Use the Right POS System for Your Business

A Point of Sale (POS) system is indispensable for any type of retail business. It is a combination of specialized hardware and computer hardware that allows staff members to enter customer purchases, manage inventory, take credit card payments, track expenses, generate reports, and much more. Whether you’re running a convenience store, restaurant, flower shop or specialty store, a POS system can help perform many different processes to maximize your efficiency.

Some of the chief benefits reported by businesses that use such systems include:

- More accurate and more detailed information - Greater productivity - The ability to share reliable information with product suppliers and other partners - The ability to operate on a leaner stock

Choosing a Point-of-Sale System Shopping around for a POS system for your business is no easy proposition. First, you must know your business very well and have a solid idea of how things run and what information will be most helpful to you. If that wasn’t enough of a challenge, comparing systems requires in depth knowledge of computers, networks, software features, and more. The market is flooded with POS systems of all complexity levels and price ranges. Knowing what to look for and where to start can be very difficult. Below are some guidelines to help you get started.

Identify Your POS Needs Identifying your point-of-sale needs can be as easy as finding out what your competitors (or other businesses similar to yours) are using or as difficult as performing an in-depth study of every transaction you process. It is a good idea to talk to your employees and your customers to get feedback on what kinds of features would help. For example, you could ask customers questions such as “do you ever shop with us online?” or “would you be interested in a frequent shopper program?” Also, keep in mind that even if there are software packages designed specifically for your type of business, they may vary wildly and you still need to research the features to determine what’ll work best for your business.

Establish a Budget A great way to narrow down your options is to establish a budget for your POS system expenditure. When doing so, remember that you will need to invest in a server (unless the system will work with your existing one) retail software, accounting software, terminals (how many will you need?) Talking to other business owners is a good way to get an idea of the range of what’s out there in terms of price.

Research the Market You may have initially taken a look at what’s available on the market in order to get an idea of what exists and in order to help you establish your budget. Now it is time to do more in-depth research and narrow down your choices. Once you find a system or two that seem to be the right fit for your company, you should research the providers. Make sure you are dealing with a reputable company known for providing outstanding service. Also, ask for and call references.

by Adriana Noton

A Guide to Restaurant POS Management Software A Guide to Restaurant POS Management Software

Learn the types of restaurant POS software that will help your business grow and save your money on costly mistakes by purchasing the wrong POS software.

A lot of people may thing that the restaurant business is not worthy of investment and would rather venture on a different business. Although, a growing number of POS software, specifically designed for restaurants, that can help an owner with nearly every aspect of running his business. And there’s more good news: most of this software is affordable for smaller retail establishments that operate only a few restaurants or even a single location. The various software products currently available can help your business:

1. Greatly increase profits|Double your profits|Increase your profits
2. Lower food costs
3. Streamline staff scheduling
4. Improve table and customer management
5. Improve customer reservations system
6. Gain complete control of inventory
7. Design menus


Cost out your recipes:

Providing accurate recipe cost to your customers can get your business on the fast track to success. With the right figures, it’ll be easy for you to identify your most profitable items as well as items that aren’t cost-effective. A right POS software program eliminates human error in this crucial area.

Tables and reservation management:

A restaurant reservation POS software can help reduce no-shows, take reservations from your website, canceled reservations, differentiate VIPs from regulars, take customer information and more. It can also help you maximize table management and improve your guest management.
Control and track inventory

In order to minimize waste and to avoid running out of necessary ingredients, a restaurant owner needs need to have full control of his inventory management and keeping track of goods.

Recommended:

The best contacts and resources to help you make the right choice for your restaurant POS software are available at POS-For-Restaurants.com

Correct ordering and purchasing:

Look for a POS software that streamlines the ordering and purchasing process, giving you more time to concentrate on revenue-generating activities.

