servers and software, no ongoing administration & management costs associated with IT, and any software upgrades are deployed overnight, directly to your database.

• Improved customer service
  Service levels, be it face to face with customers or surrounding their orders, are raised by giving staff live access to customer transactional and profile information, as well as supply chain and product availability information.

• Improved operations
  Live, accurate information is fast on hand to streamline many activities including merchandise planning and store replenishment, logistics and warehouse processes, and administration functions.

Potential downsides

The software is not suited for businesses in the food industry such as grocery stores, café and hospitality. It also does not integrate with weighing scales so isn't suited to fresh food retailers.

How does the pricing work?

As each retail business is unique, a sales consultant will discuss the specific needs of each Retailer to ensure the product is a good fit. Pricing will be determined by the specific needs of that Retailer.

Features and benefits at a glance :

Simple – No software to install, lower running costs and no expensive servers.
Flexible – 24/7 live control, online access and visibility.
Robust – Zero polling, data corruption or delays.

• Intelligent point of sale
• Smarter stock control
• Sales promotion tools
• Real-time dashboard reports
• Real-time, multi-store data
• Remote access 24/7, anywhere