When you’re running a business where your sales involve a constant stream of transactions throughout the day, it’s hard to imagine that you wouldn’t be looking for point of sale systems to help you get your work done more efficiently and effectively. You’ve likely seen these POS systems before, and may have thought that your own business would never benefit from it, and that’s why you’ve never invested capital in purchasing and installing one.
If that sounds like you, then you could be more wrong about the utility and benefit that these systems bring. Below are just some of the many types of businesses that benefit from POS systems.
1. Bars, Nightclubs, and Restaurants
Successful bars, nightclubs and restaurants run and succeed according to their ability to smoothly deliver service that people then love and want to come back for. It means a seamless and painless experience with minimal waiting, total understanding on the part of the servers, and fast, pleasing results. POS systems help these establishments achieve that.
Servers can put food drinks orders through via remote touchscreen devices while bartenders work busily filling drinks and chefs plug away dish by dish. It cuts down misunderstandings between staff as neat, printed tickets emerge like magic from the machine that are easy to read. Gone is the wasted time spent as the server moves from place to place reporting and checking.
These systems also help F&B establishments check on inventory, cutting back on waste and catching out staff who over-serve customers or give away products without permission. They even allow you to quite easily trace the suspect of such activities.
2. Retail – Large and Small
POS systems are perfect for large-brand chain retail stores as well as tiny independent mom & pop stores. POS systems help you instantly track not just which products sell well and don’t, but even at what times of day you’re selling particular products.
For instance, if you run a convenience store and you notice that Friday evening is peak beer-buying time according to the data, then you can deliberately move popular beer products closer to the checkout or entrance so your customers find them easily and get checked out faster. The POS system also allows staff to instantly check inventory. Gone is the need to “go check in the back” and waste everyone’s time. With one click of a device, we know.
3. Hotels
The data that POS systems provide to hotels — as well as other businesses mentioned in this list — can be invaluable when it comes to post-stay communication, building a member email database to share special offers, and more. Hotels need to keep bringing guests back as much as possible to maximise profit and grow their brand popularity. The POS system can be a big ally in that sense. It also helps speed up checking in and out, which is great for impatient guests who just want to get into their room or get going to their next destination.
4. Mobile Vendors
Mobile vendors like street-food sellers, shoe-shines, mobile hair stylists and others are people who benefit in particular from the simpler, less elaborate POS systems that will allow them to accept card and mobile payments from people who these days less and less carry cash on their person. In a world where people no longer have spare change or small bills on them as a guarantee, the POS system does wonders for a mobile vendor’s business.
5. Couriers and Delivery Companies
Delivery companies have long known the benefits of portable POS systems that allow customers to pay for their services with cards and mobile payments and not have to get cash from the bank in advance to cover the costs of receiving cash-on-delivery items or sending an urgent package somewhere.
