Exclusive Q&A: Lamps Plus sheds light on importance of POS

Specialty lighting retailer Lamps Plus relies on an upgraded POS system to improve the store experience for customers and employees.

Chain Store Age recently spoke with Clark Linstone, CFO, Lamps Plus, to obtain insight on why the retailer decided to implement a new POS system, what drove selection of the specific solution it uses, and how customers and employees both benefit.

Why was Lamps Plus focused on obtaining a next-generation POS system?
“We looked at our POS and realized we needed a new solution. As technology evolves, it’s imperative that our brick-and-mortar POS updates to maintain an advantage on the level and ahead of competitors.”

What system did you ultimately implement, and why?
“We chose Manhattan Associates Manhattan POS because of its modern architecture and outstanding solutions. Manhattan POS puts us in the best place to move forward effectively and continue to offer customers best-in-class experiences.
 
“Manhattan POS has a cutting-edge retail technology infrastructure. The cloud native and microservices architecture continuously adapts and ensures it is always current. The solution also offers resilient cloud technology to ensure that critical point of sale functions are always available, even if the network connection is disrupted.”
 
How did implementation proceed?
“The solution was quickly implemented in all our 36 stores in just six months. This deployment compares with several years to implement from our previous solution. This speed to implementation was not just fast, but the new Manhattan POS is more robust than what we were previously using, so it was an improvement. We also benefited from a strong partnership with Manhattan Associates, which made implementing the new POS system into our stores much more streamlined.”
 
What benefits have you received since rolling the solution out?
“The solution offers an intuitive process flow that is easy to train staff on and the ability to handle customer needs regardless of channel, enabling one view of the customer. Sales and return transaction flows are simpler and the user interface is intuitive, making it easier for employees to get through the transactions in shorter timeframes. We have seen that the average transaction time is shorter than our previous POS solution.
 
“Because of the cloud architecture being used, we are able to provide updates to the stores for items, prices, inventory and POS configurations in real-time. The cloud architecture also allows us to receive and process sales in a much quicker time than our previous POS.
 
“The system allows customers to see everything the employees are doing on the POS during a transaction on the credit card terminal. Items, quantities, prices and any discounts appear on the device as they occur during the transaction.
 
“The most valuable feature for our associates is that this system presents them with a view of the customer and their purchase history that we didn’t previously have. Users are able to see the customer’s entire purchase history with us covering up to the last seven to 10 years. This allows us to provide a significantly higher level of customer service in-store.”