Getting Started - Retail Clouds

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Welcome to TechnoLabs Retail Clouds. The comprehensive Retail Solution available as SaaS services. Now, Retailers can run their business without Upfront Cost, just by subscribing to the Retail Clouds.

To begin with, we are giving the steps required to start Retail Clouds services. Please ensure that you follow the below steps.

After successful Login, you will be able to see the flows that are relevant to your Business. The services may related one or more of the below services.

• 1. Warehouse Management
• 2. Outlet Management
• 3. Campaign Management
• 4. Digital Commerce - Ecommerce Portal
• 5. Digital Commerce - Customer App
• 6. Customer Loyalty
• 7. Omni Channel Management
• 8. Self - Checkouts
• 9. Outlet Monitoring - IoT

Profile Settings

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When the customer is registered, the organization details captured. For Registration please do visit www.retailclouds.com. Each customer is given access to Retail Cloud so that customer can manage his/her retail services.

You need to provide correct information so that automatic invoicing can happen without any errors.
Depends on the billing cycle you opted, you get the electronic invoice to your mail ID.
The same details can be viewed if you register yourself with Retail Cloud (www.retailclouds.com).

Customer Profile

Email Settings

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TechnoLabs Retail Cloud gives the platform where you can use e-mail communication both within and outside the Organization. For example, you may want to send email after making a Bill at POS. You can initiate mail against of any transaction you are doing. You also define, email format by uploading the xsl file for any transaction.

Email Settings

Please fill the below details to activate email communication. If you don't have details, please contact your Admin. For further assistance, Please write to support@retailclouds.com.

1. With SMTP field, please enter either IP address or qualified SMTP name.
2. Enter the port no. Preferably SSL port.
3. Use the email ID using which you want to send system generated email. For example, you may want to send mails from info@yourcompany.com.
4. Enter valid password.

Next step is, you need to work email format for each business mail you may want to initiate. To setup email, you must know how xsl format can be done. The sample xsl code is copied below. You need to upload the xsl file against of specific business requirement. For example, you may need to upload xsl file against of Purchase Order (PO), you want the mail goes to your supplier.

Welcome to Retail Clouds help

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Comprehensive Retail Cloud platform that offers Retail Solution as SaaS services. Now you can run your Retail Business without Upfront Cost, and IT Personnel. Highly robotized environment that make the implementation quick and easy. You no need to know any technical jargon. You can start as long as you know your Retail Business Requirement.

TechnoLabs Retail Clouds - Master Data Management

After getting Cloud Instance activated for you, next thing is, you need to configure customer settings and then upload/enter the Master Data Management. The Master Data that you enter depends on the services you got activated. Not necessarily all services are activated for all Customers.Once the master data is ready, we can start business operations of Outlet, Warehouse, Customer Shopping and/or Online Commerce.

Master Data is divided into 3 categories:
1. Generic Masters
2. Outlet Masters
3. Warehouse Masters

Master Data Management

Outlets - Generic Master Data Setup

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You may find the below options under the Generic Master Data category. Depends on the Business Requirements, some of the generic masters are not required.

Generic Master Data

Brand Master

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You can enter/edit the Brand details one by one. However, the brands get created automatically when you import the Products/SKU data using Data Management --> Import functionality. You may use Brands data for more than one reason. For example, you can create brand wise promotions. You can see brand wise sales. You can search brand wise stocks and so on.

For more details on bulk uploading of Master Data, please refer the Data Management section of this Retail Clouds help.

Brand Master - Summary

Select 'Add New' button for creating new Brand. Select 'Edit' option under Action, if you want to edit the existing Brand.

Edit existing Brand

Category Master

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As a common practice in Retail, products/skus are organized into one or more categories. Using this master data functionality you can create/update the categories. For example, in Fashion Retail, Ladies wear is one category. In F n V business, Fruits is one category. Vegetables is another category

Like Brand Master, the Categories are created automatically when we import the Products/SKUs data. Using Data Management functionality, you can upload the products data along with other data. Please refer Data Management section for master data uploading to the Cloud.

Category Master - Summary

As shown with above Fig, on clicking 'Category Master' under Generic Master, it gives summary of all categories. You can either create new Category or Edit the existing category. You can also upload the Category Image so that it can be displayed, if you are using Online Commerce service of TechnoLabs Retail Cloud.

