Ultimate Guide to POS Software

Point-Of-Sale (POS) systems are evolving every day. An efficient POS system provides insight into employee productivity, sales trends, inventory levels, and customer preferences, in addition to the purchasing process. A modern POS system with omnichannel capabilities streamlines performance, unifies with other business systems, marginalizes profits, and transforms many vertical industries, from e-commerce startups to recognized companies.

An omnichannel system benefits both company authorities and customers alike. With the help of a mobile device, employees can track the details about the inventory and purchases through their mobile devices, and customers can browse product availability, services, and price. These services improve the overall brand outlook and customer retention.

Point of Sale (POS)

The point-of-sale system helps complete the business transactions between a client and a company including payment. POS system is a computerized network in which the main computer connects to multiple checkout terminals and supports a variety of hardware features, starting with barcode scanners and ending at card payment terminals.

Point of Sale software is the engine that assists POS hardware to complete transactions. This software calculates the price and tax of an order purchased, processes payments, and issues receipts of the transaction directly or through the mail.

Additionally, POS tracks and reports inventory levels, sales demands, and employee time. The system can store customer communication information like email and be able to link to customer records and use it for marketing purposes.  

OmniChannel POS software helps to run the business in an efficient and profitable manner by managing orders centrally, regardless of where the orders originate from.

What Does a POS System Do?

Normally, a POS system processes an order made by a customer, calculates the payments, and issues receipts directly or through the mail. At the same time, an omnichannel POS system tied up to a company can streamline the company's process in different ways.

• Data analysis: POS systems accurately record sales, provide data for sales trend analysis, determine the best price and stock level, and market more efficiently to distribute and optimize supply chains.

• Inventory management: POS systems track inventory levels, and re-order products before stock out, which can affect customer satisfaction.

• HR and payroll assistance: Certain POS manages the timesheets of daily hour workers and calculates their sales and commission earned.

Why Are POS Systems Important?

The POS system manages the billings and payments of customer purchases. The system offers a quick billing process without any errors and avoids the lengthy checkout process of the customers, Additionally, the system adds the feature of contactless payment to satisfy the customers’ needs. 

POS system provides insights on both fast-moving and low-sale products in a company. Products with declining sales may be discontinued, discounted, or marketed with suitable strategies to increase sales. As the system automatically tracks all the details, it avoids fraudulent activities in a firm and secures customer details. Additionally, the POS system calculates the sales taxes and generates a report for accurate and timely payments of taxes.

When to Consider POS Adoption?

Businesses should consider a POS system when routine transactions take time out of your customer. The POS system improves the store experience and stores the customer details in a secure way, enhancing the overall business process. 

The cases which lead a company to adopt a POS system.

• To Track Commissions or Sales by an Employee

The POS system generates employee working hours to enhance the payroll system. Some POS systems help to recognize the employee helping the customer effectively by considering their sales. Additionally, the system calculates the commission of employees on each sale.

• Marketing Teams Need to Track Customer Interactions

POS systems enable businesses to enhance marketing strategies by fetching information like customer loyalty numbers or email addresses, which help to create a unique customer profile. This data helps teams to develop individual campaigns including the development of recommendations in the e-commerce system based on items purchased in the store.

• A Desire for Consistency

The POS system verifies that the pricing of a product across multiple stores is the same and eliminates the errors of selling an item at different prices.

• Inventory Challenges

POS systems that integrate with back-end business systems can utilize a unified database to track inventory everywhere. If an item expires in a store, the sales staff or customer can inspect and ship the product elsewhere, maximizing sales.

• Going National or Global

Without a strong POS system, no company can deal with the complexity of state and local sales tax laws, global taxation, and international currency conversion.

Benefits of POS System

POS system enhances customer satisfaction, speeds up the billing process, ensures error-free entry of data, calculates the appropriate tax amount, and secures the customer details. The POS system increases the efficiency of the company and helps in managing the working of the company.

In addition, they:

Make Retailers Truly Omnichannel: Customers now want personalized experiences that achieve consistency whether they shop online or in-store. For this, omnichannel retailers need to deploy inventory and pricing, as well as attract order history, ticketing, and preferences to increase customer loyalty.

Help Brick-And-Mortar Sellers Differentiate Themselves: Even small retailers can add modern "bells and whistles" to their POS systems, such as live visibility to inventory and consumer history, that equip store associates with the information they need to up-sell/cross-sell the best product recommendations.

Achieve Powerful Integrations: POS system synchronizes data automatically with a company's ERP system to track inventory details, pricing, store performance, and CRM systems.

Collect More Data and Use It Smarter: With POS systems, retailers can analyze store performance, customer buying habits, team member performance, and inventory failures. They can closely monitor important inventory Key performance indicators (KPIs).

Types of POS Software

Every POS software has two phases: the interface used by backend and store employees, where the real transaction process occurs. POS software offers the analysis of data and/or integration with CRM, ERP, and other business systems, depending on the robustness of the software. There are various models of POS software.

On-Premises: The On-Premises POS systems are installed on the company’s network or hardware system. The company needs to make a large investment in on-premises POS for software maintenance, data storage and security, and backups.

Cloud-based: In cloud-based, a POS system is hosted in the cloud and delivered as a Software as a service (SaaS) model. As the data is stored in the cloud, it is accessible globally and makes the integration with an e-commerce platform easier. For cloud-based POS systems, internet connectivity is not required and subscription payments to work.

Key POS System Features

Inventory Management: A POS system improves inventory management. It checks the stock level, item availability and helps to place orders for the items needed. The highlight feature is the ‘front-line’ data gathering in the inventory management, which helps to get an idea about the change of product demand over time. This analysis helps retailers to fetch the right orders, which the customer needs in the future.

Employee Management: POS systems monitor employee login and logout. The POS system manages sales details and the commission paid to the employees.

Integrated Payment Processing: POS systems have an integrated payment processing function. The POS system collects the credit card data of the customer while making payments and increases the efficiency and accuracy of the transaction. This avoids the manual entry of card data into the system.

Credit Card Processing:  Credit card details are converted to an encrypted format using the credit card reader in POS and the payment card is shared with credit card processors while remaining subject to Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard.

Order Management: An order management system offers an integrated system to manage orders from stores, customer care centers, web, and kiosks. Additionally, OMS enables employees and customers to track and report orders so that vendors can track their critical retail KPIs.

Grow Your Business with NetSuite

Oracle NetSuite is the #1 cloud ERP software offering extensive customization capabilities. NetSuite manages all operations of a company, from financials to your e-commerce store operations, and streamline the business process of the company. With a single platform that operates online across stores and customer support centers, the NetSuite SuiteCommerce offers a personalized and simple shopping experience, allowing associates to interact with shoppers, facilitate sales and optimize accessories.

POS systems help in better management of sales, inventory, and customer relationships in a company. The system is incorporated into your ERP software and all information is thus stored in one place. The inclusion of these features will help businesses grow in an increasingly competitive environment.

Jobin & Jismi is an Oracle NetSuite Alliance partner with more than eight years of experience in NetSuite services. Connect with us for all queries.