Microsoft RMS End of Life (Discontinued): Details & Tips for Choosing a Replacement

(This article was last published on April 23, 2015. It has been updated for accuracy and completeness.)

In March 2015, Microsoft announced that their point of sale software, Microsoft Dynamics RMS 2.0 entered the “extended support phase” of its product life cycle. This means that RMS had reached its end of life, with Microsoft planning no future development for it. In 2014, at least 45,000 companies were using Microsoft Dynamics Retail Management System (RMS).

Fast forward to 2020 and there’s still companies using Microsoft RMS through various means. However, extended support ends in July 2021. This post covers what that means for your business and suggests POS alternatives for RMS.

Why and How to Integrate Shopify and Lightspeed

(This post was originally published on December 9th, 2014. We’ve updated it for accuracy and completeness.)

Integrating your webstore like Shopify and Point-of-Sale System (POS) such as Lightspeed is critical for providing a stellar customer experience and streamlining your retail operations. You invest a lot of time and money into your business. You don’t want to prohibit your growth by skipping integration or doing it efficiently.

In this article, learn why you need to integrate Shopify and LightSpeed and how to pick the best integration approach for your business.

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Is Your Business Ready for eCommerce Integration?

A recent eMarketer report forecasts global retail eCommerce sales to reach $4 trillion by 2020, making up 14.6% of total retail spending that year. That’s a staggering number. As consumers continue to shop online more frequently, retailers are looking to cash in on eCommerce sales.

However, as your eCommerce sales grow, it becomes harder to manage the volume. Growing merchants probably use other systems along with their eCommerce platform to manage their processes.

Are your current systems integrated? If they’re not, check out why your business may be ready for integration and how to do it. (more…)

10 Common Mistakes Retailers Make That Kill Their Multichannel Selling Success

Today’s consumers shop across multiple channels. They switch from online to offline channels to research and buy products as they please. To keep up with customers’ expectations, retailers are implementing multichannel selling strategies.

However, executing a multichannel retail strategy is difficult. You must understand the multiple places you need to be for your consumers and the multiple suppliers you need to integrate into your business. Along the way, it’s easy to make mistakes that can kill your success.

So, before you start your multichannel strategy, take into consideration these 10 common mistakes that retailers make when starting a multichannel business. (more…)

10 Signs That You Need Multichannel Retail Integration

Your multichannel business is growing! Orders are flying in. You’re thinking of expanding to new sales channel like Amazon or an eCommerce website. You’re hiring more staff just to keep up.

With growth though comes growing pains.

Higher order volumes result in more order processing. Each channel adds more inventory to track and orders to invoice. Product descriptions need shared across all channels to remain consistent.

You start to feel the weight of having your systems disconnected. Your processes aren’t streamlined and automated. Your staff is spending most of their days manually entering data from one system to another. You stop focusing on growth and more on how to fix order errors made by your team.

Is it time for you to integrate your multichannel business? (more…)