The Top 3 Questions To Ask Yourself Before Choosing A POS System
In this day and age, your POS system is more than just a machine to process transactions.
As a small business owner, you’d want a POS system that will streamline your operations for higher profit margin and can do more than just processing transactions.
The big question is – how do you find one that fits your business needs? You’re probably considering a few options, but choosing the perfect one is proving to be quite the challenge. Here are 5 critical questions that you should be asking when making a decision about your POS system.
1. What business pains do I or will I face?
If you’re considering switching out your POS system, it is vital to identify your current pain points, to make sure that the new POS system that you’re considering can help you solve them.
A good idea is to map out your operational flow, and list down the feature requirements.
If you run an ice cream shop or any quick-serve business, a quick check-out flow is necessary to prevent losing sales due to the long waiting time. If you are a vape retailer or any retailer for that matter, you need to know when and how you will be notified of low stock levels.
There are varying needs in each business industry.
For e.g. in laundry shops, it is very important for the POS system to be able to track each cleaning order that will be picked up at a later time.
What you should know is that POS Systems are no longer only used to process transactions.
Now, they can help you with inventory management, customer management, employee management, and analytics for decision-making. You will need to ask yourself if you are merely looking for a high-end cash register, or an advanced system with smart inventory management, customised promotions, and sophisticated reports.
It’s your call.
2. What’s my POS system budget?
Before you write down your available budget, consider this: a savvy consumer examines the value of a product (as measured by return on investment), rather than thinking in absolute price.
Sure, products do not have to be expensive to be good, but you should never buy on price alone. Resist the temptation of trying to save money with cheap hardware.
You will end up paying more when it doesn’t work.
So…
Traditional POS system…
…or an iPad POS?
You have the option of getting a POS system one-off, or paying by subscription.
The major difference between these two pricing models are feature updates: Subscription-based systems offer updates and bug fixes for free while a one-off system may incur a hefty charge for updates. If you would like your software to run on newest versions, this is a point of comparison that you will have to consider.
As a note, iPad or tablet-based POS systems usually have the option of paying by subscription. Learn the other advantages of the iPad POS system.
3. What are my growth plans for my business?
You may have expansion plans for your business.
Let’s say your cafe business will expand to five outlets by the second year.
With five outlets under your care, you need to keep an eye for the sales performance of all 5 stores, add in new hardware and registers, train new employees, etc..
Can your POS system handle the growth?
Realistically speaking, the current size of your business is your prime focus and for a business starting out, you will be starting small. With that said, do not neglect your future growth plans.
The features you need from your POS system grow as you add in more outlets and it is a hassle to migrate your business information from one POS system to another.
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