Impact of Point-of-Sales Technology on British Home Stores Marketing

This report investigates the impact of integrated Point-of-Sales (POS) technology on the marketing activities of British Home Stores (BHS). It outlines a research project management plan, including project definition, strategy, aims, objectives, scope, assumptions, deliverables, and success criteria. The report details the project implementation plan, including a Gantt chart and work breakdown structure, and discusses project processes such as stakeholder identification and communication. It includes a small-scale research component, data analysis and interpretation, recommendations for integrating mobile POS (mPOS) to enhance customer experience and sales, and a reflection on the research process. The study aims to demonstrate how POS technology can improve customer service, reduce waiting times, enhance data security, and ultimately increase sales for BHS by effectively integrating digital technologies into their marketing activities.

MANAGING A SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS PROJECT
An analysis of the impacts of Point-of-Sales technology on
the marketing activities of British Home Stores

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION..........................................................................................................................2
TASK 1- RESEARCH PROJECT MANAGEMENT PLAN...................................................................3
PROJECT DEFINITION..............................................................................................................3
Project Statement..................................................................................................................3
Project Strategy......................................................................................................................3
Project Aim and Objectives....................................................................................................3
Performance, Time and Cost Objectives................................................................................4
Project Scope..........................................................................................................................4
Included scope:..................................................................................................................4
Excluded scope...................................................................................................................4
Project Assumptions..............................................................................................................5
Deliverables............................................................................................................................5
Success Criteria......................................................................................................................5
PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION PLAN.........................................................................................6
Gantt chart (time schedule)...................................................................................................7
Work Breakdown Structure...................................................................................................8
PROJECT PROCESSES............................................................................................................10
Communication Plan............................................................................................................11
TASK 2- PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION AND LOG BOOK............................................................12
P4 SMALL-SCALE RESEARCH.................................................................................................12
LOGBOOK.............................................................................................................................14
TASK 3- RESEARCH ANALYSIS AND PERFORMANCE REVIEW...................................................16
P5 DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION..........................................................................16
P6 RECOMMENDATIONS......................................................................................................21
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P7 REFLECTION.....................................................................................................................22
CONCLUSION............................................................................................................................23
REFERENCES.............................................................................................................................24
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INTRODUCTION
New technologies are being incorporated by the retailers in order to bridge the gap
between their online and offline presence. As the traditional and electronic commerce
merges, marketing in retail is leaning towards the making their Omni-channel presences.
Due to the evolution of digital transformation, the retailers are progressing every year for
fulfilling the desires and expectations of the customers (Tsai, et al. 2010). Retailers have
made their Omni-presence on mobile phones, computers and in-stores. Integrated point of
sale in mobile technology leads retailers towards better customer engagement opportunity,
the source of productivity and revenue channel.
The aim of this research is to analyse the impact of IPOS on the marketing activities of
British Home Stores (BHS). British Home Stores is a private departmental store chain that
primarily sells clothing and household items such as furniture, electronics, entertainment,
convenience groceries and beauty products (British Home Stores, 2018). The retailer uses
POS systems to sell their products and services over the phone or internet or at Brick and
Mortar store. Cash registers, barcode scanners, electronic card readers are some of the
variety of tools to process Point-of-sales transactions used by the retailers. It helps in
tracking the pricing accuracy, gross revenue, sales patterns and inventory changes for
retailers as per the software features.
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TASK 1- RESEARCH PROJECT MANAGEMENT PLAN
PROJECT DEFINITION
Project Statement
“What are the impacts of Point-of-Sales technology on the marketing activities of British
Home Stores?”
Project Strategy
The strategy of the project is to ingrate the integrated point-of-sales technology in the
marketing activity to increase the revenue and profitability of the retail organization such as
British Home Stores. It is essential to implement quality POS so as to increase and enhance
purchasing decisions regarding the high-margin products as well as services at these
strategic locations (Hasan, et al. 2012). Usually, departmental stores such as British Home
Stores deploy POS for each products group in their stores such as apparels, appliances and
electronics. Products and services can be actively promoted by the designated staff by
guiding them in an effective manner instead of just focusing on the processing the
transactions (Sari, 2010).
