STAR Inventory Control
The Retail STAR® software suite offers merchants a comprehensive inventory control system that is unique in its support for multiple
sales channels. Retail STAR can help you automate inventory control and sales in retail stores, Internet e-commerce sites, warehouses,
mail order businesses, fulfillment houses, and auction sites.
The breadth of attributes and descriptions supported for inventory items allows the system to excel in reporting and merchandising
and is unequaled in the industry. The system offers merchants many ways to categorize their inventory; a Department, Class, and
Subclass structure allows the user to see only those classes assigned to a specific department and those subclasses assigned
to a specific class. Other sub-category fields that are available include Vendor, Category, Location, Fabric, Season, and Color.
Each offers virtually unlimited choices. All codes can be alphanumeric to allow for meaningful descriptions. When the i.STAR e-commerce
module is utilized to create an internet storefront, department, class, and subclass automatically become "Department, Aisle and Shelf"
on the web store to allow shoppers to find "drill-down" items in your store easily and efficiently.
The various reports within the system become more granular or meaningful as more attributes are used. All reporting within the system
can show detail at the SKU level or rolled up and summarized by any attribute that you specify. As an example, the Daily Sales Report
can show each individual item sold in your store for the day. This same report can also be summarized by Department and only show sales
totals for the day by each department within your store. If you'd like it a little more detailed, specify that Class be broken out
as a subtotal on the report and now you'll see the total Department sales along with each Class subtotal under the Department. This
"drill-down" capability allows you to turn mounds of raw data into meaningful information quickly and efficiently.
The system also tracks replacement cost, average cost, retail price, original retail price (for markdown purposes), compare at price,
and "X for Y" prices. Retail prices can be automatically calculated by entering the desired gross margin amount. Model stocking levels
for reorder purposes may also be set in the inventory record. An unlimited number of price levels may be stored and used. Each product
will be sold automatically at the appropriate price level assigned to the selling location. As an example, you may have a full retail
price for a store, a 40% discount price at an outlet, and a further discounted price for items sold on your Internet e-Commerce site.
Retail STAR also supports a picture of the product within the inventory screen. Using a digital camera or scanner, a buyer could take
pictures of new products at a trade show. Then, when entering the inventory items into the system, the images could be captured on the
inventory record to allow all personnel to properly identify the items. Vendor catalogs with images can also be imported. These images
can also be displayed on your i.STAR Web Store if you purchased this option.
An additional benefit of the picture image is that it is automatically displayed on the POS cash register screen when the item is
scanned. This will help ensure the right item is being sold and can eliminate "price sticker switching."
Retail STAR is a sixth-generation product that has been proven over many years and in many merchant locations throughout the world.
One of the benefits of this experience is the ease of use that has been built into the software. We are constantly updating the
software to meet the growing needs and demands of our current users. One of these needs is usability. Unlike traditional Windows-based
software that requires extensive use of the mouse, Retail STAR was re-engineered to make data entry lightning fast by
eliminating the need for a mouse. If you want to keep your fingers on the keyboard and enter your information quickly, Retail STAR
can accomodate you. For newer users, the mouse is still fully functional and we have also added helpful pop-up boxes throughout
the system. These pop-up boxes eliminate the need to know anything about the data you are working with. If you don't know a code
for a particular item, simply click on one of the yellow question mark buttons throughout the system and an information window will
pop up for you. As an example, here on the inventory screen, if you wanted to enter a product for Nike but did not remember the
Nike vendor code, you simply click on the yellow question mark button and it will display a list of vendor codes for you. Once you
spot the Nike code, simply click on it and it will fill in the field for you. This makes Retail STAR so simple to use that if you
ever have a question while using the system, you simply click the question mark buttons and let the system answer the question for
you.
Another great usability feature supported in the software is the item number cross-reference option. This feature allows you to
use multiple identifiers for a single item. On the inventory screen you can specify a Style/Part No., System UPC, Manufacturer's UPC,
or SKU. You can then look up an item using any of these numbers throughout the system. As an example, when an item is brought to the
POS register, you can either scan your store-assigned barcode or manufacturer barcode, enter the style number of the product, or
enter/scan the short SKU number. And, you don't have to specify which one you are using. Retail STAR will figure it out for you and
find the correct product. This is great for those situations where a price tag is missing or it is quicker for you to type in the
SKU number yourself. This cross-reference capability also comes in handy when we convert older legacy system data into the Retail
STAR format. It allows you to utilize your existing inventory information and negates the need to re-tag your store. This results
in huge time savings when upgrading to a modern system such as Retail STAR.
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