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Every business’s objective is to sustain by increasing sales and maximising its profits. These organisations employ different sales techniques for achieving the same. Some build consumer relationships and capitalise on pull marketing. While some focus on realising a transaction or sale, in a way using push marketing tactics.

Transactional Marketing is one such push marketing approach that targets a large group of individuals to achieve substantial sales. Most companies essentially practice this technique in their initial stages to capture a large audience.

What Is Transactional Marketing?

Transactional marketing is a marketing strategy that focuses on concluding a transaction or sale. The objective is to close the deal after reaching a point of sale.

Companies that employ transactional marketing maximise their profits by emphasising the magnitude and efficiency of individual sales. The producers don’t put much effort into building relationships with the buyers. There is no attempt towards customer retention. Thus, there is an absence of any mental or emotional connection with the buyers.

Transactional marketing is a traditional marketing strategy and is commonly used by companies dealing in generic product lines or services. It primarily focuses on single transactions and targets customers for short-term association.

This marketing strategy is highly influenced by the marketing mix – the controllable variables that a firm uses to market its products. Transactional marketing uses the most appropriate mix of marketing variables to make it easier for the transaction to occur.

1. Product – Thebusinessmanufactures an offering capable of satisfying the needs of the customer.
2. Price – It determines a price for the offering, making it affordable for the customers and profitable for the business
3. Place – Itchooses the right and efficient distribution channels to reduce sales barriers.
4. Promotion – Thebusiness also ensures that the product is visible enough to grab the buyers’ attention.

Examples Of Transaction Marketing

Cold-calling is one of the best examples of transactional marketing. Using this strategy, the seller offers the customer a product that initially, they have no intention to purchase. Their job is to convince the customer to buy the product by assuring its utility and price. It is generally conducted over phones but can also involve personal visits such as door-to-door selling.

Quality Value Convenience (QVC), an American broadcast television network, is another example of transactional marketing. It is a flagship shopping channel that offers the viewer a televised in-home shopping experience. The salespersons come up with different products with their demos and bring in as many customers as possible. These traders do not interact with the customers. Instead, they use monologue as their method of transmission. The moderators use eye-catching schemes, discounts, and prices to attract individuals and thus perform a transaction. The orders are generally placed through phone calls displayed on the TV screen or through any website link.

Transactional Marketing Strategies

There are several strategies available in the market that businesses use to utilise the concept of transactional marketing. These are:

• Upselling & Cross-selling: Upselling is a sales strategy where the seller encourages the customer to spend more by recommending an expensive, upgraded, or premium alternative of the current consideration to maximise their purchase value. Cross-selling involves encouraging the customer to spend more by recommending related products that complement what is being bought already.
• Bundling: This technique involves offering complementary products packaged together or services clubbed together to attract buyers.
• Bulk discounts: Sellers often introduce enticing discounts to customers who buy more than specific quantities.
• Sales promotion: Offering attractive short-term initiatives to stimulate the offering’s demand and increase its sales is also a well-known transactional marketing strategy.
• Point of sale promotions: Promoting parasite products when the customer has reached the point of sale is another way of selling products. This product may or may not be related to the initial product.

Benefits Of Transaction Marketing

Though Transactional marketing mainly acquires short-term revenues, it can also yield some long-term benefits and help in cost control.

• Inventory Turnover: Maintaining inventory for long durations is a costly affair and difficult to manage. Transactional marketing helps in cost reduction as it involves rapid sales and thus assuring fast-moving inventory. The products getting off the shelf make way for new products that are more in demand. It essentially benefits in clearing the seasonal items which don’t sell off swiftly.
• Low costs: Usually,the promotional costs are lesser for one-time sales as there is no need for shaping brand image and loyalty.There is no long-term commitment and simply involves the communication of product availability and price initiation.

Disadvantages Of Transactional Marketing

Even though transactional marketing could be a boon for some businesses, there are some drawbacks to using this method because the main focus is price inducement. The drawbacks of transactional marketing are:

• Brand Loyalty: There is no significant personal contact with the customers, which would otherwise ensure customer retention and brand loyalty. There is a lack of the emotional relation which drives sales in future as well.
• Product Development: The business mainly analyses market behaviour and popular demand to build its products. There is little effort in improving product technology to stay ahead in the competitive market.
• Reactive: The companies remain unaware of technological innovations or changes in consumer preferences. They do not react until the changes are processed in the market and it becomes vital for them to employ the same.
• Little Emotional Attachment: The customer only looks for the lowest price while buying the product, and brand image and brand connections are blurred visions. As the customer does not remain connected with the business for long; there is less time to develop any attachment. The competitors can undercut the pricing in future times.

