Last week, we covered core features for QSR point of sale, outlining the primary pain points that are remedied by the benefits a POS provides. This week we will go over the same for retail POS, which provides a modern solution to age-old problems with business. Based on the feedback from our retail customers, we want to bring you up to speed on what a point of sale software can do for retail businesses.
For retailers, providing a stellar customer is the key to their business success. You may be selling a product at a killer price, but nobody will come to purchase it if your store has a reputation for bad customer service. According to the latest studies, an unhappy customer will tell between 10-15 people about their experience. Without the benefits of a POS system, the issues will remain prevalent.
Even worse, retail studies have shown that 91% of those customers won’t even return to the store after a bad experience. Losing customers is already a terrible thing, but when you factor in how it is 6-7 times more expensive to get new customers instead of retaining them, losing business can snowball into disaster.
It has been statistically proven that the primary reason for customer churn is not poor pricing, but poor service. These hits to your customer base are triggered by the ever-looming shadow of business loss: pain points. These include:
- Employees staying stationary due to lack of mobile or accessible terminals, which defeats the purpose of having a sales floor.
- Little insight into inventory and stock data, which enables the embarrassing moment of selling an item that’s out of stock. Trust us, they won’t be back.
- No automation of manual tasks, which takes time away from sales, service and operations. Customer service is a reflection of the operations behind the counter.
- Lack of payment options, potentially driving a purchasing customer out of the store. Losing a sale for a reason such as this burns, and it burns bad.
- No automation of double-entry, which leads to discrepancies in business accounts. After a full-day shift, who has the brain power to handle accounting?
- Limited means of tracking employee time clocks, performed transactions and breaks. Without this accountability in place, the inmates can run the asylum.
Retailers often notice a quick positive shift in productive and customer retention when they implement a POS system, as it gives employees and managers the ability to manage both front counter and back office operations efficiently, allowing them to focus more on providing exceptional customer service.
Ever notice how stores with really fancy, modern register systems service that’s a cut above their competition? It speaks for itself. POS systems benefit retailers by providing:
Mobile Technology
Engage customers on the sales with Windows/Android based tablets, mobile POS terminals such as Poynt. Taking customers off the long lines the dread for a quick ring-up on the floor will keep them coming back.
Inventory Management
As important as service is, you also need to make sure you have all the items you have advertised. Manage stock, order replenishments from vendors, and transfer items between stores with a few taps or clicks.
As important as service is, you also need to make sure you have all the items you have advertised.
Task Automation
Take human error out of the equation, and allow the POS to handle reconciliation, register counts, and audits care-free.
Payment Options
With many shoppers going cashless, adapting to the times proves beneficial. Modern POS systems accept NFC payments such as Apple Pay and Samsung Pay.
Intuitive Design
Remember how confusing that old register from the 90s was? No longer an issue. Modern POS systems are just as easy to use as most tablet-based apps.
Reporting
No need to keep a ledger or rely on mountains of hand-written reports. A modern POS can bring up reports covering all aspects of business, keeping managers informed at all times with accurate information collected on-the-go during the day.
EMV Compliance
The added security (and deflection of fraud penalties) of EMV chip cards is incredible. 43% of processors are EMV ready, and this statistic is expected to grow rapidly. Magstripe cards are on their last legs.
Worry-free double-entry
Automate double-entry accounting by leaving it up to the POS to perform the task. Despite the obvious benefit, let’s be honest. Who really wants to do this every night?
Employee Management
Ensure employees are using both company time and break time with accountability and responsibility, and make sure who rang up items for $0.01 when their friends were in the store. It happens.
Ensure employees are using both company time and break time with accountability and responsibility.
Instead of taking time and funds to find methods and services to address these points, a retail point of sale system packs all of these benefits into one (or several) stations for easy access and control.
What are you waiting for? Hop on board! If you are not yet convinced, you can try these features out with the eHopper free POS.
Also, check out our blog for more new posts every week.