One of the first things you come to know when you decide to run your own business is you ought to rely on the necessary bits and pieces of tools to make the process less of a hassle and more of a success. If you’re new to this, it’s natural to be interested in the look and feel of your business, after all it’s what attracts customers, along with the products you choose to provide.
However, don’t let this be at the expense of the handy equipment. One of the essential types of equipment that can turn out to benefit your business in more ways than one throughout the years is the functional point of sale system designed to make life easier for both you and your clients.
What is Called Point of Sale?
POS is the system that’s a combination of hardware and software tools created for checking out the payment of goods. While in the past it was a simple system that consisted of a cash register, today’s counterparts are much more advanced and reliable. And most importantly digital!
Besides the coverage of a range of payment options, which makes it ideal for customers who like to pay both in cash as well as with cards, they’re also created to offer in-person and online payment transactions. Moreover, the point of sale equipment can further help the business owner with scanning products and keeping track of them and the inventory in general. In short, it’s meant to improve and boost your efficiency and productivity.
These two sides of the POS software are known as the front and back end – the first being helpful with the transactions, and the latter with the analytics, sales figures, and information of the sort. The other part as I’ve mentioned is the POS hardware which can be any device you choose for the system, such as the following.
1. Cash Register
Despite the advancements in technology, a good old cash register will never be obsolete as long as people use cash for payments. Besides being useful with the change, it’s also the ideal equipment where you can organize and store the banknotes.
There are two options of cash registers you can choose from – the ECR and POS. ECR, which is short for electronic cash registers, provide the basics like tallying sales, storing cash and printing receipts, which is why the popular choice today is the latter. There are various options of POS registers on the market today, from famous brands like Lightspeed, so be sure to choose the adequate for your business, as there are different models for retails, restaurants, bakeries, and startups with suitable software.
2. Credit Card Terminal
If there’s one thing people favour credit cards for it’s convenience. Not having to worry about having cash with you at all times, or dealing with coins facilitates, life for many modern-day individuals. So, it’s only natural for this type of pos equipment to be a crucial part of the system.
3. Touchscreen/PC Monitor (mobile phone, tablet)
This specific piece of equipment is needed to give you insight into the transaction, and nowadays it can also be a tablet and a mobile phone. The one you choose will depend on the type of POS system you buy. For instance, the phone based system is mobile point of sale, tablet is tablet POS, then you have terminal and online POS, and multichannel POS for more than online or in-store locations.
4. Bar Code Scanner
To facilitate the checkout process and speed up payment transactions, you have this crucial piece of equipment. With use, you scan the barcode on each product and in an instant see the price on the monitor. Depending on the type of products you sell, you can choose from the static and handheld bar code scanner options, both of which are beneficial; the first is suitable for bulky items, whereas the latter offers you flexibility on the go.
5. Receipt Printer
For the sake of transparency, and keeping a record, at the end of checkout of a product you need to print out the receipt with all the info of the product, time, and date of the purchase. There are three types of printers you can pick from: inkjet, thermal and impact. The one you choose comes down to the type of business you have since the impact is better suited for commercial kitchens, thermal for small to medium-sized businesses, and inkjet for bigger businesses where prints of high quality are a must.
What Are the Advantages of Using POS System in a Business?
Now that you know more about the specifics of point of sale equipment, you may still have doubts about how this kind of investment can benefit your business in the long haul. So, here are some basic advantages you can expect:
Improved Customer Service
This should be the top priority when you decide to embark on this business venture. Keeping your customers happy with incredible customer service, efficiency, and productiveness thanks to having the right pieces of POS hardware and software will get you further in the business world and help you build up your reputation.
Improved Inventory Management
Keeping track of the goods is a must if you want to keep everything organised and do timely orders when the stock is on the low. The POS investment can facilitate this, as well as give you the idea of which goods are more popular for your customer base so you can further use this information to your advantage and improve the business.
Improved Accounting
If you want to make it easy to balance sheets, and report sales and profits, then you simply can’t do without the help of a handy POS system.