Using a POS system may eliminate practically all manual order and sales management methods. Because of the numerous benefits of POS, owners may fully control their establishments from a single dashboard. In this essay, I will provide a clear view of how POS can benefit users.
What is a POS system?
A point-of-sale system was first invented as a cash register in 1879 for recording transactions with fewer errors.
By the mid-1900s, the cash register was digitized; it was equipped with an LCD screen, credit card magnetic strips, and thermal printing. Later, in 1973, IBM released the first restaurant POS system. The electronic cash register (ECR) transformed the service industry into the first industry to use a computer-based POS system.
Nowadays, together with the boom of the “4.0” era, a POS system has undergone many improvements with cloud-based technology; thus, it can do more than just a cash register. It helps merchants with a comprehensive range of administrative, management, and marketing tasks. It is forecasted that by 2021, an increase of 50% in cloud-based POS would take place, and it is an excellent time to catch the trend (Finances Online)
To have a deeper understanding of point-of-sale, you could further read through this article.
Nine benefits of using the POS system
Besides, a modern POS system not only addresses the financial problem but also saves and stores valuable information by providing real-time data and reports, and automating manual tasks in tracking inventory, employees, and customers. Thereby reducing the stress of handling too much work and helping your business run smoothly.
Most of the restaurant owners (95%) admitted that technology contributes to the efficiency of operations, which helps staff modify orders with ease, redeem loyalty points from a business’ loyalty program, and sell gift certificates (SmallBizTrends).
A POS system can strongly assist you in your daily management. Thanks to its featured functionalities, you can gain the following benefits.
Enhance Efficiency
An all-in-one POS system will accelerate your daily management tasks. For example, it speeds up the checkout process, which helps reduce long queues during rush hours. With the implementation of POS software, you can complete purchase transactions anywhere in the store with just a few clicks. Thanks to the synchronization between hardware ( barcode scanner, a card swiper, and a printer) and software, you will be able to gain more customer satisfaction by providing faster services.
The POS system also helps you count inventory. That’s why you will not waste your time calculating stocks. It can be said that a POS system can help you save both time and money. The automation will prevent human errors, leading to the loss of financial counting, customer retaining and support staff in terms of data management, and keeping track of products in real-time reports.
Control your Business Everywhere
You do not need to have your appearance in the store every single minute. When you have a cloud-based POS system, you can stay anywhere to monitor sales. Every data is recorded and saved on the internet; therefore, the business operators can access the back office anytime.
It is also easy to use if you are worried about the complicated process. Navigating a touchscreen is much easier than before when you have a friendly user interface. It doesn’t require a lot of time for training, with the trial-days offer and demo videos available in specific POS vendors, you will be able to approach the way of use quickly.
Monitor entire businesses with real-time reports
Data lies at the heart of making business decisions; with accurate data, you would make precise decisions and successful strategies. All the data will be illustrated in a report, so you can keep your eyes on sales, profits, expenses, customer preferences, stocks, peak hours, employee performance, etc.
It is not too difficult to do the analysis since it is provided in an easy way for nonprofessionals to read and understand. The report’s insights are the starting point for you to use as essential criteria for business adjustments. For example, you can look at the trend and decide which product needs to be invested in more and when to run a promotion campaign based on the data analytics the POS system delivers.
Manage multiple locations
Have you ever thought of managing three stores, four stores, and more at one time, in one system? A POS system will be a solution to this problem. You can get all the data from different locations to sync in your system using a single back office. Thus, when opening the built-in multi-store report on your iPad, you could view the number of stocks, the sale activities, and the customer buying behavior of different locations.
Manage employee performance effectively
A brick-and-mortar business definitely can not manage employees’ productivity and performance. But it has changed due to advanced technology. A POS system can be a virtual manager that helps you manage employee information, track the number of hours each employee works, and track how much sales each employee generates. In addition, you can use the employee management function to identify high-performing employees and reward them to boost their productivity.
Accept different payment methods
Not only does it accept cash payments, but POS software also helps increase the convenience for sellers with many different forms of payment. As long as you connect the banking systems or financial institutions that you are using with the payment gateway of the POS software, you can receive customers’ payments through a variety of payment channels.
Support customer loyalty
Customer relationship management (CRM) is not a standout feature of a POS system. However, you can integrate it with a specialized third party, allowing you to manage customer data in a single system. Moreover, you can also create discount campaigns, and notify your loyal customers of promotions via email or SMS. You can retain new customers by offering loyalty rewards to keep them coming back thanks to customer databases.
eCommerce Integration
If in the past, people did not focus on selling online through e-commerce platforms, or social sites, at present, having a virtual store is a must. We know that under the severe impact of the COVID epidemic, social distancing laws are enforced and customers’ buying habits have changed. Therefore, online sales are no longer a strange approach for merchants. The rise of POS platforms is intended to aid sellers in their digital transformation and data management.
The need for omnichannel management has been increasing in the past few years to control multiple channel sales. According to Retail Consulting Partner (2020), the top preference of more than half of retailers (59%) using POS systems is to oversee the multiple channels operation. So if your business wants to do digital transformation, owning a pos system is essential.
With an advanced POS system, your brand and your products are promising to reach potential online customers. It is a good way to promote your brand and boost sales. In other words, you can expand your business across channels. By doing the integration process between a POS system with an eCommerce platform, you can have all the information of your virtual store connected with a POS dashboard.
POS vendors themselves can not handle the eCommerce integration fully. Because of it, you would need to have a look at a middleware party that is dedicated to having your system fully synchronized. For instance, import your stock from physical stores to the eCommerce back office, and store traffic to your online store with built-in marketing tools to enhance search engine optimization (SEO),…
Addressing inventory problem
More than a cash register, owning a POS system also means your inventory is guaranteed to track in real time. A POS system that has optimal inventory functionality will empower you to create audit trails, manage stock take and stock return, classify and add product variants, as well as centralize your product catalog for your brick-and-mortar and online store. Moreover, with an inventory status that has been updated frequently on the POS dashboard, you can easily clarify which are top-selling items as well as which are running low. This function is very helpful for businesses having bulky product portfolios.
Some ways to innovate your POS system
In fact, software vendors often set price planning for POS systems based on the functionalities the software provides. With basic packages, sellers can only experience sales management features at one point as well as product and inventory management at an average level.
Therefore, in order to achieve the full range of functions that can meet high demands, especially if you have more than 1 business store, or you want to expand your online business, you need to integrate your POS system with other third parties to create an omnichannel experience for your customers, such as barcode Management, Order Management, CRM, Dropship, and Reporting, Multi-Warehousing
To have more precise information about how to integrate a POS system with a third party, you can go through this site. We will support devotedly all the problems related to POS integration.
With all the benefits mentioned above, it can be said that the POS system is an effective tool to support the business management process of enterprises. Not only that, the POS system can bring greater value to managers by providing detailed real-time reports on the overall performance of the business. We hope it gives you a broader view of the benefits of using a POS system. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact us.
