Seamless Retail Integration

Featured Interview with Gregory Rocheleau Director of Retail Technology at Helios Technology Solutions

View this article featured in CANADIAN
​BUSINESS OWNER Magazine

Bridging the Gap Between Physical and Digital Retail

In today's competitive retail landscape, Canadian businesses face the challenge of delivering seamless customer experiences across both physical and digital channels. Gregory Rocheleau, Director of Retail Technology at Helios Technology Solutions Inc.,
is at the forefront of addressing this challenge by guiding merchants through the complex process of technological integration.

Based in Cambridge, Ontario, Helios Technology Solutions was founded in 2018 and has quickly established itself as a leading Shopify partner. "My role specializes in focusing on bringing customers and merchants into the technology space with various retail technology solutions that cater to their specific needs," explains Greg.

The Importance of Unified Systems

As businesses increasingly seek to streamline operations, Greg and Helios team provide comprehensive support that extends well beyond basic implementation. "We assist to help and support with all the back-end configurations, setup, testing, implementation, training and support all the way through," he notes. "Our role is to ensure seamless execution from start to finish for customers who are looking to implement the Shopify system."


This holistic approach addresses a critical issue many retailers face: disconnected systems that complicate inventory management and customer service. "We actually see a lot of our merchants that come to us, they might already have a Shopify online website, but they also have a different in-house retail point of sale system," says Greg. "They're not communicating with one another, they're totally siloed systems."

Beyond Basic Integration

The value Helios provides extends far beyond simple system integration. "Shopify natively has a great system and software to get a lot of our merchants off the ground," he explains, "but it's about utilizing other third party softwares that can give them a little bit more advanced features and functionalities that they may not get within the Shopify ecosystem." Helios helps businesses leverage a wide variety of complementary technologies, including "inventory management control systems, labor management controls, looking at marketing campaigns and email initiatives through different marketing & third party softwares."

​Greg emphasizes that the goal is business growth, not just technological convenience: "It's all about how they can drive more revenue growth, not just having a piece of hardware that can just sell products inside of a location, but being able to take that experience to the next level so that their system can effectively help drive their business growth."

The Convergence of Online and In-Store Retail

The advantage of having integrated systems is clear: "When you have a website where they also have the same POS, they constantly communicate with each other all the time. So whether you're taking orders online or doing orders inside the store, a lot of your data is being real-time, accurately reflected between both systems."

This integration creates significant benefits for both retailers and customers. "It gives them that same seamless experience, especially from a customer or user experience perspective," Greg points out. "You can order online or from the store. You know exactly what they have on hand, for availability, for stock. You can go to the store if the process is exactly the same through and through."

Market Trends and Growth Opportunities

"The volume that we're receiving today is growing very rapidly," he mentions. "Just from us being a part of this program with Shopify, we are seeing definitely an upward trend on how the amount of volume of work we're getting." Helios is also witnessing a significant shift in the market as retailers migrate from other platforms. "We're getting a lot of Lightspeed conversions over to Shopify, because the users' experiences that they want to have the web aspect with the POS," says Greg. "It's about getting both of those together, communicating."

The Helios Advantage

What sets Helios apart in this growing market is their comprehensive approach to customer support. "We directly assist [merchants] in making sure that they can go live with their online store in a certain time frame that they're looking to and also help them with their POS hardware and software setup for the retail environment," Greg explains.
This includes managing all aspects of the retail technology ecosystem, "which involves any sort of various technologies, like cash drawers, printers, iPads, and so on."