Profit Comes from Healthier Options in C-Stores

February 22, 2016

KWIK TRIP RECOGNIZED FOR PROVIDING HEALTHIER OPTIONS

By June 2017, Kwik Trip will offer an expanded stock of healthier options and increase better-for-you choices in the checkout area.
February 22, 2016

​LA CROSSE, Wisc. – The Partnership for a Healthier America (PHA), which works with the private sector and its Honorary Chair First Lady Michelle Obama to make healthier choices easier, is recognizing Kwik Trip as the first convenience store to complete its commitment to expand healthier options across its stores.

“With more consumers expecting to find fresh and healthy items on the go, the convenience store industry is in the midst of a momentous shift, one that Kwik Trip has been leading for several years now,” said PHA CEO Lawrence A. Soler. “Just a few years ago it was unusual to see fresh fruit in many convenience stores, but today, Kwik Trip sells 400 pounds of bananas per store per day. In fact, after making a commitment to PHA, Kwik Trip’s bulk produce sales grew 5.5% in 2015.”

Since first teaming up with PHA in 2014, Kwik Trip has fulfilled its initial commitment to PHA by:

  • Introducing at least four categories of fresh fruits and four categories of fresh vegetables across its stores;
  • Expanding its whole grain rich offerings to at least six products; and
  • Implementing a Healthy Concessions Program in local schools.

In addition, through its EatSmart program, designed to encourage healthier options, Kwik Trip is the first convenience store to offer a PHA-approved combo meal.

“Kwik Trip has made many advancements over the past two years to make healthier choices more convenient and accessible for our guests,” said Erica Flint, registered dietitian for Kwik Trip. “We have enjoyed working with PHA and receiving the positive feedback from guests on the programs we have implemented. We are eager to continue our partnership with PHA and get to work on our expanded commitments.”

Building upon these efforts as a part of its new commitment to PHA, by June 2017 Kwik Trip will offer an expanded stock of healthier options, including healthier packaged foods like nuts and granola bars throughout the store, and will increase healthier options in the checkout area. In addition, Kwik Trip will continue to encourage more consumers to drink water more often through its support of PHA’s Drink Up initiative.

From Sheetz on the East Coast to Kwik Trip in the Midwest to Loop stores in California, convenience stores have taken note of consumer demand for healthier options. Recognized as innovators in the foodservice industry, these stores and others, including U-Gas and Twice Daily, have teamed up with the Partnership for a Healthier America (PHA) to offer healthier options like fresh-cut fruits and vegetables, nonfat and low-fat dairy products and whole grain items; and they’re promoting those healthier products through marketing efforts in the store and at the pump.

And through the NACS reFresh initiative, convenience retailers are discovering new ideas that enhance their operations and communication efforts to showcase the industry’s positive business practices with the public, media and policymakers. Partnerships with groups such as PHA that share similar values are fostering best practices and making a difference.

http://www.nacsonline.com/Media/Daily/Pages/ND0222161.aspx#.VstUyPkrLRY

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backOffice™ Software from Insight Retail Software will handle your c-Store healthier options beautifully! Do Better with InsightRS.

 


Benefits of EDI from InsightRS

January 14, 2016

EDI continues to prove its major business value by lowering costs, improving speed, accuracy and business efficiency. The greatest EDI benefits often come at the strategic business level.

According to a recent research study from Forrester, EDI continues to prove its worth as an electronic message data format. This research states that “the annual volume of global EDI transactions exceeds 20 billion per year and is still growing.”1 For buyers that handle numerous transactions, using EDI can result in millions of dollars of annual savings due to early payment discounts. From a financial perspective alone, there are impressive benefits from implementing EDI. Exchanging documents electronically improves transaction speed and visibility while decreasing the amount of money you spend on manual processes. But cost savings is far from the only benefit of using EDI.

 

But let’s start with cost savings anyway:

  • Expenses associated with paper, printing, reproduction, storage, filing, postage and document retrieval are all reduced or eliminated when you switch to EDI transactions, lowering your transaction costs by at least 35%
  • A major electronics manufacturer calculates the cost of processing an order manually at $38 compared to just $1.35 for an order processed using EDI
  • Errors due to illegible faxes, lost orders or incorrectly taken phone orders are eliminated, saving your staff valuable time from handling data disputes

The major benefits of EDI are often stated as speed and accuracy:

  • EDI can speed up your business cycles by 61%. Exchange transactions in minutes instead of the days or weeks of wait time from the postal service
  • Improves data quality, delivering at least a 30—40% reduction in transactions with errors—eliminating errors from illegible handwriting, lost faxes/mail and keying and re-keying errors
  • Using EDI can reduce the order-to-cash cycle time by more than 20%, improving business partner transactions and relationships

