Point Of Sale Systems: How to Choose One That's Right for Your Business

A point of sale (POS) system can have a dramatic impact on the way you run your business -- and on your bottom line. Choosing the right one requires careful planning.

Here are some of the things you need to think through to make a good decision when selecting POS equipment and systems for your business. Use this list as a starting point for your planning process.

* First of all, price should not be the main consideration when buying a POS system. The improved efficiency, greater flexibility and better reporting should pay for the investment in a reasonable period of time.

* Don’t start off by calling for lists of features of various POS systems. Instead, start with a comprehensive analysis of what your business requires.

* Do you have operations spread over multiple locations? What are the implications?

If you run a restaurant, for example, you may need to keep some parameters common across locations while varying others. For instance, your menu may be identical at all locations, but prices of some items may vary from one outlet to another. The system you choose must be capable of implementing such differences.

* How easily can you make changes to the system? You can be sure that your business will keep changing in many respects -- employees join and leave, prices go up or down, your product range expands, locations get added or deleted and so on.

Ask yourself if the programming interface will easily allow your employees to execute such changes.

* Will it be possible to make changes ahead of time? For example, if you’re beginning a special promotion on November 15, can you input the price changes well in advance and set the system to automatically effect the changes on that date?

This as well as other types of flexibility are essential for many retail operations.

* To what extent will the POS system need to integrate with your accounting system? Does it have to be real time? Or is it enough to have an export of entries at day-end?

* If you are running a bar, does the POS system need to work with liquor control devices? A liquor control device tracks pours from bottles. This makes billing easier and reduces shrinkage.

* Will the credit / debit card processing system in the POS equipment work well with your merchant account?

* Will the system allow you to implement special deals for frequent shoppers? For instance, each purchase could have points associated with them and these points could eventually translate into lower prices or free gifts.

* What reporting capabilities will you need? If you work across multiple locations, will the system give you an online real-time report of transactions completed?

Most dealers will have sample reports available. Ask to see them so that you can compare better.

* In most cases, the POS system will have to be upgraded as your needs evolve and expand. How quickly can the dealer respond to your needs?

Also, most dealers put out regular software upgrades. Are they included in the contract or does the dealer charge extra for them?

For the sake of avoiding compatibility problems, plan to purchase new hardware of the same kind as the original. That way you’ll ensure everything works well together -- and even if there are problems, you can get the dealer to handle it.

* Support is a critical consideration. What happens if your POS system goes down? This can have a serious impact on the business. You need to get a detailed written agreement on how the dealer is going to handle breakdowns.

The dealer may try to diagnose and solve the problem over phone initially. If that doesn’t work, they may send support staff to your location. And if the problem can’t be solved quickly, you may need to get equipment on loan till your system is repaired.

POS system downtime can have serious implications. Make sure you get the support you need.

The above list should help trigger ideas about the kind of issues you need to look at. Do your planning well before deciding on a POS system for your business.

Mark Henry is a systems consultant and has written on POS systems, tips for choosing the right point of sale equipment, how point of sale systems need to fit in with the business environment and other related topics.

How To Make Your Cash Register Ring All Day

A woman walks into a sweet-smelling shop, the product display is exquisite, the perfumes and oils and soaps bright and enticing.

She is approached by a young man. His face is bright, enthusiastic, well-scrubbed. His hair is clean and fragrant, his nails trimmed, his suit pressed, and his shoes polished. Then he opens his mouth and uses words with the sophistication of a back-alley brawler.

The magic is lost. After a few flustered words, a few patent excuses, the woman leaves.

The cash register remains untouched, and the proceeds for the day the same. Hour after hour this tragedy continues.

What tragedy befell this merchant?

Meanwhile, she, still in need of cosmetics and toiletries visits another store in the mall. There the pace is hectic, the display mauled over, and the salesman, despite careful grooming in the morning, now appears disheveled by too much work.

She approaches with hesitation, and her impatience and resistance, too, are stronger.

Seeing her approach, the salesman speaks.

She smiles for the first time that day, the pinched look on her face disappears, the pursed lines around the mouth soften.

Eloquent words flow from his lips, words of courtesy, interest, and charm.

He shows her one product after another, describing the benefits and the magnetism of each in turn.

Soon she is moving swiftly, from one choice piece of soap to another bottle of exquisite scents. She piles up her arms then asks him to assist her to carry more. Together they carry the boxes to the counter. The cash register rings yet again, the drawer is almost overflowing with ill-pressed bills, and the salesman barely has enough time to close it and catch his breath when she has been replaced by yet another eager customer.

Why the good fortune of this merchant?

