• Atreyee Chowdhury, Content Manager at Walmart


• 20.04.2022 10:30 am
POS

According to a recent research, point-of-sale or POS terminals are all set to grow by 156% by 2026.

If you own a small business, chances are that you don’t want to spend too much money on your physical retail location.

One of the ways you can save money while still providing a more pleasant experience for your customers is by installing a POS system at your place of business.

A POS system will keep more money in your pockets in the long run through lower business costs and higher sales volume.

It can help you grow your business in many ways, from cutting down on employee errors to improving your inventory management to reducing wait times and improving customer service.

4 Ways a POS system can grow your business

Retail businesses are using POS systems more than ever before to streamline their processes and grow their businesses—and that’s just what you should be doing as well!

However, a POS system also comes with some risks and downsides.

To determine whether or not it’s the right choice for you, there are four main things you should know about POS systems and how they can help or hurt your business.

This guide will give you all the information you need to decide if buying a POS system for your restaurant or retail business is the right move for you.

Let’s get started!

1.   Gain control over inventory

The biggest benefit POS systems have over cash registers is that they can manage inventory for you.

If your inventory system isn't streamlined, it becomes more and more difficult to sell products.

Once you integrate a POS system into your business, all you need to do is scan an item's barcode, type in its price, and then choose whether to add it to a customer's bill or not.

There is no need for double checking if items are in stock or typing new purchase orders.

This saves time and increases accuracy for employees, which translates into real time savings for your business.

Checking and updating inventory is one of those tasks we don’t think about too much until we get caught with no stock on our shelves.

Even if you only make changes once per week, taking a few minutes to ensure your store has enough merchandise will save time during busy periods (like Black Friday).

POS systems also allow managers to monitor what employees are doing at any given moment by tracking their purchases (and returning them) based on how much they’ve been allotted.

When combined with employee performance reviews, POS systems help make sure there aren’t any discrepancies between purchases made versus sales recorded by each worker.

POS systems provide a variety of tools to track costs related to inventory management.

They offer reports on purchasing trends, average cost per unit, and even alerts when something goes out of stock.

These types of metrics give businesses insight into where they might be spending money unnecessarily and helps them adjust as needed.

For example, you might notice that certain suppliers consistently charge higher prices or some stores use more products than others. 

2.   Cut down on costs

Switching to a POS system can also lower your retail management costs by cutting back on staff labor.

With a POS system, you don’t need someone to constantly run around and keep track of purchases.

This makes it easier for your employees to focus on other tasks and is one of many reasons companies like Applebee’s have chosen to switch over to a POS system.

The revision to a new sale system has helped the company to offer a multitude of benefits to the new guests.

It has simply helped the order placement process and increased the frequency of advanced orders on the app.

The customers are also able to schedule orders for specific times and dates, making the entire sales process much more audience friendly than before.

For example, Applebee’s has been able to retain existing clients and bring in new customers without adding any further investment to the budget beyond the switch over to the new POS system

Not only does a POS system save you money on labor, but it also reduces opportunities for theft—especially if you're using computerized registers that automatically lock away cash at night.

A POS system also offers multiple benefits when it comes to business expenses. You can learn about all of these benefits here.

First, they cut down on operating costs in terms of electricity usage and printer paper, as they reduce or eliminate paperwork entirely.

Second, they provide real-time information about sales trends, which can help identify staffing needs.

And third, having a POS system will make running reports easier than ever before (and faster).

In fact, most POS systems are equipped with basic reporting features out of the box—so all you need to do is set up your company's parameters once and forget about them forever!

Another way POS systems grow businesses is by allowing owners to concentrate their efforts on high-value tasks.

There aren't any additional steps involved in processing transactions.

With a POS system, there's no more tallying purchases manually or standing behind an open register waiting for customers to pay; instead, customers simply scan their items and then leave without further interaction with your staff.  

3.   Save time through automation

Being a retail owner is no easy task.

You’re constantly dealing with huge amounts of transactions, juggling inventory, and keeping up with paperwork—that last part being incredibly important when it comes to taxes and reporting.

Think about how much time you’d have if you didn’t have to manually collect payments or calculate sales tax for each transaction.

A POS system saves them time by automating all those tasks. POS systems can do even more than that, though.

They can also help save money through automation and better manage your employees through data tracking.

Predicting & preventing loss: As a business owner you need to keep track of cash flow.

A POS system automatically tracks how much cash customers are handing over and how much cash they owe you in return.

But there’s another layer here too: POS systems also track employee behavior, which allows owners to predict which customers are likely to default on their bills before they happen.

As a result, businesses aren’t just protected from financial loss; they’re also able to minimize damage and bad publicity due to late-paying customers.

Employees should be spending less time doing mundane tasks like collecting payment, entering numbers into spreadsheets, and calculating taxes.

For instance, POS systems can automatically group all invoices and maintain a detailed record of purchases, repairs, sales, and rentals.

The easier invoice management can help significantly reduce the pressure on your accounting operations.

This automatically saves employee time which can then be redirected to more strategic operations within the business process.

As a result, they can focus on other work—work that benefits your company overall. Plus, employees who don’t have to worry about busywork are happier and more productive.

4.   Improve customer experience

It’s obvious that POS systems improve customer experiences making check-out and purchasing processes more seamless.

Customers tend to be highly skeptical of self-service, but if a business has fast transaction times, a clear display screen, and an intuitive payment interface (like Lightspeed), customers will gladly choose that to avoid waiting in line or watching a cashier swipe credit cards.

To make sure your customers are getting optimal service during checkout, you can use touch screen tablets with dedicated employees on hand to answer questions or help out where needed.

Touch screens are easy to use and intuitive so anyone can pick them up right away,

They allow businesses to provide helpful information at crucial times in their sales cycle.

Delight customers when it comes time to pay.

Customer delight goes beyond providing quick transactions.

For instance, NCR Corporation worked closely with Vix Technology to enhance the entire process of smart access, ticketing, booking and payment for the Royal agricultural Society of Victoria.

The show organizers focused on enhanced customer experience with the installation of 215 NCR POS terminals with Vix smart card readers.

The result was an unforeseen 700,000 transactions handled seamlessly at the 2015 Royal Melbourne Show at the Melbourne Showgrounds.  

Many POS solutions have built-in loyalty programs, allowing you to create custom rewards for repeat shoppers based on their past purchase history.

For example, a coffee shop might offer to buy ten drinks and get one free for loyal members.

The same store could also reward its best patrons with loyalty points which earn them free drinks or discounts off future purchases.

Finally, some POS solutions even integrate gift card options into point-of-sale terminals, so consumers can purchase physical gift cards as easily as they buy products online through platforms like Amazon Payments.

Conclusion

The growth of digital ordering and POS systems have changed what it means to run a restaurant business.

As more people order online and through mobile devices, it’s important for restaurants to adopt POS systems that are quick and easy to use.

While changing technology can be daunting, there are many ways that a POS system can help your business grow.

For example, by integrating things like mobile pay, delivery options, loyalty programs, digital gift cards and more you’ll be able to bring new customers in while keeping old ones satisfied.

Once you have automated the bulk of your retail business with a POS system, you can work towards growing your products and services.

You can focus more on customer demands rather than trying to handle the business process.

While you add to your existing line of service offering and products, the POS system will adjust to the new additions to your business process and inventory to keep your sales managed automatically.