However, the increase in business efficiency is also a major factor:

  • Automating paper-based tasks allows your staff to concentrate on higher-value tasks and provides them with the tools to be more productive
  • Quick processing of accurate business documents leads to less re-working of orders, fewer stock outs and fewer cancelled orders
  • Automating the exchange of data between applications across a supply chain can ensure that business-critical data is sent on time and can be tracked in real time. Sellers benefit from improved cash flow and reduced order-to-cash cycles
  • Shortening the order processing and delivery times means that organizations can reduce their inventory levels

In many cases, the greatest EDI benefits come at the strategic business level:

  • Enables real-time visibility into transaction status. This in turn enables faster decision-making and improved responsiveness to changing customer and market demands, and allows businesses to adopt a demand-driven business model rather than a supply-driven one
  • Shortens the lead times for product enhancements and new product delivery
  • Streamlines your ability to enter new territories and markets. EDI provides a common business language that facilitates business partner onboarding anywhere in the world
  • Promotes corporate social responsibility and sustainability by replacing paper-based processes with electronic alternatives. This will both save you money and reduce your CO2 emissions

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Source credit: http://www.edibasics.com/benefits-of-edi/

 


InsightRS Releases Fuel Manager

May 21, 2015

Call today for more information!

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It’s Spring!

March 31, 2015

It’s Spring!  That means spring forward, change the batteries on the smoke detectors and BACKUP YOUR DATA.  Backing up your data is like flossing your teeth.  You don’t have to floss them all – just the ones you want to keep.

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What is Instagram and how can it help my business?

June 18, 2014

instagramInstagram has been around since 2011 and started as a way to quickly snap a photo, use their cool editing filters and put those pics out in the unfiltered world.  Instagram allowed its users to post photos without having to send friend requests or worry about much of anything.  But then in 2012 Instagram was purchased by Facebook and the bar started to rise.  Suddenly there were more cool filters, video capabilities and sharing between Facebook and other Social Media sites became easier and people started to jump on the bandwagon.  The users grew from teenage girls and college kids to movie stars, sports teams, TV Shows and businesses.   On March 25, 2014 Instagram announced having more than 200 million active monthly users beating out Twitter in terms of number of mobile customers in the US.  They also shared the fact that Instagram had already surpassed the ’20 billion photos shared’ mark.  Instagram became a household name.

So what is Instagram?  Here’s what google says:

  • Instagram is an online mobile photo-sharing, video-sharing and social networking service that enables its users to take pictures and videos, apply digital filters to them, and share them on a variety of social networking services, such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Flickr

With 200 million users out there, how can it help my business?  Good question!

  1. Showcase your business, showcase your merchandise

Facebook has friends, groups and pages.  Instagram’s feed is unfiltered and can be seen by anyone.  People (or let’s say ‘Shoppers)’  have a plethora of content available from friends and businesses they follow, and chances are – they want to see what you have available for sale!   So, keep your smartphone close and snap often!  Remember this, snap now, edit later if you need to.  You would be amazed at how wonderful a quick photo can look on Instagram!  A great way to advertise a new product, a new shelf placement or just something fun.  Once you become a pro, you’ll be snapping and posting with no real interruption to your day.

2.  Showcase yourself!

Everyday photos are a huge hit on Instagram.  Snap a photo of an employee with a new or fun product.  Better yet, have your employees post a photo on their Instagram showing the store, various products  or a special event.  Use the many cool filter effects to turn a quick snap into something that looks professional.

3.  Take Instagram behind the scenes

Shoppers get a warm and fuzzy connection when they get a taste of what everyday life is for store owners and store employees.  Share a few photos of trade shows, your participation in charity events,  trips to market, a video of food parings, etc.  Do whatever is relative to your business.  Let the customer know who you are [with limits of course].

#4.  # Hashtags !

What are they and what is their purpose?  I’ll let Wikipedia have the honors:

A hashtag is a word or an unspaced phrase prefixed with the number sign (“#”). It is a form of metadata tag. Words in messages on microblogging and social networking services such as Twitter, Facebook, Google+ or Instagram may be tagged by putting “#” before them,[1] either as they appear in a sentence, (e.g., “New artists announced for #SXSW2014MusicFestival”)[2] or appended to it.

Hashtags make it possible to group such messages, since one can search for the hashtag and get the set of messages that contain it. A hashtag is only connected to a specific medium and can therefore not be linked and connected to pictures or messages from different platforms.

