What POS Systems are Capable Of

January 26th, 2021 by Loyalty Sense Inc.

POS systems in today’s day and age are capable of doing so much more than just ringing in sales. They are built to ensure smooth sailing in a business’ operations with its many features and add-ons.

Here are some of the many POS features a POS system can have...

1. Sales Reporting

A POS system should be able to record and analyze sales data for you to make informed business decisions. Not only should it provide quick snapshots and charts on your store’s sales performance, but also provide detailed reporting. These details include sales reports based on product, time, employee, cost of items sold, total net profit, gross margins, and so much more!

2. Inventory Management

This is perhaps one of the most features that POS systems have and is a must-have by all businesses. Through your POS, you can manage the quantities of your stock to determine when and how often to reorder your products. Most POS systems are equipped with an automatic reorder feature, which enables seamless ordering to suppliers for best-selling and low-inventory items. With a barcode scanner, you can easily scan, organize, and count your product variations digitally using their unique serial numbers (i.e. UPC, SKU, etc.). For multi-location businesses, POS systems can also track inventory across multiple locations so that you can identify which products are in stock at each location, as well as transfer stock between locations.

3. Customer Management

Perhaps the favourite feature for your marketing team, the customer management feature of your POS allows customer’s information (name, age, birthday, phone number, email address, purchase history, loyalty program details) to allow your business to build a relationship with every customer. Your POS can log purchases and keep in touch with customers through marketing tools such as email marketing.

4. Employee Management

Also, another very common feature for many businesses, POS systems allow employee management as it can track your employee’s hours and sales, allowing you to identify who your top performers are. POS systems are also equipped to add new employees to your system, create and modify schedules, and send schedules out to the respective employees.

5. User Accounts & Permissions

Most businesses will have multiple people working registers. A POS system that allows you to create a user for each employee with their respective permissions will allow for easy tracking for each sale your employee makes. This feature will allow you to see which employees are performing the best, as well as which employees are being dishonest.

6. Invoicing: Selling, Buying, Renting and Repairing

Sales
POS Systems can record simple sales and deducting the quantity sold from the inventory count. Additionally, if you have a receipt printer, the invoice can be printed or directly emailed to the customer.

Orders
If a product is out of stock, the POS systems can collect customer information to contact them directly about the change or customers can pre-order for when it comes back in stock.

Repairs & Customization
If your business offers repairs or customization for products, some POS systems allow businesses to monitor the progress and track them closely.

Rentals
If your business offers rentals, you may customize your POS system to ensure that the products that have been rented out are kept track of properly. This way, you won’t end up with miscounted or misplaced items.

Consignments
Consignments have become increasingly popular over the last few years. If your business offers consignments, your POS system can be set up to track the revenue of your sale and divide the revenue accordingly.

7. Cloud Based POS Security

No matter the size of the business, security is important in any business. POS Systems with Cloud-Based Security can ensure that your business’s data is collected and properly secured and protected, as well as easily accessible when required.

8. Mobile Apps

Most POS systems have applications for both Apple and Android devices, allowing for mobile checkout or online ordering. In cases where businesses use tablets (e.g., iPads) in addition to their stationary POS hardware setup. These apps found in the devices also seamlessly integrate with the POS software, allowing orders to be sent directly to the kitchen, or any device in the system.

9. Integration

POS Systems nowadays allow or integration of many kinds. Some of these integration features include:

Security system cameras to ensure real-time tracking
Accounting software
CRM software,
Third-party delivery services such as UberEATS or SkiptheDishes
Email marketing platforms

10. Task Automation

Today’s POS technology is designed to ensure ease of use while saving time. Manual tasks such as daily reconciliation, register counts, and audits can be fully automated with the POS systems.

11. Multiple Payment Options

Research has shown that 80% of consumers prefer spending with a card over cash, in which 54% prefer debit cards, and 26% prefer credit cards. However, consumers do not stick with one payment method all the time. On average, consumers use 3.6 different payment methods each month. This means that by not having multiple payment options available, your business may lose customers. POS Systems are designed to accept unique forms of payments such as NFC (Apple Pay, Samsung Pay), which adds another useful element in marketing a store’s unique shopping experience. Additionally, they are now able to split payments between customers and split payment methods for a single customer (e.g. $20 on cash, $30 on debit, $50 on credit, $50 on gift card)

12. Omni Channel Sales

In recent years, omnichannel sales have become a big hit. POS systems now allow customers to make purchases online and either pick up or return the merchandise in-store. This feature is a shopper’s favourite, and drives repeat business. With only 28% of small businesses offering this service, those who adopt it will gain a competitive edge.

13. EMV Compliance

This feature applies to the payment processing for your POS system. This important feature allows businesses to avoid getting penalized in the event of fraud by accepting EMV chip cards. 43% of payment processors are EMV ready, and this statistic is expected to grow rapidly as magstripe cards become obsolete

14. Worry Free Double Entry

When manual entries are inputted, there is a high chance of double-entry. POS systems are now capable of automating double-entries, resulting in reduced errors and miscalculations.

15. Quick Product Lookup

POS systems should ensure that the product catalogue is organized and easily accessible so that products are easily located when ringing in sales. By setting up “quick/hot” keys, this employee favourite allows POS systems to hit a single button for a popular item.

16. Customer Facing Display

You might have seen this with many businesses lately. A trending POS system feature is having a customer-facing display. This allows customers to watch the transaction happen in real-time on a secondary screen that faces them, allowing a high level of transparency and making it easy for them to confirm or point out any mistakes before an order is placed.

17. Barcodes

Besides scanning barcodes with a barcode scanner, POS systems should allow barcode printing, so you can neatly organize products and track them in real-time. These barcodes can track when an item is added to your stock, when it is shipped to another store, or when you sell it.

18. Promotions

Although not always in use, businesses do promotions from time to time. Having a POS system that automatically applies the promotions to the transactions, saves the time and effort of the user as manual calculations are no longer needed.

Although it is unnecessary to include all these features in your POS system, businesses should be aware of these features as some of them can benefit your business in the long run. Most businesses will pick and choose which features will work for them, which makes each POS system unique, and rarely the same. One thing you should keep in mind is that the technology for POS systems is constantly developing, making your POS system obsolete after 4-7 years. If you’re wondering if your POS is outdated and if you need an upgrade, click here to read about 6 Signs you need a new POS Upgrade.