An EPOS System works by streamlining your existing retail management systems by connecting the back-office to the shop floor operations. This partnership between hardware and software has revolutionised the realms of retail management as it optimises everything from the processing of customer transactions to marketing initiatives.

Over the years we have witnessed EPOS Technology improve and evolve dramatically, owing to the technological advancements that has managed to integrate within itself. These powerful systems used to be limited to the basic tasks of inventory, cash management, and sales, but evolution has resulted in them transforming into machines with limits that are boundless. The efficiency that results as a consequence of adopting these systems is well and truly a godsend, especially for small business retailers. A convenience store EPOS System has the ability to optimise all your retail processes on one screen, saving you countless hours and shielding your business from the plague of human error.

Whether you’re an existing EPOS user considering an upgrade, or a new business owner looking to optimise your business by integrating one for the very first time, it pays to know the benefits on offer to help you form a more educated decision.

Customer Experience

Times have changed and people just don’t have enough hours in their day, so they wish to get everything fast, in comes your EPOS to give them just that. These systems are efficient and designed to enhance the customer experience. The improved scanning systems enable you to process sales much quicker than was considered possible, coupled with a friendly touch-screen terminal that makes life a breeze for the user as well, adds up to become a win-win for both parties involved.

In addition to just having faster sales processing, customers want their entire experience to be sped up, to which end they demand complete and accurate information regarding the availability of certain products they wish to acquire. In typical cases, this would require employees to scramble their brains in order to remember whether it is available or have to go and physically check the inventory. That is a hassle no more. Your EPOS system holds real-time inventory which you can simply check for by the mere click of a button. You perform a stock check without having to leave the customer. Now that is quality service. In the case that you don’t have a particular product in-store, you can simply order it from your supplier by clicking a button on your terminal and let the customer know when it shall be in. The system ensures that you do not miss an opportunity to make a sale, ultimately increasing your overall profits.

Card Payments

Modern technology has advanced to the point that cash seems to have become more or less redundant. The number of payment cards issued was recorded at 162.5m, in 2018, for the UK which is more than twice the size of the actual population. This brings into perspective the volume shift the drastic shift away from the use of cash. So now in order to entertain these customers, your business must be equipped with the technology that would allow you to receive payments from cards.

Sales Analysis Reports

In order to perfectly optimise your store and manage your business well, you need information that allows you to garner insight into the financial situation of your store, and provides you actionable data that allows you to paint a more vivid picture. This data has the ability to show you trends and make you pinpoint things that can be changed to improve your overall profits per store.

Modern EPOS systems provide a comprehensive array of reports that inform you about every aspect of your store, and in great detail too. For instance, they have the capability of providing you an analysis of sales filtered by options such as product, employee, an hour, or even category. This gives you a wholesome viewing of the workings of your operations without the need of being present or going through the hassle of manual collecting the data. Real-time sales reports allow you to make more educated staffing decisions by analysing the traffic in your store at certain periods of the day, saving you a hefty amount on costs.

Staff Management

Elaborating upon the last point in the aforementioned paragraph, we find the various features that allow you to better manage your staffing requirements. The new EPOS systems have built-in functionality that enables you to manage and monitor the rotas and schedules.

This works through assigning each member of staff with a key card that they are required to scan to give them access to the system. This gives you information about all the sales made by individual members and it also allows you to calculate the hours worked which you can use to set an automated payment system. In this way, any absences and punctuality issues can be marked along with the performance of sales. So if an employee starts slacking, the system will give you more than enough evidence to question him, ultimately allowing you to maintain your store in the most optimised position.

Cash Management

As every small and medium-sized business owner agrees, every penny counts. This accentuates the necessity of an accurate system that keeps account of every penny to avoid any end of the day surprises. These reports can be generated at any time of the day, making you aware of the amount of cash in each drawer. This enables you to perform random checks to reconcile the amounts in your cash drawers, making you aware of any potential fraud or poor staff performance.

At the end of the day, the cash can be reconciled against the recorded sales reports, highlighting any potential shortages and overages that might have been the case for any particular register. Another very fundamental and practical benefit of this system is that it allows you to reduce the excessive build-up of cash, which can become a risk and liability in some cases. Using the Cash-Lift functionality, you can just take that money out, put it in a safe, and let the system know how much you took out. This way, you mitigate much of the risk from potential staff fraud or any other forms of activity that may put your earnings at risk.

Inventory management

An EPOS system is a real-time link between your inventory and shop-floor sales. This means that every purchase is instantly recorded as a deduction in your existing inventory. Saving you countless labour hours always recording manually and tallying with the existing stock. Though, monthly stock checks would make it possible to detect any theft or mismanagement that may take place. Saving you money in the form of these indirect costs as well.

Most systems, such as our MPOS are linked with suppliers, allowing you to make orders on the click of a button. You can even automate the process by setting a predetermined level of stock you would always like to maintain.

The EPOS system ultimately keeps check of all movement of products, whether it be a sale or any wastage, painting an accurate picture of the levels of your inventory, which can be interpreted as actionable data to bring in a certain product, or even reducing your purchases for certain others.

Marketing Campaigns

The vast array of reports do not serve the singular purpose of representing the workings of your store. But with a good sense of the insights, you are able to use the data to zero in on trends that would allow you to tailor marketing campaigns based on the data. For instance, the data shows you that a certain product isn’t really making the rounds at the till and you have an inventory begging to be used. In this case, you are given the opportunity to launch a promotion and create vouchers to incentivise your customers to make the purchase.

You can collect contact information of all your customers and use that constructed database to communicate all your promotions and special products.

This database also contributes in the manner of allowing you to realise specific customer buying habits, an insight that would ultimately allow you to create tailored campaigns that your customers would be most receptive towards. Most small businesses are even going down the route of incorporating CRM software with their existing database. Incorporating both units serves to compensate for a common paint point which is generally the costs involved with in house marketing, such as printing, labour, and postage. In essence, your EPOS system becomes the engine that drives all your marketing campaigns that ultimately serve to surge your profits.

Questions?

If you have any questions about EPOS systems or wish to find the best EPOS system for your own business, get in touch with our support team by calling 0800 242 5360. They would be more than happy to help you with any inquiries you may have and will even elaborate upon the benefits that an EPOS system would afford your specific business.