As the business world moves into the thriving technological age, the need to keep your business updated with the latest technology of choice has become more important than ever. Regardless of the type of business you conduct, adopting point of sale technology can give you a competitive edge, as you’ll have an all-in-one solution to charge customers, tackle unrecorded sales, match inventory tallies, and overcome other everyday issues faced by retailers.
As with many computer-based systems, point of sale technology includes numerous features and applications that aid the needs of retail businesses, letting them perform the following functions:
Track inventory
POS systems do a great job at answering questions like what’s in stock, what product is running low and how quickly low stock items can be restocked. They can be used to view sales history, price and revenue gained from a particular inventory item. Such data can be used to streamline purchasing, stocking, order processing and shipping practices. Fishbowl Inventory reports that a fashion retailer ‘Wholesale Boutique’ was able to decrease its shipping and order processing time by 35 percent by integrating an inventory tracking solution.
Track customer data
And even though you might be a small retailer, you’ll have to track existing customers and generate leads for prospects. POS systems in this regard can help you generate newsletters and coupons, collect email addresses, create loyalty programs and see favorite product purchases of your loyal customers. These features can be used to keep customers interested in your business all the time. NCR Corporation reported that Hof Winery & Resort in Texas took advantage of a POS system to track customer data and initiate a targeted email marketing campaign. The company sent 12,194 emails, which generated $46,044 in sales with a 31 percent open rate.
Convenience
POS systems are easy to carry and can be deployed in most locations. All that’s required is a tablet or a smartphone with interactive modules to get started. While you do have to pay a monthly fee to store your data over the cloud, the portability offered by such technology is worth the money. Point of sale technology can be carried to any business venue to process a sale at any time. For instance, exhibitions and trade shows are the ideal events to deploy your POS systems to generate sales at the company booth. Also, with a single tap of a button, the system will generate financial reports for you to review.
Getting a POS system/updating an old one
There are two different options when it comes to getting a POS system for your business.
1) You can buy POS hardware and install custom solutions such as a computer module and interactive public viewing and infotainment features through specialists. The POS market is the ultimate market for custom solutions, and as there are thousands of businesses using this technology, the requirements for every business can be different. The trends in the POS market suggest that professional applications require embedded computers and sophisticated interactivity features.
2) You can buy an existing POS system from a reliable POS seller. However, you may have to pay extra charges to get the system updated regularly with custom features and applications as this option will carry features as a standard for your industry, rather than custom ones.
What’s your take on POS technology? Feel free to leave comments.
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