NEW YORK, Jan. 15, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Extending its commitment to innovation in retail with mobile technology, SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) today announced and previewed a new wave of mobile apps to help retailers market to and engage with consumers, enhancing the shopping experience and boosting customer loyalty. SAP® Customer Loyalty, SAP® On-Shelf Availability Manager and SAP® Retail Store Ops Associate mobile apps were announced at the NRF 102nd Annual Convention & EXPO, being held January 13-16 in New York City, where SAP is located in booth 1407.  

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The mobile explosion has taken the retail world by storm. It has empowered consumers, making them more informed and demanding. As a result, show rooming has become one of the biggest challenges retailers face today. During this past holiday season 80 percent of retailers expected to be impacted by this phenomenon with an average sales loss of five percent. Yet, only 10 percent had a strategy to tackle this challenge.¹ These new SAP mobile apps enable retailers to deliver a superior omni-channel experience both directly to consumers' mobile devices and via mobile equipped in-store associates.

"With 70 percent of consumers grabbing for their phone while shopping, it's not surprising that mobile commerce revenue is expected to explode to US$1 trillion by 2017,"² said Sanjay Poonen, president and head of Mobile Division, SAP. "It's natural that people want to connect with their favorite brands on their mobile devices, whether on the couch or in the store. This presents an opportunity for retailers to meet consumer demand, using mobile technology to deliver superior customer service, drive brand engagement and create unique experiences designed to suit the consumer need in a format they want."

To create customer loyalty and increase share of wallet, SAP plans to release SAP Customer Loyalty which would enable retailers to send unique offers straight to the customers' phones, thereby increasing promotion conversion rates and marketing return on investment (ROI). In addition, retailers may be able to provide real-time access to valuable information such as rewards granted, points available, status levels, and more to spark increased transactions.

SAP Retail Store Ops Associate empowers associates with in-store merchandising, sales and service. It provides store associates with detailed product insights to deliver exceptional customer service. Store associates can access information in back-end systems with an intuitive user interface, and can answer nearly any questions customers might have, especially during critical sales and service discussions. Retailers can improve workforce efficiency and store performance, increase shopper loyalty and customer and employee satisfaction and increase store sales. Available now on iPhone, retailers can:

• Look up real-time information on specific products, including regular and promotional price and duration of promotion, available stock levels, product descriptions and warranty information
• Correct inventory counts or transfer products
• Perform in-store markdown on the shelf
• Perform ad-hoc counting

The mobile app complements the SAP® Retail Store Ops Manager mobile app from a persona perspective.

SAP On-Shelf Availabilitymonitors sales transactions, detects discrepancies in sales patterns that might relate to product availability on shelf and issues warning. Available now on iPad, the mobile app for store associates provides different departments with user-friendly tools to respond to on-shelf availability issues in a timely fashion and correct the issue. The mobile app for store managers provides a monitoring instrument to view and follow the on-shelf availability situation, explore any possible correlation and use it for resource optimization. Retailers can:

• Have real-time insight into on-shelf availability on a weekly, daily and hourly basis, as well as into processing status and processing time
• Monitor sales transactions; detect discrepancy in sales patterns that might relate to the product availability on shelf; and issue warnings
• List products that might be out of stock

For more information, visit the SAP Newsroom.

¹Deloitte 2012 Holiday Shopping Survey
²IDC Financial Insight's Worldwide Mobile Payments 2012-2017

About SAP
As market leader in enterprise application software, SAP (NYSE: SAP) helps companies of all sizes and industries run better. From back office to boardroom, warehouse to storefront, desktop to mobile device – SAP empowers people and organizations to work together more efficiently and use business insight more effectively to stay ahead of the competition. SAP applications and services enable more than 197,000 customers to operate profitably, adapt continuously, and grow sustainably. For more information, visit www.sap.com.

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