Designing menus:

Making menu designs can help boost your customer volume by creating designs that would attack more visitors. But designing your own menu is hard and time consuming, especially if you do not have the necessary skills it requires. You will then need to hire a graphic designer and pay each time you need a new design. By purchasing a POS software that lets you create menu designs, it eliminates the need of hiring a professional designer! You can make your own menu designs depending on your restaurant’s theme, holidays, highlighted menu, etc.
Employee scheduling

Manual management of staff schedule is very time consuming and could even result to mistakes such as understaffing or overstaffing. So for a restaurant owner, this task can really cause a serious headache.



A few helpful advice for making the most of this Guide:

* If you are operating more than one restaurant, test-drive the software in one before implementing it system wide.
* Many restaurant software programs have powerful reporting features. Use them to analyze your sales, your customers and your menu. Make changes based on what you learn.

Using Point-of-Sale Data to Improve Profitability

Not long ago I made a trip over to the local Radio Shack to purchase an electronic plug for my cassette recorder. As I paid for my item the retail clerk asked me for my name, address, telephone number, birth date, and even my email address (something every retailer should be asking for today!). Although I felt a twinge of discomfort giving out my personal information, I went ahead and gave it to him and went on my way.

Driving home I reflected on Radio Shack’s checkout process and was reminded of the power of information gathering at the point of sale. I had just given Radio Shack three ways to contact me, not to mention, information on what I had purchased. In the hands of a skilled marketer, this information is powerful.

Database Marketing
The recent economic slowdown has brought increased competition to small businesses. And with that, retailers across North America have described their sales as "flat." Small businesses should be looking for low cost, high impact marketing activities to drive prospects to their business. One of the most effective and cost-efficient ways to add profits to the bottom line is the use of database marketing, which uses information collected at the point-of-sale.

Using personal data, purchasing data, and contact information from a customer database, a retailer can make offers to customers for complimentary products and services and engage in loyalty marketing activities. Database marketing has four key elements, (1) gathering customer data, (2) building a customer database, (3) creating targeted offers for specific customer groups, and (4) tracking results to improve responses.

Step 1: Gather customer data. The easiest way to begin this process is to develop a simple form for customers and salespeople to fill out every time a customer purchases a product or service. Include personal information such as names of spouses, children, profession, and birthdays, as well as, product information such as manufacturer, make, and model.

Step 2: Build a database to store your customer information. Start simple using off-the-shelf software such as Microsoft Access. Later on you can begin to modify the database to either include different types of information or to print special reports.

Step 3: Start sending offers and personal messages to your customers. Don’t wait until you have a large mailing list. Begin sending notes to customers right away thanking them for their purchase, to celebrate birthdays, share holiday messages, and inviting them to come in and take advantage of special offers.

There is an old saying that goes, “Business goes where business is invited, and stays where it is appreciated.” A personalized invitation to drop by the store to take advantage of a specific incentive is sometimes all that is needed to keep your customers coming back into the store. Instituting a program of personal, hand-signed notes that coincide with birthdays or special events addressed to the customer's significant other that offer gift ideas, can have surprising results.

Step 4: Track the results of your database marketing efforts. By knowing who you sent offers to and who responded will help you identify your best customers, allow you to more effectively allocate your marketing dollars, and help you tweak your marketing pieces to get higher response rates.

What Information Do I Collect?
It’s important to determine in advance the type of information to collect. To do this, make a list of common special offers you might be presenting to your customer. For instance, if you sold a product in the health industry and many of your customers have lower back problems you could joint venture with other businesses to develop special promotions on products that help to relieve lower back pain. To capture the fact that your customer experiences lower back pain, simply place a check box on your form that says, “Do you experience lower back pain?”

If your customer has small children, consider presenting follow-up offers for products targeted for small children. Imagine being a consumer and receiving a letter from your business with an enclosed birthday card for little Joey who just turned eight years old and a discount offer for a basketball hoop or other relevant products. You think to yourself, “What a great gift. Joey would love that!” This is the power of database marketing.

Collecting Accurate and Consistent Information
Database marketing all starts at the point of sale. Without accurate, complete, and consistent data this type of pinpoint target marketing can’t be done. To ensure that your information is accurate and consistent, help your customers fill out the data collection form and review each information form for completeness.