New Category Master

Since it is Omni Channel platform, you can use any master data against of any Channel. The numbered fields are more relevant to Online/Digital Commerce.

1. It is used to set the category display order with Commerce Site or Customer App. This is applicable if you opted for Digital Commerce services of TechnoLabs Retail Cloud.

2. The setting make the particular category visible or not visible at Commerce Site or Customer App level. If you don't want to display particular category of products with your Commerce Site or Customer App, you may select No option for B2C Visibility setting.

3. You can use image for displaying the category. This is required for Commerce Portal and Customer App. The image/icon file represents that specific category.

4. Category Banner image can also be used to display big banner. This is applicable to Commerce Portal and Customer App.

5. Category Description can be used to display more details about the category. This description also can be used with Commerce Portal.

Please note that there is no limit on the no of categories. We can use these categories while configuring Promotions as well. In other words, we can configure category specific discounts. We can also have category wise reports. It important feature and can be used organize products, stocks, and sales.

Sub Category Master

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Products can be further categorized into sub categories. A category may have one or more sub categories. There is no limit on no of categories and sub categories. Like categories, product data can be exported using Data Management flow. However, Retailers can use category or sub category masters to create/edit whenever required. You can also delete category or sub category.

When we select Sub Category Master under Generic Masters, is show summary of all Sub Categories created so far. For a given Category, there can be multiple Sub Categories. There is no limit on the no of sub categories.

Sub Category Master - Summary

Sub Category can also have one or more sections. The category hierarchy order is like this.
Depends on the business requirements, you can organize your product categories.
1. Category
2. Sub Category
3. Section

New Sub Category Master

Since it is Omni Channel platform, you can use any master data against of any Channel. The numbered fields are more relevant to Online/Digital Commerce.

Denomination Master

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Using Denomination Master, you can configure all currency values.
It is quite useful POS operations. For example, Cashier has to count denomination wise currency received and submit at the end of the day. You can also use Denominations at the POS counter to track the In/Out denominations.

Denomination Master Summary

POS system downloads all master data along with denomination master data to local system so that billing can done when there is internet. You can either create, update or delete the denomination. In general, we configure this before you GO LIVE. However, you can add new denomination where Govt introduces new.

New Denomination

You can create new Denomination by filling the below fields.

1. Denomination Name: It is mandatory field. You need to enter Denomination Name. For example, 'Two Rupees' is the Denomination Name.

2. Denomination Value: You need enter actual value of the denomination. For example, you need to enter 2 if the Denomination is Two Rupees. Another example is, Denomination Value for 5 Cents is .05.

3. Denomination Type: Need select when it is Coin or Currency Note.

4. Denomination Code: You need to select the Currency Code. For example, the currency code for Rupee is INR.

5. Denomination Status: This can Active or Inactive. If particular Currency is no not in circulation, you may make it In Active.

6. Denomination Image: You can upload the image so that the image can be used with POS flows.

Employee Master

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You can use Employee Master for creating employees. This is the first step towards giving access to Retail Clouds operations. Any user who has to use the Retail Clouds must be an employee. You can either create employee one-by-one or import from directly from existing software/directory server.

If you select Employee Master under Generic Master, you would get the list of employees already created.Shows below, you can also filter the employees, location wise. You can perform the below operations.
1. Create New Employee
2. Delete Existing Employee
3. Edit Existing Employee Details

Employee Master - Summary

Create Employee: Please select Add New button to create new employee. It opens up new screen with the below data options.Employee details can also be fetched from your existing employee repository or directory server. Employee ID and Email ID are unique to each employee. In other words, there cannot be two employees with the same Email ID.

By default Employee's Email ID becomes user ID, if you give Retail Cloud software access. If your employee doesn't have Email ID, please give dummy email ID.

Delete Employee: An employee cannot be deleted he is given role permissions. Before deleting an Employee, you need to remove all access given to the Employee. The best way is, you can make the Employee In Active.

Edit Employee: You can edit the employee details other than Employee ID.

