What is POS? and it is required?

In simple Words, POS is where the sales are made. A cash register is a traditional POS that is no longer used for the purpose. Instead, we have several options including mobile and cloud-based systems that perform much more than payments.
It is a single solution to many business problems. They are used to handle purchases, inventory management, track payroll, and offer discounts to regular customers. A company can utilize much more functions of the POS system according to its need and business model, as it streamlines transactions, integrates business segments, and increase payment security. A point-of-Sale system enables you to accept any payment method that your customer desires and find comfortable. The convenience customers encounter while making a seamless and hassle-free payment results in higher sales and satisfied users. Understanding how it works is equally important to manage and utilize it potentially.

How does the POS system Work?

A point-of-sale consists of both hardware and software. It depends on the particular requirements of your retail or restaurant that which kind of hardware it needs to be installed, generally it consists of a PC or Device, a cash drawer, and a receipt printer. Also, customized and more specialized hardware options are available to make your business model more tech-savvy and sales closing in an advanced and swift manner. To collectively bind all of the hardware tools together software plays a vital role. It connects all the functions, including sales, inventory stock, and payments that make a POS system work smoothly. This software runs the whole Point-of-sale system in an organized manner and performs advanced functions including report making, low stock alerts, automatic discount offers, and generates.

Advantages of POS

Credibility

Even you have just established your business and does not have a market existence to be claimed yet, a proper Point-of-Sale that accepts all form of payment from cash to plastic money makes it credible and built their confidence in your well-furbished system.

Competitive

Its technology helps you evolve according to the needs of your customers and gives your business a competitive edge for using up-to-date tools. Even the example of payment methods changes, from cash to online, in the past two decades explains a lot about the fast-paced market and its specific requirements.

Performance Analysis

The modern-day POS system performs major functions of sales analysis and reporting with proper data. - POS software monitors the sale of particular items and gives insight into the revenue patterns. - It helps you understand the customer behavior through patterns of purchase for instance - most purchased or least purchased items in the stock. - The payroll and inventory management is also handled and reported by the POS, as vend offers a powerful reporting feature.

How to pick the right POS system for your Business?

Well, now you know what possible benefits a POS can offer to a business and offer several functions essential for your business’s growth. It is time to choose the right fit that gets along your needs and provides exceptional solutions to the problems. Start by asking yourself a few questions so that you get a clear picture of the on-ground requirements.
1. At what stage is your business?
2. What are areas of struggle in the business?
3. Which tasks are required to be simplified by the POS?

1. How familiar is your business with the POS?

Before choosing the right Point-of-sale for your retail, it is quite essential to mark the familiarity of your business with the Point-of-sales system.

- Are you a newborn venture?

You would like to choose to mobilize your system and be a starter in terms of a POS. It should be simple, easy to use, and manage. Also, it should be the one that you can get along with easily.

- Are you upgrading from the traditional one?

Then consider a POS system that can at least track your sales and update you with the inventory details. Also, a handy one for salespeople to close the sale in an efficient manner.

- Are you Switching?

Well, it’s better to analyze what’s lacking or upgradation you are expecting from the newer one. Mostly the new and innovative features help you solve the problems more effectively.

2. What are areas of struggle in the business?

It is important to highlight where do you struggle the most in your business. It will help you choose a suitable Point-of-sale that possesses its proper solution. Many retail shops have hard times in managing the inventory and have new stocks available upon the empty shelve. It potentially takes your customer to your competitor's store, as they couldn’t find the product at your shop. This can only be avoided if you are aware of your stock detail in time and have alerts for the low stock.

3. Which tasks are required to be simplified by the POS?

Take a look at which tasks you need the most help with, as each POS can help you with several features and you can add the customized ones as well. Small business owners often get to do all the small to big tasks on their own starting from accounting to marketing and have a lot on their plates. The right POS allows you to put most of the tasks on autopilot, including:

Accounting:

The point-of-sale acts as a tax receipt as well, along with the payment. It helps in automating the tax preparation and doing all the accounting on its own without any supervision. It saves quite time from doing everything manually and keeping the record right without any discrepancy.

Employees Supervision:

Most of eth POS system helps business owners manage their employee’s performance by evaluating their sales and monthly targets. Also, it also generates payrolls which itself a whole task to be done and requires a separate person to manage it, but the modern-day POS system dies it all.

Managing inventory:

Inventory management is a labor-intensive task that needs proper management and update. The POS technology keeps the system updated with sales tracking, returns, and restocking. Some SaaS offers low stock alerts as well.

Reporting:

It is quite important for every business to stay on the right path for that purpose a proper reporting and analysis are required. The POS get solid data and convert it into useful information for the business and presents the facts in visual graphic i.e., charts, graphs, and maps. It helps you get a better understanding of the ongoing business situation and take the required actions on time. Important factors in choosing a right Point-of-Sale After carefully examining your needs it is important to keep a few factors in mind before you are starting your Point-of-Sale shopping.

Easy to Use

Remember you are buying a POS to improve your business practices and decrease stress. If you are choosing something that is not user-friendly and again you need to get full-time technical help, then that point-of-sale is most probably not a good fit for your business.

Integration

It is really important for businesses to have a POS that integrates all the departments, tools, apps, and devices. It actually helps in keeping the data aligned and results in organic results-driven out of the real data. And also, eliminates the chances of errors as the Point-of-Sales software makes the whole process of sale to transaction smooth and hassle-free.

Automation

It is difficult to many look after each of the clients and sees which of them are your regular clients and offer them loyalty discounts or gift cards. The POS systems automatically send promotional offers and gift cards to loyal customers and redeem their payments based on their profiles.

Security

Your clients make payments and making them a safe transaction is your responsibility. It is important to look for POS systems with data security standards established in accordance with the payment card industry (PCI). The other security measures include: - End-to-End encryption - Data Tokenization can save your data from any cyber-attack.

Support

Choose a POS system that offers 24/7 customer support and offers to solve the issues in a matter of minutes. The support helps you in setting up the software and helps you with technical queries that are beyond your understanding. Look for a POS that offers customer support via: - Telephone - Email - Live Chat

Cost

It is the most important and considerable factor while choosing a Point-of-Sale system for your retail/restaurant. You need software and hardware that align with your needs. Companies offer many offers including:
- Free of cost setup, like Square, it doesn’t charge you for the installation but for every transaction you do.
- pre-configured packages with options to do add-ons. You can add items like printers, cash drawers, screens, and readers as per your store requirement.
- Few of the companies charge for operating and maintenance. Also, card processing fees and a small percentage of total sales plus nominal flat flee are charged on card payments. If the card is manually used, then the processing fee is expected to be a little higher. Choose a provider that gives you the liberty to pick the credit card processor of your own choice, so that you don’t have to pay any extra processing cost.

Let us help you in choosing the right POS system for your growing business.

Cafesquad has been a helping hand in selecting and setting up the right POS for uncountable small and medium restaurants and cafes for the whole decade. We offer free trials, so you can see how it gets along with your business process. Moreover, Cafesquad provides a customized solution as per your business retail requirements. Feel free to try our free trial and get an on-hand experience of the new automated setup now.