Mall-Central.com For Antique and Crafter Malls - Upload Your Sales!
Mall-Central.com is an on-line utility for point-of-sale systems used by antique and crafter's malls. Recently, consignment stores have been added to it's capabilities. It is accessed via the web at http://www.mall-central.com.
What is it
A web based service designed and hosted by SI Systems, LLC starting in 2002. It was created to serve antique malls, crafter's malls, and consignments stores. Using proprietary technology, Mall-Central.com uses a simple yet effective way for store owners to upload their sales data to a secure place on the internet.
The sales data can then be viewed by those merchants, dealers, vendors, or crafters that have authorization from the mall that uploads the sales data. Many levels of password protection is provided.
How it Began
An owner of a local crafter's mall had a problem which was that the participating dealers often came to the mall and inquired about their sales. This is always a good thing but depending how busy the store was affected how well the dealer was served. Although one would think that customers buying product would be given the highest priority, on occassion the dealer demanded immediate attention and/or the manager on duty would unintentionally ignore the paying customer. Being that the dealer is also a "customer" of the mall, management was at times conflicted about who to serve first.
Other problems involved privacy. Sometimes other dealers or customers were nearby and could overhear or see the confidential information. On the otherhand, depending how far ones voice could travel, it was easy to overhear the details.
Working with SI Systems to provide an internet solution, the owner not only solved the immediate problems but realized many unforeseen benefits.
Even though internet usage was not widespread at the time, many dealers found a way to access their sales using computers of family members or the local library. Even now, not all people are connected but having access to a service such as they gave justification to get connected to benefit their business.
POS Support
Mall-Central.com is designed to support many different point-of-sale systems commonly used in the industry. These include FastTrack by A.A.I.N, SOS by Software Gallery, Mallease Falcon by MSD, Inc., and many others. It can support DOS based as well as Windows and even Mac OS (9 or X). Techniques have been employed to enable manual systems although the data does need to be in a computer readable file. PDF and Excel compatible file formats are currently supported.
Uploading is initiated either right after balancing the registers at the end of day or in the middle of the night automatically as specified by Windows Task Scheduler.
Benefits
Unexpected benefits were soon realized as the owner witnessed her dealers actually coming to the store more often and bringing the right merchandise. Many dealers mentioned how this service helped them plan their trips better. As a result the store realized not only greater dealer participation but also increased sales as merchandise was better stocked.
Some other malls have actually gone paperless except for the periodic paychecks. A monthly newsletter is supported and viewable on-line whenever the dealer checks their sales.
As a result, not only has store overhead declined but so has consumables and the store associates can spend more time with paying customers.
See Also
Antique Mall Point of Sale (POS) Software:
Anteq Mall Manager
Antique and Art Information Network http://www.aain.com
Antique Mall Accounting Systems (AMAS) by Programs Plus http://www.antiquemallsoftware.com
Antiques SOS by Software Gallery http://www.softwaregallery.com
AntiqueSoft http://www.antiquesoft.com
Best Antique Mall Software by Best Consignment Shop Software http://www.bestconsignmentshopsoftware.com
Calant POS Software http://www.calantsoftware.com
Data Management System by Charles Crume Software http://www.charlescrumesoftware.com
Dymond
GoAntiquing! POS by Brave New Software http://www.bravenewsoftware.com
Mall Sales Manager by Homestead Software http://www.homesteadsoftware.com
Mall Manager by QAS Systems http://www.mallmanager.com/
The MallMaster by Computer Support Services http://mallmaster.comp-support.com
Visual Mall Manager by RF Canon http://www.visualmallmanager.com
What are Antique Malls?
Exit 76 Antique Mall
Heritage Square Antique Mall
What are Crafter's Malls?
The Quilted Bear http://www.quiltedbear.com