New Employee Master

1. Employee ID: You can enter alpha numeric combination up to 50 chars. Once Employee ID is assigned to an employee, it cannot be used for any other employee.
2. First Name: Allows alpha-numeric combination up to 100 chars. Two or more employees can have the same first name.
3. Middle Name: This is optional field. You may enter alpha numeric chars.
4. Last Name: Employee's last name and mandatory field. It allows alpha numeric up to 100 chars.
5. Location: Please select the Location where the employee is attached. It is important so assign right location.
6. Employee Type: Employee type can be either Contract or Permanent. It more to do with capturing employee data. It has not impact on the Retail Operations.
7. Date of Birth: It is optional. More to do with capturing employee data.
8. Date of Joining: It is mandatory. One has to select the joining date.
9. Consultant Type: Specialization, if employee has any. It is optional. We can also specify the choice for each implementation.
10. Specialization (Primary): Optional and specific to Pharma/Health industry.
11. Specialization (Secondary): Optional and specific to Health/Pharma retail.
12. Qualification: Optional and part of Employee details.
13. Status: We can make any employee In Active. An In Active cannot have any access to any operations. She/he cannot be included in Payrolls. Integration with external Payroll software is possible.
14. Designation: It is optional. You may enter employee designation.
15. Department: Department he/she belongs.
16. Reporting Manager: Optional and may enter Employees Reporting Manager.
17. Employee Grade: Optional. You may use this field, if the organization has grades.
18. Experience: Must be in no of years. Optional filed.
19. Qualification: Optional field. You may enter the employee's qualification.
20. Rating: Employee rating, if any.
21. Email ID: Please enter the Email ID. It is mandatory field.
22. Address: Please enter the Address. It is also optional field.
23. Mobile Number: Please enter the correct Mobile Number. It is also optional field.

Location Master

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With TechnoLabs Retail Clouds (www.retailclouds.com), you need to create Location along with Business Activity. Location ID has to be unique and each location may have different Business Activity. For example, a Retail Business may have both Super Market and Food Mall.

Location Master - Summary

You may enter the below details to complete the Location Master creation. The Location master creation isthe first step towards creating business operations. All other operations including roles and users are linked to Location you create here.

New Location

Supplier Master

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Retail Business procure goods from Vendors/Suppliers. You can create one or more vendors using Supplier Master flow. You may note the following features.

1. Supplier can be activated or de-activated.
2. Supplier can be associated with specific products. In other words, we can release PO only after vendor's products are validated.
3. Supplier can have both Billing Address and Pickup addresses.
4. Can be set min supplier quantity and/or supply value.
5. You can also rate the supplier.

Supplier Master - Summary

The following fields are important for creating Supplier Master.

Note: You can also import supplier's data using Data Management --> Import functionality.

Import Master Data

Shipment Rate Master

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Shipment Rates Master Summary

Edit Shipment Rate

1. Location: It is the store or warehouse from where the shipment can be made. The shipment rate is specific to each location.
2. Distance Range: The min and max distance for a given shipment rate. The distance is in KM. When the order/bill is made, it calculates the shipment distance and shipment cost gets added to the net Bill Amount.
3. Order Value Range: The minimum - maximum order value condition within which the shipment rate applicable for a given distance range entered against of distance range.
4. Qty Range: It is applicable if the Order Value is not mentioned. It takes either Quantity range or Order Value.
5. Shipment Cost: It is the shipment rate for the conditions mentioned above. This cost get added to every order/bill made from this location.
6. Shipment Type: You can chose shipment type (Normal/Express). The price can be different for express shipments.

Stock Update

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In general stock gets updated automatically you do stock-in or stock-out. In retail, there are multiple stock-in points and multiple stock-out points.

Stock IN Points:

• GRN - Goods Receipt from supplier/vendor.
• Stock Receipt from Warehouse/Distribution Center.
• Stock Receipt from nearby outlet.

Stock OUT Points:

• POS/Billing
• Stock Issue (outlet to outlet)
• Stock Verification & Write-off

Stock Update Summary

You can update the stock of one or more items. You can also search for specific item and update it. Use Search SKU for searching specific item. If you want to select and update stock for specific location select corresponding location user Zone.

PS: Please note that this feature should never be used. This may be used only during initial master data setup. It is assumed that stock gets updated automatically as you doing purchase and sales operations.

Product Group Master

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Product Group Master is used to create product groups by adding one or more products. These groups can be used for creating Promotions or for Categorization of products display with Commerce Site or Mobile App. There is not limit on the no of groups you can create.

