POS Software is the modern form of the Cash Register kept at the cash counter of shops, restaurants, and hotels. Till a few years, the concept of chain retails, wholesale and, restaurants were not as popular as they are now.
They had their own share of difficulties and confusion in managing the stock and data. Though people from the old school were initially reluctant to budge from their books and bills, technology succeeded in invading the retail chain. With the internet getting so popular and common, the network of retail got easier to connect and manage. POS software systems are now the heart of retail chains.
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Definition of POS Software Systems
POS is for Point of Sales, this software manages all operations in the actual point of sales which is a retail or wholesale shop. With most of the big players in the retail and wholesale chain adapting ERP systems, POS software systems have become a mandatory requirement for a retail & wholesale business. Though they work similarly, the POS software for wholesale differs slightly from the retail counterpart.
The main difference is the integration with a warehouse management system which is mandatory for a wholesale that deals with a huge quantity of items. For wholesale, sales is done by delivering the orders. Whereas for retail the customer checks a product and decides to buy it when they visit the shop or store.
Hence, the wholesale POS will have a facility to input bulk orders and automation when the order is confirmed.
When it comes to retail, the requirements differ slightly, for instance, the wholesale POS requires handling the huge volume of data and the retail POS needs to be quick and robust.
Cloud POS for retail needs to be integrated with accounting and employees required for the wholesale counterpart too. The wholesale customers are usually regular customers who may not visit the store for purchase.
Depending on their rapport with the wholesaler, they send a rough requirement against which the wholesaler sends some samples. Once the samples and the rates are approved, the bulk order is confirmed. In retail, importance is given more for quick processing as the customers are not so regular and the requirement is immediate.
How This POS Software Works
POS software systems are integrated with a touch-enabled screen for data entry, a bar code reader, a bill printer, a cash register and a card reader or a swiping machine. All these equipment work together at the sales counter to effect the sale and print a bill. The back-end server installed at the store will have options for stock entry, employee attendance, customer data and for managing other administrative jobs such as system backups. Earlier, every retail store required to have a client installation of the ERP software and daily batch updates would be made to the main server. This required each store to maintain a server, an administrator and a network administrator to manage the server and data network.
System upgrades were very tedious, as each store in the retail chain has to be compliant with the changes for the batch updates to work accurately. With cloud ERP, this major issue has been effectively resolved. The workstations are connected to the cloud ERP which processes the bills and the data is centralized, simplifying the purchasing process. The management can easily find out the stores that are faring well and those not. Any discrepancies can be recognized and sorted out easily. With cloud ERP getting more popular, mobile ERP has also gained attention. Cloud POS can be compatible with a tablet or a mobile device which can access the cloud ERP to fetch and post the sales data.
The Pros and Cons or Cloud ERP for POS software
As every coin has two sides, so does the cloud POS. Before deciding on implementing a cloud POS these are the following points you should consider:
- The implementation cost for cloud ERP is lower than on-premise ERP.
- With cloud implementation, a mobile POS can also be set up. This is a very important aspect of the changing trends in sales. Mobile implementations will come in handy with Kiosks. Temporary stalls at fairs and exhibitions and when the client does home-to-home sales as an introductory or marketing campaign.
- Inventory and customer data are stored centrally which management can access to check on the stock levels.
- Upgrades are easier to install in cloud ERP, without affecting the functioning of the retail stores, which is very important.
- Network data is a crucial factor in cloud ERPs. The retail chain needs to invest on a dedicated network for its chain of stores to connect to the cloud ERP or else the data retrieval, processing, and storage can become extremely slow. If the billing becomes slow, customers will not wait. This is a big issue with cloud ERPs.
- If the cloud service provider has some issues it affects all the stores in billing.
- Data storage will be much more secure when using conventional ERP. If a Cloud-based ERP software provider has data-related issues, this could affect all the stores integrated by the retail business, as all the stores share the same data.
- Corporations can consider switching costs while moving to cloud POS from the conventional system. For smaller retail chains it may not be very feasible to upgrade to the cloud. For large retail chains, the upgradation is usually cost-effective.
Conclusion
The rapid development of technology and business makes a business or retail need a POS system. POS systems have enormous benefits for retail and wholesale businesses. POS is able to manage retail business sales automatically. Furthermore, POS can record every transaction that occurs in real-time. Companies can assess how the company is performing at any time.
HashMicro is the best POS software in Singapore, which provides integrated POS software from the frontline to the kitchen. Additionally, POS from HashMicro can also record sales transactions automatically. HashMicro’s POS is also capable of managing dozens of retail business branches with one integrated system. Get the free demo now and boost your retail business with HashMicro’s POS system now!
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