You might experience a hesitancy from your customer to give out all their personal information, similar to how I felt at Radio Shack. However, after explaining that the information will only be used to send out special offers during important events, is completely confidential, and will not be shared with anybody else, you’ll find that most of your customers won’t have any problem giving out their personal information.

Cost Effective Loyal Customers
Marketing to your current customers is one of the most effective and cost-efficient strategies you can do to reduce your marketing costs, enhance your customer / retailer relationships, and produce long-term loyal customers who, over a period of months or years, become your biggest source of referrals.

Thanks to David Frey, Marketing Best Practices Inc.

New POS System To Help Control Liquor Inventory

Staff can free pour but our wireless pourers send a signal back to your POS system every time a drink is poured. Powerful POS based variance reporting of pours vs inventory lets you know where and when a loss has occurred. Every ounce of alcohol that flows through you bar is compared to your POS records.

Bar, Pub or hotel owners can manage liquor costs down by tracking their liquor inventory in real time.

Compact wireless pourers are simply mounted on bottle tops
Removes the need for manual liquor stocktakes
Automated variance alerts are sent to your PC or mobile
Powerful reporting lets you check the location and timing of each variance
Data can be aggregated at local, regional or corporate level.
All pourers are rechargeable with a long battery lifelong
Pourers can be calibrated to pour 30ml, 1/2nip or 15ml
Simple button can switch pour sizes

About Vectron Systems

Vectron offer a complete range of beverage dispensing technologies with easy POS integration: our compact wireless pourers, flow meters and ETN's.

Vectron POS is a complete solution with fully integrated and configurable applications. Our systems cover every function required to manage today's pubs, hotels and bars. With fully integrated modules for bar, bottleshop and restaurant, owners can connect and manage all your business activites. Email Vectron on sales@vectron.com.auThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or see http://www.vectron.com.au

News from pr-canada.net and Thanks to pr-canada.net

POSIFLEX Technology Inc. to invest US$ 10 million in India

Acquires Protocol Solutions To grow POS sales in the unorganised retail sector

POSIFLEX Technologies Inc., a professional POS (Point of Sales) hardware solution provider worldwide, today announced the acquisition of a majority stake in one of their leading distributors in India, Protocol Solutions a bangalore based company. With this, Protocol Solutions will now be called POSIFLEX India, thereby making a direct presence in India. POSIFLEX products are widely used by the largest of retail outlets in India, making them the second largest in India next to IBM according to IDC report.

This strategic move will help shorten the lead time of delivery and provide satisfactory service to customers, to increase brand awareness and expand market share. On the strength of acquisition, POSIFLEX will not only acquire the existing channel resource, but also give access to the Indian software development industry to bundle with hardware of POSIFLEX. It is expected to offer low TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) solution from India to global channels eventually.

On this occasion Mr. Owen Chen, CEO, POSIFLEX Technology Inc., said, “We saw great potential in the Indian market and decided to enter India by acquiring a majority stake in Protocol Solutions. We were happy with our relationship with Protocol and impressed with their track record. They understand our products well and have played a vital role in creating a demand for our products in India. So when we thought of having a direct presence in India, Protocol was undoubtedly our choice. We will be investing US$ 10 million over the next 3-5 years, which will include setting up of R&D team in India to deliver customised solutions, strengthening our marketing and channel partners as well as an option of starting an assembly line.”

“There is tremendous potential in the Indian retail market. With hundreds of malls that are projected to open in the coming years, the sector is expected to invest around US$ 500 million in retail technology service solutions in the current financial year. This could go further up to US$ 1.26 billion in the next four to five years. So it was an important strategic milestone for us to have a direct presence in India,” added Mr. Chen

Mr. Dinesh, Director, Protocol Solutions, said, “The organised retail sector accounts for only 5 per cent of the Indian retail market, which leaves us with the big chunk of untapped unorganised retail market. As POSIFLEX India, we intend to enter the huge unorganised retail market through channel partners across India.”

