Every successful retail business has a POS system that keeps things running smoothly and makes daily duties easier to manage. That’s why understanding which specific POS features to include in your systems is integral to setting your business up for success. Check out some of the most important features your POS system should have and learn about how each of them can help your retail store thrive.
#1. Offline Capabilities
Offline capabilities are perhaps the most essential POS system features every retailer should have. Offline capabilities mean that if your business were to experience an internet outage inexplicably, you’d still be able to process payments and collect customer information.
For instance, suppose you’re having a blowout sale. As a result, customers flock to your storefront and fill their baskets with your products. Suddenly, something causes the internet to power down, and—nothing happens. You continue serving customers and completing transactions as usual.
The imperativeness of these features should be evident. It allows you to continue running your business and processing transactions, regardless of your signal strength. Then, once everything’s up and running again, you can process and add that data to your system.
#2. EMV Payment Features
EMV payments are another feature that all retailers should have on their POS systems. EMV is the part of the modern POS system that reads the tiny chips on debit or credit cards and asks for your customer’s PIN.
You could probably get away with not accepting EMV payments in years past. Nowadays, most businesses realize how crucial it is to offer them. After all, most of us opt to use cards over cash. Plus, there aren’t many cards that come without a chip on them.
The chip’s prevalence aside, it’s worth noting that EMV features are much safer than traditional magnetic strips. These cards are more effective in protecting customers against potential credit card fraud and identity theft. Thus, it’s essential that you have these EMV features in your business.
#3. Sales Rep Capture
Being a successful retailer means ensuring that your business runs as efficiently as possible. True, this means keeping track of inventory, hiring the right people, and forming a dynamite game plan for your daily operations. However, it also means exploring POS system features that can help you manage certain aspects of your store.
In short, your POS system needs a sales rep capture capability. In essence, a sales rep capture feature collects individual sales rep and employee information to help lighten the load of busy store managers and owners. Sales rep captures can calculate crucial employee data such as commission and sales per employee.
Having this information readily available gives you a quick glimpse into the productivity of your staff and which team members might benefit from additional training or a switch in their roles. Knowing those metrics can only be beneficial to the success of your retail business.
#4. Mobile Payment Options
Every modern point of sale system for retail businesses should have mobile payment options. A few years ago, mobile payments were still working their way into the mainstream. Today, pretty much every company has invested in this feature. Why? It’s hard to beat the convenience of paying for your items via cellphone—especially if you tend to leave your wallet in the car or at home.
On top of that, mobile payment options allow you to keep your check-out processes quick and easy. This speed means you can take more customers without worrying about a line forming around the perimeter of the building. As a result, you’re happy, your staff stays engaged, and you can deliver a fantastic customer experience.
#5. Digital Receipts
No doubt, we live in the digital era. So it’s only appropriate that your POS system provides an option for digital receipts. Like mobile payments, digital receipts have become increasingly commonplace among retail businesses, restaurants, and other small businesses. The idea that your business should offer digital receipts shouldn’t come as a shock.
Most of the time, paper receipts are crumpled up, thrown away, or worse—left to litter the ground. As you can imagine, this makes it difficult for customers to return items or retain any valuable information about your store. However, when you offer them digital receipts, customers are far less likely to lose track of them.
If they need to make a return, the required proof of purchase is just a click away. In another way, when your store name pops up in customer email or text message, it gives you another opportunity to get your brand in front of that customer again. Thus, digital receipt capabilities are an essential POS system feature every retailer should have.
#6. Gift Card Systems
Distributing and processing gift cards with ease is an absolute must for any retail point of sale system. If you’ve read any of our previous blogs, you’d know that we’re not shy about explaining the benefits that gift cards can bring to your business. And why should we be?
They’re an excellent way to bring extra sales into your store.
Gift cards are a fantastic tool for building brand awareness and customer loyalty. Thus, when you opt for gift card processing features, you allow yourself to take advantage of these benefits with ease. These features also mean that processing gift cards is as easy and convenient as a standard transaction.
#7. Streamlined Customer Management
Of course, this wouldn’t be a complete guide on must-have POS features if we didn’t mention streamlined customer management. This is perhaps one of the most crucial capabilities in your point of sale systems. This particular feature enables your POS system to capture customer data.
You’re then able to use this information to:
- Track sales patterns
- Run marketing campaigns
- Gain insight into customer spending
Empowering yourself with this information leads to better decision-making regarding your business operations and product or service offerings.
#8. Streamlined Product Management
Right alongside the all-important streamlined customer management feature is streamlined product management. This feature works similarly to customer management capabilities. Only, instead of capturing and tracking customer data, these features track the following for your business:
- Inventory
- Supply chain logistics
- Product pricing
When you can keep track of these things automatically, it makes them easier to manage. Moreover, it ensures that everything matches up from the storefront to the warehouse and distribution channels.
These features will help keep your business running smoothly and efficiently. They’ll also help reveal opportunities for improvement in your operation.
So whether you’re trying to up the ante for your small mom-and-pop retail business or just looking to improve your operations, the right POS features can help you do both. Use this brief list as you choose the right POS for your business!
