E-books have been in the market for past 20 years, with their market blossoming after the smartphone and tablet revolution. During the period 2008 to 2013, the sales of e-books per year went up by almost 400 million. This also increased the demand for document scanning services. The share of e-books is expected to reach 25 percent by 2018. While the US remains the profitable market for e-book sellers, other parts of the world are also picking up, especially Pacific Asia.
Many e-books have been published over the past many years on various subjects and topics. These are a great source of providing useful information to prospective customers for years to come in the future.
E-books on business management provide information on valuable business strategies. A new e-book was released recently, “A New Store Excellence Scorecard”, (based on research done in partnership between Tyco Retail Solutions and EKN Research) that highlights three key facts to measure store performance and new associated KPIs. In the present digital driven era it is important for every business to stay ahead of the competition and hence it is essential to know every detail of customer behaviour and operations that must be monitored regularly in real time. It provides a foundation to evaluate business results better. This enables retailers to discover some new and upcoming KPIs and performance management strategies that would help them address traffic volatility, increase inventory visibility, improve customer engagement, understand the path to purchase, reduce shrink and better employee engagement and overall operational performance.
Here are the three important facts to note when it comes to measuring store performance:
- Understanding customer buying behaviour: With many channels for shopping and multiple brands, retailers are struggling to understand customer buying behaviour. Findings show that 50 percent of retailers are unable to predict shopper traffic and this makes it difficult to strike a balance between operational tasks and customer service. Retailers need to combine real-time data with new key metrics associated with conversion rates, shopper behaviour and store mobility to provide a personalized customer experience and also increase sales conversions.
- Driving store execution through empowered associates: To ensure customer satisfaction and consistent execution, employee engagement and optimum labour hour utilization are great tools. Studies show that retailers spend 70 percent of their time on operational tasks and 30 percent on customer service. New actionable KPIs that are effective in understanding operational and shopper satisfaction issues, and the most effective allocation of associate time are engagement rates, schedule effectiveness and labour cost to sales ratios.
- Ensuring inventory accuracy and availability: Only 40 percent of retailers manage their inventory performance and turn over metrics at the store level. Inventory is the foundation for retail and having accurate availability and access ensures success. KPIs for scoring the ROI of store inventory include ATP (available to promise), merchandise effectiveness and inventory turn and order fulfilment cost and cycle time. It is critical to ensure enterprise-wide access to the right inventory at the right time because it is important as regards on-store and ombi-channel customer experience.
For businesses themselves, e-books are wonderful marketing tools and ebook conversion services can be utilized to create custom electronic books. Just as the above discussed e-book provides information to retail businesses, businesses themselves can provide the information customers are looking for. E-books can help with your marketing efforts, building leads and establishing your brand. When businesses publish e-books for their customers, it shows that they are willing to spend quality time doing something for their customers and thereby gain their trust. Well-designed e-books with good content and design will bring the targeted audience back to your website. They can establish your organization as a thought leader in the particular niche, and a trusted source of information on the particular topic the book discusses.