For example, you want to create offer on group of ten different items for festival. You can create group called Festival group, and add those 10 items. You can refer Campaign Management section on how to create offers.

Product Groups Master

Product Groups Master - Create:

On 'Add New' button selection, you get the New Product Group screen. You have options to add product to the Group.

1. By searching and adding the product
2. By uploading an excel sheet filled with products

You can also add Image/Icon to represent this group. This image can be used to represent group either at digital commerce level or at POS level.
If you want to upload more than 10,000 items, you upload as multiple files.
For excel sheet format, you may download or contact TechnoLabs support.

New Product Group

As shown in the above screen capture, you may need to understand the purpose of the data fields.

1. Group ID: It unique identification and cannot be repeated. You can give alpha numerals to create a group.
2. Group Name: is detailed name of the group. It can be max 150 chars long. With digital commerce, or POS, it displays Group Name. Not group ID.
3. Product Selection Filters: Shown in the grey box, you can select list of products at once by selecting the parameters. All products that match the parameters, get added to the group on submitting 'ADD TO GROUP' button.
4. Choose File Option: As said before, you create a group of items by uploading an excel sheet filled with products data. You may download the template by clicking this link (Download Template). After choosing the file, select Import option by clicking 'Import' button.
5. Delete Product: You can delete a product from the Group by selecting Delete option under Action column of the product list table.
6. Save/Submit Group: Finally, you submit the product and save the group.
7. Group Status: Groups status can be Active or In Active. When a group is in active, that groupcan not be used for any purpose.

BOM Master

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With BOM Master, you can create a new product out of existing products. This is required for several reasons.

1. You can sell two or more products together as single product at different price.
2. You can have Bill of Material (BOM) for any recipe in Food & Beverages segment.
3. You can have process where we can create new product out of existing products.
4. When you sell BOM item, all constituent items gets reduced automatically.

You may select BOM Master under Master Data Management --> Outlet Masters --> BOM Master

You can use as many shipment rate combination possible.

Bom Master-Summary

You need to select and add the SKUs that are to be added to create BOM Item.

1. SKU ID: is the product you are making/packing by combining one or more existing SKUs/Products. This can be any combination of alpha numeric.
2. Description: is the BOM product description you want to identify. It can be the combination of alpha numeric.
3. Material/Product Category: is the category under which you want to keep. Categories are predefined and can be found by going to Product Category Master under Generic Masters.
4. Cost Price: is the total cost of the items + efforts in making the BOM item. Roughly it is equal sum of the costs of all constituent items.
5. Sale Price: is the MRP of the BOM Item at which you would like to sell.

Bom Master

As shown in the above screen shot, you can search and add one or more products. You also need to enter the below fields against of each constituent product.

• Qty: is the net quantity that goes into BOM making. When you sell a BOM item, the quantity (Qty) mentioned here get deducted automatically.
• Variance: is the maximum allowed deviation when you make BOM item of existing items.
• Process Time: Time it takes to create BOM item out of existing items.

Warehouse Masters

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Warehouse masters are to be configured separately. If the Customer subscribes to warehouse service, the flow would be visible. It is assumed that you already configured one or more warehouses. Before uploading master data, one has to create warehouses or outlets.

For more details on bulk uploading of Master Data, please refer the Data Management section of this Retail Clouds help.

The first task before starting warehouse operations is creating the product data. This flow helps you to create or update a single product at a time. You may use Data Management -> Import flow for bulk uploading the master data.

New SKU/Product
You may opt for 'Add New' for creating new product. Except few parameters.

Master Data Management - Outlet Masters

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Once Generic Masters configured, you need to configure Outlet Masters for running the Outlets. Outlet can be fixed or mobile. Outlets can be of different retail business types. Typical hypermarkets may have Fashion, FMCG, and F & B.

Using Master Data Management --> Outlet Masters you can configure/create the below masters data.

1. SKU/Product Master
2. Product Groups Master
3. Price Range Master
4. BOM Master
5. Price Management
6. Stock Update

Price Management - Price Update

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You can do price edit against of each product and store location. You can edit the following values of a product.

