Point of Sale (POS) systems are designed to make recording your business’ financial transactions easier. They come in different versions, with some using new computers to set up the system, while others opting for the usual electronic cash registers that they are familiar with. There are also various software and hardware options you can have customized according to your needs. In your search for a retail POS system, you must also take note of the following features.
Customer Data Tracker
Customers can make or break your business, so it’s important to treat them right. Your choice of a POS system will help you ease the burden of having to track each customer record, just to find out which products are best suited for their needs. With a customer data tracker, you can easily personalize your customer’s experience. This will be helpful in creating advertisements that can drive prospects to come and do business with you.
Customer Rewards
Aside from personalizing their experience, rewarding your customers will help you grow your customer base. There are plenty of options for you to track how loyal they are to you. You can issue a card where their points are recorded before these can be converted to discounts, or free products from your store. You can also use data from this feature in order to give bigger rewards to those who are most loyal to your products and services.
Employee Management
Employee management may seem to be not a really important feature of a POS system. Some of you may think that this part of your daily activity is something you can handle easily. Let’s face it, you can’t monitor your employees all the time. You need to focus your thoughts on other aspects of the business. A POS system that tracks the number of hours spent by your employees, and helps create a schedule for them to follow will lessen your load.
Inventory Management
How much cash you have at the moment can be dictated by the inventory that you have. Many times, you will assign an employee who will take charge of counting what is left in stock at the day’s end. Imagine how tedious and repetitive that can be. A POS system that includes inventory management as a feature will help in better management of your products. This can record things like inventory turnover, and sell-through rates.
Sales Report Generator
A lot of businesses are sales- or results-driven. For those of you in the retail business, you really want to keep a record of your daily sales, but doing that on your own will definitely require too much time and effort. Imagine recording sales manually, and there may also be a point when you will forget to do so. You will have a hard time reconciling data when that happens. Your choice of POS system will help automate this aspect of your business so that you can forecast your future sales, and be familiar with your sales trends.
These are some of the most important features to look for in a retail POS system. For sure, you have highlighted the most crucial aspects that can impact your business.