How Can Retail POS Systems Help to Increase my Profits?

Choosing whether to purchase a POS for your store is one of the most significant decisions you have to make. It is reasonable to wonder whether the business will recoup this expenditure. So the question that any business owner will ask before buying a POS system is: “How can it boost my profits?”

Profit calculation

The computer age has seen a worldwide explosion of data collection as technology has naturally incorporated the storage of information. From Google search data to traffic information, all the way to the data about your health stored in your Fitbit, using technology to gain the knowledge you require to excel in business has become the norm. Tills in Shops without POS are running blind when compared to the competition.

Profit calculation on a good system is not merely a cost price/sale price sum. Epos Now reports will factor in taxes on purchase and sale, stock shrinkage (in its many forms), and losses from discounts and promotions. The software will then provide a profit margin in percentage and cash forms.

Using these reports, not only can you calculate where you’re missing your target markup, but you can also see the reason why. You can then determine whether you need to risk a price rise, or if you can reach the target markup by working to reduce shrinkage or removing the product from a promotion line.

Sales reports at their best

Quantity sold, dates and times of sales, void figures and data on which employees are making sales all provide further information on why a product is or isn’t making money and can help you make the best decisions.

If the quantity sold and expected profit is high, the product will seem to have good potential and you’ll know to keep digging to find out where money is being lost.

The days and times that a product is being sold may indicate that a product should perhaps become seasonal, and can be archived during winter or summer months to avoid becoming an unprofitable line for the weaker part of the year.

Employee sales information is also invaluable. POS reports may indicate that some employees simply have better sales skills for certain products, telling you that pushing greater communication between staff about those products may help the rest of the team boost sales on an underperformer.

Stock that right now!

Epos Now’s reports are extensive, including divisible categories on customers, sales, accounting, banking and transaction records. 

But some of the most popular reports for retailers are stock reports. These include current stock levels with details on stock on order and stock value. There are also stock discrepancy reports, stock history, a dedicated non-selling stock page, and a stock margin comparison page. In short, a mountain of information to ensure you invest in stock that flies off the shelf and into a customer’s basket.

Retailers also rely heavily on Epos Now’s stock alert feature. Once you’ve used your reports to get stock turning over quickly, you’ll soon find yourself with rows of empty shelves. As a manager of a business, the stress involved in monitoring stock levels is significant, and worries over staff failing to notice or report the gaping hole on the middle shelf is commonplace.

But with Epos Now, each product can be given a minimum stock level. Each morning, you will then receive an email containing a list of every product below that threshold for you to reorder, leaving you free for the rest of the day to focus on boosting profits for the entire business.

Service at speed

While POS reports provide businesses with detailed data, the front till software also has many exclusive features and benefits that provide personalisation, safety for your money and data, as well as queue-cutting speed of service.

All POS systems have hotkey features, allowing you to place buttons immediately in view for certain products. Epos Now provide an automatic top-sellers hotkey feature, so the products you sell most automatically appear on your front screen, so even the act of scanning barcodes becomes redundant.

Hotkeys and product categories can be colour-coordinated and placed in specific orders so that staff will instinctively know where products are on the till. Product information can be attached to these hotkeys so staff can easily answer customer queries. Search functions are available for those awkward products without barcodes to scan.

The flexibility of the till software and the hardware available allows you liberating control over how transactions take place. mPOS (mobile point of sale) devices can allow roaming staff to walk the floors with customers for a more intimate experience; integrated card machines can sit the other side of protective shields for covid safety or be carried around the shop.

But the software itself can also access customer information for quick and easy credit functions, loyalty schemes, self-created tender options for your payments, and miscellaneous product features for those irregular transactions.

Epos Now also allows you to decide which information you require on an EOD printout. From category sales, employee sales, to tax and credit information, you decide what you want to see when you close for the day.

These kinds of features demonstrate that POS systems boost your profits. POS gives you the freedom to shape the very core of your business and fit the business model you imagined when you began the enterprise. It helps you adjust your practices to streamline service in response to difficulties you encounter as you trade.

A whole new world of retail

POS has become essential for retailers in recent years not only for its practical in-store benefits but because it is now the easiest way for businesses to access the online market. More and more small businesses are joining the eCommerce bandwagon and are setting up with Shopify or establishing websites using web builders to create their online stores.

For convenience stores, this may help provide a delivery service. But for clothing and specialist stores, this means access to a potentially global market and unlocks the possibility of growth in a way older systems could not even imagine.

A hive of knowledge and experience 

Anyone will tell you that the more time you spend in business, the more “tricks of the trade” you accumulate, and the quicker you spot the missteps and mistakes before they get made.  

A new Epos Now system can get you that experience. When you join, you gain access to the expert advice and assistance of a service team with over a decade of experience in advising retailers on how to grow. You also enter the Epos Now community, with forums chock full of other retailers reporting on which features they used in their stores, and the different results they observed.

The Epos Now community is one full of businesses pushing to be the best. With guides on everything from implementing your online store to fixing your printer, the POS community strives to ensure that any of your profit-draining problems are either prevented or repaired before they cost you valuable time and money.

Purchase and profit, all in one go!

 Get in touch with an expert to talk about Epos Now’s ways of increasing your profits by calling 07 3053 8473 for:

• Time-saving software for inputting and stocking products
• A range of first-rate hardware options for your shop
• Card processing integrations and a huge selection of apps to tailor your setup
• Website builders and platforms for the online market
• 24/7 support and advice for perfecting your POS account