Starting from the function of processing sales, today, the modern retail POS system can do much more than handle payments and record sales. Your POS software is a business management tool that helps you run and grow your business from end to end. A complete retail management system enables you to manage and grow your store. I will walk you through the features you need to look out for when setting up a retail POS system.
1. Easy to use Sales screen:
Want to speed up the checkout process? I is necessary to look for a POS system that is user friendly and designed for minimum clicks. Cashiers should be able to ring up items efficiently and without hassle.
2. Credit card Processing:
Credit card processing is another essential feature to consider when choosing a POS system. The best POS system is compatible with multiple credit card processors or gives you the option to compare rates and switch processors if needed. This feature is necessary if you have problems with an existing processor.
3. Quick and easy payment options:
Go with a POS system with capabilities beyond a traditional payment method like cash and credit cards. Instead, adopt a POS system that allows you to take multiple payment types. This feature is necessary if the customer wants to spread their payment across channels like credit cards, gift cards, cash or other custom payments.
4. User accounts and permission:
For the most part, your retail business will have multiple people access the system, so will you need a system that allows you to create a user for each of them. This way, you can track the sales and actions each person makes. This feature will ultimately let you monitor and see if one of your employees is perhaps doing something sinister.
The system should allow you to set passwords for each user and gives you the chance to choose whether or not you want to have a user login for each new sale they make. This process is dependent on the way your store operates. For instance, at big stores like JustRite, a cashier logs in once and remains logged in during their time at the register. This process is because a specific cashier gets stationed at a cash point for the duration of their shift. In some stores, employees log in with each new sale they make because they are to move from behind the desk once the sale transaction is over.
5. Bulk Product Imports:
Select a retail management system that can batch import all your inventory and customer details. Except for your list of inventory items being small, manually uploading each product is tedious and time-consuming.
6. Barcoding:
Your retail POS system should be able to print barcodes, so you can keep your products neatly tagged and traceable. The barcode makes it possible for your inventory system to track exactly where the item is in your system. The barcodes get used/scanned when an item is added to a stock, transferred to another store, or sold.
7. Stock Transfer:
For a retail business with more than one physical location, your POS system having a stock transferring feature is essential. This feature makes it easy to bulk transfer items between stores or move inventory from one stock location to another.
8. Product variants:
Having a system that allows you to create product variants is necessary. Let us say, for example, you run a clothing store and sell a particular shirt in 7 different colours. Rather than record the same shirt in six separate item list, the system should be able to have it as one item but in multiple colours.
9. Customer Management:
An efficient retail management POS system should have the ability to look up customers by name or other criteria and attach their purchase history to their profile. When your system has a good customer management tool, it is easy to provide a higher level of personalised marketing. Using the data from the POS, you can target the right promotions to the right audience. For example, if you see that a customer recently bought a skirt, you can offer the customer promotions on tops or shoes to effortlessly upsell.
10. Reporting Tools:
Reporting tools are necessary for retail POS systems because you need data on how your business is doing sales-wise, which product is doing great and which is not. You get data like seeing hourly transactions that allow you to make decisions about your purchase orders accordingly.
Reporting tools also allow you to see the effect of your sales promotion, top employee, top customers, and customer buying trends. You can identify what days, times, and seasons are busy or slow, thus helping you optimize staffing levels. Many reporting tools let you apply different filters, such as a time frame, so you can pinpoint what you are looking for specifically. And asides from ready-made reports, a great system will give you the capability to build your own.
11. Omni-channel Integration:
Having a physical and online presence is vital for businesses to maximize sales and profits, especially in the post-pandemic world that we find ourselves living in. Customers want the flexibility to either buy online or come to your location. While some customers would not mind ordering online and coming in-store to pick it up, others can check if the product is available on your website before heading out to your location to buy it.
Your POS system should offer an omnichannel experience and sales management to growing your business. Online sales management provides the option to manage your e-commerce store. An omnichannel platform supports the sales of products everywhere your customers are – in your physical stores, buying from your eCommerce site, or via your social media store.
12. Scalability:
Settle for a POS system that will grow with you as the scale of your retail operation. The system should handle a significant increase in inventory size, multi-currency setting, increased transaction rates, multiple stores, amongst other operational functions. This capability saves you the risk of switching to another POS altogether because your business has outgrown the existing system.
Conclusion,
Looking through the features above should give you an idea of what POS solution is ideal for your stores. Use that knowledge to build a list of some of your top choices, then reach out to the software providers to see if they can offer more information or clarification.
If you are a retailer looking for significant business growth through automation, you need Yanot Consultants Limited to optimize your operations with their solution offerings. Speak with a Point of sale professional at solutions@yanot.ng.
