Business owners who sell directly to customers know that POS software for retail is almost always required in order to keep track of inventory and income. As the technology continues to improve, it is actually becoming the most cost effective option as well, with older retail POS systems either being seen as obsolete or simply too expensive to be useful. That being said, there are several options available, so it’s important to know what your software ought to at least be able to accomplish.
At its most basic level, POS software for retail should be able to connect your inventory with your sales so that you are always aware of what is available to your customers. However, while this is a simple way to look at it, there are a number of approaches to making this goal a reality.
First, it should be easy to use. If your software is too complicated or takes too long to accomplish even simple tasks, then you will end up losing customers who become frustrated with the process, or simply leave the store with a negative impression due to the wait. In either case, this isn’t what you want.
Instead, make sure that the retail POS software that you’re using can actively help guide your staff through the sale, making suggestions and ensuring that users find the system to be intuitive. It also helps if taking down customer information can be done on one screen rather than having to work through several, since that both speeds up the process and makes it easier to reference data already given.
Another important capability is keeping an accurate sales history to make sure that you can always look back and find a purchase that was made. This can be invaluable when dealing with returns and exchanges, especially if the customer does not have a receipt.
Those are only a few of the basic functions you should expect from your software. There are, of course, more advanced features to look for.For example, does your POS system integrate well with warehouse management software? Being able to interact with warehouse software can save you plenty of time and money.
It also helps if the software itself is able to make suggestions based on a current purchase and keep a real time record of everything on the shelf rather than updating daily like many systems do.
All of this and more can be found in PROFITsystems, a HighJump product. PROFITsystems is an industry leader because it can do everything POS software for retail should do, and so much more.
