What to look for in a POS system

What to look for in a POS system

The LO Retail forum invites members to answer an online question each month.
Investing in a point-of-sale system is a big leap. The systems today are versatile and garden-centre specific, but there are so many bells and whistles, that knowing what is and isn’t useful can be a valuable time-saver. This month’s question is designed to help those shopping for a POS system know what to look for.
Thanks to those who replied to this month’s question. Interestingly, there were more replies from retailers without POS systems looking forward to reading the answers.
What three things do you like about your POS system? What are the three things you wish it did? What do you want to know about POS?

Perry Grobe of Grobe's Nursery and Garden Centre, Breslau:
Things I like:
1) Gives us closer control on how much inventory is on hand and assists in placing orders as we can see what was purchased, by whom, for how much, and how much of it left (if any).
2) Able to project future sales based on previous year's data and give us some sense of how we are doing.
3) Able to identify dollar value of customer purchases (to know who your best customers are).
4) Fewer staff required to put transactions through the till as it is more efficient, and it is very easy to get cashier staff up to speed quickly.
5) Able to identify slower moving items so that they can be discounted if necessary.

In truth, it does what we originally purchased it to do. It keeps careful watch on our inventory, on our purchases, and on our sales. The things that I wish it would do would largely be addressed with an updated system, should we choose to upgrade it.

Shannon Lindensmith, Georgina Garden Centre, Keswick:
Things we like about our POS system
1)     Real time sales info
2)     Sales reports throughout the year – easily accessible
3)     Being able to collect and analyze customer info

Things we wish it did
1)     Generate specific reports easier – too many hoops to jump through for some things
2)     More specific search criteria – whether that is to search for customers, reports, or sales
3)     Easier way to put product on sale (we have to go through each individual item – it would be easier if you could have a check list of what you’d like to put on sale and change them all at once)