Business. It is simple. It is the words you use.

Business. It is complex. It is the words you use.

Words create reactions, people buy or refrain from buying because of them.

A product is manufactured. A service is created. A structure is built around them. A strategy is designed to deliver them to the public with the most appeal. Yet without words, no perception is created.

The beautiful product image is not interpreted. The stirring value of it’s content is not appreciated. The elaborate service model is not permitted full execution.

Without words, it is only so much dust. Another product that sits on the shelf, another enterprise that is unvisited, another service that is not sought.

But add words, the right words, and it is as if the dust is now fairy dust. Everything now has a certain magic, a mysterious appeal, an allure that cannot be denied. Even yesterday’s outdated product is perceived with a nostalgic touch and considered a vintage find. The eager hand of the customer reaches for it. Money is exchanged. The cash register rings. The merchant is happy, his face uplifted in a smile, a vision of prosperity glazing his eyes.

What do words do?

They lift up perception.

A product is just another product. Until words are added to it. Then it takes on luster and power and comes into a life of its own.

Heed your words, your spoken words, your written words.

It’s not enough to throw a pitch, to make a broad appeal for interest, to say any foolish thing that comes to mind in a clumsy grope for rapport.

Something else is necessary, the right words; and behind the words, a service philosophy, a genuine desire to be of help.

Business is about words. The right words. The expressive words. The words that lure, dazzle, entangle.

Each person is in a world of their own, a trance of mixed variety, and your product is just another product, until you add the right words to it; then it flies off the shelf, and behind your customer is another, waiting eagerly in line to satisfy the perception that the words she overheard you speak aroused in her.

Business is simple if you use the right words. It’s complex if you use the wrong ones.

Train your sales people with the right words and magic happens.

The rest of the story, the quality, the display, the structure around which the business is molded pale in comparison to the words used to describe the merchandise.

Business is about words.

Whatever the business, regardless of the magnificence of its shape, size, and reach; regardless of its originality, brilliance, and design; deny it the power of words, and like a magnificent ocean liner striking a reef, it will sink like a rock.

Saleem Rana would love to share his inspiring ideas with you. Hunting everywhere for a life worth living? Discover the life of your dreams. His book Never Ever Give Up tells you how. It is offered at no cost as a way to help YOU succeed. http://www.theempoweredsoul.com/enter.html

Saleem Rana. Please feel free to pass this article on to your friends, or use it in your ezine or newsletter. It's a shareware article.

Selling More at the Point of Sale

Point of sale generally means the point at which the customer pays for their products or services. Point of sale (also known as POS) includes but is not limited to: the cash register, the cash drawer and the receipt printer. If you are a merchant that uses POS, you can also use POS items as marketing materials. For example, you could display products that you have a surplus of near the cash register to allow customers to impulse buy. This is quite effective when the point of sale merchandise has been marked down in price or is on clearance so the customer knows that they are getting a great price on the items.

You could also use POS marketing merchandise such as toppers for the cash register. Regardless of what the price is for the merchandise, it?s placement on top of the cash register or other part of the POS system will make customers look at it and consider buying it.

Other options that you have for using your POS system to sell more merchandise include using your thermal printer of receipt printer to print return coupons for your visitors. You could even print the coupons on the back of their cash receipt. This will help to encourage customers to come back soon in a shorter amount of time.

As a business owner your goal should be to sell as much as you can to your customer. This can be enhanced by the point of sale products that you use. Whether you use POS marketing merchandise, other marketing materials, or even electronic options, take advantage of the dollar at the point of sale. Whether your POS is on the web at an ecommerce website or if it is in a retail location, the final look at what you have to offer is quite important to the customer. Point of sale products are, in fact, likely to help you to sell whatever it is that you need to if they are used correctly as marketing medium.

If you want to find out more about Samsung or about Point of Sale or even about Epson please follow these links.

Low Cost Point of Sale Systems and Software

Now the last thing I want is for this be a shameless promotion of the software we develop. But my position gives me a unique insight in the business models followed by different software companies. We produce a no cost point of sale software package and can testify that the free and low cost software model is a viable enterprise. Instead of focusing on selling the product and slowly building a user base and then relying on selling upgrades to continue the momentum we?re finding that charging a steady monthly fee for support and updates actually reduces customer cost and increases the quality of service we can provide.

Look at the commercial viability of Linux and you understand what?s going on. Free software is free to use, but if you need help (and everybody does) then support plans are available from industry experts for a monthly or single incident fee. By sending software out into the world you capture a large audience and can quickly establish a presence on the market.