Transactional marketing Vs Relationship Marketing

Relationship marketing, as opposed to transactional marketing, focuses on building natural relations with the customer.  It aims to engage with buyers and retain them for future repetitive purchases. Patience and continuous efforts play a key role in achieving the same. People are accustomed to traditional advertising, and thus these personal connections break barriers and make way for sales.

In the end, it all narrows down to the business objective. Both the strategies have different executions and approaches but cannot prevail for long without the other. 

Bottom-Line?

Nowadays, it isn’t easy to catch a potential customer’s attention and attract them towards an item. People have become accustomed to the concept of forced introduction to products through rapid interruptions. They tend to overlook and move forward. Product manufacturers have to become innovative and employ such techniques that are easily spotted among the crowd.

The dynamic business environment and saturation of push marketing tactics may result in a rapid downfall of transactional marketing in the future. The digital era of the internet, mobile phones, and handheld devices will only be a catalyst as these technologies make it easier for buyers and sellers to exchange views and establish long-term connections.

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What do Tesla and IKEA have in common?

Besides being top-tier companies, they are motivated to the cause of advocating environmentally friendly products.

The environmental challenges have reshaped the planet, with societies collapsing as a result of its detrimental impact. The need of the hour is to shift towards a world where people and nature coexist.

Earth can recover only with the human spirit’s resilience and innovations in seeking solutions and rebuilding after disturbances. One such innovation is green innovation. It’s a unique opportunity to go green while offering scope for growth, cost savings, productivity, and prosperity.

With an upsurge in green consumers, many companies are now shifting to green innovation to contribute to creating a greener future. So, what is green innovation? What is its importance?

Here’s a guide answering all the questions related to Green Innovation. 

What is Green Innovation?

Green Innovation refers to all forms of innovation that minimise environmental damage and ensures that natural resources are used in the most effective way possible.

It’s one such practice that improves a company’s competitiveness, economic and environmental performance. Reduced energy use, waste recycling, pollution control, resource sustainability, and green product design are all factors to consider.

Green innovation usually distinguishes itself from non-green innovations as it has the following characteristics:

• It reduces negative environmental impact.
• The target of innovation is a product, a procedure, a service, or a system.
• It meets customer expectations while remaining competitive on the market.
• It considers and innovates the entire product life cycle to develop a green offering.
• Economic or environmental considerations back it.

Importance of Green Innovation

Why do companies tend to shift towards green innovation? This is not only a result of stringent laws or market pressure but also because implementing environmental management policies provides a multitude of opportunities for the companies.

• It increases economic and social performance through a reduction in waste, cost, and other inefficiencies.
• It attracts new customers. According to the Nielsen Global Corporate Sustainability Report, 66 percent of respondents are willing to pay more for sustainable products. The study conducted by Harris Interactive survey found that 77 percent of American adults purchase green products/services.
• Green Innovation is used in the manufacturing process by companies to minimise production time and costs.
• It improves market position and gives an edge over their competition.
• Green innovation creates breakthroughs. For example, Patagonia is one of the most well-known activewear brands in the world. They’ve built repair centres to lower their carbon footprint. They contributed $10 million from Black Friday sales in 2016 to radical environmental groups.

Thus, Green Innovation is the key to enabling environmentally sustainable growth as it can lead to a cleaner and safer world.

Types Of Green Innovation

Depending on the form of implementation and the possible consequences, Catherine A. Ramus categorised green innovation into three types. These are:

• Green innovation that lowers a company’s environmental impact. (through re-usage and recycling of products)
• Green innovation that tackles the company’s environmental concerns. (by decreasing the usage of harmful components)
• Green innovation that develops environmentally friendly products and uses effective processes. (by using fewer resources or energy)

Examples of Green Innovation

The changing business environment and customer preferences has forced the businesses, both big and small, to go green. While one can find green innovation in almost every industry today, here are some notable examples that stood out of the crowd.

Pavegen: Paving The Way To A More Sustainable Future

Founded by Laurence Kemball-Cook, Pavegen’s goal is to obtain kinetic energy from the regular movement of people and transfer it into electrical energy. The weight of people walking on the top surface causes generators under the tiles to rotate, producing electricity by electromagnetic induction. It produces about 3 joules per footstep or about 5 watts of continuous power. This energy can power local applications like lighting, sensors, and data collection and transmission or can be stored in batteries. 

