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Greetings!
Welcome to the new year! In this issue, we're going to focus on trends touching on several of the markets our software is popular in. Are you in proper position to take advantage of these?
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Vinyl Making a Comeback
In the age of online media, which segment of physical sales in the music industry is growing? The title is obvious a bit of a giveaway on this, but vinyl album sales in 2009 just through November exceed that of any complete year since Neilsen Soundscan began tracking in 1991.
The New York Times has an article on this trend featuring more specifics, but it reflects what we've seen from our music retailers - in order to draw customers to the store, vinyl can bring in a dedicated crowd looking for a more tactile approach to music. In fact, some of our stores have become specialty shops focusing almost entirely on vinyl. While this may be more extreme than what you want to do, if you're a music retailer and are not carrying vinyl, perhaps it's time to reconsider.
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Console Market Penetration Breaks 50%
Neilsen Soundscan posted an article on trends in video game sales that is worth going over. First, the number of US households owning at least one console or handheld gaming device is over 50%, with 41% of households owning a PS3, XBox360, or Wii.
More interesting is the survey of whether gamers will purchase a game they've rented and enjoyed. 61% of game renters said that they would, as opposed to 27% of movie renters. If you are not doing rentals, it could be used as a way to encourage long term sales. Some of our game stores allow customers to rent, and then apply the rental fee as a discount if the customer decides to buy immediately after the rental period ends.
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Bookstores and Gifts
Many of our bookstores are starting to diversify their inventory to better draw in customers. In some cases, this means offering a selection of crafts made by local artists. Particularly when the store is associated with a church or a school, offering items handcrafted by the members of that association can be a great way to draw traffic and attention to your store.
If that isn't appropriate, consider stocking a wider selection of gifts or greeting cards. Make certain these are appropriate to the season - for instance, with Mother's Day cards and gifts available in April and early May. Generally, try to have seasonal items in stock for a month leading up to the holiday in question.
If you use a separate category or department for these seasonal items, you can easily use Praiz reports to track demand for them from year to year.
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Updating
If you are on a support plan, you are entitled to software updates. But how do you get them? Follow the steps below:
- Make certain all stations are currently closed and no transactions are rolling.
- Go into Maintenance Manager. Under the Tools menu, go to options and then Change Support Username/Password. Verify that these are correct.
- Under the Tools
menu, select Download Updates and follow the on-screen prompts until
the update is done or you establish that one is not needed.
- Exit Maintenance Manager and enter your main POS software. Log in, and then under the Tools menu select Download Updates. Once again, follow the on-screen prompts, and then you're updated!
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Inventory List
One of the most frequently asked about reporting options for the end of the fiscal year is a list of inventory. This report is central to your store's operation. You may access it from the main invoice screen -> Reports -> Inventory Reports -> List.
The reports for new inventory and used inventory will need to be run separately, but aside from that, all of your inventory can appear on this one report. You can also choose to filter it so that only things you actually have in stock will appear on the report, by choosing the show only positive quantities option. You may instead selection show only non-zero quantities if you would like to see items that have somehow been reduced to negative stock levels in the database.
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Mobile Batch Scanner for Inventory Sale
This month, we are running a special on the Cipherlab Mobile Batch Scanner, discussed in the previous newsletter. Until the end of January, this device is $499 if you mention this newsletter at time of order, a discount from the standard price of $599.
We also have bluetooth wireless scanners available for $499. These may be used as a normal scanner in addition to being used for inventory. Contact sales for more information on both of these devices.
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For customers on an update plan, the most recent version of the software is 2.06.0033.
Support is ending for versions 2.05.0048 and older of ExtremePOS, Musicware, and Praiz on December 1st, 2010. Get more information
Not supported? Get supported here!
You may view an archive of our emails here!
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Sincerely,
Jeremy Spencer
Support Manager
Extreme Point Of Sale Inc
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