1. Cost Price
2. MRP
3. Sale Price

As shown in the below screen capture, you can edit the price against of specific location. Please note that you have option to upload the price as batch. You may read that batch update option in the next page.

Price Update

You can upload the price data using excel sheet and setup the effective date. For example, you can upload the excel sheet now and schedule the price update tonight at 12:00 AM. You can also upload the price either for one specific location.

Price Uploading

By default, Price Uploading shows all uploads that are done so far. You can upload new price data by selecting new option.

New Price Uploading

1. Browse: You need to select the filled excel sheet and upload it. It keeps the uploaded file at server and uploads the data to table when batch program runs.
2. Product List: After uploading the excel sheet, the products get loaded to the below table. You can verify the data before submitting.

TechnoLabs Retail Clouds - Outlet Management

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The Outlet Management has two components. The first one is configuration, management, monitoring and analysis of Outlets. The second one is actual operations of the Outlets. These components are divided between and Retail Cloud Management Console and Outlet App. Console is browser based and needs no installation. Outlet App can be Android, iOS, or Windows.

In this section, we try to explain about Retail Cloud Management Console. It has the following functional flows.

1. Outlet Configuration - To configure an outlet and setup the SKU data.
2. Event Management - To configure an event outside the store.
3. Billing Counters - To configure Billing Counters.
4. Taxation - To configure store taxation.
5. Shift Management - To configure shifts to a store.
6. Outlet Monitoring - To monitor the outlets remotely.
7. Billing & Payments - To view bills & payments across zones and locations.
8. Inventory Management - To do stock management of an outlet.
9. Outlet Health - To give vital parameters of an outlet.
10. Notification - You can setup notifications to outlets.

Stocks

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You can view stocksacross locations and zones. You can further narrow down the stock search and view by using filter parameters shown in the Figure. You may find the following options under the Stocks Menu.

Stock History

TechnoLabs Retail Cloud gives the stock quantity of each item that was recorded at end of the day. All products and variants are recorded on daily basis. For example, if a product has more than one MRP, the system stores the history each MRP wise. You can look at the stock on previous day. You may also Save as csv file and use it for further data processing.

This flows gives Location wise products and their stocks. You can get specific products using the filter parameters given in the Header Section. You can also search specific product using search bar. You do have provision to save the stock items as csv file.

Please note the following fields and their importance.

1. Batch Number: Retail Cloud supports batch and item wise tracking. Using batch number, you can control Ageing and product expiry.
2. Expiry Date: It gives expiry date, if batch is mandatory for the product. The system forces the user to enter the Expiry Date while doing stock in.
3. Size/Measure Range: It gives size/weight of the product.
4. UOM: is the unit for the product. KG, PCS, etc are the units available.
5. Pack Qty: A product may be in loose or in packed form. It shows both packed quantity and actual stock quantity. For example, if you have stock of 10 packs of 2 KG sugar, its packed quantity is 10. Its stock quantity is 20 KG.
6. Stock Value: It is stock qty multiplied by the cost price. In other words, it is total stock value of the item with in the selected Location/Store.
7. Re-Order Point: The stock quantity of a product should not fall below the Re-Order Point. Procurement must happen when the stock quantity reaches re-order point. Depends on the Lead time and average consumption.
8. Total Quantity: is the sum of all items quantities. This more meaningful when you select items of same category and with same UOM.
9. Total Cost: Total Cost of the items that are displayed.

Available Stock

The display and GUI remains the same as that of earlier one. However, it displays all products that are ordered and PO is released to the Vendor/Supplier. It is assumed that you are using Procurement Service of the Retail Cloud.

It shows all products where their quantities are equal or below the re-order point. In good Inventory Management system, we supposed see that there is no stock outs. In other words, stock should never go below the re-order point.

We treat each store as fulfillment Centre for Online and other sales channel orders. When an order is confirmed at the store, the stock get blocked. The blocked stock cannot be billed for normal walk-in customers. The blocked can be unblocked only when the orders get Cancelled.

Returned stock gives stock that was returned back to the Vendors between two dates. Whenever stock it is returned, the outlet products stock gets reduced. Every Return may generate Debit Note. Returns are quite common due to various reasons including quality.

All items that cannot be sold are marked as boneyard. You can mark any item as non-sellable at various points.

Non-sellable items can be either liquidated or written-off.