Ulta Chaata – Intelligently Enabling Sustainability

Even though rainwater is the purest source of water, it is squandered. Samit Choksi and Priya Choksi, co-Founders of ThinkPhi, created Ulta Chaata to preserve water in its purest form in open spaces. It consists of a steel unibody and a flexible inverted canopy. It includes solar panels for energy generation, rainwater purification (water purifier), energy storage, live lighting, active sensors, mobile controls, and a charging station. It is also a very large shading system, under which nearly 20 people can sit, or two cars can be parked. In a nutshell, it generates a single integrated product that builds green infrastructure.

Carbon Nanotubes: A Remedy For Plastic Problems

While people around the globe are working to solve the plastic problem, Singapore’s BlueRen Company took things to the next level. Engineers at BlueRen have developed a manufacturing process that produces carbon nanotubes that are stronger than titanium using discarded plastics. Singapore’s skyscrapers and other buildings will be designed with the aid of these nanotubes. A carbon nanotube is a tiny carbon molecule cylinder that is 10,000 times thinner than a strand of human hair.

How Can Green Innovation Be Achieved?

Companies have realised that responding to green innovation is both a challenge and an opportunity.

Many companies are now assessing their internal processes to enhance their product lifecycle’s environmental profile, from the procurement of raw materials to final use and disposal.

But, making the switch to green innovation isn’t easy. Thus, a company needs a clear roadmap for maximum positive impact.

• Start by making small changes: New companies need to begin their journey towards green innovation by making small changes to their development and manufacturing process within a standard protocol.
• Decide on the path that needs to be taken: This translates to new machinery, new ideas for the production line, and new raw materials that are environmentally friendly and profitable. Adding the “Green Element” to traditional ways of thinking will take some practice but isn’t impossible.
• Form professional connections with organisations and stakeholders that have previously earned financial support: Creating a network of potential partners will help in achieving the goal of greening the company. It will open new doors for the company in the future, providing more opportunities. For example, companies like IBM have established collaborations that enable progress towards environmental goals while giving them a competitive edge over their rivals.
• Rewrite the company’s rules to gain a strategic advantage: This will change the business’s underlying rules and reshape it. What does it require? It requires visionary leadership to overcome obstacles.

Barriers To Green Innovation Initiatives

• Lack of Urgency: Many companies sense a general lack of urgency, as long-term initiatives can jeopardise short-term profitability.
• Neglecting 99%: Some businesses fall into the pit of focusing on enhancing 1% of their products’ environmental effect while neglecting to address the other 99%. This can damage the company’s credibility.
• Fear of losing control: A company needs to trust collaborations while also overcoming the fear of losing control of its operations. Both parties look for mutually beneficial terms in an optimal relationship.
• Not enough revenue: Some firms may not have enough revenue to switch to green innovation as environmental enforcement costs are excessively high.
• Fear of failure: Some businesses resist questioning current procedures to avoid the humiliation of acknowledging that their attempts were unsuccessful.

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The last thing any person consuming an ice cream bar would anticipate is probably that the wooden stick turns out to be Colgate’s emulated toothbrush. It is the essence of undercover marketing, where brand awareness takes place in a way most unexpected by the consumers.

Be it product placement in movies or shows, or influencers and celebrities being paid to spark buzz about a product casually, customers barely notice these subtle tricks of undercover marketing, a technique towards which more and more companies are inclining nowadays.

What Is Undercover Marketing?

Undercover marketing or stealth marketing is a marketing strategy where a company markets their product in a subtle and ‘hidden’ way, such that the consumers don’t realise that it is a marketing ploy.

It refers to marketing and advertising products in a less obvious manner, using unconventional tactics. It is in line with the idiom “flying under the radar”. It influences consumer decisions without tipping them off the manipulation.

Undercover marketing is considered to be a subset of guerrilla marketing.    

For instance, before the release of the movie ‘King Kong’, a stealth marketing campaign was unleashed wherein giant King Kong footprints were made on sandy beaches. This spectacle for the public attracted many people to take photos and post about it on social media. This created a buzz and excitement for the movie release.

Undercover Marketing Strategies

Businesses usually employ four undercover marketing strategies to stand out of the crowd. These are

• Ad Spies: Brands usually pay influencers to surreptitiously pitch its products to their followers without showing that it’s a paid gig.
• Product placement: It involves featuring a product in a movie or show or other forms of mass media.
• Buzz Marketing: This technique aims to make the target audience more receptive by making people talk about a product in a casual way to create a buzz in the market.
• Celebrity endorsements: It helps advertise a product when public figures or social media personalities casually mention the product in organic conversations.
• Social Validation: Posting positive reviews for the company on different industry websites or ghostwriting a blog citing the company’s success stories.

