Your Point of Sale System Checklist

 

 

A Restaurant Point of Sale system and/or a Retail Point of Sale system consists of 7 core components no matter what your business is. The system revolves around a PC running POS software with various supporting peripherals. Making sure you have all the right pieces in your system will ensure that you are getting its full potential.

 

•  Point of Sale Software (POS) – The software is the brains of any POS system, and making sure you use one that fits your business type is crucial. Some applications can be industry specific, like restaurant POS, with features not found in others, while others can be customized to fit your needs. Choosing POS software ultimately comes down to how many lanes and stores you will want connected to each other and the type of business you have.

• TouchScreen PC– A PC is where everything comes together in a POS system. Many businesses can use a standard PC as long as it meets the memory and processor requirements of the POS software and provides the needed USB ports for all the peripherals. There are also POS-specific PCs that offer sealed cases or low power operation as well as all-in-one units with integrated touchscreens and card readers to take up less space.

• Displays – At the very least, you’ll need a basic monitor at your POS to see what you’re doing. Touchscreens have become a more popular and affordable option these days since they are a user- friendly option that can help speed up the checkout process. Adding customer-facing and pole displays will offer a clearer customer experience and are a great way to promote special offers to customers while they are in line.

• Barcode Scanner – Scanners are a crucial part of every POS system to quickly enter items and speed up the check-out process. The standard laser scanner will read all the UPC codes on products but with the expanding need for age verification, couponing, and loyalty card scanning, 2D scanners have become more commonplace. Many scanners have a handheld form factor but for POS, you can take advantage of in-counter and presentation devices for even faster, hands free reading and even shorter lines!

• Receipt Printer – Every transaction ends with a receipt for the customer. Having a printer go down is one of the most crippling things to any POS system. Making sure you have a printer that’ll support your print volume and is easy to use is essential. Most printers are thermal based so you don’t even have to deal with ribbon cartridges anymore. Just load the paper and you are back up and running! Whatever your receipt size or type requirements are, there’s a printer to fit your needs.

• Magnetic Strip Reader – The prevalence of credit and debit card payments today means supporting them is a must for any business. When you consider that customers spend more on average when using plastic over cash, can you afford to not use them? With the addition of the right reader/terminal, you can be taking safe, secure payments for every transaction.

• Cash Drawer – They may be the simplest peripheral in a POS system, but cash drawers are still an essential part of your system. You need to have a secure place to keep cash, checks, and credit card receipts. Choosing a durable unit that will interface with your system easily will ensure the longest life from your drawer.

• Extensions of your POS All the daily tasks involved in running a successful retail business go beyond just processing transactions. Inventory management, product re-labeling, and customer support are also big parts of the picture. While the core components of a POS system are at the check-out station, there are additional devices that will help extend the efficiency and usefulness of your POS. 

• Label Printer – Though many of the products you’ll be scanning will probably have barcode labels on them, there will be times when these labels are damaged/un- readable. Also, shelves and locations in your store can benefit from barcode labels, especially when managing inventory. In either case, labels are commonplace at any retail store. As a result, having a dedicated label printer on hand will ensure you can make durable, long-lasting labels for any use. The great thing about software based POS systems is that many of them already support barcode label printing out of the box.

• Mobile Device - The prominent use for a mobile computer in a POS system is for basic inventory collecting. You’ll have sales data of what inventory you should have on hand, but you’ll also want to confirm what is actually on the sales floor as well. A mobile computer makes it easy to scan all you items with quantities to make sure you don’t have any shrinkage issues. Likewise, when you restock the shelves, you can quickly scan the items to update your POS system inventory. These devices can also be used by sales reps on the floor for stock look-ups for customers or even line-busting during your busy seasons. Given their flexibility, mobile computers can be used for a variety of tasks on the move in your business.

• Digital Signage / Kiosk – They may not be the most common part of a POS system, but kiosks are a great tool to assist your customers during their shopping experience. In the past, kiosks were custom made and were generally reserved for special applications only. Today there are several ready-made kiosk devices that have integrated scanners and network connectivity. They can be used as price checkers, gift registries, or product look up stations on your sales floor. A kiosk can even direct a customer to other store locations that have stock of the item they are looking for. The uses for a kiosk are really only limited by the software running on it.