When a power cut strikes at home, while it can be inconvenient, it is rarely the end of the world. But in a retail environment, an IT or power outage could spell disaster, leaving shops unable to fulfill their sole purpose – to trade.
Let’s take a look at some of the ways retailers can be left in the lurch with no backup, and crucially, how this translates into a business opportunity for them.
EPOS systems
Perhaps the most obvious dilemma a retailer might have if they suffer an IT and power outage is that their till will no longer be operational. Queuing customers will unlikely stick around while the retailer solves the problem, and even if they did, their dedication is hardly much use if the till won’t open or card machines won’t work.
You can’t take money off someone if your till goes down, it’s all electronic – either the till itself or the EPOS system it’s connected to. What are the risks? Finance, security, reputational damage.
CCTV
Ensuring stock is secure is essential for all retailers, and CCTV acts as a great way of deterring potential thieves and tracing those which do steal. But if the power goes out, so does the CCTV, which can cause issues outside the building, on the shop floor and the even the stock room.
This is probably more important in a large store. If you are in a supermarket stock room, there are security cameras in there to stop internal pilferage. If the power is down, it’s a financial risk. But also for any store it’s important for internal or external [CCTV] too, especially out of hours.”
WiFi
Having a free WiFi connection is becoming as important to coffee shop and restaurant goers as the menu itself. If the power goes out and takes the WiFi with it, it can turn off potential customers faster than a curdled cappuccino. Wifi has become the new first hierarchy of needs.
If you’ve got someone sitting in a trendy coffee shop drinking a skinny mocaccino with their sculpted beard, MacBook Pro, record bag, and fixie bike outside, they’re simply not going to stay there if the WiFi goes down.
Fire doors
In the day-to-day running of a retail outlet, fire doors might be the last thing on business owners’ minds. But during a power outage, if the electrical components on a fire door mean it malfunctions, it could cause serious problems.
Even if you can’t be bothered to have your fire doors backed up, for the purpose of your insurance policy and for health and safety purposes, you have to.
Server room
Larger retailers with multiple stores will often have server rooms on site, collecting transaction data and keeping that store’s IT running. But without that, crucial sales data can be lost, which can be problematic.
If you have a large store and you have a server room there, you need to be able to back up the IT equipment in there to protect against data loss.
There is a huge opportunity for resellers working in the retail space – and those which are new to the market – to help their customers protect themselves from losing money, time and even reputational damage from an IT or power outage.
Uninterruptible power supply products can be a compelling value proposition that partners can take to a sector with tens of thousands of customers to serve.
A UPS is like an insurance policy, you have insurance on your car and you think ‘I’ve been driving for five years, why do I need insurance?’ But it’s an insurance policy against the unexpected. If you look at western Europe, you probably can’t remember when you last had a power outage in your house. Grid Power is really, very stable and it is very rare to have a power cut. However, they can happen not just because the grid goes down, but natural disasters or construction work can sometimes damage cables or knock poles down, or drill through something.
It doesn’t matter the reason for the risk, if you’re not prepared for it, for the sake of a moderate investment you could make in a UPS, you could suffer a big downside from lost revenue, lost reputation, inconvenienced customers and having to close your business for a period of time.
