How LS Central is driving transformation in retail

For years thousands of LS Retail customers – retailers, restaurants, and hospitality businesses across more than 157 countries – have enjoyed the benefits of running their entire business on a single platform.  

Some call this unified commerce. It’s a retail management software that covers all parts of the enterprise, giving businesses a single, clear overview, so they can make data-informed decisions that drive results.  

A large ski resort in Canada used to have 26 separate software solutions, which had to be managed and updated separately, and required lots of manual re-entering of information. Instead of 26 solutions, now they use just one platform - LS Central. They cut IT costs considerably, but most importantly, they can finally operate as a unified brand, run promotions, track loyalty, see their data – all the stuff that makes a business truly effective and successful.

We have dozens of stories like this. And we are constantly at work to make our customers even more competitive and successful.  

Here are some of the ways we are keeping businesses like yours ahead. 

Omni-channel shopping

Let your customers shop as, when and where they prefer.  

Thanks to ready-made eCommerce integrations, you can easily connect LS Central to market-leading eCommerce platforms such as Magento, Shopify, and Dynamicweb. The integration ensures real-time two-way communication between the systems, so both your employees and customers can always see correct and up-to-date product availability, prices, and offers on your online shop. 

LS Central helps you track all sales for all your channels in one central place, so you can offer omni-channel services like click & collect (with pick-up in store, at the kerbside, or in a locker), and let customers return and exchange in-store items they bought online.  

Contactless options in-store 

Even before social distancing was a concept, consumers were demanding ways to shop at their own pace and with minimum contact with employees.  

By implementing self-service checkouts you can give customers the autonomy they desire while shopping in person – and cut queues and costs at the same time.  

Scan Pay Go technologies minimize contact even further. ScanPayGo for LS Central combines loyalty program and point of sale (POS) within a single app that runs on the consumer’s device. It’s a one-stop-shop app where customers can save shopping lists, see offers and promotions as well as personal vouchers, and track their loyalty status. In-store, they can use the app to self-scan items, apply offers and coupons, and pay for their shopping. Quick, convenient, and completely contact-free. 

Empowering employees to deliver exceptional service

LS Central helps your employees provide great service to today’s highly informed customers. At the mobile POS, employees get real-time visibility over the inventory, and can look up product details, compare options, check availability of specific colors or sizes, and special order items from other locations, the warehouse, or a vendor. 

Personalized service is key to building loyalty. At the POS, employees can also see loyal customers’ details, previous purchases, and preferences, and offer personalized advice and product suggestions that hit the spot – and grow the basket size.  

Beyond industry barriers

The best way to attract more customer segments and stay relevant is to offer experiences that differ from what your competitors offer.  

LS Central can be used to run retail, food service and hospitality within the same platform. So if you operate a mixed business like a garden center with a café, you can run your entire business on LS Central, and manage retail sales, customers, offers, food service, and more, in one database. And if you decide to expand, and offer appointments with a garden designer or pruning courses, you can manage registrations within LS Central, using the powerful Bookings add-on.  

Whether you already run a mixed business or plan to expand your horizons in the future, LS Central can support your needs, giving you the most advanced functionality for every industry in which you operate. 

Safety and business continuity

LS Central is available as software as a service (SaaS) in the reliable Microsoft cloud. Wherever they are, you employees can access real-time business information from their devices. By supporting a remote workforce, LS Central enables your team to do their best work whatever the external circumstances, and to make quick, data-informed decisions exactly when they matter. 

When you use a SaaS solution you can also keep your data safe with minimal effort. While on-site servers can’t usually guarantee a consistent performance, in the cloud your business data is kept secure from threats and cyber attacks thanks, as well as from possible disasters that would destroy your physical servers like floods, fires, or earthquakes. 

With SaaS software it's also much easier and cheaper to stay on the latest version, as you can upgrade without needing to run complex projects - it all happens almost automatically. 

Clear visibility, data-informed decision making and total control

LS Central provides you with a real-time, complete view of your business. But since data alone doesn’t guarantee effective decision-making, we have also included intelligent functionality to make your data work for you.  

Our AI-powered Analytics add-on, built on Microsoft Power BI, helps you discover hidden insights, track the development of your KPIs, and see which of your initiatives have the most impact. In the Action Hub area you can track what KPIs need your attention and get alerts, so you can act on what matters, fast.  

Headed towards the future

Change in retail won’t slow down. Transformation won’t stop. That’s what we love about our industry. We are committed to constant innovation, and to keeping our customers always competitive with minimum effort on their part. With the powers of the intelligent cloud, it’s easy to keep our customers speeding towards the future.

Would you like to join us? Contact us.