What Advantages Can you Gain from Using a POS System

Posted by Ved Krishna Dwivedi Date Posted: 9th May 2022

Advantages of a POS System

Operating a retail store entails perfecting multiple skills including administrative, management, and marketing. A point of sale (POS) system is an essential component of every retail pos business. Not only does it simplify routine tasks but also helps in generating more revenue.

A point of sale (POS) is the place where all customer transactions take place. A point of sale (POS) system is the combination of POS software and hardware that facilitate the transaction and other business operations. The key hardware components include:

A POS computer
A barcode scanner
A receipt printer
A card reader
Customer-facing display
Cash drawer

The software is responsible for the functioning and management of all the associated point of sale (POS) elements.

It is important to mention that if you run an online store only, you won’t require the hardware components. But, if you own a brick-and-mortar store, you would require both the hardware and software components for your business operations.

If you are a new retail pos business owner, let us walk you through the advantages of investing in a point of sale (POS) system that will help you carry out your business operations smoothly.

Key Advantages of a Point of Sale (POS) System

Inventory Management – Using a robust POS Solution ensures easy tracking and management of your inventory, in real-time. All you need to do is scan your fresh stock and enter the details into the system, and you can access the data as and when required. This not only saves ample time but also mitigates the chances of human error during data entry. Besides, you can keep an eye on the items that are running out of stock and re-stock them on time or get rid of items that aren’t selling well.

Easy Invoicing – Recording and grouping invoices are no longer tasking. Since there are several categories of invoices in a company, segregating them properly is essential, especially for accounting operations. An invoice acts as proof of selling a product or service and contains all the important information for the customer.

Quick Payments – An efficient POS solution helps in speeding the payment process. As soon as the employee selects the item the customer wishes to purchase, the system calculates the price automatically and the invoice is immediately printed using a receipt printer. Customers can make the payment by cash, debit, or credit card, and conclude the transaction process.

Customer Management – Documenting customer information is easier with a point of sale (POS) system. Starting from their names, phone numbers, emails, etc., you can get an overview of your target market and highlight the loyal and returning customers. This information can help you customise promotions to incentivise your customers and entice them to visit your store more.

Purchase Order Management – Managing your purchases from the suppliers is one of the crucial tasks that the point of sale (POS) system handles. You can track the orders you’ve placed with your vendor. There are POS software with an open API that allows you to connect with your supplier directly. You can control your purchase, keep a note of the products purchased, quantity, description, cost, etc., and keep track of items ordered.

Enhanced Customer Experience – A good point of sale (POS) system helps create a strong customer relationship by providing them with a seamless and satisfactory shopping experience. For instance, customers do not like waiting in long queues to pay for the product they’ve purchased. This is where a point of sale (POS) system proves beneficial as it helps in scanning the items and printing the invoices in no time, thereby reducing customer wait time. Modern-day mobile point of sale (mPOS) systems help store associates checkout customers from any location within the store, without having the customer wait in a queue. Providing customers with enhanced shopping experiences increases their brand loyalty, resulting in returning customers.

Security – Protecting a company’s data is essential and these data needs to be accessible by authorised users only. You can safeguard your data from unknown intrusion with the help of a powerful point of sale (POS) system. Most POS solutions come with double-user authentication which diminishes the intrusion of suspicious users into your system. At the same time, the administrator can grant or block access to users as and when deemed necessary.

Employee Management – Without tangible data, it becomes difficult to optimise employee time. A point of sale (POS) system helps in managing employees and their schedules. This information helps in determining the top-performing employees, and track sales per employee, their working hours, and sales per time slot. Not only this, it is necessary to train the employees on how to use the POS software.

Managing Promotions – Managing multiple promotions simultaneously can be challenging as you need to know which promotions are active and which are inactive at all times. A point of sale (POS) system handles promotions efficiently. All you need to do is choose the product you want to promote in the software, choose the type of discount and the duration and activate them. This function not only helps in managing your promotions easily but also helps in easier navigation.

Better Organisation – Point of sale (POS) systems organise business processes and make them more productive, promoting fluid communication within the employees and stores. You can manage your sales, inventory, customers, suppliers, etc. from a single platform. This results in communicating information uniformly across all members of the network, facilitating the follow-up of all your business activities and progress in every quarter.

Updates – POS software require updates like bug fixes, latest features, etc. to function smoothly. There are POS vendors who ensure that your software is up-to-date and manages the system for users to have a pleasant experience with the software. It is easier to update the cloud-based point of sale compared to the server and on-site point of sale (POS) system.

24/7 Data Access – Point of sale (POS) systems are either cloud-based or installed on-site with a local server. The on-site POS are exposed to multiple risks like data loss, glitches in inventory tracking, risk of errors, etc. This is why most businesses prefer a cloud-based point of sale (POS) system to keep track of business operations in real-time, from any location.