Examples Of Undercover Marketing

Stealth marketing isn’t new. It’s just not well known among the customers because it capitalises on that fact. Here are some of the most creative and innovative examples of stealth marketing strategies.

Starbucks

Product placement and stirring up fake controversies are ways Starbucks used to employ stealth marketing. There was a blooper of the enormously popular TV show ‘Game of thrones’ in which a Starbucks cup was evidently left on the table in one of the scenes. This helped it gain publicity and captured the attention of viewers all over the world. Starbucks also stirred up a fake controversy in 2015 about a Christmas cup which the consumers hated and wanted off the shelves. This tactic made the cup popular and raised the sales of the same.

Axe

Axe body spray made minute modifications to a common exit sign by adding customised stickers of women figures of the same kind chasing the man figure. This idea was in line with the brand’s idea of men becoming irresistible to women.

Walmart

A couple wrote a blog, chronicling adventures in different Walmarts throughout the United States in 2006. The blog was very well received by the public and gained an enormous following. However, it lost its charm when it was publicised that Walmart itself sponsored it.

Blackberry

Blackberry executives launched an undercover marketing campaign which involved marketing their products in an unorthodox fashion wherein young women took to the city streets and asked random men to enter their phone numbers in their blackberry phones and promised to give them a call later. This was done in order to create a buzz about the new blackberry phone models to increase their sales.

Advantages Of Undercover Marketing

Executing a successful undercover marketing campaign can be difficult to pull off. However, if done, it can help in the following ways:

• Increases brand reach: It helps reach out to customers who are otherwise cynical of traditional advertising strategies. Since they don’t realise that it is a stealth marketing move, it becomes difficult for them to avoid it.
• Creates a pre-launch buzz: Generating a buzz that makes their product go viral and more talked about makes people more aware of it even at grassroots levels. It helps grab people’s attention and leads to raised initial waves of sales.
• Saves money: Although these marketing strategies take more creative planning efforts, the company does not have to incur high costs for them. They help avoid any unnecessary expenditures and do not require a lot of equipment or manpower.
• Identification of potentially interested customers: Stealth marketing helps marketers identify a specific segmented target audience with the highest potential of catering and showcasing their products. It also gives the customers the feeling that they have ‘discovered’ a product or service which is of great value to them and instils in them a desire to purchase the product.

Disadvantages Of Undercover Marketing

Undercover marketing is a double edged sword and any company should keep in mind the following potential pitfalls that using undercover marketing strategies might lead to:

• Ethical dilemma: When consumers do not realise they are being marketed, they do not get an opportunity to opt out. This deceptive nature makes undercover marketing ethically dubious.
• Damaging the brand image: The strategies might boomerang the brand and this backlash might lead to turning off potential customers from using the brand completely. For instance, Sony’s campaign promoting its PSP console took quite an ugly turn in 2006 after it was brought to light that  the enthusiastic fan videos were made by a paid actor. 
• Legal risks: Undercover marketing gives rise to the possibility of dabbling into marketing strategies which are forbidden by the law. 
• Potential of losing credibility: Using stealth marketing moves raises an issue of trust between the consumers and marketers. Some people see it as customer manipulation through dishonest means.

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While destinationless journeys do appeal to many, work without clear paths and goals is inefficient. What happens here is that people waste their time and energy on tasks that yield little results and are then barely left with resources to do the actual work.

The only way to deal with this problem is by distinguishing the important, less important, and unimportant jobs. No wonder businesses put a lot of time, effort, and money into understanding their key result areas.

What are Key Result Areas?

Key Result Areas or KRAs are the strategic internal or external sectors where the business strives to realise strong positive outcomes to achieve its development goals and move towards fulfilling its vision.

Each piece of work comprises three to five critical tasks. These essential jobs on which employees, departments and, organisations need to focus are the key result areas.

For instance, a management consultant is responsible for several activities. They –

• Coordinate with clients to arrange meetings
• Understand their clients’ problems and decide how to cater to their needs
• Collect and analyse clients and their industries
• Devise an adequate plan of action for the clients’ business
• Communicate and coordinate with their teammates and other departments
• Draft emails and proposals for internal and external communication
• Present solutions and the final plan to the client
• Contribute to the white papers produced by their company
• Contribute to the business development activities of their company

The above tasks don’t generate equal returns. The ones that are more important than others demand more resources. They are the key result areas of the consultant.

Characteristics of Key Result Areas

Every job can be broken down into a few necessary tasks that contribute more than other pieces of work towards the functioning of an organisation. However, to be effective, these KRAs need to be outlined accurately, keeping their characteristics in mind.

