The ever-evolving retail industry needs viable, robust technology solutions to keep up with the changing times and walk on a growth path. One of the key tools that enable the retail businesses to carry out their operations smoothly is the point of sale (POS) software. A POS System not only helps in inventory management and sales process, but also proves to be valuable for data collection and reporting, automation of tasks, customer management, and supervision of employees.
However, the point where retailers can bring in a difference from other retail businesses is selecting the right POS system.
This selection is based on the harmony between their business requirements and the critical functionalities of the POS software. It should be a suitably correct answer to a retailer’s question, “How do I survive and grow in this ever-competitive business world and ever-changing customer preferences in the retail industry?”
Billing
Billing for the purchase is a critical task, which should not go wrong and must be fast enough to speed up the customer’s checkout process. The POS software has the feature of adding items to the shopping bucket during billing either through product barcode scanning or search function.
There is also a feature of applying discounts per product or the entire basket using the POS system. It enables the executive or retailer to take payments through multiple payment options such as cash, credit/debit card, gift card, loyalty programs, mobile payments, etc. Thus, good POS software steps up the sales for a retail business.
Inventory management
Inventory management is one of the key concerns for any retail business, as it requires a deep understanding of customer demand. Few of the key features in POS software that facilitate inventory management are:
- Setting up a product catalog in the POS system is necessary to remain aware of the products, their quantities, their features, and their substitutes.
The stock-taking feature enables the retailers to keep track of the quantity of the products available in the store and products needed to be restocked.
POS software facilitates defining a minimum level; if the product stock in the store falls below this level, automatically order is generated.
POS system has the feature of managing multi-store inventory or multi-channel inventory in the case of centralized inventory management of multiple stores or selling through various channels.
Pro-shopper tactics
Pro-shopper tactics are essential for retailers to augment their customer base and increase their sales volume. With the change in customer behavior, the tactics to attract them to the store and give them a worthy in-store experience must also revolutionize.
This is where the POS software plays a role. Maintaining a customer database, including information on customer demographics and purchase histories, can help create personalized services. The software aids in creating customer segments so that advertising and promotional activities can be designed accordingly.
Some other features that can help customer management include loyalty program to provide rewards or coupons, credit sales options, automatic bill through SMS or emails, or any other.
Insightful reports and analytics
Insightful reports and analytics is a crucial requirement for businesses today to understand their current situation, identify the gaps, and plan for actionable solutions. It is pertinent for retailers to understand their overall sales, inventory, revenue from each product category and each item, and preferences of existing customers and potential shoppers.
POS software must have the reporting capabilities that assist the businesses to strategize better and develop result-oriented actions. Some of these reports must give information on:
- Products in demand
- Merchandise available in the store
- Low stock items
- Sales summary for a defined period
- Sales and profit margins of each product
- Sales per customer or demographics
- Sales summary for each time slot and each weekday
- Off-peak time and days
Other features and integrations that can help retail businesses in their operations and lead to growth include:
- Mobile POS: Retailers use this feature to provide a better customer experience and help the employees to interact with shoppers in the store based on the customer profiling available on the mPOS.
- Recruitment and on-boarding feature: Such a feature assists retailers with the recruitment of new employees, on-boarding process, handling documentation of employees, work allocation, tracking performance, dealing with the salaries and benefits, and tax management.
- Accounting software: Integration with the accounting software enables the retail businesses to share data and information on numbers such as sales, profit margins, and taxes.
- eCommerce platform: Integration with the eCommerce platform assists retailers in the required inventory management and stocking through synchronizing of sales and inventory data.
Therefore, it is of paramount importance for retailers to select the right POS software to make their sales process efficient and effective to achieve the desired growth and stay ahead of the competition.
Ari offers a reliable, easy-to-use, and multi-featured retail POS to save your time and energy. Ari POS System facilitates smoother management of your retail operations with no risks of exposing your data or security.
It helps you handle all aspects of your business using this one system so that you can focus more on achieving the desired growth for your business and providing a better customer experience.
Contact us today to help you run a better retail business!
In this day and age, consumers are more digitally savvy and increasingly shopping online.
A report by Temasek and Google says that Singapore’s e-commerce market is expected to exceed S$7 billion in 2025.But when things start to move into the virtual space, what should you do to better serve your customers ONLINE?Winning online retail customers and serving them better:1.
But do make sure that the layout has to be pleasant to the eyes.I won’t go into details about classifying your items together; having a search/filters function for easy navigation etc… All these are already taken into consideration by many retailers.
Let me check out their website by clicking on the link!”The frustrating thing is, some e-commerce stores are easy-to-navigate ONLY when browsed from a desktop computer.
But customers only recognize the brand and they will expect the same level of treatment and experience from both your physical store and online sites.It is crucial to take note that when it comes to managing your staff, make sure that everyone shares the same mindset that they are not just an individual – they also represent the brand of the company.3.
Reaction time must be fastThe study reveals that brands are not responding to customers online (especially social media) fast enough – or at least, not up to the expectations of customers.Moreover, customers take things to social media only after reaching out via email/call but didn’t work.
Small and large businesses require point-of-sale (POS) systems to complete sales transactions.
It is the point where a customer makes the payment for goods or services.
It saves timeSpeed up the checkout process – Scan it and bag it.
Every item with a barcode can be easily scanned and tagged.
Just carry an iPad or iPhone enabled POS system with a credit card reader and you’re ready to go.Speed up Inventory management – With a built-in inventory and barcode scanning system, you won’t have to rifle through many options when ringing up a sale.
It’s automatically deducted from your current inventory, so you won’t have to manually do it.Faster payroll processing – The system will automatically compute payroll and can even print out a pay slip for your employees.
ETP Group Retail POS Software provides fast and accurate billing, cash management, reports, gift vouchers, audit trails and can run both online and offline.
There's more to it, to learn more visit etpgroup.com.https://www.etpgroup.com/solutions/omni-channel-store-solutions/omni-channel-pos-software/
