Consider any large chain retail store where you shop. Each independent POS system in every checkout lane is tied to the larger storewide – or corporate – POS system, enabling the retailer to track inventory, sales, and even performance statistics for each employee. If you're a small business owner with only one lane for checkout, scalability might not be your main concern; however, as your business expands you'll need the ability to track sales and trends across stores to gain the market edge.With the range of purchasing options available to today's consumers it's more important than ever that retailers have a constant and objective view of what's happening with their business. POS systems have revolutionized the management of a store's inventory, offering owners of any size store a real-time view of inventory position, and they have expedited service delivery to customers. You can easily see who are your best customers and what they are buying; what your best selling items are and what your most profitable items are. This data can be an invaluable tool that has direct impact on your bottom line. You can easily see what sells and what does not and how promotions influence sales.
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Simplified inventory management |
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| A POS system makes inventory management simpler. Instead of spending days manually counting inventory, you simply validate inventory reports. You know what should be present in your warehouse and on your store aisles. You know how quickly items sell and can better determine how much inventory to keep on hand. You know what to reorder and what to stop ordering. You can even automate the generation of purchase orders for restocking inventory. |
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Improved customer service |
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| A POS system can improve customer service in a number of ways: |
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| • | Faster transactions: POS bar code scanners greatly reduce the need to train employees on pricing methods and all but eliminate the dreaded "price check." Magnetic stripe readers expedite credit, debit, or gift card transactions. |
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| • | Reduction in errors: You minimize the likelihood of employee errors because there is no manual entry of prices, and intentional theft through miskeying an item's price is also prevented. |
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| • | Better inventory selection: Your inventory is geared more to the buying preferences of your customers. And because you can run inventory reports on the fly, you avoid running out of popular items. |
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| Some retail POS software enables you to track the buying history of customers as well as the number of store visits. A POS solution automates the entire checkout process, making staff training on system operations more effective. |
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Improved employee performance tracking |
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| You can use a POS system to track details of employee performance. You can time all transactions to evaluate how long each employee takes to scan items, differentiate among transactions types, and set target goals and benchmarks for performance. A POS system can increase individual productivity when you're able to target areas for improvement and gear employee training to meet those needs. |
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| Many different types of companies can benefit from a point of sale system. For example, small specialty merchandise retailers -- wine, gifts, coffee shops, and retail kiosks -- and even larger-scale shops such as garden centers and auto parts stores can improve business and increase profits by using a POS solution. |
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| Next, find out how some companies have used point of sale systems to their advantage. |
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Building a POS solution | |
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