Running a business can be intricate and complicated. No matter what industry youâre attempting to thrive in (from the service industry to retail and beyond), itâs no secret that the real challenge is in your day-to-day operations.
Why? Because itâs the small details that ultimately add up to the bigger picture.
Thatâs why itâs crucial for a successful business to have an air-tight, easy-to-use, and somewhat automated system for their management, marketing, administration, inventory, and so much more. This calls for a comprehensive, intuitive process that takes all of the tiny details of your businessâ operation into account.
Think about it this wayâin order to ensure your entire staff is functioning properly, you need to make sure that each and every detail leading up to forming that staff is on-point. That includes a smooth hiring process, comprehensive training, and incentives for performing well. See how all of those small details add up to create a seamless, intuitive process for hosting a top-notch staff?
This concept works the same way when it comes to managing your organizationsâ processes, administration, inventory, and more.
In other words, having the right tools can help ensure that your operations are always running smoothly and that your logistical chain is flawless.
Thatâs where POS systems come into play.
A POS systemâmore formally known as a point of sale systemâcan be an efficient, productive way for any organization to revamp its business performance. But what exactly does that mean, and how exactly can youâa business ownerâbe sure that investing in a POS system is worth it?
Keep reading to learn more about what exactly a POS system is, and more importantly, how it can offer your organization exceptional benefits. As a bonus, weâll even dive into a few expert tips to ensure that youâre getting the most out of your POS system.
What is a POS system?
Before we can dive into the many benefits an efficient POS system can offer, letâs first build our foundational knowledge and answer the question thatâs on all of our mindsâwhat exactly is a point of sale system?
A POS system is a structure thatâs made up of both hardware and software and is designed to incorporate these two tools to work seamlessly together in order to streamline day-to-day operations, better manage your business, and provide you with accurate reports.
In other words, a POS system is the central component for your businessâthink of it like the brains of the operation. Your POS system is the hub. Itâs where everything happens. The POS system manages sales, inventory, customer information, accounting stats, payments, bookkeeping, and so much more, effectively merging them into a single place.
The idea behind the POS system? To make your life (and the job of running your business) easier than ever.
A POS system is all about taking all the small bits and pieces of your day-to-day tasks and bringing them into a single, comprehensive place.
Almost every POS system worth their salt is a careful combination of both software and hardware component thatâideallyâmake the day-to-day process of running your organizations faster, easier, and more seamless.
POS systems allow businesses to complete purchases, record their own sales data, view reports on their organization, manage inventory, juggle customer and employee information, and often can be easily integrated into other business platforms you might run (like accounting and bookkeeping software) to ensure everything functions in harmony.
What are the Biggest Benefits of Having a POS System?
Just like every business is different, every POS system out there is different, too. Choosing the right POS system for your business will depend on several factorsâthe size of your business, your industry, your budget, and the premium features that can help you improve your business.
Most poignantly, though, your POS system choice will ultimately revolve around how that system works and what benefits it can provide you.
Speaking of benefits, itâs time to dive into the real, comprehensive, and extensive benefits that an efficient, seamless POS system can offer your business.
Though every POS system is unique and offers different benefits, the ideal POS system for your organization would offer you benefits such as:
- An easy, breeze checkout process thatâs intuitive for you and your customers
- Simple integration with your current software (think about your bookkeeping, your inventory management system, your employee timecard system, etc.)
- A seamless, easy-to-understand mix of software and hardware, like tablets, computers, smartphones, etc.
- Mobile options that make checking out with a credit card or smart cash easier than ever
- Comprehensive management of your orders and services (to help you track your orders, your products, and your customers)
- Easy inventory tracking and management (say goodbye to tedious, manual inventory management)
- Real-time updates
- Unparalleled communication among staff and all departments (if you run a restaurant, the front and back of the house could communicate better than ever through this type of system)
- Customer management and information storage
- Comprehensive reporting that provides you with long-term analyzations as well as week-by-week snapshots of your businessâ performance
- Staff management processes to help you track staff performance, incentivize, and improve overall workflow
With the right type of POS system, youâll see plenty of benefits and improvements. Ideally, an efficient, comprehensive POS system will provide you with:
- Increased efficiency
- Easy-to-use solutions
- A wider net of acceptable payment capability
- More accurate records
- Seamless employee, customer, and inventory management
- Detailed reporting that can be used to improve your practices
- Tax, invoice, and financial tracking to help you provide accurate receipts and records (simplified accounting for the win)
- Faster, better, more efficient service, which makes for happier, more satisfied customers
Itâs crucial to think about what features are most important to your business, which benefits matter most, and how youâd like your POS system to operate. All of these factors will be a guiding light as you take your journey toward finding the perfect POS system.
