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By Matt Duczeminski For bike retailers, evolving their store and servicing to keep up with changing customer expectations from how they like to shop, to how they liked to be kept informed is key to building and maintaining a loyal customer base.  Simply put: Your store’s customer experience is what keeps your customers coming back for more . If the experience you provide doesn’t live up to your customers’ expectations — or doesn’t do much to differentiate your brand from your competition — your customers won’t have much incentive to stay onboard. Recently, Vend and Hubtiger have released an integration that will allow your team to streamline a number of customer-facing and internal processes — all with the goal of helping you deliver a top-notch experience to your customers. In this article, we’ll take a look at the key features of our new integration, and at how some of our current clients have used these features to improve their ability to serve their customer base. Le...

Alright September, what have you got? Doesn’t matter because we’ve prepared our retailers for anything. Last month we teased some big updates that would make your day-to-day life easier in Vend, and here they are. From redeeming online gift certificates in-store to adding images for your variants, we’re helping take the load off. Read on to find out what’s new this month. Return Products to Any Outlet With the rise of contactless shopping, it’s also important to allow your customers to return products with ease.   Cashiers can now process a return of a product bought from any outlet in your Vend store. For example, a customer who bought a product through your online store can now choose to return it to their closest physical store.  Search by the customer name or the receipt number, find the associated sale, and process the return on the spot. Rest assured that the stock will be reflected accurately in each outlet and will be shown correctly in your reporting too! T...

We’re well into the second half of 2020 and have been focusing on filling gaps and preparing for big features coming out soon. This month we’ve made Vend more flexible for retailers of different shapes and sizes. Read on to find out more ! Bulk delete customer records It’s time to spring clean and focus on your most important customers. Go full Marie Kondo in your customer list with the ability to bulk delete records from Vend.  Receive orders using Scanner Last month we turned on the ability to scan to receive orders, now we’ve made it possible to create and receive new orders, all from the Scanner app. Cut down the time it takes to process deliveries, add quantities and stock shelves. Just grab your iPhone from your pocket, create a new order and start scanning. Download it from the Apple app store and log in with your Vend account to get started. New Billing Preview Page We’ve made it easier to see what exactly you will be paying for in your next billing payment. Che...

COVID-19 has undoubtedly changed how consumers shop — possibly for good. Between lockdown measures and social distancing, shoppers are doing a lot more research online to plan ahead before heading to retail shops. In many cases, this means looking up inventory information online.  Retailers who want to stay competitive need to adapt to this new behavior by making sure that their store info and catalog are available whenever (and wherever) customers need them.  That’s why we’re excited to announce that Vend has joined forces with Pointy from Google to help you get your inventory online.  What is Pointy from Google? Pointy is a Vend add-on that allows you to display your in-store products on Google without manually re-entering your inventory data. Once you’ve created a Google My Business account and verified your business, all you have to do is connect Vend and Pointy, and your stock will automatically be displayed on your Business Profile on Google Search and Maps whe...

There’s no denying that the CBD (cannabidiol) industry has grown incredibly fast in the past few years. According to the National Retail Federation (NRF) , 2019 saw a 700% increase in consumer demand for CBD-based products, and Rolling Stone reports that the market will hit $22 billion by 2022. Those are some massive numbers, and it’s worth asking: what’s driving all that growth? And more importantly, how can retailers capitalize on the CBD market? To answer these questions, we took a dive into the CBD industry and identified some emerging trends in the space. Whether you’re someone looking for business opportunities or you’re CBD retailer who wants to grow your business , here are the top trends to keep an eye on.  1. Consumers are searching for CBD more than any other wellness trend — beating meditation, acupuncture, and veganism Cannabidiol products have always been huge in the realm of health and wellness, but in case there’s any doubt of just how big CBD is in the sp...

This is a post by Alexandra Sheehan. Most thriving retail businesses process many transactions on a daily basis, sometimes thousands. To handle that kind of volume, brick-and-mortar businesses need to arm themselves with the tools — both hardware and software — to keep operations running smoothly. The heart of a retail business? The point-of-purchase, cash register or point-of-sale (POS) system . While many may use those terms interchangeably, they’re not one and the same. In fact, there are many key differences that would affect which route you go for your retail business. Let’s dive into what the traditional cash register is, what a POS system, and how they’re different — plus how you can choose which option most suits your business. What is a cash register? The official definition of the term “cash register” is “a business machine that usually has a money drawer, indicates the amount of each sale, and records the amount of money received.” A cash register logs transactions ...

Whether you’re just setting up shop or been running your store for decades, acquiring new customers and keeping the ones you already have are paramount. The good news is that there are more than enough ways to market your business. In this post, we’ll shed light on the ins and outs of retail marketing and offer insights into the various strategies you can use in your business.  What is retail marketing? Retail marketing pertains to the strategies and tactics that retailers use to attract customers and drive sales. Retail marketing has 4 key components, also knows as the “4 Ps”: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. Product.  First is the Product, which is the physical item that’s being sold. Price.  The second is Price, which refers to the pricing strategy that the merchant uses to sell the item. (Examples include “everyday low prices,” implementing pricing psychology like using “$9.99” etc.) Place.  Third is “Place” which refers to the location or platform us...