Outlet Health

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One must be able to know the outlet's health quickly. The following data gives the insights into business profitability at each outlet level.

You get real time reports so that your monitoring and control is more prompt.

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Inventory Averages: It gives product wise stock average between two dates. You can take decision stock reduction if stock is higher than the average sales.

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Customer Walk-ins: This gives customers walk-in vs sales made. This report gives you insight into the performance of Sales Staff.

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Sales Averages: Give the data on product wise sale quantities between two dates. You can make out the sales pattern for a given product.

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Product Stock outs: Gives you the list of products where the stock become Zero despite that fact that average sale is higher sales above zero.

Notifications

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You can send notifications to one or more outlets. The message can be instructions or store operations related. This makes communication easy between Central Office and Stores.

Notification Summary

For new notification to one or more stores, please select 'Add New' option. You can select notification type. Need to specify the Subject as well. The moment you press Submit, the notification would be visible at POS level.

New Notification

TechnoLabs Retail Clouds - Campaign Management

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"KNOW YOUR CUSTOMER"

In today's digital age, campaigns cannot be just generic. Retailers who know better about their customers can position and run campaigns effectively. With social media, it is much more important to have Retail solution that enables to run campaigns that are precise and seamless. Campaigns can also be applied to specific location or zone.

TechnoLabs Retail Cloud platform provides a platform that makes running campaigns become just click away. Campaigns can be configured in such a way that they are visible both in brick & mortar and e-commerce channels. Customer is tracked, and campaigns are applied very precisely.

The person responsible for Campaigns can configure and publish the campaign in no time. Retailer can monitor and visualize the results on daily basis. Using Retail Management Console, the Retailer can configure, monitor, control and visualize the campaigns. Campaigns can be with or without Deals/Offers.

Campaign Management

The first step before running a campaign is to decide about the Offers or Deals and Campaign channels. The Retailer has the choice to configure complex offers/deals and apply them to specific sales channels. The sales channel can be one more outlets and/or online channels.

Below is the list of offers/deals one can configure against of specific category of customer and/or against of specific locations/zones and/or against of specific sales channel.

Campaign Management - Promotions

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You can configure variety of promotions by selecting Offers/Deals. On selecting Offers, you get the summary of offers. You can filter the offers and view specific offers.

Offers Summary

Create Offer - On selecting 'New Offer', you will get the below screen where you can configure the Offer. Offers have several parameters to configure.

Offer can be categorized into four types. Each offer can be either Quantity based or tuner over based. The quantity can be for specific product or for group of products.

Quantity based offer further can be categorized into 4 variants.

Like Quantity offers, four variants are applicable to turnover offers as well. As mentioned before, the turnover can be total cart or individual group/Category.

Offers Configuration

Order vs Stocks

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With this, you can view items ordered quantity vs stock quantity between two dates. Ordered quantity is aggregated quantities between two dates. Stock Quantity is the aggregated quantities (Sum of all quantities in warded) between two dates.

This is gives visibility on stock outs if any.

Order vs Stocks

Pending Cart

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In Online Business, customers may not convert Cart into order for various reasons. Poor connectivity, Transaction Failures, and so on. Retailers must know the all pending Carts so that customers can be contacted and convert the Carts into Order.

You can see the Pending Carts between two dates.

Pending Cart Report

This report would be available, if you are using our Digital Commerce services. You may be using both Commerce Site, and Mobile App.

Retailer must have visibility on Orders to Delivery efficiency. Orders may be coming from several channels. It is assumed that you are using our Omni Channel platform.

To view Order to Bill report select Order Management -> Cart Reports -> Order to bill report.

Order to Bill Report

You may see the location wise Orders and the Bills made against of those orders. If any order is not fulfilled, the Serial Bill ID and Bill ID columns remain empty. You can see and compare Order Date and Bill Date.

B2B Sales

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TechnoLabs Retail Cloud supports both B2B and B2C sales. In case of B2B sales, there is a possibility of getting Sales Order sending Quotation. B2B Customer would release Sales Order against of the Quotation we send.

On selecting Order Management -> B2B Sales Orders -> Sales Quotation, the system displays all Quotations on current date. You can set filer parameters for viewing Quotations against of specific location and/or between two dates.

Sale Quotation