statement of directionProduct strategy for

LS Retail

index3. Key trends4. Our vision6. Product development7. LS Nav8. LS First 9. LS One10. LS Express11. LS Omni12. LS Recommend13. LS Insight14. LS BI15. LS Pay

Statement of Direction - LS Retail

key trendsThe retail and hospitality industries are changing rapidly. We believe the following trends will transform the retail business, and shape its future:

• Omni-channel experiences are now the norm: consumers want to interact with brands and make purchases using a mobile device and e-commerce, and expect all channels to be integrated.

• E-commerce sales will continue to grow rapidly. Retailers that don’t offer a consistent experience across the channels will be left behind.

• The physical store will become the focus of the retail experience. The quality of service will differentiate retail winners from laggards.

• Speed is key. To ensure great customer service, retail and hospitality businesses need a system that is easy to learn and use, and guarantees quick transactions and shorter queues at the registers.

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• Customer demands change more and more rapidly. To keep up, businesses need a latest-technology system that is constantly being improved and updated.

• Security is paramount: companies need a reliable management system, which will guarantee secure transactions and safely store and manage their key business data.

• More and more retailers and restaurants will be willing to trust their computing infrastructure to hybrid setups blending on-premises and cloud-based solutions.

• Analytics will play an ever-increasing role in identifying trends and customer behavior.

• Shoppers increasingly expect to be offered personalized product recommendations, advertisements and promotions, both online and in the physical store.

Statement of Direction - LS Retail

our vision

beyond omni-channelThese days, a typical shopping experience may start with researching products on a smartphone while in-store, continue on a tablet and finish with a purchase on the e-commerce site that will later be picked up in a store location. Shoppers don’t think in terms of channels anymore – they simply look for coherent, consistent shopping experiences, whichever touchpoint they decide to use. This trend shows no sign of slowing down, and we believe that the customer journey will only get more complex. Retailers who can’t yet offer a consistent experience on all their touchpoints need to start working immediately on removing barriers. For many companies, this will translate into implementing technology that integrates the channels, enabling them to offer a unified experience across their brand.

the retail experienceWhile e-commerce has shown tremendous growth over the last years, the physical store will continue to play a central, yet very different, role in the retail experience. As consumers can buy what they want in just a few clicks online, physical stores become more about the experience

than about the sale. Innovative retailers are already using their physical locations to offer customers learning experiences and immerse them in the brand spirit with the help of enthusiastic and knowledgeable sales associates.

In order to create the exciting moments that customers crave, we believe that technology will play an ever-growing role in-store. As channels converge, stores will also increasingly act as an extension of the e-commerce front, becoming the place where customers can pick up, return or exchange goods bought online.

personalized insightsThe merging of the channels will also provide stores with the opportunity to provide more personalized service. Store associates will have access to their customers’ preferences and shopping history, no matter in which channels the sale took place. This knowledge will allow them to recommend relevant products based on preferences - online, in marketing campaigns, as well as straight on the shop floor, while a purchase is taking place.

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Statement of Direction - LS Retail

We believe that the democratization analytics and machine learning will play a key role in making this possible. Until today, the automatic segmenting and grouping of customers based on purchase history and similarity has been reserved for the tier 1 and 2 retailers, but this is changing, as the technologies used become more affordable and the tools easier to use.

cloud and hybrid cloudCompetition in the retail industry will be fierce as ever before. As cloud-based services become more accessible and affordable, more and more retailers will choose to migrate their IT systems and infrastructure to verticalized cloud-based services in order to reduce costs and streamline operations.

At LS Retail, we are working hard to make sure that all our existing and future solutions will work seamlessly with Dynamics 365, Microsoft’s – and our – cloud platform, and that the transition will be smooth and easy.

At the same time, we also believe customers should be able to choose how they want to leverage the cloud. For example, some retailers may decide to run their business processes and store their data locally,

while at the same time taking full advantage of the cloud for automatic updates, business intelligence, financials reporting, artificial intelligence, cognitive services, customer insights, and more apps and services. This is our hybrid plan.

The hybrid plan makes the crossover to the cloud easier for retailers and restaurateurs, while maximizing their flexibility. It facilitates the move to the cloud even for businesses that can’t depend on stable network connection, or would rather adopt a cautious approach. By using the cloud edge, business process and transactions can run at the edges, with business data getting stored locally.

strategic partnershipsIn the high-speed technology world, business partnerships are fundamental to stay at the forefront.

