1. Your POS holds all of your customer data
By using barcodes, phone numbers or just names you can keep track of your best customers and what they prefer to buy. Know who your customers are, where they live, how often they shop and more with the help of quality point of sale software.
2. Your POS calculates and reports all of your businesses sales activity over time
Of course you can remember what items sold yesterday, but what were your biggest sellers last Christmas or during the last blizzard or tropical storm 2 years ago? By using stored reports of old transactions, you are able get a better handle over what to stock when and how your business is performing seasonally and overtime.
3. Your POS facilitates speedy checkout
This is the most obvious benefit and one of the most important functions of a POS, to add up items quickly and collect payments. Barcoding, inventory tracking and touch screen order taking allow you to ring up sales quick, fast and in a hurry. In today’s world more than ever, customers don’t want to wait, speedy checkout is a must!
4. POS software can impact your credit card risk and banking relationships
All software is not flexible, integrated with a variety of merchant card processors nor PCI-DSS compliant. Some software and hardware solutions may lock you into a banking relationship long term and inhibit your ability to secure the best rates and transaction fees. Be aware of how your point of sale solution will affect the flexibility of your banking relationships and card processing fees.
5. POS hardware durability and design impact your business flow in the physical space
All POS hardware is not durable, all POS hardware is not waterproof dust-proof or grease proof, all POS hardware is not made to fit in any space or environment and all POS hardware is not made for speed and high volume customer transactions. Understanding your hardware design and how purchases will occur in the physical retail environment is critical to facilitating speedy checkout and securing customers payments. Each business is different and one size does not fit all. Factors such as number of terminals, size and placement must be considered when determining which point of sale system to buy.