Do you have a small retail store? If you do, you must know what it is like to operate on tight margins with constantly moving parts. All of this can become more tiring if you have a manual method of recording sales. A sound POS system can however be your savior. It can help you manage better all the moving parts while ensuring that your customer satisfaction always remain high.
Easier said than done as finding the right POS for your small business is not an easy task. According to Nicole Reyhle, author of retail 101,
“POS can help businesses in a variety of ways, including managing inventory, providing customer management data, identifying opportunities and weaknesses in the store and much, much more”
To make your hunt easy, we have identified some of the key features that are a must-have in any POS system for small business. These features are known to streamline operations and boost the level of customer satisfaction.
1. Analytics and Reporting
If you’re to grow big, you can’t really achieve that without having proper analytics and reporting system. And you can’t even do this manually. You need to keep track of what’s selling well, what’s not and how much each product is contributing towards the revenue.
A POS can provide you with insights into your revenue drivers, which is simply not doable in a manual order.
2. Customer Management
Simply put – who is your best customer? The ones who are making the most purchases! There is no way you can identify them if you are selling manual tickets. Your point-of-sales system is however very much capable of doing that.
During a survey, it was concluded that customers are more likely to buy from a store that recognizes them. An ideal POS for small businesses must enable you to identify your loyal customers.
3. Employee Management
Sometimes ignored but employee management is a crucial factor for any retail store, especially for small ones. Through your POS you should be able to better manage your staff – this includes, staffing, training and rewarding for good work.
4. Inventory Management
Inventory management can be a make or break factor for you store. Running out of stock of the most selling item is the last thing you would want. Keeping a manual eye on the inventory can lead you into this chaos. However, a POS can and should be doing all this for you so that you are able to retain more customers and drive more revenue.
Deborah Cafiero is an owner of a clothing store and says,
“Knowing my inventory is a huge plus – I needed a system that separated items by size and season and color. I looked for something that was more attuned to apparel so that I could know at any given time what I had for each season, because you have to remove the things that are out of season.