POS affects the buying or profit behaviours thereby providing flexible options to consumers
to make purchases. POS can be effective in improving checkout efficiency and customer
services when Departmental stores use mobile devices or terminals (Renko and Ficko,
2010). Project strategy of this research project, it defines the objectives, schedule, budget,
resource plan, risk management plan and other related factors.
Project Aim and Objectives
The aim of this project is to analyse the impacts of integrated Point-of-Sales on the
marketing activities of British Home Stores. The objectives of the research are:
 To improve the customer experiences by reducing the customer waiting time in line.
 To integrate the POS of a retailer with mPOS to provide paperless receipts directly
via email by collecting email information.
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 To enhance security level for sending and receive the data in real time on mobile
devices protecting the data of business and customers from data theft.
 To increase the sales thereby improving the customer services.
 To manage the influx of the customers by reducing the time of bill processing to
handle incoming traffic.
Performance, Time and Cost Objectives
The effectiveness of the performance of the research project can be indicated through the
inclusion of mPOS into the marketing activities of British Home Stores so as to increase the
sales and also enhance customer experiences by providing effective customer services
(Singh, et al. 2014). The price and time decided for the research will be evaluated with the
budget and time determined for the research project.
Project Scope
The scope of the project is initially limited which means that it will be applicable to one of
the chain stores of British Home Stores. However post the successful implementation of the
research project at one location; it will be applied to all the chain stores around the UK and
other regions (Aloysius, et al. 2016). The outcome of this research will be helpful in
understanding that introducing the POS technology in marketing activities will effectively
meet the objectives of both the research and British Home Stores.
Included scope:
The included scope of the research project is the improvement in the customer experience
thereby reducing the waiting time of the customers in line (Williams, et al. 2014). It will also
include the integration of the mPOS with the POS system of British Home Stores to easily
collect the email addresses of the customers and also provide paperless receipts via email.
Excluded scope
Excluded scope it is the implantation of POS system across all the chain stores at the initial
level. It also excludes the accuracy and validity of the responses of the respondents at the
time of data collection (Singh, et al. 2014). Comparison with other chain stores is excluded
and geographical location is not focused on this research. It also excludes the other activities
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such as operations, HR, finance and so on thereby focusing on just marketing activities of
British Home Stores.
Project Assumptions
Certain assumptions for integrating POS system in the marketing activities of British Home
Stores are given below:
 It will help retailers to take the floor space by allotting it to returns or customer
service counters (Babu, et al. 2012).
 It can help retailers in minimising the walkaways and showrooming by proactively
engaging the customers with all the information in POS system to facilitate the sales.
 It helps the retailers by searching the inventory to get product information and
pricing details in an efficient manner to execute the sales with tempting offers (Babu,
et al. 2012).
 It helps the retailers to sell the products and services via trade shows, car park sales
or pop-up stores.
 It also prevents the server data of the retailers by protecting it from cyber-attacks,
malware, unauthorised access and also business disruption due to poor availability
of POS application (Babu, et al. 2012).
Deliverables
A typical mPOS solution provides the retailers with the flexibility in accepting the payments
through debit or credit card anywhere and anytime. There is a variety of POS solutions
ranging from fully integrated to the standalone solutions that run through various different
devices ranging from smartphones to tablets to wireless terminals (Zhu, et al. 2012). It
provides the retailers, mobility, personalised services, EMV migration, and quick checkout
and also accepts mobile wallets.
Success Criteria
The success criteria for this research project are the effective interaction of the staff with
the customers through POS software (Yeh, et al. 2011). It also allows speeding up of
marketing activities thereby enhancing the customer’s experiences and increasing sales
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opportunities in British Home Stores. It will also help the retailers to manage large waiting
line of the customers through their payment acceptance solutions.
