It is a serious decision every trader has to make: selecting the right point of sale system for its retail business. Knowing that selecting an incorrect POS system for your business can bring future cost of thousands of dollars to replace.
Which are the needs of your store?
When possible, purchase the entire retail POS system from one company. In order to do that, first, you need to identify the needs of your store; find the particularly any unique needs you have. On the market, there are many solutions designed for different type of business, depending on daily sale, branches, type of reports, activity type, and others. Make sure you are researching the right retail software for your business.
Purchase the entire retail POS system from one company.
When possible, sign a contract for everything: software, hardware, and services with one company. The single point of contract will eliminate the responsibility game that usually suppliers are playing.
Having just one vendor allows you to increase time response, reduce cost and keep your business live.
Create a Budget
You will also need to create a budget. Be sure to take in consideration: retail and accounting software, point of sale terminals, other peripheral devices, back-office servers, training, and an Internet connection. Do not forget to establish a budget for services, as maintenance contracts are extremely important to keep your business live. Usually there is a monthly fee cost. Price should not be the only key factor in your decision, as you have to pay intention and scalability, availability, customer care, time of response, time to fix and others. Make sure your budget will be included in Return of Investment instead of future amounts not taken into account.
Talk to Your Customers (feedback)
Talk with your customers about things you can do to change and develop your business. Your clients are direct beneficiaries of your service and can give you a first-hand perspective on their shopping experience and how they are affected. Questions like "Have you ever shopped with us online?" or "Would you be interested in joining our Frequent Shopper Program?" can help you determine features you need in your retail software package.
Use the feedback to make sure the retail point of sale system you are buying will address your client needs as well as your own.
Require a Demo
Be sure you test your future investment to see the benefits of the POS system. Get a demo and observe how the vendor is managing your solution, if it has value to your business, of it is personalized on your activity. This is a good way to learn more about your vendor and see the solution out of the box. You can afford to make mistakes and correct those, to test features, see if it fits for you and your clients. Then, once the implementation finishes, you are no longer a beginner but an experienced user.
Research the Company (brand awareness, reputation)
Many unreliable software companies come and go each year so it is very important to research the company as well as the retail software. Start with companies that have an established record of accomplishment in developing and implementing retail point of sale systems. You want to purchase your POS system from a reputable company with significant experience in the retail industry. Make sure the company you choose stands behind years of technical support, feature enhancements, customer experience programs, critical software updates, and extended warranty protection.
Request References and Call Them
Your vendor will always consider the best choice for you. However, is it true? To find out everything-the good and the bad-about that retail software or point of sale hardware you have to ask for a recommendation and call them. You can even see the solutions installed and how is it working you are your own eyes at the customer's on site. There you can discuss with operators, IT personnel and others. Their feedback will give you valuable vision into the practicality and functionality in a real-world retail environment.