#anyquestions #thatWASlong #annoyed #didNOTreadthat

Create your own hashtags to interact with your customers using your store name, a catch phrase, a charity event or a product name.  Make it fun and take advantage of this opportunity to reach new customers while staying connected to your current customers.  A great way to promote sales, events, products.

Take advantage of the CAPTION section by directing shoppers to your website or Facebook page where more information can be found. Don’t forget the videos!  A quick video from a customer or a video walk around the store or product demonstration videos are all great marketing tools.  With one click your photo or video capture can be pushed to your Company Facebook Page.  This gives you double coverage for the same effort.

Instagram is a fun and easy way to promote your business!  Get started today!

Good luck!

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Grow Your Business with Doyles Sheehan and Insight Retail Software

June 13, 2014


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For more than 35 years, Doyles Sheehan has been a full-service distributor of food service, convenience and grocery products to a diverse customer base throughout the greater Northwest. DS has customers throughout Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and North Dakota. They know how to compete effectively in the wholesale industry while always keeping their primary focus on the customer. I saw this first hand as InsightRS was invited to attend their Annual Tradeshow in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.

This family-owned and family-operated company, is nothing short of top-notch. They reach far beyond simply selling products to their customers. They truly know the importance of traditional, dependable and superior service. They show daily that these core values, combined with sophisticated inventory, ordering, delivery and marketing systems are crucial to success for them and their customers.

So were does InsightRS fit in?

Electronic Data Interchange

or simply putEDI

EDI refers to the transfer of electronic data. Our EDI Module allows Doyles Sheehan customers to import their invoices directly into backOffice™ Software electronically from Doyles Sheehan. Gone are the days of spending HOURS on data entry to update pricing and receiving orders. Once imported, backOffice™ will identify new products received from Doyles Sheehan, any price or cost changes and the quantity shipped of each item. With the click of a button, new items are added, price and cost changes are made, and an order is created in the inventory module!

The low cost of this module added to backOffice™ Software will very quickly pay for itself in hours saved on data entry and missed price changes.  Join the other Doyles Sheehan customers and start growing your business the easy way!

Doyles Doyles TruckDoyles Warehouse  Doyles Sheehan

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Windows XP set to Retire April 8, 2014 – Get Ready!

March 26, 2014

Windows XP


EDI Manager now available with your backOffice™ Software

August 28, 2013

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WANT TO SAVE SOME SERIOUS TIME?

Insight Retail Software  is proud to announce the release of EDI Manager.  Almost every vendor can supply you with an electronic invoice of your order, and our new EDI Manager allows you to import these invoices directly into backOffice™.

Once imported, backOffice™ will identify new products received in the order, any price or cost changes and the quantity shipped of each item.  With the click of a button, new items are added, price and cost changes are made, and an order is created in the inventory module!

Just another way to run your business more effectively and save you time.

For more information please complete the form below.  Thank you!

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Reno Sparks Indian Colony Selects backOffice™ Software for their Chain of Smoke Shops

November 15, 2012

About the Tribe:

The Reno-Sparks Indian Colony is a federally recognized Indian Tribe located near Reno and Sparks, Nevada. The tribal membership consists of over 900 members from three Great Basin Tribes – the Paiute, the Shoshone, and the Washoe. They make up the majority of people who live within the reservation land base. The reservation lands consist of the original twenty-eight acre residential Colony located in downtown Reno and the 1,960 acre Hungry Valley reservation located nineteen miles north of the downtown Colony, in a more rural setting.

The Reno-Sparks Indian Colony was established in the early 1900’s and formed a more formal Tribal Government in 1935 under the Indian Reorganization Act. With the approval of a Tribal Constitution, they elected their first Tribal Council governing body.

The Reno-Sparks Indian Colony is a growing organization employing approximately three hundred people and is progressively taking steps to provide for the needs of the people while, at the same time, maintaining their culture and protecting their Sovereignty.

Latest News:

At the RSIC Tribal Council Meeting in September, backOffice™ Software from Insight Retail Software was selected as the back office software for their chain of 5 Smoke Shops and 1 HQ – location.  We are very excited to work with our dealer Best Cash Registers in Reno, Nevada on this install that has begun this week.  backOffice™ Software will work with Datasym ECR’s in 5 locations to provide a Multi-Store integration that will run from their Retail Operations [HQ] location.  RSIC is replacing outdated back office software that no longer met their needs.

We welcome RSIC and are proud to work with Paul Hoffman at Best Cash Registers!  For more infomation on backOffice™ Software visit our website.  http://insightRS.com

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backOffice™ V3 Released!

September 18, 2012

Take a sneak peek at backOffice™ V3

This 3-Part Series of Demonstration Videos provides a nice overview of backOffice™ Features. 

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3