A point of sale system (POS) is where product or service payments from customers are made. It centralizes all your business processes, including sales, product inventory, and customer management.
Despite the benefits of using a POS system, 56 percent of single-store retailers have not taken a step to POS. Instead of implementing this new technology, some business owners are still using a combination of cash registers, Excel (for bookkeeping), and QuickBooks to keep track of sales and inventory.
Different Types of POS System
To help you choose the POS system that works best for your business, let us take a look at the different types of POS systems and its brief description.
- Mobile Point-of-Sale – You can use this app for free in exchange for payment processing. This type of POS is suitable for businesses that do not involve a lot of inventory management. Mobile POS services process customer payments, customer information, and minimal inventory management. You can use it with a portable receipt printer or email customer’s receipts directly from the app.
Suggested Applications: contract works, music merchandise vendors, daycare provider, taxi or limo services, lawn care services.
- Tablet POS – Unlike other types of POS systems in Canada, both Android and iPad POS solutions require a minimal upfront investment. You can use free tablet POS services that come with credit card processing. If you already own a tablet device, you can use it as your POS system. Some tablet POS applications only handle simple processes, while others are designed to handle complex inventory and employee time tracking.
Suggested Applications: coffee shops, quick-service restaurants, mobile vendors, gift shops, pizzeria, ice cream shops, salons, juice bars, professional services.
- Terminal POS – A terminal POS is a software/hardware-based solution that includes cash drawers, barcode scanners, and other devices. It is often used for business transactions at the counter and can accept card payments even without updating cash registers to read cards directly. You can use services that provide 24/7 support and cloud-based backup. It is commonly used in restaurants and can be easily integrated with tableside WiFi portable devices, patron tablet ordering, online ordering, and kitchen printers. Retail versions of terminal POS include features like label printing, extensive inventory tools, and eCommerce integration.
Suggested Applications: grocery stores, full-service restaurants, boutiques, salons, spas
- Online POS – Using an online POS benefits affordability and better customer experience. Online POS systems allow you to use your own hardware, which is a great option for startup businesses. It enables you to use your tablet as your POS system. You can carry your tablet around the store, speeding up the checkout and purchasing process. It also enables you to retrieve credit card info without access to the internet.
Suggestion Applications: salons, pet shops, small business retailers, art galleries, small cafe shops
- Self-Service Kiosk POS – Kiosk POS are designed to provide solutions for a specific purpose. For instance, it can be used for patrons who want to purchase movie tickets or manage time and payments for parking spaces. It can also be set up in large retail stores for customers looking up product prices and availability.
Suggested Applications: patient check-ins, human resources, grocers, ticket sales, transportation passes, parking payment
Essential POS Software Features
Running a small business involves various tasks that can be exhaustive and overly tedious. However, having the right POS system for your small business helps simplify important day-to-day business operations with greater efficiency and lesser mistakes. Today’s POS system benefits more than just flexibility — it increases the success rate of your business by providing crucial features that help streamline daily business processes.
Here are some key features to look for in choosing a POS system:
- Sales Reporting – It gives you detailed sales reports, including total cost of sold items, total amount of retail, gross margin, net profit, profit percentage, and additional data, providing you with a quick business snapshot. This feature is crucial for recording and analyzing sales data to help you make better business decisions.
- Inventory Management – It allows you to monitor and manage your stocks to determine the time and frequency to reorder specific products.
- Customer Management – In addition to logging purchases, it enables you to build connections with your customers through the use of a marketing tool. When choosing a POS system for your business, make sure it comes with customer relationship management (CRM) to keep track of all your customer data.
- Employee Reporting and Management – Employee performance is essential for the success of your business. This feature allows you to monitor the time and sales of each employee, as well as determine who your top performers are.
Using POS to Boost Productivity
Living in the digital age allows people to work faster and more efficiently. Due to the increasing demand for fast customer service, every business should have a POS system in place.
In addition to making sales and profits, every entrepreneur should prioritize managing and measuring the productivity of their business. For instance, a quick and reliable service is key in the hospitality industry. By focusing on your daily productivity level helps the management team to determine the success rate of your business, as well as the changes that will improve the overall output.
Here are several ways a POS system can increase your productivity and profits:
- Eliminates Order and Transaction Errors – In restaurants, the POS system is that it enables you to record customer orders on hand-held devices and transmitting them directly to the kitchen display system. This eliminates potential errors by allowing staff to re-enter information into the POS system easily. Also, the POS system comes with preset keys corresponding to individual menu offerings, minimizing wrong selection when taking customers’ orders. Lastly, it eliminates the need to enter the SKU number of each item manually by scanning the barcode of the product.
- Easier Labour Scheduling – Integrating both time and attendance module and labour scheduling module in your POS system gives you instant and direct access to labour and scheduling-related information, enabling you to keep track of the proper staffing level on any given day or shift. During peak hours at your store, it is critical to have the right number of staff to serve your customers, cutting off labour costs.
- Boosts Inventory Management – Integrating your POS system with an inventory management module accelerates the whole inventory management process in several ways. It gives the management a quicker and more accurate inventory-purchasing decision by simply checking the historical sales data. Also, its inventory control component automatically generates re-orders once the products reach the pre-defined levels, ensuring that your store will never go short of items on hand. This eliminates wastes and over-stocks.
- Prompt Customer Service – In a restaurant setting, a tablet-based POS system enables restaurant staff to transmit orders instantly to the kitchen staff for preparation and hasten delivery to tables.
Additionally, a retail POS solution harnessing bar-code scanner, touchscreen input and/or integrated payment processing component allows customers to complete transactions quickly. It allows customers to make a quick and convenient payment anywhere at the store without falling in line.
The POS system is a great modern tool for any business that increases productivity and keeps your customers happy through high-quality service.
For quality point of sale systems in Toronto, call Point of Sale Remarketing Group (POSRG) at +1905 332 8809 for more information on our products and services.
