According to the Point of Sale User Research Report from Capterra, 46 percent of firms spend less than $1500 a year on point-of-sale (POS) software. However, considering how the modern POS software is much more than a glorified cash register, a greater investment would greatly benefit retail stores, especially those offering a large variety of items.
The truth is, a seamless POS has every feature needed to revolutionize your retail business by integrating numerous areas of business into a single interface.
No wonder retailers can use the technology to manage their operations better and provide customer satisfaction, while reducing costs. The best part is, some POS systems support transactions immediately after implementation, which results in zero downtime and simplifies your operations via the following features:
Better Management Through the Internet
A critical component of business growth is online sales management. There are several POS systems out there that are better at handling ecommerce due to the flexibility of the POS system.
You can use POS technology to keep track of online sales and make sure everything’s integrated. Thanks to POS software, you can add custom features to your website that allow customers to select the components they want in a product. This makes your ecommerce offerings more compelling and competitive, because they appeal more to SEO.
Simplify Your Taxes
Most retailers have little to no knowledge when it comes to taxes. So, handling sales tax across various products can be time-confusing and complicated. Tax management becomes even more significant when you consider how the taxes levied on individual items are not the same in every state.
For example, sales tax is charged on apparel by New York, but in the neighboring state of New Jersey, there is no such tax. When you have a retail POS system in place, or a POS integrated with a dedicated accounts and taxation management suite such as Quickbooks, there is no need to devise formulas or calculate figures in your head. The system handles all the math and calculates the correct tax on your behalf, as well as shipping and handling fees, if any.
No Matter Where You Are POS Can Help
Every retail business wants to grow, but few make provisions for when it happens. For starters, you must be prepared to handle sales from numerous locations and track inventory.
But that’s easier said than done because not every software enables you to check the location of your choice. However, there are some that allow you to access reports and provide suggestions on improving the monthly sales using POS system.
Shopify is one of the best among them, and you should definitely pick this system if you want a user-friendly setup that lets you manage multiple locations at the same time. The technology works like an omnichannel experience, allowing you to clearly find your way throughout excess data and monitor sales trends.
Inventory management
One of the biggest challenges encountered by retailer everywhere is inventory. Normally, it takes a whole lot of time but thanks to the features of POS software, the completion time can be reduced significantly. Rather than conducting a manual inventory process, POS allows you to hook up the software with a compatible, portable scanner that greatly streamlines the entire system.
When you seek help from the software, you no longer have to worry about running low on a product – you can check the current levels anytime you wish. No wonder a SnapRetail report suggests that 93 percent of retailers want a POS system with built-in inventory management capabilities.
You can take things a step forward by programming reorder alerts on an advanced inventory management app such a Stock Sync integrated with your POS system. This way, you never miss out on reordering a bestselling item. The software will send you notifications before the stock is about to run out. Also, the POS technology maintains a record of item costs every time you reorder. This provides negotiating leverage with your suppliers over a period time and helps you secure a fair price for products.
Third-Party Software Add-ons
You can integrate your POS system with other programs such as Como or QuickBooks for adding value to your business and without having to introduce a new process of production. Third-party add-ons provide lots of helpful benefits including, but not limited to:
- Improved security
- Easy access
- Automatic backup
- Lower costs
- 24 X 7 customer support
- Better collaboration
- Reduced IT management responsibilities
Customer History
Thanks to the use of POS software, you now encounter zero problems monitoring the purchases of customers. Plus, POS allows you to customize the retail experience to increase their chances of purchasing a product or upselling them on an associated item.
When you know what your buyers prefer to purchase, you can improve their loyalty to your store by providing discounts on the products that interest them or handing out coupons on special days like birthdays or anniversaries.
You can also use the customer information found in the POS software to devise a rewards program – one that gives your buyers a reason to keep coming back. When you let POS software monitor the transactional data, your buyers need to submit only the email and phone number associated with their account and the technology handles the rest.
Integrated Bookkeeping
Similar to inventory management, retail stores can use the built-in bookkeeping features of POS to stay efficient while decreasing the chances of mistakes.
When a business owner monitors his/her finances in real time, the state of their business becomes evident. Thus, POS enables retailers to gauge a week’s worth of profitability since all the sales and purchase orders are processed by the system. It feels good knowing that everything is going according to plan and the confidence of the retailers receives a boost.
Omnichannel Benefits
The current retail landscape allows business owners to have both an online as well as an in-store presence to maximize profits and sales. For this reason, they require a POS system that is capable of supporting sales on different platforms; otherwise, their business will not be able to thrive. The earlier methods of managing every sales channel and product listing was extremely time-consuming, not to mention labor-intensive.
In fact, the difficulty level often got so high that retailers had to assign someone to keep track of products running out of stock along with the product listings on other channels.
All of it had to be done from memory, and things often got complicated because the stock quantities would be in their head. However, with POS, things changed for the better and retail operations became a lot smoother.
Concluding Remarks
According to the Capterra report, 77 percent of POS users are either satisfied or very satisfied with their system. And, it makes sense considering POS technology has lots of features that contribute to your overall retail success. Irrespective of the system you select, the omnichannel platform can easily be integrated with a third-party software to make retail operations easier and simpler than ever before.