• Departments, employees and even organisations usually have three to five key result areas. There are seldom more than seven KRAs.
• Key result areas are specific, clear and quantifiable. For example, ‘ensuring the growth of an organisation’ does not fall in the list of a department’s KRAs, but ‘customer acquisition’ does.
• KRAs comprise the tasks essential to do the work at hand. They don’t include additional jobs that generate little returns.
• Key result areas should be affected by the actions of the people they are outlined for. For instance, a software engineer cannot have advertisement in their KRAs because their work wouldn’t influence the company’s popularity.

Key Result Areas Examples

KRAs are different for each employee, department, and company. However, common basic key result areas associated with some designations are listed below:

KRA Examples for Sales Department

• Increase in number of sales as compared to the previous tenure
• Increase in profit margin as compared to the previous tenure
• Increase in the number of prospective customers approached
• Effective implementation of online sales strategy

KRA Examples for Marketing Managers

• Increased brand awareness and visibility
• Promotional activities to improve the brand image
• Decreased marketing costs per new customer acquired

KRA Examples for Human Resources Managers

• Improved advertisement of job vacancy
• Effective screening of prospective employees
• Decrease in the cost of hiring
• Retention of current employees
• Decreased employee turnover

KRA Examples for Customer Service Representatives

• Effectively assisting customers with their queries
• Efficient handling of customers’ complaints
• Improved customer retention

Importance of Key Result Areas

Outlining key result areas is believed to be crucial to an organisation’s functioning, department’s utility and employees’ productivity.

KRAs ensure concentration and boost productivity

Pareto Principle says that 20% of the causes lead to 80% of the consequences. Applying that, 80% of the organisation results will come from 20% of the activities done right. Therefore, marking essential tasks help employees concentrate on them and boosts their productivity at a reduced time cost.

They align with individual and organisational goals

Many a time, businesses deviate from their original goals. However, it is easier to align their everyday activities with their ultimate objectives when they have their KRAs penned down. Each employee can further align their key result areas with their organisation’s and work towards its growth in its true essence.

They assure systematic division of work

After knowing the department’s key result areas, its supervisor can properly distribute work among the subordinates. It ensures productivity within the organisation.

They motivate people to perform

A department’s KRAs consist of the work specific to it. Similarly, employees know that their organisation will suffer if they don’t work on their respective key result areas. This sense of responsibility motivates them to stay on track and work better.

They help track performance

After an organisation knows the KRAs of their various departments and employees, it can track their progress in those fields. This will further highlight their strengths and inefficiencies.

KRAs, KPAs and KPIs

Key performance areas or KPAs are the internal and external areas of a business that a person or group is responsible for. They include the essential and the not-so-essential duties of an employee, department and organisation. KPAs may be inclusive of the KRAs.

On the other hand, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are metrics that track an individual or a group’s progress towards their strategic goals, that is, their KRAs.

Difference between KRAs, KPAs and KPIs

How to Identify Key Result Areas?

When it comes to key result areas, there is no one-size-fits-all. KRAs vary with organisations, departments and employees. Everyone must individually identify their KRAs and work to bring about effective growth. Some points to keep in mind while going about it are as follows.

1. Understanding the organisation’s goals – Before spotting their KRAs, one must understand their organisation’s ideals and short and long-term goals. Knowing a business is mandatory before working for its development.
2. Discussions and deliberations – KRAs need to be SMART, that is, specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound. It is not feasible for a person to write them alone. They must talk to their colleagues, bosses and subordinates to finalise the list of key result areas.
3. Asking the right questions – While understanding the key result areas to work on, employees must ask themselves why exactly they had been hired, that is, what is their job and contribution to the business. People heading a team must know the purpose of creating it before distinguishing between its essential and non-essential pieces of work. Also, one must remember that KRAs don’t comprise expendables. Only essential tasks should be included in the list of key result areas.
4. Quantification – KRAs need to be measurable. However, various critical sectors like employee satisfaction cannot be measured directly, and managers have to find ways to quantify them. In this case, human resources managers do so by devising feedback forms and satisfaction surveys or by considering the number of resignations per annum.
5. Division of work – After knowing its KRAs, the organisation or the department needs to divide the work among its employees based on their capabilities and commitments. This further assists them in figuring out the employees’ key results areas.
6. Writing – It is better not to keep the list of KRAs verbal. The written matter is more explicit and commands more seriousness than word-of-mouth instructions.

Tracking and Assessing Key Result Areas

After the key result areas have been identified, one should waste no time planning how to proceed with them. Business professionals must devote enough time to working in those key result areas and keeping track of the progress.

Since KRAs are measurable, organisations should check them at regular intervals. They should track progress in each of the critical fields via research, reports and analyses.

