When it comes to identifying inventory, an item's unique product code (UPC) is perhaps one of the most reliable means of achieving this goal. Retailers and merchants around the world frequently purchase UPCs in block and then assign these codes to inventory items as needed. These UPCs do not, however, come cheap. Depending on the size of a retailer’s needs, the costs associated with purchasing UPCs can be quite high. For this reason, once stock has been depleted for a given run of goods, many retailers opt to reuse the associated UPC codes.

Conceptually this process works well within retail; however, Retail Pro’s inventory can be configured to define inventory items as unique by its UPCs. This can clearly be a problem when a retailer wishes to reuse a UPC because it has already been assigned as "unique" to a given item in inventory, hence requiring a retailer to purchase more UPCs once they have depleted their previous sets.

This issue has been addressed in the latest version of Retail Pro 9. Now merchants can choose to use global UPCs, local UPCs or any combination of the two.

This is only one of the features added to the latest release of Retail Pro 9. The latest version also contains enhanced serial number tracking and better customer loyalty initiative support.

Consumers using Visa cards at point-of-sale (POS) terminals may enjoy smoother transactions during future shopping trips, as the financial services provider has announced its decision to raise the "no signature required" limit from $25 to $50.

Starting in October 2012, discount retailers and grocery stores in the United States will be able to accept credit and debit card transactions up to $50 without requiring Visa card holders to sign receipts or enter their personal identification numbers (PIN). Visa hopes this will expedite the point-of-sale process while also bolstering end user convenience.

"Visa is committed to delivering solutions to help our merchant and financial institution partners better serve their customers, reduce costs and grow their businesses," said William M. Sheedy, group president of Visa. "As a result, merchants have asked us to expand the program to purchases up to $50, so they can more efficiently support consumers' growing preference to use cards instead of cash or checks for purchases."

Americans' payment preferences have evolved over the years and it's crucial retailers support them by offering the options they want, regardless of whether it's cash or mobile wallets.

Many small retailers were losing precious money on debit card point-of-sale transactions due to swipe fees mandated by financial institutions. The Dodd-Frank Act, which went into effect last year, changed all that by capping fees at a specific point.

However, the National Retail Federation has asserted that the nation's largest banks are still collecting way too much money on POS transactions. The organization also expressed its disappointment that fees were not further curtailed through the legislation.

"We believe the numbers for the big banks are too high and had the Fed followed the law there would be significantly greater savings for merchants and their customers," NRF senior vice president and general counsel Mallory Duncan said.

According to data from the Fed, the average swipe card fee charged is 24 cents, down by nearly half from the 43 cents charged in 2009.

Financial institutions throughout the country have struggled to implement new revenue generation strategies in response to the Dodd-Frank Act. Several banks tried to charge debit card fees to consumers to make up the lost revenue but later axed these programs in response to customer backlash.

The National Retail Federation has suggested the Federal Trade Commission tread with care in regards to the still-nascent mobile payment technology solutions. The payment method has only just begun to gain traction and any regulations could stymie further growth of the technology, the retail organization cautions.

Mallory Duncan, NRF senior vice president and general counsel, will be participating in an FTC workshop to further stress this point. She says the FTC shouldn't look at the phone as something to regulate because it acts as a means to make a payment by linking to bank accounts or credit cards, not as a payment medium in and of itself.

"Mobile technology and processes are just beginning to emerge and we won't know which practices the public will like or what methods will provide new benefits until the technology begins to coalesce," Duncan explained. "The government should not impose regulations that would forestall yet-to-be-imagined advances and innovation in order to avoid potential 'harm' based largely on speculation."

Duncan was also quick to note that new technology tends to catch the eye of politicians simply because it has unknown potential. The internet, for example, may have been targeted with stricter regulations if it had come to power in modern days. Public opinion can change, especially as consumers familiarize themselves with new technology, so regulations created ahead of time may in fact not be in the best interest of shoppers.

There are some core issues that need to be addressed as mobile devices become more common as payment tools. For example, Duncan asserts some standard should be set as to precisely what a "mobile payment" constitutes.

Ultimately, she believes mobile payment technology will improve the relationship between retail merchants and consumers, and as such should be allowed to grow.

