It is sometimes useful (especially in a small store with only one till) to be able to look up information held on another system, while serving a customer. Now a preset key on the touchscreen can call up a StoreTrader Widget to look up available stock for a product, or show a page from a website, or show real-time exchange rates - or in fact to do almost anything possible in a browser. From Version 3.307 SToreTrader will ship with sample Widgets and using these a competent programmer can create many more. More on StoreTrader Widgets here...

Loyalty Scheme support

The StoreTrader administrator can now create a loyalty scheme to allocate loyalty points on any transaction, and can specify the ratio of points to money spent, maximum and minimum allocations, and so on.

Gift Cards

The gift card processing has been improved. The system now recognises gift cards when they are first sold and automatically prompts for the gift amount to be loaded on the card. A secure code pre-printed on the card can optionally be checked together with the account number whenever the card is used for payment. A complete record of all purchases using the card is maintained, and can be reviewed online. Gift cards may be topped up at any time.
To simplify accounting StoreTraders Accounting Link automatically aggregates all gift card transactions and posts these to a single nominated account within the accounting system. You can analyse the use of gift cards using the data maintained in the SQL Mirror or through XML and data exports.

System Enhancements

Enhanced XML
The XML detail of StoreTrader transactions now shows the amount by item of any transaction-level discount in the transaction, calculated to 8 decimal places. The XML data feed complements the Accounting Link to give a complete picture of all StoreTrader transactions for accounting and merchandise planning and reporting systems.

Background services as Windows Services
You can now elect to run the StoreTrader background services responsible for moving data round the network and processing transactions either as StoreTrader-managed services or as Windows Services, managed by the Windows Service Manager. This allows StoreTraders Terminal Manager to run without needing a user to be signed on.

Product Link data override
Product Link provides a way of importing product data from any other system and automatically updating data such as descriptions or price changes in the equivalent products in StoreTrader. Now you can review this data before it is processed and change it interactively.

Transaction Rules extended
One of StoreTraders most popular and useful features, Rules give you some control over how a transaction is processed at the till. Weve added the option now to validate any data the till operator enters during the transaction a customer name, a gift card or account number or anything else against a table which you can define and load. So you can check for example whether a voucher has been used before, or a particular product is out of its warranty period.
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Managing price changes

The latest releases of StoreTrader Live have added many more features for managing item prices in the shop. Here’s a summary of what you can now do:

Use the Price Event List to track price changes
This new Retail report shows you the complete history of price changes against all or a group of items. You can see when a price changed, and what or who changed it.

Maintain different item prices in different branches
You can separate PoS terminals into Terminal Groups (which are usually the same as the set of terminals in each store) and then define different prices for each Terminal Group. When you’re setting prices at head office through StoreTrader’s Enterprise server, you can specify the branches (Terminal Groups) to which they apply. Of course price changes are also maintained and applied by Terminal Group.

Change an individual item price at any time
You can search for an item by its barcode or product id, or by some of the text anywhere in the description, and you can also restrict the search to unknown items which have been created at the till. Then you can change the price immediately.

Changing the prices on a group of items
You can use the Terminal manager menu Tasks to select Update Prices, then choose a group of items and optionally a VAT rate. Then you can increase or decrease the price of all or selected items by a percentage, or by a specific amount, or you can assign a set price to selected items. You can make this change immediately, or schedule it to be done any time in the future. The Price Change List tells you about all pending price changes, and the Price Event List tells you about all previous price changes. Of course you can use the Terminal Manager Data Import Wizard from the Tools menu to import item records in csv format from any other system.

Change prices automatically when the supplier’s price changes
Pharmacies often rely on the Chemist & Druggist for weekly updates on product prices, and other retailers have similar arrangements with their suppliers. StoreTrader Live Product Link lets you receive these product updates into a Product Master file, compare them with the products and items in StoreTrader, and then automatically update (and add new records to ) the StoreTrader files.

Printing price labels
You can quickly print off labels for the new or updated items, including shelf-edge labels, with the new version of the Label Print module.
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System Reports

Three new reports have been added to the Reports folder on the Store server to help you monitor system activity. The StoreTrader Live optional Monitor service checks these reports and alerts Pacific’s Helpdesk and anyone you nominate when errors are detected.

Data Volumes checks the size and utilisation of the main reference and transaction files on the system, and warns if any are getting full.

Network Status List reports the latest activity and the last transaction at each terminal, and also warns if any terminal goes offline beyond a specified time period.

Security Event List tracks all access to Terminal Manager by the Administrator.
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New Label Print Module

The new version of the Label Print module will print barcode labels for items or shelf edge strips using high-volume label printers like the Zebra LP series and also any A4 printer.

You can add logos to your labels and also add a Suggested Retail Price or ‘Previous price’ alongside the selling price.
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Unknown Items

Sometimes when an item is scanned at the till there will be no matching item, even though the item was in stock and the barcode is valid. This can happen when products are delivered and put on the shelves before the delivery is confirmed to the system.

StoreTrader’s Configuration Wizard lets you opt to create new item records on the fly so that the sale can continue. The till operator is required to choose an item group and key the price so that the system can correctly record the selling price and apportion VAT.

In Terminal Manager you can list all Unknown Items and then for each one you can have the system look for a product with a matching barcode in the Product Master file. If it finds one and the details (such as pack size) match you can have the system update the item record and create the matching product details in StoreTrader instantly.
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SQL Mirror

One of the big changes in StoreTrader Live was the introduction of the SQL Mirror. This is an optional extension of the StoreTrader database for StoreTrader customers who want to develop their own reporting from StoreTrader using generally-available report writing and business intelligence tools such as PowerPlay and Business Objects. The SQL Mirror is also a useful interface between StoreTrader Live and other applications, including accounting and merchandising systems.

Unlike the ODBC Snapshot which has been an option in earlier versions of StoreTrader, the SQL Mirror works in real time. That is, when any transaction is completed at the till and picked up by the Store server (and Enterprise server in multiple-store installations) the transaction data is written simultaneously to the StoreTrader database and the SQL Mirror. If the transaction update fails for any reason it will be backed out of both the StoreTrader server database and the SQL Mirror, so the two databases are always in sync.

Our testing shows that the SQL Mirror has very little effect on the performance of most customer systems, though of course it requires extra disk space on the server. It will work with any SQL database system, including MS SQL Server Express (which is free from Microsoft) and MySQL (which is the Open Source equivalent, also free).

If you’re new to SQL be aware that it requires a little more knowledge and maintenance than the maintenance-free StoreTrader high-performance database system.

To learn how to configure and turn on the SQL Mirror request the Release Note from helpdesk@pacificretailsystems.com

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