Driving better, faster decisions for retail success

As retailers increasingly place the customer at the centre of their operations, you need to ensure that data is real-time and easy to access.

Microsoft Connecting Enterprise solutions help provide retail employees the right information, at the right time, and in the right format to enable faster, more effective decision making-and ultimately, better service to customers.

Australian Retailers Discuss: What is the Future of Retail?

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Abernathy's Northwest Hobbies

Watch this video to see how Microsoft Dynamics Retail Management System (RMS) helped Abernathy's Northwest Hobbies, a small hobby shop, track inventory more efficiently and provide better customer service.

Abernathy's Northwest Hobbies

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Microsoft solutions focus on delivering and improving business intelligence, collaboration, business activity monitoring, and business process improvement in a range of key retail areas, including financial management , merchandise assortment and planning, supply-chain optimisation, store execution, enterprise performance management, internal and external collaboration, campaign/promotion optimisation, and customer loyalty and consumer analytics.

With Microsoft, you can provide a single and consolidated view of product information whenever and wherever it is needed

Video: Retail of the Future
Take a sneak peek into the future of retail systems and processes

Heightening the consumer experience through superior management

Today's retailers face a uniquely complex and challenging business environment. With flexible software and systems, you can drive innovation, easily integrating and adding new services, experiences and value-add capabilities for customers and employees in a changing environment.

Microsoft solutions for Connecting Stores provide retailers with a true competitive advantage through:

Helping retailers connect information, systems, and people

• Reduce operational costs through a distributed and flexible store infrastructure that allows for cost-effective, rapid adoption of new technology, requiring minimal service and maintenance.
• Get more from existing investments by integrating with services-oriented frameworks on legacy systems to deliver new features and enable future innovation without the need to completely retrain store associates.
• Gain greater business insight by empowering retailers with greater business intelligence, helping to improve inventory efficiency and deliver innovative and personalised services to each custome

John Danks and Son on preparing for future growth

Home Hardware, Thrifty-Link Hardware, Plants Plus

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Microsoft Dynamics NAV - Bestseller

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In a difficult economic climate, digital media provide an opportunity for retailers to differentiate themselves, increase customer loyalty, and optimise their costs.

Microsoft offers a broad range of products and technologies for connecting retailers with the technology-savvy shopper.

• Enhanced online customer experiences
• Mobile shopping
• Easy-to-manage Web sites
• Simplified integration across channels

Connecting with the new "e-savvy" customer

For most retailers, e-commerce is a fast-growing revenue channel and a key asset for building and maintaining customer loyalty. As technology and devices are integrated into customers' daily activities, customers are exploring and experiencing products in new ways.

Microsoft enables retailers to deliver valuable, rich experiences to their customers through e-commerce solutions that are fully integrated with the retailer's business and e-commerce platforms that quickly and easily accommodate the creation of multi-channel customer experiences. Microsoft solutions for Connecting Commerce help retailers deliver powerful customer experiences fast while also driving down operational complexities and costs.

The Microsoft advantage: An unmatched breadth of solutions for connecting retailers with the technology-savvy customer

Microsoft can offer the breadth of solutions, technologies, and experiences that retailers' customers crave. Microsoft represents a powerful partner with cost-effective solutions that better connect information, systems, and people to give retailers a competitive advantage through enhanced online customer experiences, easy-to-manage Web sites, and simplified integration across channels.

Video: Beauty Boutique Blends Personal Touch with Technology, Saves 70 Hours Per Week

Avenue You—a high-end beauty boutique—wanted to upgrade its technology in order to provide even better customer service to retail and online clientele. The company opted for a suite of easy-to-use Microsoft® products, including Windows Vista® Business, the 2007 Microsoft Office system, Windows Live™ Messenger, and Microsoft adCenter. Avenue You now saves 70 hours per week on administrative tasks.

Beauty Boutique Blends Personal Touch with Technology, Saves 70 Hours Per Week

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