"Retailers have always wanted to know their customers so they can serve them better and that doesn’t change simply because the method of payment changes," Duncan said. "Mobile might help retailers get to know their customers more like they knew their customers generations ago, and offer more personalized service."

A recent forecast from the Pew Research Center notes that mobile payments are slowly gaining traction in the United States, with the medium expected to be on par with credit cards and cash by 2020.

Walmart has forever changed how consumers will think about online shopping by becoming the first retailer to offer web consumers a way to pay with cash, RetailingToday reports.

The overwhelming majority of Walmart's point-of-sale transactions are conducted using cash, so the retailer decided to extend that option online. Upon selecting the "pay with cash" option, shoppers will be prompted to print a receipt. They can then bring that receipt into a store within 48 hours and pay with cash at a register. The item can be picked up in-store, shipped to the location or sent to the consumer at home.

As the news source notes, Walmart is the first brand to embrace this payment method, allowing customers without credit cards or other ways to pay online to still shop through the web. Moreover, given the number of customers paying with cash at the retailer, this course of action seems like a no-brainer.

Retailers are always looking for ways to evolve their store processes. Innovative approaches, such as Walmart's online "pay with cash" strategy, seems like an ideal one for its business model and target audience.

Contactless payment methods are slated to become the norm by 2020, according to a recent report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project that polled a panel of technology experts.

Approximately two-thirds of respondents (65 percent) believe most people will have fully adopted the mobile wallet as their primary point-of-sale payment solution in eight years, usurping cash and credit cards as the gold standard. The change will come as more consumers rely on personal hardware and software for transactions, making smartphones the ideal conduit in that sense.

However, there will still be a place for cash and credit cards in the future. As many as 33 percent of the polled experts believe consumers will not trust the safety and privacy of near field communications (NFC) technology for financial transactions. Consumers, they say, will be hesitant to use their phones for big transactions and thus don't think mobile payments will gain a lot of traction by then.

Factors barring the adoption of mobile payments

Indeed, these privacy fears are a big reason why adoption of mobile technology has been slow thus far. Additionally, the tech experts noted the desire for anonymous payments, a lack of infrastructure to support widespread mobile payment adoption and resistance from companies already entrenched in the existing payment systems.

"As much as I'd like to see a money-free world, I'm afraid the opportunities for the hackers and pirates are too great," one respondent told Mashable. "I'm happy to buy my $2 Starbucks using my Android but I don't know that we will ever feel secure enough to make much larger purchases that way."

Supporters of mobile payments, however, were quick to point out how many countries throughout the world are already using similar systems.

"The 2020 date might be a bit optimistic, but I'm sure that this will happen," study participant Hal Varian, chief economist at Google, explained to the news source. "What is in your wallet now? Identification, payment and personal items. All this will easily fit in your mobile device and will inevitably do so."

As the number of smartphone owners continues to grow, so too does the reality of a mobile payment future. According to the latest data from comScore, upward of 100 million Americans own smartphones such as the iPhone or HTC Evo. To put that in perspective, that's approximately half of the United States' total mobile subscriber base.

Retail Pro® 9.2 Revision 5 has been released and is now available. This release focuses on addition of new functionality in the area of Customer Loyalty and UPC Reuse, as well as some reworking and enhancement of some existing functionality in serial numbers.

“As the old business adage goes, it's a much easier task to keep existing customers satisfied than it is to win over new ones, and this is especially true in the retail sector. Improving customer retention and loyalty is absolutely pivotal to buoying the bottom line of most merchants, and this latest release helps merchants do just that," said Bill Colley, Senior Vice President of Development and Client Services at Retail Pro International.

Retail Pro® 9's customer loyalty module enables users to set up loyalty programs and reward their best customers with incentives that marry to the way they do business, whether through fixed discounts and point-based programs or promotional programs that reward loyal customers with goods. Loyalty is redeemed by leveraging the Retail Pro Centrals Server technology, which processes transactions and keeps the database updated in real time – a feature paramount to providing customers with up-to-the-minute information on their balances.

Another key area of focus is that of serial number tracking. Retail Pro® 9.2 R5 includes several significant improvements to the way the retail software manages serial number use, as well as, how those serial numbers are handled and tracked at point of sale and across locations.

