The Point of Sale System: More Than a Cash Register

Most small retailers use their point of sale system for transactions only and nothing else. This leaves the most valuable parts, such as inventory intelligence, customer data, e-commerce, and business analytics, sitting idle.

Using your point of sale system fully is one of the highest-ROI changes a small retailer can make, and it doesn’t require new software.

What’s the Problem?

Most small retailers think of their point of sale system the same way they think of a cash register: an asset that only handles transactions. You scan the item, you take the money, you move on.

But this way of thinking is costing you, not in processing fees or subscription costs, but in the decisions you’re not making because you don’t have the right information to make them.

The Modern Point of Sale System

The modern point of sale system, when used fully, is the operational center of a retail business.

It tracks what’s selling and what’s sitting, tells you which customers are worth keeping and how to keep them, flags inventory problems before they become stockouts, and connects your physical store to wherever else your customers want to buy from you.

How Can Small Businesses Use POS Software to Manage Inventory More Effectively?

Small business owners can indicate reorder points for every fast-moving item, and let the POS trigger the replenishment automatically.

This helps to avoid a common, expensive pitfall: managing inventory reactively. You run out of a fast-moving item because you didn’t notice it was almost gone.

You over-order a slow mover because you weren’t watching the aging data.

Neither of these is an inventory problem as much as it’s a visibility problem, and your POS solves it.

• Configure your POS to set reorder points for every item in your catalog.
• Set a stock threshold for each item and allow the system to alert you when it’s reached.
• Use the automatic purchase order generation feature to save time and reduce errors.