What You Need to Know About Point of Sale Systems

More small businesses than ever before are selling products, goods, and services to their loyal customers, which means they need ways to process these transactions. Enter the point of sale system, a business’ preferred tool to process transactions in a retail environment. What goes into a successful point of sale system, and how can you use one for your business?

What is a Point of Sale System?

A point of sale system is a combination of both hardware and software which works in tandem to provide you with a solution to your sales management needs. You can think of the standard cash register as a modern, albeit primitive, point of sale system. It has everything it needs to provide your employees and customers with the ability to purchase and sell items. However, point of sale systems have evolved beyond the cash register, and the best ones are capable of more than just money management and transaction processing.

The Hardware End

On the hardware side of the house, small businesses might require full-fledged point of sale hardware, which in many cases looks to be a computer in and of itself. They often have cash registers built right into them, and depending on the hardware might have touch-screen capabilities and card readers, as well.

You may have noticed that many small businesses have fairly low-tech hardware for their point of sale systems compared to larger retailers and enterprises, and that’s definitely done on purpose. In many cases, small businesses don’t necessarily need the advanced hardware to manage their transactions, and can instead get away with simple card readers that plug into smartphones or tablets and are powered by software applications. Ultimately, it boils down to your specific needs.

The Software End

Depending on the type of point of sale terminal you choose to implement, you’ll have a variety of options to choose from for how you want to fuel your point of sale system. There are cloud-based systems that are extremely intuitive and have a low cost of entry to start using, but they might not be as customizable for your specific needs. There are more robust options that might require them to be ran and hosted onsite that give you even more flexibility and control.

Depending on the solution you choose to implement, you can also take advantage of features such as loyalty programs, employee scheduling software, inventory tracking and management, workflow management, and so much more. At the end of the day, it’s all about what your business needs and knowing what options are on the market.

Get Started Today

If your business is in retail or sells products or services of some kind, we bet you could benefit from a strategic implementation of a point of sale system in your day-to-day operations. Thankfully, you don’t have to go about implementing such a system on your own. You have friends at Computerware who are more than happy to assist you with this process. To learn more about how we can get you started with a point of sale system, reach out to us at (703) 821-8200.