Key changes include serial numbers now being tracked and controlled at the store level as opposed to the company level, enhanced tracking and display of serial number statuses within frontline areas of the system, direct links for viewing the serial number's document history and the ability to filter lists of serial numbers by store, company and single serial numbers.

The area of UPC management has been improved to now allow the reuse of existing UPCs within the Retail Pro Inventory. Retailers and manufacturers purchase UPCs in blocks, which are then assigned as needed to inventory items. After stock associated with these UPCs has been depleted, the UPCs can now be reused and applied to new inventory descriptions and items.

This is a divergence from previous handling, which dictated a UPC could not be reused once assigned within the Retail Pro® retail management system. In this release, a new UPC field has been established which is completely independent of the item’s unique system ID and can be reused if merchants so desire. When their systems are configured to use this new UPC field, Retail Pro® 9 will utilize the new field as its basis for lookups on item information, rather than the UPC field associated with unique system ID.

“These are just a few of the changes made in the latest release. Retail Pro International remains committed to helping retailers stay ahead of the curve by continually implementing key features that support their business needs," added Colley.

Technology is allowing both online and in-store retail merchandising efforts to reach more consumers in new and innovative ways.

Recently, discussions concerning the growing use of mobile devices among shoppers have spurred retailers to develop store-specific applications that can act as personal shopping aides – helping consumers research, locate and purchase the products they need.

Now, retailers are putting their large stores of customer data to further use through predictive analytics. While one technology company rolled out a point-of-sale game earlier this year that prompts customers to offer their information to stores, other companies are working to deliver targeted messages.

Point-of-sale systems are using big data to give consumers messages and offers at the point of purchase that will hopefully influence or prompt them to return to the store and make further purchases, the website Wired explains.

While these technologies may still be best applicable for larger retailers, devices that target small businesses may not be far behind, and until then entrepreneurs can focus on targeting with promotions via separate channels.

Whether retailers are located in the United States or elsewhere in the world, technology can be used to augment their current operations and help them advance in today’s marketplace. Retail Pro International and Philip Toledo Limited, Retail Pro’s UAE partner, recently held an event at the Atlantis Hotel in Dubai, United Arab Emirates to bring together Retail Pro customers and professionals,  highlight the impact that Retail Pro software can have on retail operations in the Middle East and share news on many exciting changes being made to suit customers in the region.

Retail organizations, representing both customers and channel partners, from more than a dozen different countries, including Holland, Italy, Malta, Egypt, Singapore, Lebanon and India attended the two-day conference. Customers and channel partners united for the event, which addressed key questions from both ends of the spectrum. In addition to presentations on strategic direction that Retail Pro is taking and product training sessions, conference guests had a chance to network, learn about new technologies and products, as well as get an insight into matters specific to the region.

Further highlighting the commitment of Retail Pro to the region, CEO Kerry Lemos attended the event and delivered the keynote speech. His talk highlighted the importance of observing trends in the world market and the company's vow to provide world-class service in the region. Retail Pro's latest retail management software – Retail Pro Prism – was also unveiled for the first time to local customers.

"Retail Pro continues to invest heavily into the Middle East retail experience, strengthening our presence in the region as we aid our local partners and clients," Lemos asserted.

The point-of-sale software solutions provider continues to pick up new business partners in neighboring areas to ensure customers have access to the best customer service, and this effort has been enhanced by a new dedicated team based out of Dubai that is overseeing regional operations, led by region’s director Bevin Manian. The end goal is to provide customers with experts that can give the advice local retailers need to get a leg up on the competition.

"Having our business partners from all the Middle East countries and most of the subcontinent and Southeast Asia regions come together strengthens our belief in the Retail Pro community," Manian added. "We have been able to harness potential and cross pollinate valuable know-how between partners, thus making a regional event such as this critical for our success."

Retail Pro and Retail Pro Prism were not the only retail technology solutions at the event. The 150 guests at the conference also had a chance to learn more about other software products from Retail Pro’s alliance partners that operate on the robust foundation of Retail Pro software and give retailers specialized tools, including those for workforce management, footfall tracking, business analytics, tax refund for retail customers, mobile commerce, gift card and integrated payment solutions. Retail Pro continues to provide it’s retailers and channel partners all over the globe with a cohesive retail ecosystem that fosters shared success.