How to Integrate Your POS with Your Website
When you’re in charge of running a business, you don’t need the extra hassle of keeping track of both your brick and mortar store and your website. What most business people need, in order to stay sane, is a POS system with a website integration that allows you to sync up all your orders, transactions, and stock-takes.
Read more to find out how you can take control of your business by using an integration to link your POS and online store.
What is a POS?
A point of sale (POS) device is an electronic system (also refer as EPOS) that allows you to take payments quickly and efficiently. A point of sale could be anything, from a cash register to an incredibly sophisticated cloud-based system.
While analog systems are still used here and there, most point of sale systems are completely electronic and digital these days. It’s now incredibly affordable to purchase a quality POS system these days. Just take a look at our systems page to see for yourself!
A good POS won’t just record transaction information. It will be able to generate detailed reports in response to input data. This affords owners and managers more insight into their business, allowing them to make actionable changes to increase revenues and cut costs.
Your EPOS system should come with lots of different hardware, like:
- Receipt printer
- Tablet
- Barcode scanner
- PDQ
- Cash drawer
Many people opt for more portable POS options, such as the Epos Now Payments Pro+, which allows mobile entrepreneurs to operate their businesses through a POS that fits in the palm of their hand.
You can even customize your POS with lots of different apps, features, and integrations.
What is a POS integration?
A POS integration is a piece of software that works on your main tabletop or handheld POS system. These integrations usually take the form of popular apps that are used by thousands of businesses around the world. These can include popular apps such as:
Most apps are used on a computer like a PC or a Mac. However, many POS systems can operate these apps on their systems, often using tweaked software, interfaces, and functions. This is done to ensure that business owners have all the tools they need in one place to get the job done.
Epos Now’s systems, for example, support hundreds of third-party apps through our AppStore. Without these integrations, business owners would need to jump back and forth between computers and POS systems, unable to automate the most basic of tasks, such as calculating taxes, updating stock, scheduling rotas. All these tasks take up time from the business owner, keeping them from doing the important work of keeping their business afloat.
What is a website?
If you’re visiting the page, you probably already know what a website is! But for those interested in a strict definition, a website is a set of related web pages located under a single domain name, typically produced by a single person or organization. A website is designed to convey information to a specific user/audience, or to provide a particular service to the user.
If you’re on this page, you’re probably a business owner and are already using a website for your business, or a are looking to develop one.
Most business owners these days use ecommerce sites to move their products. In a digital age, electronic operations are becoming ever more important for moving products and promoting services.
So, if you’re a retail business with a great ecommerce operation, you’ll need a POS integration that will sync up your physical and digital sales so that you know how your trade is going.
Can I integrate my POS system with my website?
The short answer is yes! There are any number of applications that will help you sync your physical and digital sales.
One of Epos Now’s most popular integrations is with Shopify. Shopify is one of the world's largest ecommerce platforms and gives you everything you need to start a website and trade online. Paired with the Epos Now Point of Sale system, you will get easy stock management, powerful sales data and business reports from a centralised location. Products, orders, inventory and customer data sync between the systems quickly, giving you accurate oversight in real-time.
With Shopify, you can:
- Enjoy smooth data transfer: Sync your inventory in real time, online and in-store.
- Automate integrity checks: Avoid potential online scams and check customer integrity with Spotify’s security tools.
- Simplify tax collection: Shopify automatically adds applicable taxes to help keep your business compliant.
- Sync website based on POS data: Automatically update your website based on your POS data, or update your POS based on website purchases.
- Take advantage of reports: Identify best-selling products and monitor page performance.
Another great option is Woocommerce. WooCommerce is the world’s most popular open-source ecommerce platform. Open-source gives you ultimate flexibility, control and ownership of your store’s design, content and data. Whether you’re bringing your current physical store online or launching a new business, WooCommerce has all the tools you need in one place.
With Woocommerce, you can:
- Connect your online and offline stores: Track payments, orders, and inventory across online and physical locations.
- Accept payments around the globe: Accept a range of payment options, opening up opportunities around the world, with over 100 payment gateways available.
- Manage stock: Any stock changes are synced in minutes, preventing over-selling and under-stocking.
- Blend data: Merge your Epos Now data and Woocommerce data to create brand experiences customers want to connect with.
- Auto-print online orders: Take orders on your website and send them directly to your Kitchen Display System.
Take your business to the next level with an Epos Now POS system
Epos Now offers state-of-the-art POS systems for retail and hospitality businesses. We let you choose the tools and insights to help your business achieve its goals. Designed to work as a complete business management system, you can control all vital aspects of your company from one cloud-based system.
Receive detailed analysis on the areas that matter to your business:
- Review profitability reports based on individual product performance, trending items, best and worst sellers, and employee sales
- View sales analyses on profit margin, cash flow, and other expenses
- Review reports on peak times for better staff scheduling and floorplan management
- Access multi-award-winning inventory management systems that sync online sales and in-person sales for the most up-to-date stock levels
- Automate stock purchasing so you never miss a sales opportunity
- Integrate with the business automation apps that are right for your business
- Table management and booking system integrations available for an optimised service
If you’d like to learn more about our industry-leading software, request a free callback with one of our experts.