How to increase sales with modern point of sales systems

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Typically, point of sale systems have been used to simply reduce operating costs and increase margin. The system itself has been a means to the end of the sale. It makes simple tasks even easier and speeds up the entire process but adds nothing substantial to the sale. Today, modern systems offer additional features to help clerks to increase their sales and customer reach by providing new and helpful services to consumers.

New inventory systems and networking through a company wide intranet allows retailers to find exactly what the customer wants by checking other stores within the company or potential future shipments. The customer can find exactly what they need from another state in any store, ensuring that they make a purchase nearly every time they enter. The new potential that comes with modern point of sale systems is virtually unlimited. Retailers will enjoy the steadily increasing return on investment that comes with the increasing sales per customer and transaction.

The potential new features with next generation systems are endless, and many retailers opt to pay a little more for specialized functions. For example, many stores now use store specific customer loyalty programs to keep track of customer purchase patterns and other factors. New systems can retain customer purchases while also recommending similar items the guest may like, or print out coupons for favorite items to influence repeat purchases.

Some systems also give the clerks suggestive prompts to emphasize new services or products that are important for the company to push at that time, such as a new in-store credit program or for register area up-sale items. Receipts can also print similar messages, reminding guests of new store services or upcoming sales.

Also, by being able to ring up gift cards, returns, and other different services than normal on the same system, operating margin is cut down and only one system is necessary store-wide.