INNOVATING WITH TELEPHONY IN RETAIL

Wave IP Unified Communications Solutions:

The “QR” for Meeting Demand in Today’s Retail Environment

VERTICAL RETAIL SOLUTIONS

INNOVATING WITH TELEPHONY IN RETAIL

2

WAVE IP RETAIL SOLUTIONS:THE RIGHT PRODUCT, RIGHT PLACE,RIGHT TIME, RIGHT PRICE

Retailing is the demand industry. Aligning with demand today means providing a truly “on demand” shopping experience, whether online, on the phone, or in the store. With emerging sales channels like social and mobile media creating a mosaic of interactions surrounding every transaction, innovation in retail technology is being driven by shoppers who now often know more about your products than your sales associates, and who expect to be able to “buy anywhere, get anywhere, talk anywhere, return anywhere.”

With the increase in shopping tools on consumer devices and more ways than ever to connect with customers, innovative retailers are leveraging their business systems to deliver a better customer experience through unified communications (UC) technologies.

Vertical’s Wave IP – a cost-effective, single-server UC system with a portfolio of “in the box” applications and emerging cloud-based services – puts you in front of these highly-connected, savvy shoppers in ways that improve both share of mind and share of wallet by enabling retailers to connect customer interactions across channels, optimize operations and enable smarter planning, labor and scheduling, forecasting, merchandising, supply chain and marketing decisions – all while dramatically reducing expenses.

48% of Gen Y consumers will use at least two technologies to browse for/buy products, followed by gen Xers (41%), post-Boomers (32%) and Boomers (22%).*

*Results of IBM consumer survey reported in Baseline® magazine August 9, 2010

3

Increase store traffic, average market basket and customer loyalty

Most retailers are adept at managing customer interactions at the point of sale (POS) and on the Web, but struggle to handle customer calls coming into the store. Many retailers don’t recognize that incoming calls represent a very valuable “voice” sales channel through which they can generate even more business – or lose it if customer calls are not handled properly. With more and more consumers using smart phones for shop-ahead price checks and product availability, call volumes are growing exponentially.

Managing customer calls for optimum quality and productivity is the first step to improving business processes, enhancing the customer experience and increasing same-store sales. Wave IP provides an unprecedented level

The Value of UC and Wave IP in Retail

n Single-server UC system for basic telephony, IVR, call buttons, drive-thru support, reporting, etc.

n Unique “in the box” Application Ready architecture for enterprise-wide mobile and desktop communications

n Centralized communications for local call experience while leveraging call center efficiencies

n Intelligent call routing and load balancing for faster speed of answer, fewer abandoned calls

n Service-Oriented Architecture

n Maximize SIP trunking to reduce costs

n Centralized reporting and system management

n Intelligent in-store wireless support for use of mobile devices and delivery of personalized real-time offers to customers

n Enable new applications and services with enterprise mobility solutions at the store-level

n Provide a seamless shopping experience through all sales channels

of control and flexibility in how customer calls are managed. With Wave IP, you can create a true voice channel to effectively manage calls across your entire network of stores – from national pharmacy and grocery chains, to “big box” mega-stores and discount warehouses, to specialty, boutique and casual dining environments. Wave IP consolidates IP telephony, data networking and voice applications on a single integrated platform so you can track, manage and optimize the calls coming into your store as a distinct sales channel to help you:

n Increase same-store sales and improve cus-tomer experience via intelligent call routing

n Gain efficiencies through enterprise integration

n Reduce operational costs through consolidation of in-store infrastructure/communications, network management, administration and support, and application development and deployment

n Access real-time business intelligence analytics for improved processes and decision-making

n Proactively monitor and manage in-store activity relative to customer and associate behavior, facilities usage, etc.

Opportunity Found

A call is a sale – or a lost one if not handled right. What if you could convert just three callers into three more in-store sales per day? How much potential profit would that generate? Consider:

850 stores X 300 calls/day = 25,500 calls10% call abandon rate = 25,500 lost sales

15% call conversion rate (3,825 calls) = 3 new customers/storeAssume average $30 purchase per customer X 350 days =

$40M in additional revenueAssuming 39% average gross margin =

$16M incremental potential gross profit

INNOVATING WITH TELEPHONY IN RETAIL

4

The right Rx for convenient customer self-service Vertical’s Wave IP Retail applications such as Automated Prescription Refill and doctor fax are used by some of the country’s largest pharmacy chains at over 7,300 sites for more than 1.2 billion prescription refills.