We collaborate with many of the leaders in our industry, front-runners in diverse fields including e-commerce, ERP and hardware. We believe that these strategic partnerships benefit not only us, but also our customers around the world. We plan to strengthen our already existing collaborations, and create more in the years to come.

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Statement of Direction - LS Retail

product development

Innovation is a key value for us, and we are supporting our statements with facts, namely by making substantial investments in research and development.

In the last 5 years, we have invested €35 million into research and development. We plan to invest another €100 million in R&D in the next 5 years.

We develop four core products:

We also develop a range of software enhancers, which extend the capabilities of our core products:

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Statement of Direction - LS Retail

Built on Microsoft Dynamics 365, LS Nav covers everything from the back-office system to the POS and store operation.

LS Nav spans a wide range of retailers in multiple industries, including food and beverage. Customers range from few store with few POS terminals to chains with over thousands stores running thousands of POS. Many of our customers run international chains, with locations in various countries across the globe.

LS Nav can be deployed on-premises, in the cloud and as a hybrid solution.

LS Nav offers vertical-specific tools for a variety of industries, spanning from fashion stores, to supermarkets, jewelry stores, DYI stores, duty frees, spas and gyms, hotels, museums, gas stations, restaurants, pubs and cafés, and more.

Learn more about LS Nav for retail and hospitality businesses

Easy deployment of LS Nav in Microsoft Dynamics 365 or in a hybrid cloud environment.

Developing a web-based POS, a low footprint Point of Sale that runs in a web browser.

Strengthening the integration to different types of e-commerce platforms.

Enhancing the advanced analytics tools, including machine learning, to give retailers better insights into their sales and their customers.Offering further vertical-specific tools for more industries in retail: these include, to start with, LS Activity, a reservation software for activities, and LS Pharmacy, a pharmacy-specific module.

Continued collaboration with Microsoft. As a Microsoft Development Partner, we provide input on characteristics of future Microsoft Dynamics products as well as retail expertise.

The future path of LS Nav includes an increased focus on:

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core product

Statement of Direction - LS Retail

Built on Microsoft Dynamics 365, LS First is the hospitality and forecourt solution for the enterprise markets. The key verticals served are quick service and fast casual restaurants and gas stations (forecourt).

Just like LS Nav, LS First is built on top of an already feature-rich business solution, which includes finance, production, sales, purchases and warehousing to name a few.

Being designed for the enterprise market, LS First can be offered to customers running thousands of POSs in different countries, with load tests typically including over 5.000 concurrent users.

LS First offers vertical-specific tools for gas stations and c-stores, quick service and fast casual restaurants, pubs, bars, cafés and full service restaurants.

Learn more about LS First for hospitality and forecourt businesses

Cloud deployment: LS First will migrate to Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Operations.

Enabling online food ordering by integrating the system to e-commerce platforms.

Preserving our customers’ investment by making the product easy to maintain and upgrade through the use of extensions.

Continued collaboration with Microsoft. As a Microsoft Development Partner, we are in a privileged position when it comes to defining the shape of future Microsoft business products.

In the path for the future of LS First, we will increasingly focus on:

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core product

Connection to e-commerce platforms.

Increasing the number of integrations to various ERP solutions, including SAP Business One.

Improving the inventory and stock management tools.

Strengthening the support for orders.

The future of LS One includes an increased focus on:

Statement of Direction - LS Retail

LS One is a POS solution built in the Microsoft .NET framework. It can run either as an on-premises solution or in the cloud. It is easy to use, set up and configure, and can be connected to any ERP or business solution.

The system can also act as a standalone store management solution for smaller retailers who don‘t need a business solution for their operations. Market positioning therefore includes one-store customers up to multi-store environments connected to third party ERP systems.

LS One offers vertical-specific tools for a variety of industries in retail and hospitality, including fashion stores, supermarkets, duty frees, gas stations, restaurants, pubs, bars and cafés.

Learn more about LS One and LS One Hospitality

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core product

Statement of Direction - LS Retail

LS Express is a complete online retail system for small retailers. It’s a retail POS extension integrated with Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Financials, available in the regions where Dynamics 365 is supported.

