LightSpeed Launches Advanced Cloud Reporting for Retailers of Any Size

MONTREAL, June 18, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- LightSpeed, the commerce platform for serious retailers, today launched Advanced Reporting for LightSpeed Cloud, as well as increased momentum for its cloud business line and transaction volume. As a follow-up to the launch of its brandable iPad POS application, today's announcement adds big data analytics to LightSpeed's cloud-based POS system, giving retailers real-time insight into sales, inventory trends and customer preferences so they can make better decisions about their business.

As evidence of the increased demand for cloud-based POS tools that go beyond the transaction, LightSpeed is seeing 70 percent of new customers opting for the cloud. In addition, revenue from its cloud line of business has increased 398 percent in the last 12 months. The company is also revealing that its 19,000 stores are processing $7.3 billion in annual transaction volume, up from $6 billion earlier this year.

Brick and Mortar Moves to the Cloud
Increasingly, independent brick and mortar retailers are turning to cloud-based technologies that can help create the highly personalized customer experience once only possible online or to larger retailers with deeper pockets. According to Accenture, the retail cloud market is expected to reach more than $15.1 billion in 2015. When LightSpeed introduced its cloud POS in 2013, it enabled independent retailers to manage their business, engage customers, and check them out, all from a web browser or an iPad. In addition to the ease, agility and cost savings inherent to the cloud, LightSpeed now provides retailers of any size with actionable data analytics -- including insight and predictive visibility into sales, inventory levels, employee performance and customer preferences -- to help them grow their business and better serve their customers.

"We implemented LightSpeed because we absolutely needed a cloud solution that could fit the needs of our growing brand. With our rapid expansion -- adding five stores in four years -- we knew we would need one holistic view of all of our inventory, sales and employees," said Wesley Uthus, co-owner of Minnesota-based fashion boutique PRIMP. "Now, with LightSpeed, my partner and I know what's going on across all our stores at all times down to very specific detail. We can make informed decisions about which store needs our attention most on any day of the week. It helps us determine where we need to focus our resources to keep business running smoothly and profitably."

Big Data for Small Retail
Most point of sale systems for small and mid-sized retailers offer rudimentary reporting, such as sales totals or number of transactions. LightSpeed's new Advanced Reporting for Cloud includes more than 40 reports that give detailed information on product sales, profits and margins; customer preferences; employee performance; payment methods; and vendor-by-vendor analytics; across all stores and channels. A highly visual, real-time "Dashboard," accessible via a web browser or through a mobile app, gives a quick look at performance across all stores, and the new "Stats" panel shows best and worst performers across locations. In addition to giving a complete, real-time perspective of your business, LightSpeed's new advanced reporting allow retailers to predict sales, inventory needs, and revenue based on historical trends and external factors like weather and holidays. It also captures customer preferences across online and offline channels, indicating purchase history, favorite items, and other customer insights that fuel successful loyalty programs.

"Customer engagement, forecasting and inventory management technologies are only as good as the data that fuels them. This, coupled with more traditional retailers expanding online and bringing retail technologies into their stores, has made demand for cloud-based POS tools and data analytics soar," said Dax Dasilva, CEO of LightSpeed. "As a result, we've seen a 150 percent increase in our cloud customer base in the past twelve months. With Advanced Reporting, we're delivering to retailers the kind of data analysis normally associated with large-scale ERP or business intelligence solutions, but in an easy-to-use format and at a cloud price."

Examples of the insights retailers can glean from LightSpeed's new Advanced Reporting include:

• A holistic view of your customers: how they engage with your brand online, in-store, and through email
• Which vendors, products, and stores are the most profitable
• Who your most loyal fans are, and how you can reward them
• How to better prepare for seasonal holidays or weather shifts
• The strengths and weaknesses of your sales team so you can reward star performers and augment training resources

Resources
For more detail on LightSpeed's Advanced Reporting, or for a free trial, visit http://www.lightspeedretail.com/cloud/reporting/.

About LightSpeed
LightSpeed provides serious retailers the simplest way to build, manage and grow their business and create a better shopping experience. More than 19,000 stores processing over $7.3 billion in transactions annually use LightSpeed's retail commerce platform to unify inventory, customer preferences, sales and analytics, in-store and online. Founded in 2005 with offices in Montreal, New York City, Olympia, WA, Ottawa, Santa Cruz and Sydney, LightSpeed is backed by Accel Partners and iNovia Capital.

Media contact:
Sarah Spitz
Bateman Group
[email protected]

SOURCE LightSpeed