NEW YORK, N.Y. – Epicor Software Corp. has unveiled a multi-year strategic plan to grow its market share and expand its global footprint in the retail technology space. The company made the announcement this week at the National Retail Federation 2013 trade show, the industry’s premier retail technology showcase.
 


Recognized as the No. 1 vendor of point of sale (POS) software among the top 250 largest specialty soft goods and hard goods retailers by an independent research and advisory firm (1), Epicor is the retail technology partner of choice for thousands of retailers – from Aeropostale and Build-A-Bear Workshop, to General Nutrition Centers, True Value Co. and Under Armour.



The company’s new multi-year strategic plan is designed to enable Epicor to maintain and grow its leadership position, and is initially focused on four strategic priorities: global expansion, cross-channel execution and continuing investments in both POS and enterprise cloud technology. To support these initiatives, the company says it has allocated significant new resources in the form of monetary investments and the addition of new personnel.
 
The key initiatives align with new and emerging requirements in the retail sector, one of which is retail globalization. According to a survey of 326 major international retailers conducted by CBRE, the globalization of the retail sector continued to gain steam in 2012, with almost half (47 percent) of the retailers in the survey having a presence in The Americas, Europe Middle East and Africa (EMEA) and Asia Pacific. (2)
 


To this end, Epicor has established a new international business development, sales, services and support unit to support the globalization requirements of retailers doing business in APAC, Latin America and EMEA. Epicor says it also will look to partner with local resources to support in-region sales, services and support.
 


Another Epicor initiative aligning with a key focus for retailers in 2013 and beyond is cross-channel execution. The company’s existing solutions include Epicor Retail Enterprise Selling and Multi-Channel Transaction Adapter solutions that enable a seamless cross-channel fulfillment capability, according to Epicor. To take these solutions to the next level and further differentiate its cross-channel capabilities, Epicor plans to deliver a single, integrated order management and fulfillment solution across channels and offer eCommerce and Mobile Commerce integrations leveraging the Epicor Retail Multi-Channel Transaction Adapter (MCTA) and Order Management Systems. Epicor says it also will focus on expanding eCommerce and cross channel sales and partner integration.



"Our multi-year strategic plan outlines the key priorities for Epicor to develop and expand its capabilities to meet the new and emerging needs of advanced retailers," said Ian Rawlins, vice president, retail marketing and business development for Epicor. "It’s important to communicate this vision both internally and also for our valued retail clients, and execution is key. To enable us to achieve our strategic goals and make good on these commitments, we’re investing millions of dollars to make certain we have the right resources in place to ensure success. To this end, in fiscal 2013 alone, Epicor is expanding its retail development organization by more than 30 percent."
 


The additional development resources will support Epicor commitments in cloud-based architecture development, the other initiatives outlined in the multi-year strategic plan. To support best-in-class scalability, the company will leverage cloud-based technologies across the Epicor Retail Enterprise product suite and will focus on leveraging cloud-based transaction logic for a unified single enterprise transaction platform to support centralized POS and cross-channel transactions.
 


Last year, a study from IBM revealed that 70 percent of mid-sized businesses plan to deploy cloud technology to improve IT systems and lower costs. (3)
 
 
 


1 IHL Group, “A Retailers Guide: POS Software for Softgoods Retailers” (Sept. 26, 2012) and “A Retailers Guide: POS Software for Hardgoods Retailers” (Sept. 28, 2012).




2 How Global is the Business of Retail?, CBRE, April 2012

3 Inside the Midmarket: A 2011 Perspective, IBM, 2011