When two companies come together to create something new, exciting, and even competitively different to the rest of the industry, it’s a beautiful thing. If a business finds a supplier or partner who shares its core values and beliefs, it can draw on a resource that promotes its goals in new products and services. Tapping into each other’s strengths is a way that everyone can achieve success. So what are the benefits of EPoS Collaboration?
- Problem-Solving – When there are different perspectives, that roadblock is much easier to overcome! Also, with more eyes on a project, the easier it becomes to spot problems and avoid them in the first place.
- Unity – Collaboration brings people and organisations closer together. Having mixed-skill teams working on a common goal means you are more likely to achieve success. By team sharing and learning, beneficial skills multiply within the business and future projects are secured.
- Efficiency – By tapping into the combined knowledge, expertise, and capabilities of those skilled individuals involved. Value is delivered in the completion of the task or activity more swiftly.
- Communication – This is a huge benefit to any business. Creating more cohesive processes results in valuable insights and ultimately an increase in project speed and completion.
- Resource pooling – collaboration can enable you to share facilities, resources, and equipment improving the overall success.
- Higher retention – By having a more connected, open and engaged set of individuals, trust and respect come to the forefront. This means future activities and projects are secured and there is no need to look anywhere else for a better result.
- Financial boosting – By collaborating you can boost your sales, enable you to engage in larger contracts or reduce costs by sharing resources.
Here are some great examples of EPoS collaboration done well.
The aim is always to gain as much exposure and to appeal to the biggest and widest audiences. By working with others, whether logically due to a shared interest or illogically to shock the market, Here are some collabs which we think are great.
Delivery Apps Collaboration
When it comes to efficiency nobody knew the power smartphones would have in shaping the way society now behaves. One key business that has arisen is the collaborartion between hospialty brands and delivery apps. A trend which shows no sign of slowing down.
Ghost Kitchens (Check out our other blog here), QSR and Casual Dining Restaurants have carved a concept alongside the explosion of the third-party delivery app market. They focus primarily on the production and optimisation of food preparation. Uber Eats or Deliveroo have allowed consumers to have anything you like delivered within a few minutes to your door.
Retail has also benefited from these collaborations. We recently spoke about Waitrose’s collab Deliveroo. (Check it out here) They started to trial rapid deliveries where customers could order up to 1000 grocery items within as little as 10 minutes. The collaboration has benefitted both brands and ultimately offered flexibility to Waitrose customers. This wouldn’t have been possible without the right infrastructure and the benefit of having an omnichannel and e-commerce strategy already in place.
Brand Franchising
When people love and recognise a brand it tends to encourage repeat spending. It’s because consumers know what to expect and they know they will be delivered value every single time. Just think if you are in another country you would probably favour something you recognise over something brand new. An example would be the familiarity of the Golden Arches of McDonald’s or the Green Siren of Starbucks. You would choose to go here as you know what to expect. Similarly, a lot of retail outlets, shopping centres, mega supermarkets etc use this same process to attract you and keep you longer in store.
Sainsbury’s cafés have also changed to feature collabs with other Hospitality brands. The retailer will open Starbucks in its supermarkets in the next year and a further “The Restaurant Hubs” where they sell food and drink from chains including Carluccio’s and Gourmet Burger Kitchen.
ASDA has also started to include Brands such as Cinnabon and Leon in their food courts and recently updated their Bletchley Store near Milton Keynes. By using these exciting and much loved brands they encourage you to spend more time in the store and ultimately deliver a better experience for their customers.
Coming up with a new product!
It wouldn’t be right if we didn’t practice what we preach. And we think the best example of great EPoS collaboration is when we partnered with Box Tech on a brand new EPoS device for the hospitality market. From usability to adaptability, find out how we worked together to develop the POS 350 which is now in some of the UK’s biggest brands venues nationwide. (Click here)
Unlikely Collabs
Do you remember when Primark started selling Greggs’s apparel? This unlikely duo of food and fashion hit the news when they launched their logo-adorned t-shirts, hoodies, and footwear to 60 stores in the UK. This coincided with the opening of the largest Greggs restaurant in Primark’s largest store in Birmingham. You could probably argue why would these two brands collab and what is the mutual benefit!? Well, if you look at their target audiences, they both share a commonality. Both have consumers who want their experience to be quick, seamless, great value and in some cases social media worthy. Who cares if it’s baked goods or a T-shirt?
By combining, they have become even more enticing as you don’t have to experience both solely and if you get peckish as you shop the rails, there is a baked good instantly waiting for you to refuel and get back out there.
Customers staying in-store longer = spending more money – result!
By working together and sharing resources you can stimulate and help each other to develop further. An EPoS collaboration with Celestra is fruitful for everyone involved and after all, everyone needs friends in business, don’t they?
Contact us now and let’s start Serving Star Solution together.