Also, employees must be able to outline the areas of their strengths and weaknesses. They have to accept their inefficiencies and focus of improving.

Moreover, people, departments and even organisations might have to restructure their KRAs from time to time. They must remember that their goal is to live up to the organisation’s vision; KRAs are there to guide the process.

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Customers are usually relaxed while entering a store, spa or restaurant and tensed at the cash counter or when the bill arrives. Similarly, they don’t give a second thought before adding an item to their Amazon cart but delay buying it for days. 

That’s because customers think differently at different stages of shopping. They look for more information in the initial stages, followed by interest and consideration, which doesn’t usually require any monetary payment. The sale or the purchase stage is the actual phase when the customer tends to do their calculation and weigh offering value with the cost they have to pay for it. Hence, a business needs to focus on the final touchpoint that caters to the customer during the sales stage.

This touchpoint is categorised as the point of sale.

What is Point of Sale?

Point of sale is the strategic location where transactions are executed, typically a checkout counter or a virtual payment gate.

In other words, point of sale is the place where customers pay in exchange for products. It is where customers, products and money come together to turn a decision into a purchase. Everything, ranging from cash counters in brick and mortar stores to virtual checkout gates in eCommerce websites, falls under this head.

When understanding point of sale, it is crucial to study point of purchase as well. From a customer’s point of view, point of sale is synonymous with the point of purchase, that is, the place where customers pay for their purchase or sellers get paid for what they sold.

However, from a marketer’s perspective, the point of purchase refers to the area around the checkout counter. It is where businesses showcase their products and execute promotional activities, be it display racks in shops or online product galleries.

Importance of Point of Sale and Its Management

A customer’s mind goes through different stages when shopping, and their psychology is the most vulnerable at the point of sale. This makes POS a strategic location. Effective management at the point of sale can open floodgates to higher sales and revenue.

POS Finalises Deals

Point of sale is where deals are struck. Here, customers pay using cash, cards, discount coupons, loyalty points, etc. An exchange made at the point of sale is called a POS transaction. While consumers make buying decisions all the time, it is here that those decisions turn into a purchase.

Ineffective POS management can leave a bad impression on customers; they may back off or never return. Therefore, managers need to ensure a smooth checkout.

POS Guarantees Visibility

All the customers have to go through checkout. So, anything displayed here has higher visibility than the rest of the store (physical or virtual). When businesses display their products at the point of sale, it is called POS display.

Chocolates kept beside the cash counter in a supermarket, and Amazon’s product recommendations are great examples of POS display.

POS Is An Excellent Marketing Touchpoint

Promoting something at the point of sale is called POS marketing. Marketing is all about understanding consumers’ psychology. By the time customers head for checkout, they are mentally exhausted from making all the buying decisions and are more prone to compulsive purchasing. Also, they don’t want to miss anything out, so they tend to buy necessities, edibles and forgettable items like batteries impulsively.

A slight nudge in the form of promotional videos or even suggestions can boost a business’s revenue manifold. For instance, McDonald’s asks anyone who buys a burger if they want to switch to a combo. This drives up their revenues. 

POS Is A Point Of Service

Businesses need to provide excellent service to retain customers and ensure loyalty among them. Point of sale is the last place a customer visits while shopping. It gives sellers a chance to win customers’ trust and determines whether they will return or not. Conversations, offers and loyalty programmes are some ways to go about customer relationship management.

Changes in Point of Sale Management over the Years

In traditional retail stores, hotels or spas, employees assist customers during checkout. They talk to them, assist transactions and try to form a healthy relationship. They must ensure loyalty and retention among the customers.

Not long back, they processed transactions manually using calculators and cash registers. However, electronic POS systems have come into mainstream usage of late. They help businesses provide services and drive revenues with ease. Since technology has simplified the tedious task of creating sales reports and managing inventories, managers now have more time to focus on other tasks at the point of sale like marketing and building customer relations. Growing competition increased the need for customer relationship management (CRM), which is best handled at the point of sale. 

Nowadays, people prefer shopping online rather than carving time out of their schedule to buy daily items. This places eCommerce websites under the obligation of providing a smooth purchasing experience. Therefore, Virtual POS software interfaces have come into being to streamline the most hassled part of online shopping, the checkout.

Quite many physical stores and virtual stores use POS software to manage work around the point of sale efficiently.

Modern POS Systems

A point of sale system is the combination of all electronic and non-electronic items required at the point of sale to process transactions and keep records. Display screens, barcode scanners, cash registers, printers, and software interfaces form a point of sale system.