Point of Sale systems can be especially expensive for small businesses and most resellers offer so many options that it can be easy to get lost. You not only have software to consider by the wide range of hardware available. We focused our products on two vertical markets; Computer Service & Retail Point of Sales and Restaurant Point of Sales. Both businesses can be very expensive to setup and maintain. Saving costs and increasing profits is vital and many software companies position themselves to provide Point of Sale Software that forces you into expensive service agreements and fees. Often times this goes beyond the reasonable fees assumed for support. A small business should not have to pay for an entire support division just for their point of sale software.

Business managers need to look at the lifetime cost of the Point of Sale Systems. Is the hardware efficient or overpriced and way too powerful for the task? Is the software streamlined for my vertical market? Will it increase costs and lower expenses? Will it provide statistical sales data that can be imported into accounting packages? What is the true cost and savings of the system? What kind of support is available and is it priced reasonably? If you can answer those questions and feel satisfied with the answers then you?ve found the right system for you.

So the price of the software is only a concern for those tight on budget for getting started. The real cost is in the efficiency of the software and the support network it provides. Take time and evaluate several of the tools available on the market for your point of sales system. Learn what makes each one special and has the features that most closely match your business. Find out what kind of support you get and decide if email only is really support. If every business took the time to evaluate their point of sale software and the true cost then we?d find a lot of companies changing software.

Please consider this article for publication in your newsletter or on your website. Permission is granted to reprint for free with author box and byline intact. Please send me a copy of your publication if you choose to include my article. TITLE: AUTHOR: Ed Duval URL: www.AndTechComputers.com

MAILTO: support@andtech2020.com

Author Box - ? Ed Duval (2006) Ed Duval is contract writer and software developer for www.AndTechComputers.com and Creator of the HotPotato Restaurant Point of Sale Software System. With over a decade of experience in software development he shares his unique insight on today's point of sale software systems.

POSA (Point Of Sale Activation) at a glance

From : intelecard.com.

POSA is a generic term that describes the many different types of transactions and services available at the point of sale that support the sale of stored value products. Thus, POSA is not only about activation, it also refers to balance inquiries, refunds, voids; refresh, report printing and can even include services, such as real-time web-based queries.

1. All offline POSA solutions are some type of PIN-printing solution.

2. Offline POSA solutions cannot provide as many features as complete online solutions.

3. Large national retail chains require online solutions because they demand a full suite of POSA features, often including in-store refresh and other custom transactions. Most of these solutions are host-to-host.

4. Payment card emulation solutions, often referred to as Visa emulation or debit card emulation, are online solutions, but because of their underlying technology, can provide only limited features.

5. PIN-printing devices eliminate the need to produce cards with individual encoding thereby reducing the cost of the card stock or eliminating it all together.

6. Some PIN-printing devices connect online to an intermediate computer system and thus are hybrid systems because they can provide real-time web-based transaction reporting but not true online functionality, such as in-store refresh or balance inquiry.

7. PIN printing almost always requires the retailer to own a special PIN-printing POSA terminal.

8. Online POSA can be integrated into existing POS software or loaded onto existing POS equipment.

9. POSA is complicated. All of these rules are generalizations.

Retail POS Software

There are a number of channels of distribution available to the producer that may be employed by persons or companies to bring products to the market. Consumer goods may be distributed through channels. The channels used are producer-consumer, and there is no middleman involved. Sales are made from house to house or by direct mail. Point of sale software provides the best benefits that programming technology and client/server databases have to offer to retailers. It is designed with a high degree of proficiency that allows the user to access data and ask questions about the database.

Secondly, producer-retailer-consumer are when goods are purchased directly from manufacturers or retail stores opened by manufacturers. Thirdly, producer-wholesaler-retailer-consumer is the traditional and most economically used channel. There is also producer-agent-retailer-consumer channel, whereby producers use manufactures agents and brokers to reach the retail market. Finally, the producer-agent-wholesaler-retailer-consumer channel uses the services of agents by smaller retailers who purchase from wholesalers and sell to small stores.

A large number of channels of distribution are available to the manufacturer to bring products to the consumer. Efficient distribution at the least cost and at the desired volume of sale can be secured only after experience, study and analysis.

A retailer does retailing by selling to consumers. In the distributional hierarchy, retailers are below the level of distributors or wholesalers. Sometimes, retailers are termed dealers or authorized representatives. The retailer often operates in a smaller territory or at a specific location and earns less commission compared to higher levels in the channel.

POS Software provides detailed information on POS Software, Free POS Software, Retail POS Software, POS Restaurant Software and more. POS Software is affiliated with Bar Code Printing Software