Switching your POS provider can seem like a daunting task, especially in the fast-paced world of convenience retail. Richard Cashion, Chief Operating Officer of Curby’s Express Market, knew he had to act quickly and confidently to make sure his new system implementation went off without a hitch.
Switching POS Providers: A Seamless Transition for Curby’s Express Market
After exploring various convenience retail POS providers, Richard was eager to implement several new features and products now available to him in the CATAPULT® Retail POS suite, but one product even more so than the rest. CATAPULT Cognition, an AI-powered business intelligence tool, had impressed in its pre-deployment demos, but he was about to learn just how critical this tool would become.
Immediate Impact: How AI Identified a Critical Sales Issue
While the ECRS implementation crew set to work installing Richard’s hardware, he explored the back-office software to get a feel for his new POS platform and test out his new capabilities.
“It was literally day two,” Cashion recalls. “I was looking at one of the default dashboards in Cognition and realized one of my more popular items’ sales numbers were down almost 40% from its reported daily average—it immediately grabbed my attention.” He continued, “What it led me to discover was a typo in one of our fields brought over from a supplier catalog.” For the last 24 hours, he had been selling a single unit of an item as a bulk item entry. These were high-velocity items, sodas and other beverages, that serve as an important revenue source for any convenience retailer. Luckily, he was able to identify and correct the issue, caused by an earnest mistake and an easy one to make in the rollout process, nip it in the bud, and return his attention to other important obligations a COO must consider during rollout.
Operational Excellence: Leveraging AI for Business Intelligence
While that was Richard’s first time experiencing the power of Cognition, it would hardly be the last. The ability to create and distribute his own reports has been a game changer for him and his organization. “I’ve got a list in our company SharePoint where I link everyone’s reports after I make them,” he says of the ability to create and distribute customized, department-specific reports. He continues, “What’s my tobacco cost? Do I have shrink on this item? I sell 30,000 cups a month, it’s one of my biggest supply costs, are people throwing away too many cups? I can find all that out in Cognition.” Suffice it to say, the ability to monitor every aspect of their business, from cash management to inventory, has streamlined Curby’s processes and enhanced their efficiency.
Looking to the Future: Scaling Success with AI and Data Integration
Looking ahead, Richard is confident that Cognition will continue to be a cornerstone of Curby’s success. “I spend 3 minutes a day with Cognition, when I would have spent eight hours trying to find just one answer out of my old systems. I’m excited to see what Cognition will do for me going forward.” As Curby’s plans to scale, Cognition’s ability to integrate data from multiple platforms will be crucial. When asked what he would recommend to other retailers, he had this to say: “If you’re not living and eating and breathing by your data, you’re wrong. I think it should be mandatory for everybody.”
