When you decided to pursue your passion, take a risk, and start a business, you probably didn’t sign up to enter transaction data into an Excel sheet every day. Thanks to the organizational power of modern Point of Sale (POS) systems, the boring– but important–minutiae can happen in the background, freeing up your day for more important work.
POS system companies are constantly improving the technology, designing POS software to perform specific functions for each unique industry. Most businesses can fit into one of three industry types: retail, food service, and hospitality. POS systems are designed to fit the business model of one of these three camps, providing business owners and their employees with time-saving organizational functionality.
Whether you specialize in selling vinyl records, slinging pizzas, or swinging a golf club, your business can benefit from a customized POS system.
Universal Features
Before we break down what a POS system can do for each of the three industry types, there are some universal functionalities that every POS system should feature. Regardless of your industry type, you’ll want your POS system to be able to:
- Organize Inventory: POS systems allow you to build your custom inventory and apply price points to your various products and services.
- Record Transactions: POS systems keep track of transactions, information that can be later used to run analytics and gain helpful insights.
- Process Payments: Many POS systems will allow you to accept cash, credit card, debit card, or other forms of digital payment (such as Google Pay).
- Run Data Analytics and Provide Insights: Many systems provide analytical tools to help you analyze past transactions so you can better predict your future needs and identify growth opportunities.
- Manage Employees: Most POS systems will include time card software, making it all the easier to organize employee hours and paychecks.
- Provide Customer Relationships Management (CRM): If you collect some basic identifying information about your customer base, your POS system can use this information to provide helpful marketing analytics and tools.
These basic features mean that–no matter what kind of business you run–almost every POS system will have the functions you need to get started. That said, the best POS system will be customizable and optimized for your business’ specific needs through industry-specific features.
Retail Specialists
Retail is all about the product. As a retailer, you want your POS system to organize your inventory to a tee, make it simple to add promotional or discounted prices, and seamlessly merge your offline store with your online shop.
POS systems for retailers are designed to deliver superb inventory management and record keeping. For starters, you should be able to check on your inventory numbers with the touch of a button. If you start running low on an item, your POS system will send a notification so that you can restock before you sell out.
Retailers often run short-term promotional prices and discounts, a featurePOS systems can perform easily. Most POS systems feature buttons or toggles, allowing employees to apply complex coupons, promotions, and discounts with the touch of a button.
If you manage a brick-and-mortar store and an eCommerce shop, the right POS system can seamlessly integrate these two platforms. If you sell the last of a customer-favorite item in your brick and mortar, your integrated POS system can automatically remove the item from your e-commerce site.
Restaurant Connoisseurs
The only thing that doesn’t change about the restaurant business is that things are always changing. To keep up with your restaurant’s busy schedule, your POS system should be designed for speed and variation.
The right POS system can speed up every touch point: cooks can make ticket adjustments with a touch of a button, expos can “76” an entree whenever they like, and waiters can cash out with their patrons right at the table. Specifically, restaurant POS systems specialize in providing intuitive kitchen display systems, on-the-fly inventory customization, and speedy transactions.
A highlight of a restaurant-focused POS system is the kitchen display system. From food trucks to Michelin-star restaurants, the right kitchen display system makes it easy to ring orders, review complex recipes, and organize a payment-integrated floor plan. It’s the homebase not only for much of your business but also for your employees.
Using a kitchen display system, a waiter can ring a customer up based on their digital seating assignment, enter custom-made entree buttons to finalize the bill, and conduct a credit card transaction with a mobile card reader right at the table. In the back of house, managers can add happy hour discounts and expos can remove entrees from service as they sell out, all using the same unified system.
Restaurant POS systems can also provide mobile payment processing hardware, send digital receipts, and let customers pay independently from a QR code, greatly speeding up the transaction process so you can seat the next guests.
Hospitality Experts
Hospitality businesses do it all: organize appointments, sell products, and (in some cases) run an on-site restaurant. The right POS system for a hospitality business requires three features.
- Appointment Scheduling: Your system needs to be able to organize countless, detail-oriented appointment scheduling.
- Alert Systems: It should also send you detailed notifications of upcoming events.
- Multi-Industry Variability: It needs to be flexible to meet your business’ unique offerings, whether you’re selling shampoo, polo shirts, or an iced latte.
If you run a hotel or beauty parlor, the scheduling software is one of the most important features of your POS system. Your POS system should make it easy to add an appointment, link it to customer profiles, and organize important information like services requested and special notes. Not only will you be able to check availability at a glance, you can keep track of the expected workload of tomorrow’s, next week’s, or even next month’s appointments.
Along with scheduling, your POS system should provide customizable notifications. Maybe you have a large wedding party renting half of the third floor next week at your hotel, or perhaps a VIP asked to tee off right before sunset next month. For special occasions like these, you’ll want your POS software to notify you of important events in advance so you can prepare your team to provide their best service on the day itself.
If you run a full-service golf course or hotel, your POS system will also need to balance its organizational features with retail and food service functionality. Since your pro shop runs like a sports equipment store and your bar on the eighth hole runs like the bar across the street, you’ll want to make sure your POS company provides you with multiple software specialties for your diverse business.
Looking for a POS System?
Look no further. For retail, food service, and hospitality industries, we’ve found the best POS systems on the market.
If you’re ready to start shopping for a POS system for your business's unique needs, start with our list:
