In the ever-evolving landscape of retail technology, staying ahead of potential disruptions is crucial. Recently, the industry witnessed a significant hiccup when a faulty software update from CrowdStrike caused widespread disruptions. This incident underscored the importance of having robust systems in place that can maintain operational integrity even when primary systems fail. At Teamwork Commerce, our commitment to seamless retail operations shines through our Point of Sale (POS) system’s capability to function efficiently in offline mode. Here’s a closer look at what happened with CrowdStrike and how Teamwork POS ensures your business keeps running smoothly, no matter the circumstances.

The CrowdStrike Incident: A Case Study in Preparedness

CrowdStrike, a renowned cybersecurity firm, recently faced a significant setback when a software update intended to enhance security inadvertently caused major operational disruptions for numerous businesses. The update, which contained a critical flaw, led to widespread system crashes and downtime, affecting companies’ ability to operate smoothly. This incident highlighted the vulnerability of relying solely on online systems and the critical need for backup plans and systems that can operate independently of network connectivity.

Teamwork Commerce: Built for Resilience

At Teamwork Commerce, we understand that the retail environment demands uninterrupted service. Our POS system is designed with resilience at its core, ensuring that your business can continue to operate efficiently, even in the face of unexpected challenges like the CrowdStrike incident.

Seamless Offline Mode

One of the standout features of the Teamwork POS system is its robust offline mode. Unlike many POS systems that rely heavily on constant internet connectivity, Teamwork POS is engineered to maintain full functionality even when the network goes down. Here’s how it works:

• Local Data Storage: Teamwork POS stores transaction data locally on the device, allowing sales to be processed without any interruptions. This means that your staff can continue to serve customers, process payments, and manage inventory seamlessly.
• Automatic Synchronization: Once the connection is restored, the system automatically syncs all locally stored data with the central database. This ensures that all transactions are accurately recorded, and inventory levels are updated without any manual intervention.
• Consistent Customer Experience: With the offline mode, your customers will experience no difference in service quality. From processing payments to accessing loyalty programs and discounts, everything continues to function as usual.

Apple iOS: Enhanced Security and Stability

An additional layer of resilience for Teamwork POS comes from its exclusive operation on Apple iOS devices. Apple’s operating system is known for its stringent security measures and stability, which adds an extra layer of protection against many software-related issues. Unlike other platforms, iOS’s robust security framework and rigorous app review process significantly reduce the risk of malware and faulty updates affecting device performance. This means that Teamwork POS on iOS devices remains a reliable and secure choice for retailers.

Real-Time Adaptability

In addition to offline functionality, Teamwork POS is designed to adapt to real-time changes and challenges. Whether it’s a sudden internet outage or a broader issue like the CrowdStrike software failure, our system ensures that your business remains operational and efficient.

• Dynamic Updates: The system can receive updates and patches dynamically, ensuring that any potential issues are resolved swiftly without disrupting your operations.
• Comprehensive Support: Our support team is always on standby to assist with any issues, ensuring minimal downtime and quick resolution of any problems.

Conclusion

The recent CrowdStrike incident serves as a stark reminder of the importance of having resilient and adaptable systems in place. At Teamwork Commerce, our POS system’s offline mode is a testament to our commitment to ensuring that your business can withstand any challenge. By choosing Teamwork POS, you are investing in a solution that guarantees uninterrupted operations and a consistent customer experience, no matter what comes your way.

In an era where technological disruptions are inevitable, being prepared with a robust offline capability is not just an option—it’s a necessity. Teamwork Commerce is here to ensure that your retail operations remain smooth, efficient, and resilient, come what may.

Florida, US – July 2nd, 2024: In May of 2023, Teamwork Commerce, a global retail management software provider, attained SOC 2 Type 1 compliance. Now, Teamwork Commerce has achieved SOC 2 Type 2 compliance as well, for all Teamwork Commerce Premier Edition customers. These accreditations serve as benchmarks for a company’s ability to safeguard its clients’ data.

About SOC 2 Compliance: In the U.S., and growing worldwide, the SOC 2 (Service Organization Controls, Level 2) is a highly regarded and trusted report due to the in-depth third-party scrutiny applied by outside auditors against many processes used across our company involving Human Resources, Marketing, Infrastructure, Security, and including Service and Development that help to ensure Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability of our Premier Edition clients to their data.

SSAE (Statement on Standards for Attestation Engagements) No. 21 System and Service Organization Controls (SOC) is a set of standards developed by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). The compliance audits are performed by an independent third-party service auditor. SOC 2 compliance is a rigorous process that involves a comprehensive evaluation and testing of a company’s policies, procedures, and safeguards related to data security, availability, and confidentiality.

Teamwork Commerce customers are already benefiting from the comprehensive security measures implemented during the compliance process. SOC 2 compliance proves that a company adheres to best practices concerning data security, availability, and confidentiality and that it represents these practices fairly. SOC 2 compliance is an indication that a company prioritizes data security and has implemented appropriate safeguards.

Tom Godfrey, VP of Technical Services at Teamwork Commerce, says: “At Teamwork Commerce, we recognize the significance of data security for retailers, particularly in today’s context where cyber-attacks and data breaches are becoming increasingly common.

“When it comes to customer data as well as server and application access, Teamwork Commerce ensures that security, availability, and confidentiality are built into our product and processes. Our recent SOC 2 readiness program confirms it. We are committed to enhancing our platform and processes to provide exceptional customer service.”

Future Commitment: Teamwork Commerce is also working towards achieving ISO 27001 certification. This international standard similarly provides a framework for information security management systems and requires a comprehensive approach to risk management and data protection.

About Teamwork Commerce: Teamwork Commerce is a leading Omnichannel Solution, providing retailers with Point-of-Sale, Order Management, Inventory Control, CRM, and Analytics. They also boast an ecosystem of integrations with top solutions making unified commerce a seamless activity. Serving top retailers in over 20 countries globally including Moose Knuckles, Colorado Rockies, Asics, Milwaukee Bucks, Catbird, and Paul Stuart. Learn more at www.teamworkcommerce.com.

The partnership will enable retailers to reduce shipping errors, minimize return rates, drive cost savings and improve the customer experience.

LONDON, April 8, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Teamwork Commerce, a global retail management solution, announced it has partnered with the global leader in address verification, Loqate, a GBG solution, to deliver instant address lookup capabilities and safer and faster checkout operations, which reduce time-consuming shipping errors and minimize return rates.

Loqate’s advanced software enables users to capture, verify, and enrich global location data, providing the unparalleled precision businesses require. The solution verifies input data, such as addresses, phone numbers, and emails, against Loqate’s meticulously curated database, ensuring global accuracy and confidence at scale. With real-time address verification, brands can mitigate costs and risks while optimising revenue and enhancing customer loyalty by minimising failed deliveries and increasing customer engagement.

Integrated into retail operations through Teamwork Commerce’s platform, the new solution delivers seamless marketing and shipping validation in real-time without the risk of human error. With Teamwork Commerce providing retailers with the highest data integrity available, users can deploy a simple, yet robust, address look-up and checkout solution operational across both Europe and the United States.

Chris Boaz, Chief Marketing Officer at Loqate, said: “Our real-time verification technology plays a vital role in enabling retailers to improve their data quality at point of capture. Combining this capability with Teamwork Commerce’s all-encompassing retail technology solution, users will be able to ensure significantly improved delivery rates for their customers, while reducing the cost of failed deliveries.”

Amber Hovious, VP of Marketing and Partnerships at Teamwork Commerce, said: “As a business, we are constantly searching for new ways to help our customers improve their retail offering. In today’s environment, convenience and speed are a major factor in enhancing consumer satisfaction. Our partnership with Loqate will enable retailers to streamline their in-store operations, providing more effective shipping validation and a more efficient confirmation process.

About Teamwork Commerce
Teamwork Commerce is a leading Omnichannel Solution, providing retailers with Point-of Sale, Order Management, Inventory Control, and Analytics. They also boast an ecosystem of integrations with top solutions making unified commerce a seamless activity. Serving top retailers in over 20 countries Acne Studios, The Row, Asics, Princesse Tam Tam, Comptoir des Cotonniers, and Moose Knuckles. Learn more at www.teamworkcommerce.com.

About Loqate
Loqate is the world’s most trusted location intelligence service, helping every business in the world reach every customer in the world, with a single global API for address verification. Over 14,000 businesses rely on Loqate every day to reach their customers across 249 countries and territories. Loqate’s expertise in global addressing is supported by team members located around the world, including the U.S., UK, Germany, Malaysia, China and Australia. Loqate is a GBG solution. GBG, experts in digital identity, offers a range of solutions that help organizations quickly validate and verify the identity and location of their customers. For more information, visit: www.loqate.com and www.gbgplc.com.

Four decades on from its first catwalk show in a tent off Kensington High Street, London Fashion Week (LFW) is still the place where anything can happen. Picking up from where New York Fashion Week left off, LFW showcased how street style fashion is done, offering plenty of inspiration for transitional dressing as we head through the seasons.

Celebrating its 40th birthday in style, the 4-day fashion spectacle captured city wide attention, showcasing 67 designers across 46 catwalks and 36 events spanning the capital. London’s flagship labels, Burberry, JW Anderson and Simone Rocha, were featured alongside new exciting talent set to take the fashion world by storm throughtout 2024, such as Dilara Fidikoglu, Conner Ives and Robyn Lynch.