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PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION PLAN
Once the strategic plan is been devised, an organization needs to undertake and formulate
an implementation plan for its execution effectively (Khodakarami and Chan, 2014). For the
execution of any discrete project, technology deployment within the divisions, inventory
planning can be effectively executed with the implementation plan. British Home Stores
need to formulate project implementation plan in order to convert the project plan into the
real actions. The implementation plan includes following components for successfully
carrying out a strategic plan:
 Devising the aim and objectives that is analysing the impact of integrated Point-of-
Sales on the marketing activities of British Home Stores.
 The schedule or timeline stipulated for this project is approximately 6 months.
 Proper allocation of the resource and necessary material such as time, personnel and
budget for successful project execution (Butman, et al. 2010).
 Clearly defining the roles and responsibilities of the members of British Home Stores
 The success metrics of this project is the successful integration of POS software in
marketing thereby increasing customer experience and also profitability and sales.
 Monitoring and controlling the activities for the effective progress of the plan at
regular period of time by making necessary changes in budget and time schedule for
the project (Butman, et al. 2010).
 The aim and objectives are met by the outcome of this project will determine the
success of the project.
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Gantt chart (time schedule)
Activities January February March April May June July
Identifying an issue or
problem for research
Defining aim and
objectives
Constructing the
assumptions and other
variables
Research design selection
Selection of data
collection sources and
methods
Sampling method and
sample size selection
Data collection Execution
Data analysis and
interpretation
Demonstrating results
and outcome
Suggestions and
conclusion
9

Work Breakdown Structure
WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE (WBS)
A business project on identifying the impact of integrated Point-of-Sales on the marketing
activities of British Home Stores.
W
BS
ID
LEVEL NAME OF
ELEMENT
WORK DESCRIPTION BUDGET
$
RESOURCES DELIVERABLE
1
1
1.1
1.2
BARCODE
SCANNER
CREDIT CARD
READER
IT AUTOMATES THE
CHECK-OUT PROCESS
(KIM AND KWAK,
2015)
IT READS TO
INFORMATION OF
THE CREDIT CARD TO
MAKE PAYMENT
$225
$200
IT SCANS THE
BARCODES TO
PULL THE
INFORMATION
OF THE
PRODUCTS AND
ADDS IT TO THE
TOTAL
AMOUNT.
EMV-
COMPLIANT
CREDIT CARD
READERS
SECURE THE
DATA OF THE
RETAILERS AND
CUSTOMERS
THROUGH EMV
PAYMENT
It also
integrates with
management
systems to
adjust the
inventory
levels
automatically.
It protects and
safeguards the
information of
the customers
and server data
of the retailers
from fraud
liability,
malware, and
unauthorised
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2
2.1 REGISTER
SCREEN
IT IS A STANDARD
MONITOR THAT
DISPLAYS THE
DATABASE OF THE
PRODUCTS.
$250
STANDARD
IT ALSO
ENABLES OTHER
FUNCTIONS
SUCH AS
EMPLOYEE
CLOCK-IN AND
SALES REPORTS
access thereby
allowing secure
payment (Kim
and Kwak,
2015).
It provides
product
database and
also enables
viewing
employee
clock-in and
viewing sale
reports and
other
functions.
3 3.1 RECEIPT
PRINTER
IT PROVIDES PAPER
RECEIPTS TO THE
CUSTOMERS FOR A
QUICK SNAPSHOT OF
THEIR PURCHASE
$255 IT INCLUDES
EMAIL, TEXT
RECEIPTS AND
PAPER RECEIPTS
TO THE
CUSTOMERS
IT PRINTS SALES
TOTAL OF
EMPLOYEES,
WORK HOUR AND
OTHER
INFORMATION
ALONG WITH
PAPER RECEIPTS.
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