A POS system, also known as a
point-of-purchase system, is composed of two main parts: software, and
hardware. Due to the diversity of the retail industry, different POS
system features are required for different types of retailers. In
assessing these features, the following have emerged as the best
practices core components, or must-have features, regardless of the
intended application of the POS system. Salon & Spa 8 includes all of
the core components plus many other features used by the Salon and Spa
industry.
Core Areas of POS System Software
The transaction management
component includes all the information required to complete a
transaction. This component should capture key transaction data,
such as sales, sales cancellations, voids, refunds, purchase of gift
certificates, service transactions, creation of special
orders, and the like. The transaction management component should
validate item information, automatically calculate the total
purchase amount, and process the payments. This enables staff to give their full attention to properly serving the
customer, since processing a sale would then only require them to
scan in the barcode and to ask the method of payment.
The price management component
allows a store manager or store employee to modify the retail price
of an item. POS systems should allow modification of a retail price
for different reasons, such as discounts on damaged items, discounts
after negotiations, or competitive price matching.
The register management component
includes processes for cash opening procedures, cash closing
procedures, and cash balancing procedures. Moreover, this module
consists of the management of register opening funds, paid-in
transactions, paid-out transactions, tenders, currencies, and taxes.
Register management should track the cash flow within the business
day, and should flag any unusual events. This enables a store
manager to monitor and reduce employee theft.
The inventory management component
includes physical inventory procedures, and
inventory adjustments. This ensures that the store’s inventory is up
to date. It also helps employees to have accurate information about the quantity on
hand, this component allows employees to close sales and to increase
customer service and satisfaction.
The customer relationship
management (CRM) component has the functionality to manage customer
interactions, customer sales histories, customer contact
information, customer preferences, customer characteristics,
customer loyalty programs, and so forth. For a retailer, customer
purchases are the most important avenue of revenue. To make things
more challenging, today’s customers are more educated, more
skeptical, and more demanding than before. With the advent of the
Internet, price transparency has become a major threat to retailers.
Thus, offering a personalized service to customers is crucial.
Having a good CRM module which tracks customer behavior and
preferences will ensure healthy relationships.
Store employees use this component
daily, to extract information on inventory, sales summaries, or
commissions (if applicable). Reports and inquiries enable
organizations to analyze the performance of the store by day, by
week, by month, or even by year. It also shows the performance of
items on numerous levels (such as color, dimension, size,
characteristics, or attributes). Reports and inquiries also allow
store managers to identify anomalies and to take corrective action
if necessary. Reports and inquiries are widely used to obtain loss
and prevention information.
The purchase order feature enables
buyers to communicate a purchase to vendors, and to receive the
goods ordered.
The price change feature is used
to manage the retail (selling) price of goods. This feature can
offer tools for lowering or raising the retail price. A POS price
change component allows permanent or temporary markdowns and
markups.
POS Hardware
As mentioned earlier, a POS System is composed of software and
hardware components.
The devices in a computer based POS hardware system typically include
a monitor, a cash drawer, a keyboard, a mouse, a receipt printer, and
sometimes a barcode scanner. Compared to the cash register, a computer
based POS system allows retailers to compute more extensive sales
analysis, track “hot items,” or track customer preferences, all with
only a few clicks.
More
on using POS Hardware with Salon & Spa.....