Maximize the value of the ‘voice of the customer’

Gain and retain customer loyalty with powerful, voice-enabled call-handling applications that can be fully integrated into your communications system, including Automated Attendant, Automated Call Distribution (ACD), Interactive Voice Response (IVR), Speech Recognition, Text-to-Speech (TTS), Service Response and optional voice messaging and fax management services. Eliminate high call failure rates due to long hold times, multiple transfers and failure to provide the desired information or assistance with advanced call routing, queuing and call management. Greetings, prompts, paging and voice messaging can be tailored for specific departments to ensure callers quickly find their way to the right resource. VIP service can be offered by prioritizing calls based on the number from which a call originates.

Help customers make purchase decisions and complete transactions with Vertical’s suite of intuitive, voice-enabled self-service applications. By off-loading routine inquiries and tasks, self-service applications also give associates more time to assist in-store customers. Packaged applications for Wave IP include:

Prescription Refill – Enable customers to securely order prescription refills at their convenience.

Customer Order Automation – Enable customers to check items in stock and place orders.

Automated Callback – Notify customers via an automated voice, text, or fax message when an order is ready for pickup.

Innovating with Wave IP for Retail

Enhance the customer experience, optimize operations and reduce expenses with Vertical’s Retail Applications Suite featuring:

n Custom IVR

n Customer Service Call Buttons

n Pendant Integration

n POS Integration

n Scheduled Messaging

n Quiet Store Text Messaging

n Retail Auto Attendant

n Retail Call Queuing

n Look-ahead Store Load Balancing

n iPod Touch as a Phone

n iPod as a POS Device

n Time & Attendance

n GPS Geo Fencing

n POS “Line Buster”

n Manager’s Toolbox

Service Response – Enable in-store customers to request assistance with just the press of a button in an aisle, on a kiosk, or right at the POS.

Customer Record Retrieval – Allow customers to access information such as order status and warranty information.

Marketing On-Hold – Increase store traffic and average market basket with targeted ads and promotions while callers are on hold. Messages can be deployed at the departmental, local, regional or national level, and responses tracked via embedded Wave Call Classifier application.

Music-On-Hold – Create a more dynamic calling experience for customers by adding music-on-hold or prerecorded audio from any digital audio device.

5

Centralized business intelligence

By responding quickly to data revealed by customer calling patterns, you can enhance customer service, fine-tune staff productivity, increase sales and optimize your facilities infrastructure. Wave Global Reporter enables you to transform data into actionable business intelligence that can be accessed by users throughout your organization via a Web browser. Get unprecedented historical and real-time visibility into individual department, store, region and/or chain-wide communications with Wave Global Reporter for insight on:

n Who’s calling and when, where they called from, what department they called, and how long they were on hold;

n Number of rings before answer, time on hold, number of call transfers and whether calls were completed or abandoned

n User access to system applications and features and callers requesting additional assistance

n Stores that are paying for underutilized trunking capacity and others that are turning away customers due to overloaded trunks and busy signals

n Optimizing staffing resources and technology assets

In the grocery business, margins are razor thin. As a result, spending on capital projects must be minimized and have the potential for significant ROI. Schnucks Project Manager Marty Stegeman had a simple yet challenging mandate: reduce the administrative costs of running a company-wide phone system while upgrading functionality and keeping project costs down.

As one of the largest privately held supermarket chains in the U.S. with more than 100 locations and 15,000 employees, this was no small task. Stegeman took a look at two solutions. Cisco presented an IP-based solution for all phones and locations that looked promising on paper, but could not run over Schnucks’ existing IT network and, therefore, was not cost effective. Although also IP-based, Stegeman checked out Vertical’s Wave IP platform, which was capable of integrating with the company’s existing system. “We were looking at huge savings over the Cisco solution,” said Stegeman.

Once the system was implemented, all of Schnucks 10 different phone systems were consolidated on one platform. “For the first time, we could manage and maintain our systems from one location and without engaging expensive vendors for on-site work,” said Stegeman.

Schnucks also utilized the Wave IP’s Interactive Voice Response (IVR) feature to improve customer service in the highly competitive pharmacy market. Not only is the new IVR system more robust, it has helped Schnucks reduce costs.

“Our original IVR was on a separate box with a separate vendor, requiring significant yearly maintenance fees per store,” Stegeman noted. “Its functionality was limited and it was crashing quite a bit, requiring costly repairs. Now we have eliminated a standalone system and are able to run this entire application with additional functionality on the same server that is running our phone system.