POS systems tend to increase the efficiency at the point of sale and streamline the whole business. Whether the point of sale is in a physical store or is present virtually, POS systems are deployed to assist management. When a system handles and records customers’ data well, businesses can build better relations with them through regular mails, personalised advertisements and loyalty programmes. When a system tracks and analyses customers’ choices, managers can easily suggest the right products just before checkout to drive sales through suggestive marketing. When a system streamlines the otherwise chaotic and tedious jobs, stores ensure better service to their customers.

Understanding Physical and Virtual POS Systems

Physical POS Systems

Physical POS systems are deployed in physical stores, restaurants, spas and other brick and mortar businesses. From heavy computer systems to cloud-based software interfaces, they come in varied forms. However, the essential components of a physical POS system are –

• POS Hardware – All the physical electronic equipment of a point of sale system form the POS hardware. Custom-made for their specific software, the point of sale hardware includes all the input and output devices, from barcode scanner to printer.
• POS Software – It is the software component of a POS system. Just like a phone runs on iOS or Android, POS hardware runs on POS software that stores product details, inventory information and maintains the record. A point of sale software can be cloud-based, mobile-based or traditional (computer system based).
• POS Terminal/ POS machine – POS terminals, also known as POS machines, are the payment accepting devices that execute card payment. A POS machine may or may not be integrated with the POS software, but it is advisable to do so for smoother management. Modern POS terminals are also equipped to read other payment channels like Google Wallet and Apple Pay.

Virtual POS Systems

Virtual POS is the software deployed by eCommerce websites to facilitate card transactions. It simplifies point of sale transactions which are executed using debit and credit cards.

Online stores offer people the comfort of shopping at leisure. However, about 67.4% abandon the checkout. Of these, 10% do so because of lengthy checkout processes. Ensuring a smooth customer experience is crucial to eCommerce websites and virtual POS systems are a good way to guarantee that. 

With upgradation coming in every day, businesses can easily be efficient at the point of sale. POS systems help secure loyal customers and generate revenue. However, managers and employees’ job is to devise an effective point of sale strategy and execute it to meet the business’s development goals. Vigilance and efforts are all it takes to sustain a business.

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There are times when the competitive market scenario leads to companies engaging in what we call “malpractices”, or practices that benefit the business at the consumer’s cost. These could be misleading advertisements – for example, the brand’s promotion calling it a sugar-free snack when it’s not really sugar-free – or even manufacturing a product that contains life-threatening ingredients – for example, excessive amounts of lead were detected in Nestlé’s Maggi noodles, an international noodles and seasoning brand.

For consumers to protect themselves from such malpractices, they need to be aware of their rights. This would enable them to shield themselves from any malpractice from the producer’s or seller’s end.

In short, consumer awareness is integral in the modern-day economy.

But what is consumer awareness? What are the rights and responsibilities of a modern-day consumer?

Let’s find out!

What Is Consumer Awareness?

Consumer awareness is the act that consumers perform to shield themselves from marketplace exploitation by gaining enough information about the offerings they consume and by practicing their consumer rights.

The process of consumer awareness requires governments to intervene, as it is a matter of public welfare.

This process involves successfully educating a consumer about their rights and responsibilities for the sole reason of their safety and protection from potential marketplace exploitation. Emphasis is laid upon making information accessible and redressal options available.

Importance Of Consumer Awareness

Below listed are a few points that state the importance of consumer awareness. Consumer awareness:

• Allows a consumer to achieve maximum satisfaction at the best price.
• Protects consumers in a marketplace from all sorts of exploitation that the producers and sellers might indulge in.
• Protects a consumer from consuming large quantities of harmful products.
• Motivates a consumer to save and not splurge.
• Helps consumers solve problems regarding their purchases as they grow more aware of redressal mechanisms.
• Enables a society to grow healthily.

Consumer Rights

In a marketplace, consumers are given certain rights that disallow producers and sellers to cheat or exploit them in any manner whatsoever. Below listed are a few rights that a consumer is expected to be aware of at all times when buying goods and services:

