While we focus primarily on independent bookstores, our product is retail agnostic. We can handle any retail industry. This means you can easily sell more than books and you can easily use the same POS for your cafe and bookstore.

We excel at multi-store functionality. Our software allows you to purchase, receive, and transfer from one location for all stores. Our database us structured in a way that all stores within your operation are working off of the same database. Each store is unique, but all data is accessible in one location for your entire operation. No need to send updates from a store database to a centralized database. No need for a server in every store. Our multi store system drastically reduces costs and processing time for larger operations.

Our Customer Rewards program allows you to track customer purchases and issue rewards based on benchmarks determined by you.

We offer an Offline Sales solution that allows you to run POS without a network connection. This means you can still run your POS in store if you lose your internet connection. Or you can run your POS at events without a network connection. This option is available for both our cloud and client solutions.

Our Buying Manager allows you to make decisions manually or to automate decisions based on Restock Rules and Auto Buy functions. Our Buying Manager assists you in the buying process. It allows you to look at a list of products according to filters you set. The iMRCHNT Buying Manager allows you to be more efficient and effective throughout the process.

iMRCHNT is highly customizable. You can customize fields, reports, buttons, function keys, hot keys, exports, even screens.

We allow for the sale of used books. Our used book system is capable of buying used books for cash or credit. It can keep track of editions, as well as conditions. It can set price based on Dollar off New, or Discount off New, or based on other predefined rules set by you. You can purchase an entire box of books for a set amount, and receive the items individually at a later time.

Our front end provides a unique blend of touch-screen-enabled screens at the POS and heads down input-intense screens made easier through tabs, function keys, and hot keys.

All grids within our system can be printed and exported. That means pretty much every screen can be exported to .csv.

Our VENSTOCK product is a proprietary Computac database that provides book information and stock availability from wholesalers. Venstock provides your store the ability to look up titles you don’t have in your inventory, seamlessly add those items to your inventory, sell those items, and order them.

In partnership with Pineapple Payments iMRCHNT is capable of offering Payment Processing rates that meet or beat ABA preferred rates with other processors.

iMRCHNT integrates to QuickBooks for AP, AR , GL. If you don’t like QuickBooks all AP, AR, and GL can be exported as .csv files to be imported into the accounting package of your choosing.

iMRCHNT allows for electronic ordering through Ingram, Nielsen Pubnet, Bookazine, Nielsen BookScan, Penguin Random House, and can be customized to work with any other vendor.

iMRCHNT integrates to IndieCommerce as well as Above the Treeline and Edelweiss.

iMRCHNT is a Microsoft-based product that is written with a .Net front end and SQL back end.

We offer two solutions for iMRCHNT.

Our client-based solution is hosted by you on your own server.

Our cloud-based solution is hosted by us on our own private cloud.

Our cloud solution saves you the hassle of purchasing and maintaining your own server a major cost saver for Multi Store operations.

iMRCHNT STORES

iMRCHNT is capable of supporting stores of any size. While we do support stores of any size, we excel at Multi-Store functionality. Our software allows Multi-Store operations a truly centralized system where you can purchase, receive, and transfer from one location for all stores. Or each store can function independently as it own unit.

We have customers that are primarily selling B2B, and we have customers who are primarily selling B2C.

A number of customers have served or are currently serving on the ABA Board of Directors.

We have also proudly seen our customers win the Publishers Weekly Bookstore of the Year award.

POINT OF SALE

From our Touch Screen enabled Point of Sale you can do:

Administration – allows you to void sales, find sales (either by Sale ID or by scanning the receipt), return items (either by Sale ID or by scanning the receipt), bring items into a new sale for credit, open cash drawer without a sale, and print receipt summaries for the register (this can be password protected).

Close Out Of POS – you can either exit POS and reopen in the same day, Sign Off, End Shift, Close the Day, or Close and Start the Next Day.

Combine Payments – gives you the ability to accept multiple tenders on one Sale.

Tender AR, Balance Cards, Cash, Checks, Credit Cards, Debit Cards, Foreign Exchange, Gift Cards, and Simple Tenders.

Delete Items from a Sale – Select the item and hit F5.

Manage Drawers – reconcile POS transactions performed by a cashier. Drawers can be moved from register to register.

Enter Shipping Information During a Transaction by using our Shipping function.

Find a Customer – can be done anytime before tendering a sale.

Find a Customer Order and fill the order at the POS – any discounts, tenders, or additional charges will be carried over to POS.

Function Keys – we use the full Function key range from F1 - F12 – these can be modified to suit your store. The default setting is F1 (Find Service), F2 (Find Product), F3 (Accounts Receivable), F4 (Refund Lock), F5 (Remove Item from Sale), F6 (Discount), F7 (Simple), F8 (Balance Card), F9 (Credit Card), F10 (Check), F11 (Cash), F12 (Debit Card).

