In this article I’ll cover the basics of a POS system and the top 5 reasons why you need one.
Point of Sale System Terms
POS
POS stands for Point-of-Sale, it’s where you take money from the customer in exchange for goods or services. The main function of your point of sale system is to automate the sales process and keep a detailed history of all transactions.
Inventory Control
The second most important function of POS software is to keep track of your inventory. Inventory control means knowing how much inventory you have and how much you need to buy at any given time.
CRM
CRM stands for Customer-Relations-Management, it’s how you keep track of customers. Most point of sale systems will store a list of customers and their purchase history.
Hardware
POS systems usually require or recommend specialized hardware. This includes a receipt printer and barcode scanner for the point of sale, and label printer for labeling inventory.
5 Reasons Why You Need POS Software
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Quick and Accurate Sales
It all comes down to sales. If you aren’t making sales you aren’t going to stay in business. Sales are the core of your business and how you handle this process is essential to your success. A POS system makes sure that everything runs smoothly on every transaction.
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Inventory Control
If sales are number one, good inventory control is a close second. Without good inventory control you miss out on sales, overstock unwanted product, and lose out on high profit margins. A POS system will keep an accurate count of every product in your store. It allows you to see what items are selling, what’s sitting on the shelf, and what you need to order.
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Know Your Customers
Sales and inventory might be one and two, but everyone knows the customer is always right. Without real people coming in you won’t have sales and there will be no need to stock any inventory. A point of sale system should give you the ability to track all of your customers so you can see which customers are big spenders, who is waiting for a special order, and who has a layaway on that product tucked away in the back room.
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Make Decisions Based On Data
If you’re not making day to day business decisions based on facts and data you are gambling with your money and time! To make the right decisions you need reliable data. Once you have done the work to setup a point of sale system and get all your inventory in you can start to reap the rewards. Your system should provide reports on sales and inventory that will help you make purchasing decisions.
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Save Time!
There’s one thing that we could all use a little more of: Time! Possibly the thing you’ll love the most about a point of sale system is the time it will save you. With integrated barcode readers, label printers, receipt printers you’ll cut your manual labor dramatically.
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Bonus: Vendor Integration For Smooth Ordering!
New point of sale systems offer integration with your vendors/suppliers. This can save you time when you create purchase orders by: checking in-stock status for items on your order, automatically submitting the order to your vendor, downloading your invoices to help check in your order when it arrives.
i m making a software that works for restaurents. It gives facility to choose menu from a handheld device. The selected order will sent to kitchen and it will be served by waiter. It saves time. Another it manages sitting arrangement by maintaining waiting lilst. Now i m having problem with the device, i want a wireless device(working on infrared or other tech). From where i can find?How can i purchase? Does your system help in this way.Or please send the steps to develop the device if possible.
Vishal,
We don’t deal with restaurant specific POS systems. My advice would be to contact a restaurant specific POS vendor.
Wow a lot of information in just this one post, great information here….
Thanks,
Bruno
1. Do you do business outside of the US?
2. Is your POS suitable for phamarcy? I do not see this in your list.
3. Does your web based software run on Mac OS too?
thanks.
Joan,
1) We do have some international clients, but we do not customize the system for international markets (with currency changes etc.). The only country besides the United States that we customize for is Canada.
2) We do not have any customizations for use in a pharmacy, so it would be up to you to evaluate the product for your business needs.
3) We do run on Mac OS. We have lots of customers using Macs (we also have customers using Linux, and of course Windows XP and Vista).
Hello I was wondering how this would help a consignment shop. I am looking for a very simple basic system, One that will be user friendly for many levels of people smarts. I am looking to be able to record the sales of the differnt consingers daily and again be able to pull that information up either daily weekly or monthly reports of the consigners sales. I need something super super basic and super super user friendly. Do you have something like this and if so can you please send me the info.
Hi Brenda,
Currently our software does not support consignment.
I am manager of a school bookstore with two locations. Currently use software by Odin. Looking ot upgrade to a web bases software for sales, inventory, reports etc. How hard is it to transfer my current inventory over?
Martha,
If you can export your inventory from the existing system as an excel or text file then we can most likely import into our system to get you rolling. Please give us a call and we can talk about your business and see if MerchantOS would be a good fit for your needs. 866-554-2453.
Thanks!
With CRM a sales track is recorded, can a receipt be reprinted from a previous date? If so please disclose or reference the procedure.
Thank you kindly,
PS
PS, Please call us at 866-554-2453 and we would be happy to walk you through that feature. Thanks!