How Real-Time Forecasting Unlocks Working Capital

Convenience stores have spent years investing in technology to improve operations, but many still manage payments through a patchwork of disconnected systems. Smart safes, point-of-sale systems, self-checkout stations, payment terminals, and back-office platforms often operate independently, leaving store teams and headquarters staff responsible for piecing together the full picture.

The result is a fragmented payment ecosystem that can create unnecessary complexity, delay visibility, and consume valuable time.

“When an operator has different systems that are not connected to each other, a person is responsible for somehow putting all that information together,” says Lenny Evansek, senior vice president of SafePoint Business Development at Loomis. “If none of those systems are talking to each other, headquarters has to wait for information to come in from different places just to understand what happened in the store that day.”

For multi-unit operators, that challenge only grows as store counts increase. While a single-store operator may have direct visibility into daily operations, larger organizations often rely on technology to provide the control and insight they can no longer manage manually. A unified approach can make a huge difference.

Connected technology can provide a real-time view of all payment activity in a single location. Operators gain visibility into cash, card transactions, self-checkout activity, and other payment touchpoints as they happen.

“If you use technology to unify these things, they all meet at any given time during the day,” Evansek says. “You’re reducing the time it takes to see that reconciled picture of all your payments.”

One of the newest additions to that strategy is Loomis Edge, a small on-site device designed to connect safes and recyclers with the systems retailers already use. Acting as a bridge between point-of-sale systems, back-office platforms, kiosks, and cash-management devices, Loomis Edge enables information to flow in real time between systems that traditionally operate independently.

“What this little device does is bring them together so they’re talking to each other,” Evansek says. “Imagine being able to see exactly what’s been deposited in the safe directly from your point-of-sale system.”

The benefits extend beyond visibility. Consolidating payment data into a common platform can help retailers improve cash forecasting and better manage cash inventory at the store level. But, determining how much cash and coin should be kept on-site can be a challenge. Carrying too much ties up capital, while carrying too little can create operational headaches.

“What these solutions do is help operators maximize and predict the right amount of cash in their store,” Evansek says. “If you’re carrying $5,000 too much in cash inventory per store across 150 locations, that’s a lot of money you can pull out of your system.”

Improved forecasting can also uncover inefficiencies that operators may not realize exist. “You don’t know what you don’t know,” Evansek says. “You may not realize you’re spending hours reconciling payments or that you’ve got boxes of coins sitting in a closet for months. Once you have the data, those things come to light.”

Loomis also differentiates itself through its vertically integrated model. The company manufactures safes and recyclers, provides transportation services, offers in-house customer support, and services equipment directly through companies it owns. That approach can significantly reduce downtime when issues arise.

“In a third-party model, there can be multiple calls before someone even begins troubleshooting the problem,” Evansek says. “By having that complete vertical integration, we’re cutting out those layers and reducing downtime by as much as 50 percent.”

Loomis Pay further expands the ecosystem by bringing digital payments into the same conversation. Combined with cash-management solutions, it allows operators to manage both physical and digital payments more cohesively while potentially reducing merchant processing costs.

For operators managing dozens (or even hundreds) of locations, the value ultimately comes down to simplicity. “We are vertically integrated,” Evansek says. “From manufacturing the device to transporting cash to servicing equipment, it’s all connected. When all of your systems communicate with each other and the information flows into a common point for reporting, it saves a tremendous amount of time.”

As convenience retailers continue looking for ways to improve efficiency, reduce complexity, and gain better visibility into store performance, a more connected payment ecosystem with Loomis may offer one of the biggest opportunities hiding in plain sight.