Having effective and easy point of sale software can save you time, energy, and headaches. After interviewing a number of prominent retailers, I found that there was consensus regarding which features were most important and how those companies managed to find a point of sale system that met their unique needs. The single most important feature seemed to be inventory tracking. Without an effective tracking interface and the ability to input complex items, even the fanciest point of sale software systems became worthless time traps. One retailer likened the sensation of using his old software to the dread he felt as a kid when he walked through a haunted house. He said his inventory tracking system was convoluted and constantly threw unwelcome surprises at him which would ultimately result in many sleepless nights.
About half of the retailers had managed to find adequate software during their initial search, and the remaining folks had at least one nightmare story about poor quality point of sale software (like the haunted house guy). As an aside, it’s amazing that there are so few good POS systems out there — you’d think this would be a competitive and innovative market.Unfortunately, it isn’t and many retailers suffer through years of headaches and near disasters before finding an easy point of sale software option.
There appear to be two primary types of POS systems: local software and cloud based systems. The local software is usually installed on a computer at the store and runs entirely from your shop. An obvious problem is that your data is then dependent on your individual hardware and can potentially be lost if your computer and hard-drive crash. The alternative to local software is called a cloud based system. This runs entirely off the internet and is backed up across many servers, guaranteeing safety. Cloud based systems are more secure, easier to manage, quicker to fix, and can be improved more often by developers. The only downside to cloud based point of sale systems is that they require access to the internet, but that’s increasingly a non-issue now that internet is ubiquitous and reliable.
Security was also a concern among many retailers. There seems to be an epidemic of hacking and data theft, which puts some business owners at risk of jeopardizing sensitive information if it’s not stored and encrypted properly. This is definitely a huge advantage that cloud based options have over local installations — they’re much more secure because they include professional encryption and very high tech security protocols. Most modern point of sale systems include these standard security measures, but it’s worth double checking before making a commitment or uploading any significant amount of information.
One of the more complicated issues that arose was when a retailer has a physical store and also an ecommerce website. Tying together two inventory systems can be very difficult for stores with a significant amount of product (over 10,000 items). If you’re unfortunate enough to be in this position, be very careful about which system you choose and make sure your services are cross-compatible. Nobody wants to deal with two separate inventory systems for the same business!
On a different note, many retailers wanted to integrate customer relations management systems into their point of sale software. This makes sense because it makes it easier to track your customers, send out newsletters, and create strategically viable marketing campaigns. A small handful of POS software systems now include this integration and some even have plugins directly to services like MailChimp and SalesForce. This might be overkill if you’re a small retailer, but it could be life saving if you plan on scaling your business or if you have a significant number of clients.
