In 2018, Aptos announced the launch of Aptos ONE, its cloud-native, microservices-based unified commerce platform. Fast-forward to today; at the 2024 edition of Retail’s Big Show, Aptos is leveraging the event to highlight how much the platform has progressed in both features and adoption — and to build excitement for major innovations being introduced to Aptos ONE in 2024.
The new capabilities span all areas of unified commerce execution including store inventory management, universal promotions and payment partner integration. Attendees at NRF 2024 can get an early look at the upcoming enhancements by visiting booth 4639 during the event.
“Aptos ONE POS offers a depth of core POS functionality that none of our competitors can match — that is going to be very evident in our 2024 software releases,” said Ian Auerbach, Vice President, Product Management, at Aptos. “While other vendors rushed to market with modular POS solutions with basic functionality, our strategy was to offer advanced store selling and omni-native capabilities right out of the box.
“We want to prove to retailers that you can have the best of both worlds — the most modern and extensible software architectures with very robust and configurable features/functions,” Auerbach continued. “This development strategy has really resonated with retailers.
“2023 was a big year for Aptos ONE, with hundreds of stores going live on our modern POS,” Auerbach said. “We expect continued rapid adoption of Aptos ONE in 2024 based on the strength of our product roadmap and us putting even more distance between ourselves and competitors in terms of the depth of our offering.”
Key highlights of the Aptos ONE roadmap for 2024 include:
- Aptos Store Inventory Management (SIM): With the store at the center of most shopping journeys, the effective and efficient management of store inventory is critical to unified commerce success.
Aptos SIM is a mobile application that allows retailers to holistically manage all movement of inventory coming into or transferring out of the store. The SIM tool supports a broad range of in-store inventory management needs, such as shipping and receiving; cycle counts; inventory adjustments; pricing updates; and carrier integration and shipping label printing for transfers between stores or return to vendor.
Built on the Aptos ONE platform, Aptos SIM offers prebuilt integrations to Aptos’ OMS and Merchandising solutions and has an extensibility framework with APIs and facade services to easily integrate with third-party software. With Aptos SIM, retailers can ensure store inventory updates are reflected in real time across all systems that touch or manage merchandise, creating the most accurate record of networkwide inventory.
- Aptos Universal Promotions Manager: Built on the Aptos ONE platform, the Aptos Universal Promotions Manager allows retailers to configure all their campaigns and promotions for all channels through a single and centralized promotions engine.
“Today, it’s common for retailers to have promo modules embedded in numerous solutions — merchandising, POS, OMS, etc. — and it can be a nightmare to figure out how to keep them all in sync,” said Nikki Baird, Vice President, Strategy, at Aptos.
“With our Universal Promotions Manager, Aptos offers retailers a streamlined approach to promotions, leveraging APIs to extend promotion data quickly and securely to any of the retailer’s applications or channels that require it,” Baird added.
“With a singular promotions engine, a promotion that is delivered in stores, online or through a consumer mobile app would calculate the exact same way, using the exact same deal logic,” continued Baird. “This eliminates the risk of customers being given different totals for the exact same purchase across different selling channels. It’s a better experience for the shopper — and a much more efficient way for retailers to manage promotions.”
- More flexible payment partner integration: As the universe of payment vendors and payment types continues to expand, Aptos has made it easier than ever for retailers’ payment partners to integrate to the Aptos ONE platform.
In partnership with Verifone, Aptos is introducing its first “sidecar” payment integration, a revolutionary approach that enables deep interaction between mobile-native apps, while maintaining arms-length and externalized integration — a key consideration whenever touching payment.
Also new for 2024, Aptos now supports Tap to Pay on iPhone powered by Aptos ONE and Adyen, the global financial technology platform for many of the world’s leading companies. With Tap to Pay on iPhone, retailers can accept all types of in-person, contactless payments — from physical debit and credit cards, to Apple Pay and other digital wallets, using only an iPhone and the Aptos ONE iOS app — no extra terminals or hardware needed.
During NRF 2024, attendees can see a live demo of Tap to Pay on iPhone at Aptos booth 4639.
Accelerated unified commerce investment continues in 2024
For Aptos’ fiscal year 2023, which ended on Sept. 30, the company exceeded its goals for both corporate revenue and operating EBITDA, achieving at 101% and 103% of those goals, respectively.
Backed by robust financial performance and continuing demand for its portfolio of unified commerce solutions, Aptos will invest 15% of revenues in research and development in 2024.
“To be a truly great software company, you need satisfied customers and motivated employees — and neither of those are possible without quality products that deliver meaningful value to customers,” said Aptos CEO Pete Sinisgalli. “Aptos is focused on developing market-leading SaaS solutions, and our strong financial position allows us to invest materially in product innovation and customer success initiatives. These investments help our customers keep pace with consumer shifts and maintain an edge over their competition.
“As we start a new year, we are experiencing momentum across every business unit we operate — Aptos, Revionics and LS Retail,” said Sinisgalli. “This isn’t possible without the hard work and dedication of our colleagues, and the trust and support of our customers. We look forward to another year of collective success and potentially more favorable retail market conditions.”
About Aptos
Aptos is the global leader in unified commerce solutions for retailers. Our modern, cloud-native POS and advanced enterprise technologies are trusted by hundreds of retail brands around the world. For over 40 years, Aptos has delivered software solutions that help retailers inspire loyalty, maximize revenue and reduce costs.
To learn more, visit www.aptos.com and follow us on LinkedIn.