Hot Keys – You can assign any letter or number to a product or service. At the POS when the letter or number is pressed, the item or service will appear as though it has been scanned.

Issue Customer Rewards based on benchmarks determined by you.

Make a Sale Tax Exempt – functionality allows you to determine which level of taxes to make exempt prior to tendering.

Ring up Services to be Sold – such as Gift Certificates or Gift Wrapping.

Sales Promotions – place items on sale based on any inventory parameter.

Issue and Redeem Coupons.

INVENTORY

Author Properties – add, change, and delete author information.

Inventory Change Log – view all historical adjustments for products within your inventory.

Transfer Inventory – enables you to move items from one store to another.

Global Editing – save time by editing a field or multiple fields for many products simultaneously.

Product Properties – Set up and maintain your inventory. You can maintain multiple variants of a product under one product number.

Reserved Stock – set aside or reserve a portion of a product’s on-hand quantity. Reserved products will still count toward your overall on-hand in inventory, but they will be removed from your available-for-sale quantity.

Service Properties – set up and maintain features not under inventory control that your store provides (i.e., gift cards, gift wrapping, coupons).

Vendor Properties – set up and maintain vendor files.

Industries – maintain items based on industry, no more need to give a sticker a fake ISBN

Inventory Types - maintain items a New, Used, Remainder, or Consignment

BUYING

Buying Manager – You can either make decisions manually or allow the Buying Manager to make decisions for you based on Restock Rules and Auto Buy functions. Our Buying Manager assists you in the buying process. It allows you to look at a list of products according to filters you set. It allows you to place those items onto To Be Ordered lists one at a time, in groups, or all at once. Our Buying Manager allows you to be more efficient and effective throughout the process.

Customer Order Import – generate Customer Orders from an outside source (i.e., web), then import those orders into our system using .xml files.

Electronic Ordering – uses Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) to process Purchase Orders with trading partners via FTP. Available with Ingram, Pubnet, Bookazine, Nielsen BookScan, and Penguin Random House. Any additional trading partners can be easily added by request.

Front Lists – Import front lists into iMerchant and place orders. We support BISAC, Edelweiss, Ingram ROSI, and delimited files.

PO Product Detail Find – call up all previous and current PO’s for a product.

Purchase Order Group Editing – a major time saver that allows you to make change across multiple POs (i.e., Expected Arrival Date).

Purchase Orders – Cut POs either by using our To Be Ordered functionality or our New Purchase Order Screens.

Purchasing Agent – lets you know when you have reached vendor minimums for quantity or dollar amount and automatically applies vendor discounts.

To Be Ordered Lists (TBO) – allows you to schedule items to be ordered, then revisit those lists to adjust the order quantity, comments, vendor, or type prior to cutting a PO.

Venstock – a proprietary Computac database that provides book information and stock availability from wholesalers. Venstock provides your store the ability to look up titles you don’t have in your inventory, seamlessly add those items to your inventory, sell those items, and order them.

RECEIVING

Receive in Bulk – simply highlight within our grid, hit F12, and click on OK to confirm.

Make changes as needed to Unit Cost, Total Cost, Retail Received, and Discount %.

Enter Problem Codes

Print Labels in batches or on the fly.

Preliminary Receiving – save time by receiving prior to physically receiving the product by automatically processing Advanced Ship Notices using our Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) System.

Receive Shipment – provides you the ratio of shipping cost over actual product costs by comparing the shipping costs of products on an invoice to the actual cost of goods received.

Receive Detail Find – allows you to find any products in your system and retrieve all previous and current receiving information.

RETURNS

To Be Returned Lists (TBR) – create lists for items to be returned and call them up anytime prior to processing in order to adjust the quantity if desired. Then process products you want to return to the appropriate vendors. Lists can be created using our finder functionality, or by simply scanning the product and incrementing the quantity to be returned with every scan of the same barcode.

You can find any products in your system and see all previous and current Returns and TBR information for that product using our Returns Detail Find

REPORTS

All reports can be exported in order to take advantage of more visual third-party reporting tools such as Excel, Tableau, or JMP, allowing you to take a more analytical dive into your data.

All grids within our system can be printed or exported to .csv files. That means the majority of what you see in our system can be exported to .csv files.

Our reporting module allows for the use of canned reports. Or you can create your own by building custom templates using our Report Designer.

Our Canned Reports include:

Inventory Report

Customer Order Summary

Customer Report

Customer Card Report

Returns Summary/Packing Slip

Returns Report

Product Report

Product Sales Report

Cost Profit Report

Customer Order Report