Use your Point of Sale system to run your small business efficiently

A POS system should help you run your business smoothly by making the data-entry process for your employees quick and easy, and by providing you with relevant analytical information that helps with the business decision making process.

The need for such system is paramount in the age of hyper-competition with the rise of online shopping. The adoption of execution of right technologies can help a small business outsmart their larger competitors.
However, all POS systems are not the same. The technological improvements of last few years have vastly transformed the software landscape, and any business will be well-served by exploring the current options and migrating to a newer system.

At the core of it all, some key features are most important in any system.

Sales Data-Entry & Analysis – As your team is ringing up sales, the POS system should capture all relevant data-points. We find that some businesses want to capture minimal customer information during the sales process, and some want their reps to get additional details. Your system should allow you to control the mandatory data-points your reps should capture – this information is a potential marketing gold-mine. A detailed insight can be gained from the items sold to create a customized marketing campaign tailored to the customers’ needs.

Inventory Tracking and Management – A seamless inventory tracking system is a must for any successful business. Any gap in tracking the inventory can lead to dead inventory, redundancies, shortages and missing items. A good system should provide you with a live-look at your current inventory status, the flow of goods as they are sold or transferred to other locations, and provide guidance on reordering. Getting up-to-date details on hot-selling/more profitable items can help make decisions on merchandising as well, boosting revenue and profits.

Customer Management – Your customers are your most important asset. This information is unique to your business that none of your competitors have access to them. Customer contact info, their buying history and profitability potential, these combine to provide you with a snapshot that can be used to monetize and drive future sales. A good system should help you not only capture all the data-points but to provide you with analysis based on this data so you can contact your customers at the right time with the right offer, gain their business and turn them into long-term loyal customers.

Marketing – A good POS system should have an integrated marketing component that allows you to reach your customer base with personalized marketing messages. This marketing can take various shapes – private sales, close-out offers, holiday promotions, loyal customer sales and so on. The marketing should be done over email and SMS channels to create immediacy and urgency.

Mobile Access – With everyone glued to their smartphones and tablets, it is a no-brainer that POS should be migrating to those platforms too. A POS without cross-platform compatibility limits your options on how to provide the best service to your customers and access crucial data in real-time. At a minimum, the POS should allow smooth sales transactions from anywhere on the retail floor or in the field, provide real-time access to this data companywide, and reflect it on administrative dashboards by updating sales and inventory info.

Support-team – All the features in a POS system are irrelevant if it is not backed by a knowledgeable and responsive support team. A small business can ill-afford to invest additional resources in time and personnel to onboard a system and make efficient use of it on an ongoing basis. The system should have an excellent complement of the support team to help management and sales-people learn the system best practices and provide best in class support as needed going forward.

By Wireless Manager – we provide a comprehensive POS system for cellular retailers, distributors, and wholesalers, as well as customized solutions for the cellular industry. Contact us at [email protected] and see how we can help you.