“I can’t say enough good things about Vertical and its team,” continued Stegeman. “They came to the table with a superior solution that met our needs for system integration and functionality at a reasonable cost. They were with us for the initial installation and whenever we needed them, including providing programming for the IVR system and training of our staff.”

For the complete Schnucks Markets case study, visit www.vertical.com.

Customer Case StudySchnucks Markets (Retail, Pharmacy)

INNOVATING WITH TELEPHONY IN RETAIL

6

Centrally manage your communications network

Wave Global Manager is designed for the needs of rapidly growing retail environments with widely distributed locations. Supporting hundreds of simultaneous users and scaling to thousands of sites, you can control one store or an entire retail enterprise from a single location. Wave Global Manager lets you easily streamline the administration and management of your store network, voice applications and voice services. Administrators can apply software updates, upgrades and patches selectively or enterprise-wide from one location, saving time, money and business disruptions.

Wave Global Manager also enables centralized, automated backup of data from local sites, ensuring full recovery of business data and store operations in case of disaster or network disruption. And, in conjunction with Wave Global Reporter’s capabilities, you can quickly address customer service issues such as callers being kept on hold too long at certain stores by simply revising the call routing flow in only the affected locations, or test and deploy on-hold ad campaigns in selected stores and regions before rolling them out enterprise-wide.

Manage your entire chain as one system

Wave Global Manager lets you proactively manage your entire network of stores from a single location for a higher degree of management and control and lower maintenance costs, with real-time reporting by store, district, region, and/or enterprise.

7

Ready for the next Wave of Retail

Social commerce, more mobile and cloud-based retail services are the wave of the very near future. And Wave IP’s “Retail-Ready” applications suite is the perfect platform for getting you there. Take advantage now of Vertical mobility applications that let you connect your social network presence to your online domains, so your Facebook fans can access product information and buy through their social networks. Engage your customers with your brand and personalize “quick response” (QR) code landing pages online based on individual purchasing patterns. Incent customers to use their mobile devices on your store Wi-Fi networks by deploying QR promotion codes throughout your store.

The “QR” for meeting demand

Incent customers to use their mobile devices on your Wi-Fi networks by deploying QR codes throughout the store.

Mobile s�hopping remakes� retail*

n 75% of consumers use mobile phones to fi nd out where the nearest store is located

n 71% of consumers use mobile phones to compare prices

n 66% of consumers use mobile phones to check that the products they want are in stock before they go to the store

*Results of IBM consumer survey reported in Baseline® magazine August 9, 2010

The Wave IP helps retailers empower everyone from store associates to the fi nance team at every customer touch point with mobile selling solutions that put the power of the retailer’s enterprise communications system directly into their hands. Instead of being stuck behind the cash wrap, associates can be physically available in the aisle with the customer, providing information to help drive their purchase decision. In the hands of a store or e-commerce manager, Vertical’s mobile business intelligence applications deliver real-time insight and the ability to adjust planning, inventory, pricing and allocation decisions, making a difference in customer satisfaction and store performance.

Corporate Headquarters�

3940 Freedom Circle Santa Clara, CA 95054 Phone: (408) 404-1600 FAX: (408) 969-9601

Sales� and Technical Support

4717 East Hilton Avenue Suite 400 Phoenix, AZ 85034 Phone: (480) 374-8900 FAX: (480) 374-8852

Europe

Vertical Communications GmbHDomagkstrasse 785551 Kirchheim Germany Phone: +49 89 90779460 Fax: +49 89 90779488

© 2013 Vertical Communications, Inc. All rights reserved. Vertical Communications and the Vertical Communications logo and combinations thereof, Wave IP, Comdial, Vodavi are registered trademarks of Vertical Communications, Inc. All other brand and product names are used for identification only and are the property of their respective holders.

Get the competitive advantage in Retail with Vertical Wave IP

As a market leader in next generation voice applications for Retail, Vertical Communications solutions are used in more than 20,000 retail outlets across the country including CVS, Advance Auto Parts, Staples and many more. Vertical’s cost-effective Retail Applications Suite helps businesses of all sizes increase same-store sales, enhance customer loyalty, minimize their IT footprint and reduce operational expenses.

For more information on Vertical RetailSolutions�, call 1-877-VERTICAL (1-877-837-8422) or vis�it www.vertical.com.