Point-Of-Sale Software POS Software is the brains of an integrated point-of-sale solution. Choosing the right POS Software is the key to building a great point-of-sale system. There are countless benefits to having a software solution that fits your specific needs but we will break it down into three main areas:
Increased Efficiency
Accurate Inventory Control
Improved Business Intelligence
The benefits that we discuss here are only a few of the many, which explain how the right POS software can help you improve the way your business runs.
Increased Efficiency Increase accuracy and improve check-out times by scanning items at the point-of-sale and using integrated payment processing. Scanning items will remove the manual entry of items and prices which will greatly improve service at the counter. Combine this with integrated payment processing over high-speed IP and you have supercharged your check-out lanes. Increase the sales volume through each lane and reduce the risk of a customer seeing a long line and abandoning their purchases.
Many solutions offer prompts or easy buttons to encourage suggestive selling. By up-selling your customers with small add-on items your average transaction size will increase. For example asking if they want lottery tickets, need a lighter or matches with cigarette purchases, etc.
Some POS software will permit you to suspend a transaction. This allows you to serve other customers while your first customers order is put on hold. They can run back to their car to get their purse or back into the store to grab additional items. When the customer returns you can re-activate the transaction without having to re-enter all the items.
Accurate Inventory Control POS software can be configured to automatically suggest re-order of inventory when stock falls to a certain level. This can vastly improve the in-stock position of core merchandise and not only increase sales but also significantly decrease operating expenses by not having to assign staff to manually count inventory and then prepare purchase orders. Some solutions even provide purchase order generation which can save hours spent writing out purchase orders.
Accurately capture the details of items being sold. This enables you to easily track what is being sold and when. Using this feature in combination with suggested re-order will increases the in-stock position of high performance merchandise. Prevent lost sales on out-of-stock items and ultimately increase total sales through inventory management.
Slow and fast seller reports help retailers identify what is and is not selling. Know what your customers are buying and get early warnings around items that aren’t moving. By identifying slow moving merchandise you can identify pricing issues, poor product placement, or other problems sooner.
Improved Business Intelligence A good POS software solution puts business reports in your hands and helps you better understand your business. These reports can provide a variety of important information including: identify good customers; discover sales trends, items selling in combination, cashier performance, and returns.
Implement in-store marketing programs including loyalty programs, store credits, and gift receipts. Loyalty programs allow retailers to reward and encourage valuable customers for making frequent purchases. Store credit can be given on returned items to keep cash in your business. Provide customers with gift receipts which track transaction numbers and make returns easier and more accurate by identifying exact transaction details.
Every transaction is time stamped and retailers can run reports that identify the peak selling hours and increase staff for those times. Carefully tracking return times and items can help to identify and reduce theft.
Microsoft Dynamics Retail Management System (RMS) Microsoft Dynamics RMS is a leading retail point-of-sale solution. It offers customizable interfaces, inventory management, integrated payment processing, and detailed business reporting. For more information on Microsoft Dynamics RMS click here.
