In the competitive business world of today, you require tools that are as multifaceted as your company. Your POS (point of sale) must do much more than process transactions. It ought to develop as you develop, establish royalty, enhance sales, and aid in bringing in fresh customers. Although you will come across quite a few point-of-sale systems out there, you perhaps do not have adequate time to go through an unending number of options being a busy entrepreneur. However, we will help make things easier for you by bearing in mind these ten queries to ask while buying a new POS.
- How is the POS system able to manage inventory?
It does not matter whether your retail outlet is online or a physical one. Inventory happens to be it is bread-and-butter. Studies show that retailers can lose as many as 14% of their clients since their products are out of stock. It is a fact that if clients cannot find what they’re searching for, they are not likely to come back. However, a competent POS will allow your shelves to be full of fresh items while moving out outdated stock quickly. It will aid you in forecasting, automating, and also consolidating your inventory management.
In case the stock has been properly set up within the POS, it will be possible for your staff to come across updated inventory quantities from the sales floor directly when requested by customers. It will also be feasible for the manager or owner to report on the stock levels at any given time.
What to search for:
- Insight into online stock levels
- Reports on brands and products which happen to be best-selling over any given period
- Simple workflow for creating purchase orders
- Automatic purchase order notifications once you are running low on some particular products
- Simple product info
- Automated imports from seller catalogs
- How is the POS able to enhance the shopping experience of the clients?
More than 75% of today’s leading retailers are making use of tablets in their retail outlets for providing sales floor support. You can provide your employees with the info required by them to serve the visitors by arming them with iOS gadgets on the sales floor directly. From having faster access to contact info, purchase history, and custom notes for every customer to being capable of bringing up the recommended products for every single item considered by the client, your employees will be able to provide a fantastic customer experience every time. It will be possible for the proper POS to establish a personalized and intimate shopping experience, which can build brand loyalty within your location successfully.
What to search for:
- Support for iPads and iPhones for encouraging storewide client interaction
- Upsell features like suggestions for related items
- Features for maintaining special notes on customers, such as the allergies of a pet
- Client database which tracks preferred brands, previous purchases, and so on
- Is it mobile?
Individuals provide lots of value to their time and do not like to waste it by any means. For example, an American shopper will be leaving an outlet without purchasing anything after standing in the queue for approximately 8 minutes. However, the proper POS will provide the clients with convenience and speed effectively. At present, the trend is to keep lines short. The staff must check out clients from virtually anywhere or engage them in some sort of activities that will prevent them from simply standing and waiting for the service. This will help bring product information and knowledge onto the sales floor directly. It will likewise append a sleek and personal touch to the planned introduction, allowing your sales personnel to use your brand’s power to their advantage.
What to search for:
- Ability to check out on mobile gadgets like iPads and iPhones
- Wireless support for provisional locations such as street fairs, pop-up shops, special events, or farmer’s markets
- Simple access to info for the sales personnel, including special notes and availability of the products
A mobile POS that allows you to handle inventory and helps your personnel provide information to the shoppers quickly, just from anywhere, will be imperative for establishing an excellent and impressive shopping experience for the guests. Time is quite precious for the shoppers in the long run.
- How simple is it to use?
Although it might seem obvious while looking for your POS system, it is essential to make sure that you and your employees can use the software. Your customers can become quite annoyed because of the staff’s slow service that is finding it hard to process sales.
Even though you might understand how to effectively use the POS system, it is your staff who will be accountable for running your business in the long run. In case you want to concentrate on some other essential things apart from your business, it will be imperative for your staff to operate the POS system easily. Try to go for a point-of-sale system that is simple to use and set up, and this will help you avoid investing time for training eventually.
- Does the POS system offer reports?
The process of decision-making within your business depends on business reports to a great extent. They will offer visibility, which will help you plan strategically and comprehend your business better. Your POS system will allow you to process sales and also managing inventory along with reporting capabilities.
One notable benefit of going for an ePOS system will be its capability of storing information. As a result, you will like to make certain that the POS system chosen by you will provide you with real-time reports such that you will be able to stay ahead in the competition.
It will be possible for you to manage your stock levels through simple integrations by monitoring your best sellers and managing staff hours by evaluating productivity and busy periods. Although different providers will provide reporting capabilities of various levels, this happens to be a basic functionality and an essential question that you should ask.
Apart from providing superior reporting capabilities using its POS system, AirPOS likewise uses the mobile Reports application, which allows the users to monitor their business anywhere, anytime.
- Is it possible for your POS to integrate with every single area within your company?
It is essential to create a business setup that satisfies your particular requirements and is essentially a system in which you can have confidence and use easily.
It might be the fact that you have ePOS hardware already, and in that case, you’d like to make certain that the new provider chosen by you can integrate with these tools. Moreover, you will be taking on more kits to manage the customers’ demands as you grow. A provider must be selected by you whose POS application development will scale as you do.
It will be possible for integrations to automate many components of your business, and therefore, they are great. One notable aspect regarding ePOS systems is that they’re going to simplify your life as a vendor. ePOS providers will be integrating with accounting applications such that every report and account of yours are synchronized, thus making accounting easy.
- How can the POS manage inventory?
An effective POS will help to keep your shelves properly stocked. It will help you to predict, automate, and also consolidate inventory management.
What to search for:
- Insight into levels of stock per location
- Automatic notifications once you run low on stock
- Reports on the best-selling brands and products
- Simple workflow for creating purchase orders
- Do you get real-time info?
It is important to be able to access the most recent information to make more sensible business decisions. Your point-of-sale system ought to offer real-time visibility of statistics and information regarding your supply chain irrespective of the channel. Vendors will have the flexibility to fill orders from their network of distribution centers and stores, thus minimizing markdowns, enhancing stock turnover, and enabling the unending aisle of item selections for the clients.
- Is your POS solution able to satisfy all the security and compliance specifications?
At present, the retail industry is plagued by several data breaches. In this situation, it will not be advisable to compromise on data security. Your POS software needs to be updated on the most recent industry regulations and standards. Ensuring the total integrity of plant information and essential internal information is vital since a minor glitch might spoil your reputation.
- Can your POS system adapt to your business requirements?
Like every single business out there, your point-of-sale system should likewise be unique without compromising your capability to upgrade to more recent versions of your application. The POS ought to be customized according to your industry’s requirements, and it should also be able to adapt to your specific needs. Therefore, it is imperative to configure your system according to your business regulations, from tenders, reason codes, discounts, and menus to a customized interface for matching the look and feel of your brand. Just like personalized dashboards for responding to particular user roles, currency and multi-language capabilities are also essential.
Conclusion
In case your answer to at least five questions mentioned in this list is “no,” there are gaps in your company’s retail POS software. It might be sensible for you to consider a brand-new point-of-sale solution. The decision is entirely yours, and you may continue with the present one. However, the results of this kind of decision might be terrible given that the present retail landscape has become extremely competitive and digital day by day.
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