What is POS System

What is Point of Sale System?

If you’re not sure what is Point of sale system I assume you’re in the planning stage or going to start for your first own retail or F&B shop, through the stage you might notice that a lot of business owner is currently using a POS System to operate their business.

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So, what is the Point of Sale System? Is this a compulsion system I need to purchase before I start my own business? The answer is Yes unless you’re going to do all the hand-writing notes and manually key in all the transactions with paper and pen.

When you started a business in the beginning stage, you might think about a low-cost POS system or even a free Point of Sale System, this is very common in the Malaysia market. Nothing right or wrong but we will let you know “Every extra penny deserves its value” if you know what I mean.

In the market, there is a cloud-based Point of Sale System or a traditional Point of Sale System, what is the big difference between both?

Traditional VS Cloud-Based Point of Sale System

 

Traditional POS System (advantage)

  • One-Time-Off Payment
  • Only need to pay yearly maintenance but the cost is not high compare to cloud
  • Usually traditional POS is more stable as it’s already existed quite some time in the market
  • Still can work even in offline

 

Traditional POS System (disadvantage)

  • Only can access in the shop, the system cannot move around
  • You need to do a manual back-up, if not, once the hard-disk is corrupted you might retrieve any data from the POS System
  • You need call to respective dealer or HQ to do update

 

Cloud POS System (advantage)

  • Auto-Backup
  • Auto-Update
  • You can access anytime anywhere as long you have your mobile device (to view your sales and inventory level in real-time)
  • Installation is Simple and fast

Cloud POS System (disadvantage)

  • Yearly Subscription (cost is usually higher compare with traditional POS System)
  • You must have internet to use Cloud services, if not the data won’t sync or backup to the cloud

 

Do take note that not all of the Point of Sale System in the market able to do multi-store system (which mean HQ data link to branches, branches link back to HQ), but IRS Point of Sale System able to do that, including inventory, price, promotion package, and more! It can even set individually for each branch how much you want to sell.

And one more thing need to be highlighted, not all cloud POS system is run with tablet, but there is also window based cloud Point of Sale System in the market, such as Alaya (developed by IRS Software), when it comes to huge data analysis, is still the best to use PC because tablet is not powerful as PC in long-term-run, this is the main thing you need to know before you choose to pick up a tablet or pc based Point of Sale System.

 

What can a POS System do?

 

Overall, Point of Sale System play as a prominent role to run your daily sales because it can use for checkout purposes, stock count, link with accounting software, manage your customer information, staff attendance, commission scheme, generate reports, e-wallet integration, customer relationship management (CRM), based on different staff and position level, price group that differentiate between customer, member, VIP or even dealers.

These are quite useful compared to traditional cash registers, pick a great and modern POS system can help you to ease your tasks and create a work-life balance working environment for your employees. As additional tips, a lower grade or cheap POS system may cause you a lot of problems such as errors, hardware warranty issue, bad after-sales service, lag or hang during peak season, so make sure you find the right one that fits with your modules.

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What is the benefits and advantages of using a POS System?

 

There are many benefits to using a POS system, let’s start with the checkout process, during busy hours, there will be a long queue of people. The longer the waiting time, the more impatient your customers get, and that’s not a good thing for your business. A POS system speeds up the process, at the same time leaving your customers satisfied with the quick service.

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Point of Sale systems also help in inventory control. With the Point-of-Sale system, each product can be keyed into the system, so that it’s easier to keep track of them. A Point of Sale system lets you know how many items you have left when you check the data. Furthermore, it allows you to inform your customers if the products that they want are still available or any alternative product to avoid disappointments.

Secondly, by using an advance Point of Sale system, it will notify you when the stock level is low and is time to replenish your stock immediately, you can check the last-purchased records as well to simplify your workflow.

Thirdly, not all of the Point of Sale system has the function of matrix item management that can help you to differentiate item with color and size, expiry item management, serial number management, barcode management and promotion price setting.

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When you’re operating in retail, it’s important to find out who your loyal customers are. With the POS System, you can easily look for their details in the system, including their buying behavior at your store. What are the items that they buy, and what is their average spending at your store? With the Point-of-Sale system, you’ll know which customer to reward the next time they come and purchase at the store.

Not only that, but the salesperson can also directly know customer buying pattern and from there can predict which product is more suitable for them and meanwhile will increase the closing rate.

By the way, a good promotion or membership program can highly retain your customer and increase the chance to create an infinite purchase cycle for a business, which will generate healthy cash flow for the company itself.

If you’re looking for Point of Sale System that able to link with Autocount or SQL accounting software, IRS POS system is able to do that as well.

A POS system brings so many benefits to your business, so invest in one now for a booming business, or refer to this link if you want to know which is the best POS system for your current business.

 

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