A POS system (Point of Sale) is the combination of hardware and software that allows you to check out customers, take payments and make sales. It is important that you have POS systems in place so you are able to take payments and also sell in person, whether you are selling from your car, at an event, or simply operate a retail store.
Though it can be hard to locate the best POS process to your business-particularly if your small business started on the internet and you are looking into selling in person for the very first time.
That is why we developed this simple guide to help. In this article we’ll be looking at some important factors to consider when choosing a POS system, and how you can use them to run your retail business more efficiently.
What is a retail point of sale (POS)?
Point of sale (POS) or point of purchase will be the time and place at which transactions are finished in your retail store. The point of purchase is also known as this. The point of sale is your store’s checkout counter, where you check in customers, take payments and complete transactions.
What are POS systems?
A POS system (Point of Sale) is the combination of hardware and software that allows your business to take payments from customers and sell products in person. Additionally, it routes funds to your account right after each sale.
Most POS systems today allow merchants to keep track of their inventory, measure their sales performance, assign staff and collect customer contact information.
When you had a cash register, you used the term POS system. Nevertheless, these days nearly all POS systems are software-based and can be used with any smartphone or tablet. This way, you don’t have to worry about having a cash register, as you can serve your customers and take payments from anywhere.
What is the difference between POS and POS system?
Point of sale is where the customer pays for an item. Merchants use a point-of-sale system to take payment and close the deal. The distinction between the 2 is that a point of purchase is a place, while a POS system is a technology. The point of sale will be the intersection of the checkout counter and also the POS system, which are put into use by terminal merchants to close sales, serve customers, and take payments.
How do POS systems work?
A POS system, at its most basic, calculates the amount of each item sold, processes the payment and adjusts the inventory levels to reflect the sale. Here is the typical POS system process:
A person decides to purchase your product
The POS system will calculate the total price from your purchase.
Your consumer must pay for you.
The point-of-sale transaction is completed
- When a customer is looking at a particular item in a store, the POS system can inform them of pricing and stock levels. Once the customer is ready to purchase, the store staff scans the bar code and adds the item to the shopping cart. You are able to scan items with your smartphone or tablet camera, rather than using a traditional bar code scanner, when using some point-of-sale systems like Shopify POS.
- Once the products are added to the cart by the shopper, the POS system computes the total cost including sales tax and updates your inventory. At this time, store employees may even use discounts or promotional codes.
- Customer Payments: to complete the purchase, you are able to use your credit card, gift card, debit card, money or a digital wallet like Google Pay or apple Pay. They are able to also do what is referred to as a split transaction – where they make use of some mix of the above mentioned payment methods to pay for their purchase.
- The point-of-sale transaction is finalized Once payment moves through, you have formally made a purchase. After that, a receipt of the purchase is either printed or emailed to the buyer and you provide the buyer the goods they purchased.
Benefits of POS systems
Modern POS systems offer a lot more functionality than transaction processing. They can support other business functions and help inform important business decisions, such as:
Centralizing inventory management is the best way to get better control of your inventory.
Real time collection of sales data, for visualization and analysis.
Building customer profiles with an in-depth approach
Accepting payments from anywhere.
Improving in-store sales Improving in-store sales
Faster opening of new stores
Adjusting to transforming business demands
- Centralizing inventory management is the best way to get better control of your inventory.
Whether you store your inventory in a warehouse or at one of your stores, it can be a time consuming task to ensure that the stock is correct, as items are sold, received, returned and exchanged. It is critical, however, to manage the inventory.
The largest expense of running a business is your inventory. Mismanagement of inventory can add up to a lot of expenses as most retailers in the US have about USD 1.50 worth of inventory to maintain. Purchase a lot of inventory and you risk getting rid of old stock, while purchasing too little can actually cause untimely stockouts.
Merchants with both a physical and online shop should not have to personally count and alter inventory quantities every single day to make certain the inventory they see online and in their POS system is accurate. The integration of your POS system with your ecommerce platform will ensure that the stock numbers displayed on your product pages and in your back office accurately reflect what is in actual stock.
This becomes difficult when you have to manage in-store sales and online sales with two different systems. The integration is seamless with Shopify POS, which makes it easy to connect to your online store’s database. The level of inventory is instantly updated as products are sold, received, returned or exchanged in store or online.
By integrating your sales channels and managing your whole business from a single platform, you make sure stock levels are correct in your POS system and with your online store, without having to invest time manually counting and setting inventory quantities. What this means is you can spend more time growing your business and selling your inventory rather than managing it.