LS Express is available as Software as a Service (SaaS) to which retailers can subscribe monthly.

Learn more about LS Express

Expanding languages and geographies following the Microsoft Dynamics 365 release schedule.

Integration to e-commerce platforms, starting with Shopify.

Expanding the reporting feature.

Continued collaboration with Microsoft to define the future of the platform.

The future of LS Express includes an increased focus on:

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core product

Easy webstore integration. We already offer integrations to Magento, Avensia Storefront (EpiServer), nopCommerce and other platforms through 3rd-party APIs; we plan to strengthen our products’ connection to e-commerce platforms.

Increasing the number of e-commerce integrators with whom we cooperate.

Further development on the mobile POS: some of the developments include an offline version of the mPOS, X and Z reports, integration to product recommendations, and more.

The future path of LS Omni includes an increased focus on:

LS Omni is the powerful suite of solutions that brings mobility and e-commerce to your management system.

LS Omni consists of four different products:

• integration to e-commerce• mobile loyalty• mobile POS • mobile inventory

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Learn more about LS Omni for retail and hospitality businesses

Statement of Direction - LS Retail

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software enhancer

LS Recommend is a cloud-based product recommendation engine for retailers. Powered by Microsoft Cortana Intelligence, LS Recommend analyzes shopping behavior and delivers predictive insights and meaningful product suggestions to the retailers’ sales team and e-commerce site.

LS Recommend is available as SaaS, on a subscription basis.

LS Recommend is a cornerstone of our strategy for the future, which revolves around improving basket analysis and customer segmentation.

Learn more about LS Recommend

This product is in constant development. Work is already underway to deliver product recommendations to all customer touchpoints. Next, we will focus on connecting LS Recommend to all the other core products in our stack.

In the future, we expect LS Recommend to become a marketing tool, as it will deliver personalized messaging that goes beyond mere product recommendations.

Statement of Direction - LS Retail

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software enhancer

This product is in constant development, and we will keep investing in our Business Insight stack. We are working to improve the Sales module, and will subsequently offer analytics tools for inventory and financials as two further modules in the system.

We also plan to connect LS Insight to all of our core products.

LS Insight is a cloud-based Business Intelligence software as a service (SaaS) powered by Microsoft Power BI. LS Insight can be accessed via any browser.

When you subscribe to LS Insight, we take care of hosting and running all the infrastructure for you. You can then get access to all your information through Power BI as a subscription service. We believe product and customer insights are key for a successful retail strategy.

Cloud-based insight software is a game changer, as it gives small and medium retailers access to the same tools retail giants have been using for the past few years, enabling them to compete on equal grounds.

Learn more about LS Insight

Statement of Direction - LS Retail

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software enhancer

LS BI, based on Targit, is our on-premises Business Intelligence suite. LS BI is implemented in your own environment, so you can have full control on all aspects of the system. It is a development platform, which enables you to customize it to your needs.

The software comes with a number of predefined retail analyses available on a client, web or mobile device. You can also build custom reports using the retail-specific OLAP cubes.

Learn more about LS BI

We will continue to support the new releases on the Targit platform on LS BI for the foreseeable future.

Statement of Direction - LS Retail

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software enhancer

Our current efforts as regards LS Pay are in two directions: providing out-of-the-box payment integrations around the world, and integrating LS Pay with our whole product portfolio.

LS Pay is an Electronic Fund Transfer (EFT) software solution that makes your payments safe, in a simple way. LS Pay offers you complete reliability whether you are selling in store, on your e-commerce platform or through mobile and telephone orders. LS Pay is currently available in selected regions.

Data security is a top priority for retailers, and for us. That’s why we are investing heavily in the development of this solution.

Learn more about LS Pay

Statement of Direction - LS Retail

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software enhancer

LS Retail is a world-leading provider of business management software solutions for retail, hospitality and forecourt businesses of all sizes.

Our all-in-one management systems power tens of thousands of stores and restaurants worldwide, within such diverse industries as fashion, electronics, furniture, duty free, restaurants, coffee shops, forecourt, c-stores and more.

LS Retail products and solutions are sold through a global network of partners.

For further information on the company and the products, visit www.LSRetail.com

For any question or advice, do not hesitate to contact our experts.We make business easy

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