Aptos Appoints Kristjan Johannsson to Lead LS Retail’s ‘Next Phase of Growth’

Aptos has appointed Kristjan Johannsson as general manager for its standalone business unit LS Retail.

Johannsson has been with LS Retail since 2016, most recently serving as chief commercial officer, Aptos said in a Wednesday (June 28) press release.

“With his more than 30 years of experience in the software industry, deep understanding of channel partner dynamics, and commitment to customer and colleague satisfaction, Kristjan was the natural choice to lead LS Retail into its next phase of growth,” Aptos CEO Pete Sinisgalli said in the release.

In his new role, Johannsson will oversee LS Retail’s profit and loss (P&L) statement and its sales, partner operations, software development, marketing and other functional areas of the business, according to the press release.

The appointment comes at a time when LS Retail’s unified point-of-sale (POS) and business management software solutions for retail and hospitality have been delivered to more than 100,000 stores and 6,500 customers in 157 countries, the release said.

“We will work closely with Microsoft and our partners all over the world to deliver this unified commerce vision,” Johannsson said in the release. “I’m honored to lead LS Retail forward, buoyed by the strengths of our parent company, Aptos, and by the hundreds of remarkable individuals who make up the LS Retail organization.”

PYMNTS research has found that when consumers are shopping in stores, they are seeking new checkout experiences that offer the same benefits of speed and convenience that they see when shopping online.

As a result, self-service kiosks for speedy checkout have joined the ranks of mobile apps, QR codes, digital rewards and alternative payment methods as the top five shopping features that merchants perceive their customers want from stores, according to “Innovating the Retail Checkout Experience,” the February edition of the “Retail Tracker®,” a PYMNTS and LS Retail collaboration.

The report also found that 70% of retail executives say that providing these features is vital to retaining customer loyalty.

As PYMNTS reported in March, unattended retail is gaining momentum around the world.

With this retail experience, merchants are able to not only accommodate a broad range of customer preferences, but also cut back on labor costs and serve more customers in a shorter period of time.