• Right to Safety: The Right to Safety allows consumers to protect themselves from products that have the potential to hold back or even cripple their safety. Consumers have the right to protect themselves from any product that threatens their mental or physical health. This right ensures consumers that they have all the right to demand justice in the event of injury or harm caused by a product or service.
  For example, if a defective pressure cooker harms or causes injury to a consumer, they could demand monetary compensation from the producer in the consumer court.
• Right to Information: The Right to Information states that a consumer needs to be aware of all the details of a product or service. These details include the quality, quantity, potency, standard, purity, and price of goods. Consumers should be certain of the product or service they choose to buy, and for the same, they should be aware of its details.
  For example, a consumer should be made aware of the side effects of a certain drug that he purchases from the pharmacy.
• Right to Choose: A consumer should be allowed to choose to buy a product or service of their choice without being forced to do so. The entire decision of purchasing a certain product is solely upon the consumer. This right also ensures that a consumer has several articles to choose from, as monopolistic practices are not deemed legal.
  For example, if a consumer wishes to purchase a keyboard but the seller states that one could purchase a keyboard only if they buy the mouse as well. This would be deemed an illegal practice as the consumer has all the right to purchase just the keyboard, minus the mouse.
• Right to Be Heard: A consumer, in the event of being dissatisfied with the product or service that they purchased, has the right to file a complaint in the consumer court. The court should address the complaint in a limited time frame, and it cannot, in any event, go unheard.
• Right to Seek Redressal/ Have Problems Corrected: If a consumer is dissatisfied with a particular purchase, the consumer has the right to get the product replaced, or a refund could be demanded for the product. The consumer may also ask for compensation in case a product or service causes harm to them.
• Right to Consumer Education – Consumers are to be made aware of their rights as buyers in the marketplace. They should be able to access all information and details regarding a product, and also have the right to be made aware of their rights and responsibilities as a consumer.
• Right to Service- Every consumer is to be treated with the utmost respect in the marketplace. Consumers are granted the right to expect prompt services that meet the standard or quality of a business. This right is granted to all, irrespective of their gender, class, income, age, religion, or race.
  In the event of any form of discrimination, the consumer has the right to approach the court and seek compensation for the same.

Responsibilities Of A Consumer

As consumers in a marketplace, they too have certain responsibilities that they should keep in mind in order to ensure that they are protected from all kinds of marketplace exploitation. Below listed are a few responsibilities that consumers should keep in mind while purchasing a product or service:

• The Responsibility to Be Informed: A consumer must make sure that they are informed of what they are purchasing. For example, if one plans to buy food products, they should make sure they know what it contains and whether or not it is not something that would harm them in any manner whatsoever. If one pays for a service, they should keep themselves informed of the service they purchased and have a clear idea of what kind of service they expect.
• The Responsibility to Choose Carefully: Consumers, while making purchases of shopping products, tend to compare one product or service with another. A consumer must see to it that they make sure that they choose a product that best satisfies their needs, interests, or desires. A responsible consumer will make sure that they are getting great value at the best price.
  At the same time, one must be responsible of their environment as well. They should also be aware of the availability of resources and adjust accordingly.
• The Responsibility to Use Products Safely: Consumers are expected to make sure they are aware of how a product is to be used and must follow the user’s instruction that is provided along with the product. Consumers should make sure they adhere to the instructions provided. For example, if a certain dosage is recommended for a particular drug, one must not consume more than what has been recommended.
• The Responsibility to Speak Out: Consumers are expected to provide producers and sellers with adequate feedback. It is integral to let a producer or seller know if they are dissatisfied with their product or service and seek a response. This will allow the consumer to practice their right of seeking redressal if required.
  Reporting unfair practices on the part of the producers and sellers is of utmost importance as this would add to the awareness among other potential consumers of the product or service.
• The Responsibility to Seek a Remedy: If a consumer is dissatisfied with a defective product, the consumer needs to contact the producer or seller to get a refund or replace it. This is important as a consumer pays the product’s full price and has the right to get the best value for their money. If the producer or seller refuses to solve the problem, the consumer must approach the consumer court.
• The Responsibility to Learn Consumer Skills: As a consumer, one should make sure they have all the necessary consumer skills that make them a responsible consumer. These skills include – reading labels on packages, comparing prices and quality, paying attention to news that reports illegal practices of a certain business or company, reading consumer information publications, keeping oneself updated regarding products and their usage, etc.

Effects Of Consumer Awareness

Consumers in the marketplace today are more aware and alert than ever. They are aware of their rights and responsibilities and utilise them to derive maximum satisfaction by demanding value for price and shield themselves from any sort of exploitation.

A responsible consumer would now make it a point to make sure that he is purchasing good quality products and services, check its manufacturing and expiry date, and ascertain that the product’s price matches the offering’s quality, quantity, purity, and standard.

Keeping in mind all of these rights and responsibilities allows consumers to make sure that their rights are observed. Additionally, these rights and responsibilities also ensure consumers that they will get the best value for their money at all times and grants them the right to seek redressal if they are left dissatisfied.

Go On, Tell Us What You Think!

Did we miss something?  Come on! Tell us what you think about our article on consumer awareness in the comments section.