When you’re running a sales-driven business in Victoria, you can spend a long time trying to find the best POS systems in Melbourne, but that nagging question still remains — “Do I really need this?” It’s a common query for smaller businesses, especially those in the food and beverage sector. If you run a small establishment, why invest in a fancy POS system? You can handle it yourself, no?
Regardless of the size of your business, if you’re making on-the-spot sales, then investing in a powerful and capable POS system is a solid move, and below we’ll explain why.
- Handles Sales from Multiple Channels
Whether you’re selling in-store or online across multiple platforms and channels, a single POS system can handle it all, collating and organizing your sales, storing the data, processing the order and allowing you to focus on whatever product or service it is you are doing.
- Instant Product Information on the Spot
POS systems are typically managed through a central computer unit, but employees in a brick-and-mortar store or restaurant can have a connected device like a smartphone or tablet that they can take to help customers for maximum speed. Remember when your assistants had to “go check in the back” when someone asks for a shoe in a particular size? Now there’s no need, thanks to their portable POS device, which they can check and within seconds determine if they have items in stock.
On top of this, the POS system allows you to add and remove products from your lineup, as well as change the prices, shift the categories around, create special offers and more. Once it’s input into the main system, it updates automatically across your digital space. Just think how much time and money you save on not having to reprint menus or rewrite blackboards with new offers in a restaurant, for instance.
- Instant Business Data
Besides being the storage point for your inventory and product information, the POS system can produce numerous and instant reports on daily take, which products sold best, which salesperson sold the most, how much profit or loss was made, and so on.
It’s especially useful in the food and beverage sector where, for example, a bar owner can even compare how much money was made to how much alcohol inventory was sold, determining instantly if bartenders are overpouring, giving away drinks without permission and more. Such behaviour from staff members can cost bars and restaurants hundreds of thousands of dollars every year.
- Easily Build Customer Loyalty Programs
Many businesses take advantage of customer loyalty programs and the swiping of magnetic cards and the continued use of things like punch cards has helped these programs flourish. A POS system takes these to a whole new level. Your POS system can include functions where you can notify your membership via online communication or SMS text message about special offers in your establishment, of special events like prize draws, as well as any time you make important changes that may entice further business from them.
These systems can be automated to work with zero or minimum input from operators. It can do the same for seasonal price changes or periodic changes. For instance, imagine working in a bar where your POS updates the price list automatically when the clock hits 5:00pm for happy hour, and then resets back to normal prices when time is up. Your servers will never have to key in discounts, thus the element of human error gets vastly reduced.
Look at it in any way that you want, and you discover that a POS system is a god-send. You’ll thank yourself every day for making this kind of investment in a tool that genuinely enhances the way you operate.