Reflecting on these exciting collections can be overwhelming, especially as we move toward instantaneous clothing gratification noted by the rise of ultra-fast-fashion brands such as Shein and Pretty Little Thing. As such, showcasing collections can put a pause on the disposability of the modern fashion trend-cycle, rather, giving designers the space to generate authentic fashion moments akin to Shalom Harlow and Amber Valletta’s infamous runway moment at Todd Oldham’s Spring 1995 show. 

A Focus on Sustainability and Environmental Responsibility

A major theme throughout the fashion industry is sustainability and London Fashion Week wasn’t going to shy away from the conversation. Runways, workshops and partnerships built around zero-waste craftsmanship and upcycling took place across the city, all aiming to bring new life to wardrobe staples.

As western fashion continues to surge in popularity and become the aesthetic of the season, denim trends are here to stay, but so are conversations of textiles and sustainability when it comes to the stand out fabric. Award-winning designer Ahluwalia transformed deadstock denim into a head-to-toe look with pieces created from reworked denim supplied by Levi’s.

Returning to LFW, london-based designer Ancuta Sarca echoed the themes of sustainability and environmental responsibility with her Fall/Winter 2024 collection, created using deadstock leathers, faux fur and surplus fabrics from previous seasons.

Off the runway, organizers of London Fashion Week held a plethora of creative and skill based workshops and activities across the city of London that focused on the upcycling and repurposing of surplus fabrics and last season’s garments, delivered by the likes of London College of Fashion and The Fashion School.

As sustainability and environmental responsibility continues its momentum as a strong theme within fashion, retailers have the opportunity to mirror this and focus on fostering green strategies. Seemingly small changes can make a big difference for brands, for example, optimizing returns processes to minimize transport, packing waste and reducing demand on fast fashion can play a pivotal role in creating a greener retail industry. Meanwhile, effective inventory management processes can also enable retailers to gain better visibility of their stock, allowing businesses to optimize the products they order, reducing CO2 emissions produced in manufacturing, transporting and storing items.

Modernity of the Contributions to Art and Fashion

A staple of London Fashion Week’s identity comes from challenging the status quo, from Shalom Harlow’s dazzling robot paint soaked Alexander McQueen dress, to catching a glimpse of royalty in the front row, no two LFW’s are ever the same. However, what is always apparent, especially in London, is the intersection of class, society and art in developing cohesive and culturally referenced collections.

Labrum London’s ‘Designed By An Immigrant: Journey of Colors’ show paid tribute to the journey faced by immigrants coming to the UK. Using textiles from around the world to pay tribute to the globality and cultural heritage in London, Labrum incorporated patchwork, embroidery and screen-printing combined with heritage-based art to form a dazzling collection and showcasing the multiculturalism of London.

Taking inspiration from North London’s iconic garage nightlife scene, Saul Nash used this AW24 fashion show to highlight the influence of music as an art form on fashion. He used it as his base to create a themed collection that consisted of tightly fitted nylon-wear that challenges the traditional dress-codes of related clubs.

Nostalgia Influencing Fashion for a New Generation

The latest fashion resurgence to encapsulate the industry was the Y2K aesthetic, seeing consumers seek an idealized version of the past, fueled by a love of generational fashion and noughties pop culture.

Nostalgia continues to be a growing theme used by creatives to evoke emotion in their products and allow designers to pay homage to styles that used to rule the runway. JW Anderson’s collection focused on the reconfiguration of generational fashion, with inspiration taken from british women in the 1970s, we saw him mixing elements of homespun knits and trench coats with sporty shorts and ribbon-trailing skirts to curate outfits that offer a new life to to past styles.

London Fashion Week has been known to showcase some of the most prominent up and coming designers, highlighted by its NewGen initiatives. One of this year’s emerging designers, Robyn Lynch, produced a capsule of looks that reconstructed mensware for a new generation to enjoy. Taking great inspiration from her father’s wardrobe and old home video footage, Lynch explored the combining elements of the past with bold contemporary styles of design. In a collaboration with C.P Company, Robyn reimagined a selection of the brand’s sportswear pieces into one-off designs.

Designers continue to repurpose and reconstruct traditional initiatives to cater to a new generation. Likewise, the most forward-thinking retailers are now aligning themselves with the values, preferences and behaviors of the new generation of consumers in order to stay competitive. Adopting solutions that deliver high-quality customer insights – such as Teamwork Commerce’s Secure Customer Relationship Management (CRM) technology – allows retailers to better understand shopper behaviors and preferences, allowing them to tailor their operations to deliver bespoke interactions and continue to meet evolving consumer demands.

Trends to Shape Retail

London Fashion Week embodies similar themes that we saw at its sister show, New York Fashion Week earlier this year. It is clear that we can expect these to be carried through and reflected in future shows.

It is imperative that retailers acknowledge the themes and trends guiding runways throughout fashion’s biggest event in order to leverage opportunities and make informed decisions that align with the direction that the fashion world is storming.

Want to learn more about how your retail brand can continue evolving to deliver exceptional experiences that keep up with changing consumer trends? Get in touch here.