Retail systems came about as we know them today in 1973 with the introduction of IBM’s 3650 store system. The reason it was classed a retail system and not just a fancy POS was the fact that it control 128 separate cash tills. Connected via a LAN these separate till entities could participate in the bigger picture, eventually leading up to what you can see in today’s supermarkets or other large shops with tills, in recent years automated too, scattered throughout a large building.
The following year brought with it the introduction of bar code scanners. Rather than the cashier having memorised or written down the prices of a product all it took was a flick of the wrist and all the details of the product could be instantly recorded and bought, smoothing out the whole process. (Supposedly the first product ever scanned was a pack of chewing gum). With this new automated process companies began to devise better and better ways to make the process more efficient.
Today we see examples of this with Credit and debit cards, loyalty cards and even on line banking. In recent times many credit cards have developed a contact-less method too, meaning not even a pin needs to be entered and is likely that a transaction from scan to payment is now seconds rather than minutes. The ever evolving world of retail is also seeing the advancement of RFID tagging, so scanning may even be a thing of the past! Imagine picking up a shirt that has a microscopic device inside, you’re satisfied with it so you simply walk out of the shop with it. The RFID acts as the bar code scanner and the contact-less card pays for it right away. It would be difficult to get more efficient than this!
This is the world of retail systems we will be living in, in the not so distant future. One extreme example of this is the retail systems used in Korea’s virtual stores where the shops have no physical goods on display and is all digital. When the customer is happy with their purchase it is delivered via a chute, many large shops that use such a retail system may only need one or two employees at a time.
About Opus Retail Solutions
Opus Retail Solutions specialise in providing Retail, Wholesale, & Integrated e-Commerce Solutions through its Software suite Opus Retail Manager. The entire EPOS operation is managed from Opus’s Headquarters in Belfast, Northern Ireland, along with regional development and support offices in the UK. Opus has been developing software for over 30 years and was one of the first Windows based EPOS systems in 1997. Opus Retail Manager is hardware independent and we offer hardware depending on client requirements, policy or budget.
The key to Opus’s success lies with its ongoing investment in Research and Development and Training to keep our Software products and services and staff world class. Services range from specifying client requirements to providing custom modifications, system implementation, training with a special emphasis on after-sales support so our customers can get the most from their system. The Company invests c £100k pa in R&D to ensure it’s software remains world-class.
The entire Opus operation is managed from Opus’s Headquarters in Belfast, Northern Ireland, along with regional development and support offices in the UK and Russia. Opus has partners all over the world and currently ships the software in five languages. Please contact us if you would like to discuss a partnership.
Although our Retail Manager Software and services procedures have evolved over the years from DOS through Windows enabling us to stay ahead of the curve, our core objective is still to provide innovative, best in breed, easy to use and robust EPoS solutions, no matter what the industry, the size or the individual need.
