If you are running a Brick and Mortar business in today’s ever toughening market conditions and are selling more items than you can mentally keep track of, then my question to you as why are you not using a Point of Sale System?
First of all, Know your return on investment.
Do you know your most profitable product is? Or how the product mix for your store is broken down? Are you aware of your gross product per item and by department? Having knowledge will help you enhance you offering, maximise your profits and ultimately deliver a superior service to your customer. Sales reports give you valuable insights into your business, who is your top salesperson? what is your average bill value per table? how many customers did I serve today and how much was the average customer spend within my store? This information will allow you to streamline your business to achieve growth and increase the bottom line.
Reduce The human error factor
Reduce the human error factor, we all make mistakes and even 1% error on store sales of £10,000.00 per week equates to £5200.00 per annum. Hey you just got your Roi back in one go!
Get To Know Your Customer
I know many retailers will take offence at me saying this but while owner operators are fantastic at doing this, stemming from their passion for the business. You are not always in the business at all times and using a good Pos system will allow you to share that knowledge through its Crm system. I always encourage business owners to enter data into their system when possible. “Hi John, I notice you have been in every week buying x product, can I take your details quickly so that I can contact you if we are running any promotions on that item”. Seems like an easy thing to say but it’s rarely done. Recording your customers data gives you actionable insights into your customer, their spending and buying habits. These data can then be flagged up on-screen each time you add that customer to the order letting every one in the business know who John is. I know from the customer perspective how that feels when the business gets to know me and it’s a pretty good feeling.
Preventing Losses
It may seem like a pretty straightforward point but a good Pos system allows you to track the product from ordering, to receiving in store to sale. This allows you complete visibility over your stock and will reduce shrinkage in the business. The system will also allow you to lock down permissions for users, who can refund, void and do store returns. All the while tracking these transactions Use of the stock management module will allow you to efficiently stock take on the fly and instantly see how many of each item you have in stock. Maybe you want to set stock thresholds to ensure you never run out of a product and remember if you don’t have it in stock, someone else will!
Optimise the Customer experience
A good Pos system will allow you to serve customers more efficiently and rough figures on this seem to sit around 14% faster checkout experience. Not such a driver if you own a high a store which supplies high-end luxury goods but that metric certainly plays out in convenience, qsr etc.Maybe you want to introduce self-service Kiosks, online ordering and click & collect? All possible with a great Pos system.
If you are running a small business with a cash register or an inefficient legacy Pos system designed 20 years ago, then maybe its time to consider a modern Pos. Remember to know what you are looking for before you speak to vendors. Think about what features you would like to see in your new Pos system but also remember to listen to their advice on what technologies may be best suited to your needs. Think about the support you will need to implement the whole system and will buying a package off the internet work for me? In my experience unless you are very technical buy from a local vendor who can set up the backend up, install, train and provide ongoing support.
