The 4 most important advanced retail POS features

What should retailers today expect from their POS systems? The short answer is, a lot. Conducting sales today is much more complex than simply ringing in items at the cash register. Small and mid-size retailers are managing both in-store and e-commerce operations. These activities require a POS system which fully integrates other tools, consolidates your data, or accesses networks that can expand your business’ operational flexibility and capability. The fastest and most effective way to obtain all this is by leveraging an end-to-end full-featured POS systems can handle operational requirements from sales monitoring to mobile connectivity. Below are some essential features a small and mid-size retailer can benefit from and should ask their POS provider about:

Seamless E-commerce Integration

A POS system that lets you manage in-store and online operations seamlessly can be a significant time-saver. Using a single unified POS system and e-commerce platform allows you to manage your entire online and physical store business you can spend less time and less money on manually maintaining product prices, descriptions, images, quantities, and more. And let’s face it—to offer an industry-leading customer experience, there should be no visible line between your brick-and-mortar and web store. And the benefits to your retail business both from an operational and customer engagement standpoint, are many.

Mobile Inventory Management

In the digital age, retailers are expected to be more agile than ever when it comes to inventory management and control. To staying ahead of the competition and customer expectations you require mobile accessibility to your business critical operations. With mobile inventory management capabilities, your POS can support you have the ability to quickly identify inventory trends, react to shrinkage problems, and provide historical data to assist in forecasting a merchandise plan.

Integrated Loyalty Rewards Program

Customers returning to your store regularly is crucial to your business. It’s cheaper to get current customers to make a repeat purchase than it is to find new customers. Customers love to know that you care about them, and rewarding them with a discount or points for their loyalty is something they will greatly appreciate. In addition, the combined data from your POS system and loyalty program can help you make better decisions with key insights into customers’ behaviors and preferences. You can easily determine the merchandise your most loyal customers are buying, which can allow you to forecast more accurately and avoid stock-outs. Moreover, you can evaluate the effectiveness of your loyalty program itself with ease. An integrated loyalty rewards program and POS system can benefit your retail store by increasing average purchase value, enhancing customer experiences, and incentivizing the new business with word-of-mouth.

Data Analytics & Reporting

Retailing success involves making dozens of business-critical decisions quickly, every day. Wouldn’t you rather make them with data-based insights? When your POS system includes data analytics features that can provide you with timely reporting on activities from trends to customer behaviour, your decisions are empowered by real data. Additionally, with real-time data your business can gain more agility to react quickly and leverage emerging trends or implement corrective actions.