The Top Tips for Getting the Most Out of Your POS System
Still on the fence about purchasing a POS system? We get it. Purchasing a quality POS system sometimes means a pretty substantial up-front cost. But with the benefits and features they can provide, youâll certainly see your return on your investment in no time.
While ultimately just the action of buying a POS system can automatically improve your business operations substantially, itâs also crucial that you know how to reap the benefits of your system.
In other words, if you know how to maximize your investment, youâll be on your way to getting the most out of your POS system.
So, how exactly can you ensure youâre getting the most out of the POS system you choose? Weâve included some must-know tips to help you maximize your investment and reap the most benefits from the POS system of your choice.
Always Stay Curious
The neat thing about most POS system? Theyâre not exactly static. When you purchase a POS system that can receive updates manually (or is hooked up to the cloud for automatic updates), you essentially purchase an ever-changing, ever-updating machine thatâs always adding more potential. The ultimate tip for getting the most out of your POS system of choice is to remain curious about it. There are so many excellent features spanning the selection of POS systems, but many fail to ever use them to their potential because they fail to explore the offerings. Our advice? Do research. Check out online resources to learn everything you can about your POS system and take the time to really explore it yourself!
Use Your POS system to Ring Up Sales
This one is obvious, but we didnât want to not mention it. A comprehensive POS system worth its salt will make your sales process easier than ever. This in itself is one way to maximize your POS system potential. But you can take it a step further, too.
You can easily integrate a variety of new payment types (like Apple Pay, PayPal, etc.), widening your net of acceptable payments. You can apply discounts in new and exciting ways. You can use gift cards, the buy now pay later option, create customer loyalty programs, and so much more!
Donât Ignore the Reporting Features
Your POS system likely can provide you with a world of knowledge through its reporting and analytics featureâdonât ignore this! Consider this feature a data-driven look at whatâs working (and whatâs not) for your business. Reporting and analytics can help you determine inventory on hand, help you with sales summaries, provide reports on your employees, and even help you identify whatâs trending in your organization (and what you should capitalize on).
Explore the World of Add-Ons
Remember when we mentioned that your POS system isnât static? Thereâs an entire world full of POS add-ons and integrations that is constantly being updatedâthat means every day, thereâs a new opportunity to link and integrate your POS system with something else! How can you do this? Check with your POS vendor and see if they have a simple way to connect different software solutions and preferred add-ons. Or you can always choose to find your preferred add-ons through your POS systemâs API. (Spoiler alert, this will require some technical know-how, but itâs worth it). You can always hire an expert to help you out with this, too!
At the end of the day, the perfect POS system is going to be what works best for youâthereâs no such thing as a one-size-fits-all solution! Investing in a POS system for your organization is a great first step toward optimizing your business, improving your organizationâs logistics, and making your company more efficient and productive than ever.
dgenious is the plug&play reporting solution that connects natively to a large range of POS systems. Access and play with your data is immediate and super easy!
Analyze your franchises, points of sale, campaigns, launches, stock, consumers⌠Juggle with your data. Create, modify, adapt and share your reports on demand, easily and quickly. In real time, without any special IT knowledge.
The technical point
dgenious reconciles data from your different systems in real time (cash register, stock, erp, crm,âŚ) and makes it available on your mobile, tablet or desktop computer.
dgenious has an advanced technology for managing permissions and authentication. It allows you to build permission profiles by mixing and matching various sources at will (AD/ldap, ERP, different POS systems, manual management of some users, âŚ).
With this system, a franchisee only sees the sales and stock data of his points of sale, whereas a logistics manager can see orders and stock data for an entire country but has no access to sales or commercial conditions. A network manager or product manager can prepare a report and share it with categories of users (all franchisees and all logistics managers) and is assured that everyone will only have access to the appropriate scope of data.
For a more secure, dynamic and unified management of your distribution network.