Mr. Baskar, Director, Protocol Solutions, said, “We have been working as POSIFLEX distributors for over eight years and today their solutions are widely used by most of the large retails chains in India. We have worked with POSIFLEX and have been instrumental in making the product second largest in India with over 20 per cent market share. As we have developed great success stories in the organised retail segment, POSIFLEX Technology will be leveraging these successful cases in other countries.”

POSIFLEX POS solutions are used in multiple market segments such as, hospitality, retail, entertainment, logistics, manufacturing, banking, information services etc. Protocol has successfully deployed POSIFLEX products in both Industrial Automation & Retail Automation. Their clientele includes, Ford India, IFB, Hindustan Motors, Ashok Leyland, Schneider Electric, Shopper Stop, KFC, HyperCity, SPAR hypermarket, Fresh@, Subway, Costa Coffee, Café Coffee Day, Food World, Royal Orchid, Arvind Brands, Peter England, Lifestyle to name a few.

Taiwan-based POS maker Posiflex to acquire India sales agent Protocol Solution

Taiwan-based own-brand POS maker Posiflex Technologies has announced that it will acquire Protocol Solution Pvt, its general sales agent in the India market.

Posiflex said it will then establish a new marketing subsidiary headquartered in Bangalore, leveraging Protocol's original staff and resources to make further inroads into the India market.

The company said it will also seek to capitalize on India's strong software sector to develop POS solutions ranging from entry-level to high-end ones.

With more than five million retail stores as well as thousands of department stores and supermarkets, India has large potential for POS products, Posiflex indicated. Posiflex has tapped the India market for several years and become the second largest vendor with a market share of 17-18% next only to IBM, the company cited IDC as indicating.

Thanks : DIGITIMES

ProPOS.net - The Benefits of Point of Sale Systems

The early days of using a cash register and pen and notebook for accounting and processing transactions are no longer an effective means of keeping up with today's advancements in business technology. In order to stay competitive businesses have to adapt and change with emerging technologies.

The early days of using a cash register and pen and notebook for accounting and processing transactions are no longer an effective means of keeping up with today’s advancements in business technology. In order to stay competitive businesses have to adapt and change with emerging technologies. A technological advancement that businesses are now using is the point-of-sale (POS) system. They are now realizing the many benefits POS have on their businesses

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The following are the many benefits of utilizing point of sale systems:

1. POS systems provide a business with a real-time detailed report of sales. This allows businesses to assess what products are being sold and what products are lagging in sales. The business can then implement marketing strategies to boost sales of the popular products. They will also know in real-time what is not selling so they can decide whether or not to order that product. A POS system provides the latest sales reports for the day, week, month, or year.

2. POS allows for improved customer service. Transactions are processed much quicker, item that are scanned for their price are accurate which lessens sales discrepancies.

There is also a wide selection of methods to take payments such as credit cards, debit cards, gift cards, etc.

3. POS provides an efficient method of managing inventory. By being able to view in real time what is selling, they will be able to reorder products that are running low. POS software will also let you know when you need to reorder a product. Businesses can also keep track of the time of day that certain products are selling so they can arrange marketing displays around peak selling times. As well, businesses will spend less time on paperwork, accounting, inventory management, sales record keeping, as well as managing such programs as marketing, special advertising programs, loyalty programs, discount programs, and much more.

4. POS allows for the management of gift cards, coupons, and loyalty programs. This is effective way of monitoring the program and keeping track of the success of the programs.

5. POS systems and software is easy to learn. Most POS sellers will train staff and management on how to use the system. It is also easy to install and maintain. As well, POS software can be integrated into other applications so that all areas of business management can be viewed in one central place. It gives the user better control of the business. As well, technical support is only a phone call away.

6. POS retail software makes it easier to keep track of customer personal information, staff payroll, customer billing and shipping, vendor listings, and inventory management.

The many benefits of point of sale systems make it an essential business investment. The type of retail software a small business chooses depends on the type of business, size of the business, amount of sales, and the type and amount of inventory.

Point of sale systems allow for better management of a business, improve customer satisfaction, and helps increase sales. With POS, businesses are able to run a more effective and efficient operation.