NCR Goes for the Silver

JERSEY CITY, N.J. -- NCR Corp. will launch its NCR Silver technology solution on July 18.

According to the company, NCR Silver is a "complete technology solution" for small business operators. The software product can track customers from when they enter a store through their point-of-sale (POS) purchase.

"It's more than a payment solution," Christian Nahas, vice president and general manager, specialty retail for NCR, said during an exclusive sneak peek of the product at CSNews Online's corporate headquarters yesterday. "It's a full-package POS and marketing engine."

Nahas continued to note that the product knows a customer's buying habits. "Therefore, a store owner can tell a customer what they bought on their last visit to the store, which saves the store owner and customer a lot of time."

In addition, if a customer has not returned to the convenience store for a given amount of time -- such as one month -- NCR Silver can send a "We Miss You" e-mail to the customer reminding them it has been a while since their last visit. The e-mail will often include a coupon or a special the store is promoting.

NCR Silver not only knows what items a customer bought, but when he or she purchased them, Nahas stated. Therefore, store owners can easily track their strongest and weakest sales dayparts.

Other than marketing and customer-tracking features, retailers can follow a number of things taking place at their store, whether they are on- or off-site.

"Retailers can log in from any browser," Nahas said. "Once there, they can do a lot of things. That includes the ability to change prices on goods and to see if a clerk performed too many overrides. NCR silver even allows a retailer to receive alerts when customers make big purchases at their store. Then, they can contact the customer to personally thank them."

Regarding the actual POS transaction, Nahas noted that NCR Silver offers end-to-end data encryption once a customer provides a debit or credit card for payment.

NCR Silver operates on iPhones, iPads and iPod Touches. It can be purchased and downloaded via Apple's iTunes store.