Ferrum Technology Services Blog

It should come as no surprise that one of the biggest online retail days of the year also incites a lot of scams and threats targeting not just consumers, but online businesses as well. Let’s go over some of the major statistics surrounding online retail scams and what you should know as you navigate the post-holiday chaos.

While the major holiday shopping days have passed us by, many people are still looking for that perfect gift often using the Internet to find it. While online shopping is certainly more convenient, it can also be dangerous. To help keep you safe this season and beyond, we’re reviewing a few practices to protect your identity while shopping online.

When you talk about line of business software, you are typically talking about the unique applications that your business uses to manage their business. In the retail space, line of business software would typically refer to your Point of Sale (POS), or Point of Purchase (POP) software. This month we will talk about how businesses implement their POS software and how it works to manage different aspects of a retail business.

Retail businesses have been around for centuries. From livestock bartering 8,000 years ago to the establishment of currency to buy goods 5,000 years ago to the first shopping mall in 1930 to the advent of eCommerce, retail has followed the evolution of society. Like many other businesses, today’s retail stores rely on computers and information technology. This month we will take a look at retail IT, and how managed IT services present the modern retail establishment with the tools needed to run their stores effectively.  

Unlike the office environment, the technology used in retail has been relatively stagnant. The times are changing, though. It’s been a long time coming, but the technology used in the retail environment is finally evolving to meet the growing needs of organizations. Unfortunately, this has been met with the challenges of implementing said technology in the industry.

Today, more than two billion people use a smartphone. By 2020, experts predict that the smartphone market will reach over 70 percent of the planet’s population. In fact, more people own a smartphone today than have ever owned a PC, and more actual computing is done today using smartphone technology than using any other method! Driving this mobile revolution is the fact that smartphones have become affordable and present consumers with a wide array of computing options.

“It’s as if a thousand stores cried out in terror.” This was the case February when RadioShack filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and announced plans to sell between 1,500 and 2,400 of its stores. For anybody with an affinity for technology, this announcement is sad news. Let’s honor the passing of an American institution by taking a look back at the Shack.