An EPOS system is one of the most crucial investments for every business. You may be asking, “What is EPOS?” It’s an abbreviation of Electronic Point of Sale.
This system can be used for almost all aspects of your company from accounting, finance, and even customer relationship management.
It is comprised of hardware and software that work together to help your business operations become more efficient. Standard functions for the software enables you to process customer orders, record sales, as well as update stock levels and prices. Meanwhile, EPOS peripherals such as the terminal screen, cash drawer, receipt printer, barcode scanner, and PDQ terminal, which is used for accepting credit card payments, support the software.
If you’re still hesitating on whether or not to buy one, here are a few reasons why businesses should have an EPOS system:
1. Increased Productivity
Unlike traditional POS systems, which are slower, the electronic upgrade stores all your business’ data into a central server, whether in-store or on the cloud. This practice makes it faster and easier to retrieve the information you need from the system.
Thus, it increases productivity because your employees no longer have to spend so much time in finding and completing the right information needed for each transaction. If you run an e-commerce store, it may also be a way to increase online sales.
2. More Accurate Reports
EPOS systems give you the ability to track and monitor sales, pricing, and inventory, as well as store all the data for each transaction. All this information is crucial when it’s time to plan for the future or forecast the budget you need to surpass this month or year’s performance.
It’s imperative that you have accurate reports so that you can get correct projections for your company’s financial state. An EPOS system not only gives you the right data; you can also generate customizable reports to fit your needs.
These are some of the reports that you can produce through an EPOS system:
– Number of sales
– Sales values including their mean, median, and mode
– Current amount of stocks
– Inventory changes
– Number of transactions done through promos
– Customer loyalty statistics
– Popular products
Additionally, you can also gain new insights into the performance of your business by viewing the relationships between variables such as:
– Pricing effectiveness
– Promotional and advertising effectiveness
– Sales statistics filtered by employee or department
– Most and least profitable merchandise
3. Faster Transactions with Fewer Mistakes
EPOS systems make the lives of everyone around them faster and more efficient. Employees simply need to scan the barcode of an item, click on a few buttons on the screen, and receive the money from the customer to complete the transaction. No more encoding the barcode or calculating the total cost manually, which reduces errors due to oversight or incorrect pricing.
Customers, on the other hand, won’t have to wait long to finish their errands in your store. Plus, they are assured that they’ll be charged with the correct amount and receive the right change as well.
4. Automated Updates
Gone are the days when you have to assign employees to count the number of stocks in the store and warehouse, place a price tag on them, and update your documents, which were typically paper files, for the changes. While you still need to take note of how many products the supplier sent to your store, updating the inventory and prices for each item only takes a few clicks on the central database with EPOS systems. End-of-day reporting is now a breeze because the system tracks each transaction and automatically updates the inventory in real-time.
5. Accountability
This system enables business owners to monitor and review the activity done by their staff on the machine. It’s an excellent way of identifying who are your strongest salespeople and reward them accordingly. Meanwhile, you can also spot the ones who are lagging behind or, worse, are involved in unusual or suspicious activity.
6. Future-Proofing
An EPOS system helps you scale your business into new heights. Gaining new insights through accurate reporting gives you the power to take your company’s future by the reins and maneuver it to where you see fit. Moreover, because of more straightforward record-keeping and data entry, adding new products or building more store locations is no longer a massive hurdle to your enterprise’s growth.
Conclusion
An EPOS system is beneficial to any business because of how it streamlines the processes and makes it convenient for your employees to complete the sales transaction of each customer. It improves productivity and has the capacity to store all your data so that you can retrieve it quickly once you need it for expansion.