Simplified Operations – Business operations are simplified using a robust point of sale (POS). It can reduce multiple operations from the store. For instance, you can computerise your inventory and simply scan and store them in your system instead of entering every product detail manually. This way, you will save sufficient time to attend to other important tasks, increasing your productivity and efficiency. At the same time, your inventory management will be error-free.

Personalising Customer Purchases – With a powerful point of sale (POS) system, you can refer to customer information and direct them to the products they are most likely to be interested in. Or, in the case of an online store, you can suggest to your customers the products they might like based on their purchase history. This can be a factor to boost customer satisfaction, giving you better chances of boosting your sales.

Increasing Brand Awareness – Providing customers with a pleasing shopping experience with a speedy checkout process will not only increase customer satisfaction but these customers are most likely to share positive comments about your business. Customers may give positive feedback about your store to their friends and family or even publish a positive review online, increasing brand awareness.

Better Productivity – Since a point of sale (POS) system handles the most time-taking task - inventory management, the overall productivity of your store increases as you will now be able to focus on other projects. At the same time, your employee’s efficiency will increase and they can drive in more sales, in an organised manner. Besides, a speedy checkout process is beneficial for both your customers and you. Investing in the right point of sale (POS) system will reduce operating costs and increase your revenues.

Advanced Reports – Compiling, creating, and organizing reports manually consumes a lot of time. Collecting relevant information for your report can become difficult. Using powerful POS software, you can create reports automatically and have a complete view of multiple aspects of your business including sales, contacts, prices, purchases, inventories, etc.

Multi-store Functions – Managing multiple stores, each with different specific needs, can be difficult. There are point of sale (POS) systems that offer the possibility to manage multiple stores simultaneously, reducing the workload for your company.

Technical Support – There are point of sale (POS) systems that offer robust technical and technological support to ensure that the POS system is performing perfectly. Some vendors offer technical support to customers and answer various customer queries about the POS.

Cost-effectiveness – Even though the cost of the best point of sale (POS) systems can incline towards the high end, there are other systems whose initial costs are not high. However, maintenance costs might shoot the prices of these systems. Either way, point of sale (POS) systems are perfect business investments as they can conduct business operations effectively.

Best Point of Sale (POS) Systems in Australia

There are numerous options for point of sale (POS) systems in Australia. Listed below are some of the popular ones:

Vend – This is a cloud-based point of sale (POS) system that does not offer on-site server development. Perfect for small businesses, Vend’s biggest advantage is cross-platform consistency. But, this point of sale (POS) system does not process payments and does not sell any hardware . Therefore, you will need to integrate it with other third-party solutions for payment processing.

TouchBistro – This is the most popular iPad restaurant point of sale (POS) system in the world, designed by chefs themselves. This POS system allows taking tableside orders or self-ordering kiosk with an iPad that allows guests to create their own meal from the menu.

Bindo POS – This is an all-in-one point of sale (POS) system that allows inventory management, barcode scanning, reporting and analysing. It is simple to use and has a clear user interface.

Square – Used by more than 2 million enterprises, the Square POS system is well-shaped and is an all-rounder POS solution. The Software is free, setting up the POS system is easy, and users can easily get acclimatised to the functioning of this point of sale (POS) system.

Lightspeed Retail – This is a Canada-based point of sale (POS) system and is one of Australia’s top point of sale (POS) systems that is popular amongst small and medium-level retail pos businesses. The best feature of Lightspeed Retail is that it allows businesses to customize the system to meet their specific demands. Users can integrate both the online and offline stores and access excellent reporting and analysis.

Hike – This point of sale (POS) system has integrations with BigCommerce, Shopify, and WooCommerce that helps in synchronising the online store’s catalogue. Hike also synchronizes the online purchases, allowing you to monitor the performance of both your online and offline stores.

ConnectPOS – This is a cloud-based point of sale (POS) system and is widely popular in Australia. ConnectPOS is feature-rich and robust and can facilitate businesses of all sizes to streamline and optimize their retail operations. This point of sale (POS) system also helps in synchronising the online and offline stores and develops a cost-effective omnichannel retail pos business.

Conclusion

Did you know that Australia is the 10^th largest eCommerce market in the world?

The popularity of online shopping has led to more brick-and-mortar stores shifting their operations online. Even then, there still are numerous physical retail stores that operate both online and offline. To conduct business operations efficiently, retail business owners require powerful technology. This is where owning a point of sale (POS) system comes in handy.

If you are looking for a robust POS solution for your business, visit POS Sales Australia, your one-stop shop for all point of sale (POS) needs. If you are a new business owner, confused about picking the right point of sale (POS) system for your business, our experts will help you pick the perfect option to suit all your business needs.