Why Is IT So Important For Retail Businesses?

Much like any business, retailers rely on their IT networks to process transactions and make money without even realising it. PDQs, tills, computers, and more all rely on your network, and if one element fails it creates a weak link in your venue.Â

Find out why investing in professional IT equipment and support is essential for your retail business and how it will benefit your business.

Total dropout?

Every businesses worst nightmare, experiencing your entire IT network fail or drop out stopping your business from operating. POS systems don’t work, card payments don’t go through, and orders can’t be processed.Â

This means you can’t take any money and your business is at standstill. This is why choosing business grade WiFi is important, cheaping out and having WiFi that is not designed for businesses and the number of systems that are dependent on it, can have a huge impact on your business.Â

Astaris always recommends Cisco-Meraki products as they are top of the range and are built for businesses, if your business is smaller, or you have a smaller venue we also have different options to suit everyone’s budgets.Â

Cisco Meraki WiFi allows your entire network to run reliably on one system, meaning if in the rare case you did lose connection it’s a quick fix of one piece of equipment to get your business back up and running.Â

Remote diagnostics also comes into play, having a system that doesn’t require an IT engineer on-site means your business can be supported remotely and be fixed within a matter of minutes, as a pose to hours or even days.Â

Choosing the right IT support

Having the right IT support in place can make a huge difference to your business, knowledge is power, right?Â

Having good IT support and infrastructure means your business can implement many money-saving technologies, such as having portable terminals and iPad facilities to take payments. However, this can only work if you have a strong WiFi connection and will do more damage if it is run poorly than not run at all.

Many businesses are quick to take to the idea of implementing these technologies to stay competitive with other retailers, but your IT network and your WiFi connection are your foundation… you wouldn’t lay a house without foundations, so you shouldn’t run your business without them either!

IT support can also include added security protocols (which are becoming increasingly important with the amount of spam and ransomware attacks businesses are the target of annually) and also offers added protection to your customers too. PCI compliance is a security measure that is put in place to protect your customer’s credit card details and stop them from being potential victims of fraud. Not to mention, it also protects you against possible fines and unnecessary credit card merchants fees that most businesses don’t even know they are paying.

The stats…

Here are some numbers on why being able to take card payments easily is essential in 2022

• 80% of people prefer card payments over cash
• The average card transaction is just over 5X more than the average cash transaction
• Debit cards account for 67% of card transaction

What do you need to do now…

Some businesses may know their IT is in trouble, others may need a little help, Astaris offer free WiFi strength tests to help you understand which areas you may need help with, if you’d like to know how you can upgrade your systems, please visit our website.