Choosing a point of sale system can be a difficult process. There are many options and even more ways to make mistakes. It’s easy to waste time and money in the search for a perfect POS. From our experience, here are the most common problems and how to avoid them:
Avoid These Costly Point of Sale Pitfalls
#1 Buying Before You Try
Before you buy a POS system, make sure that’s easy to use. The only way to do that is to try the software yourself. Here are some things to try before you buy:
- A basic cash sale.
- Adding inventory.
- Attach a customer to a sale.
- Look up a customer.
- Create a new item.
- Do a refund from a receipt.
- Create a purchase order.
- Get a report of today’s sales.
If these basic operations don’t seem easy it’s probably not the right system. It only gets more complex from here, so make sure the basics are straightforward. You wouldn’t buy a car without a test drive would you? The same applies here.
#2 Ordering Hardware Before Software
Many people make the mistake of bargain hunting for POS hardware components before they choose their software. Not all software and hardware are compatible. Limiting your software choices because of hardware is short sighted. Make sure to choose your software first and then buy the recommended hardware for your system.
#3 Signing Up For Credit Card Processing Before Buying Software
This is the same as buying hardware before software. Not all software and credit card processing services are compatible. Buy your software first and then get a credit card processing service that integrates smoothly.
#4 Picking Your System Based On A Long Feature Checklist
It’s great to know what you want before you start looking. But if you have a list of 100+ specific features you want from your POS system, you are going to end up a with a hopelessly complex and difficult system. Focus on maybe 5 to 10 major functions that your business needs. Then find the easiest to use system that covers your core needs. Remember ease of use is more important than any specific feature. If it is not easy to use, you and your employees aren’t going to use it. And then it’s just a big waste of time and money.
#5 Hiring Someone To Choose For You
This goes along with having a huge list of specific features. A hired consultant will likely focus on every tiny detail of your business. And then find a piece of software that has a feature to cover every one of these minute details. This is the wrong way to choose POS software for most businesses. You need to make sure the software is easy for you. What is easy for a consultant that is familiar with complex software may not be easy for you and your employees. Make sure you try the software before you buy it, especially if someone else picked it out.
#6 Importing The Inventory From Your Old System
If you are buying a new POS system because your old one wasn’t working well you probably want to start fresh. It’s likely that your inventory isn’t accurate and the way your old system organized information was poor. If you import your old inventory records to your new system you’ll be bringing this chaos with you. Do yourself a favor and start with a fresh system. Shut down your business (or work at night) to get your inventory entered properly in your new system.
Recommendation: import your customer list from your old system, but leave the inventory out. You worked hard to collect customer contact info and it is not something you can easily regenerate.
Recommendation: import your customer list from your old system, but leave the inventory out. You worked hard to collect customer contact info and it is not something you can easily regenerate.
#7 Waiting Until Opening Day
WARNING: Do not wait until opening day to set up your POS system and train your employees! There is nothing worse than making your first customer wait for you to fiddle with your cash register. Do yourself a huge favor and get your system setup and running before you open. Train your employees to make sure they know the basics. It’s a lot harder to do things while a customer is standing there. Avoid the stress and get familiar with your system prior to opening. Do a mock day of sales in your system (repeat for each employee):
- Put some money in your cash drawer and do an opening count.
- Have your friend/employee pose as a customer and buy some items.
- Do a refund or exchange of that sale.
- Run a credit card transaction in test mode (if you have the ability).
- Create a customer record and attach it to a sale.
- If you do layaways, try one. Same for special orders.
- Do your closing count and shut down.
Make sure all of your employees can do these basics before you open. While you’re doing the mock day of sales take notes. When done call your software vendor and have them walk you through the areas where you had difficulty. Of course if you picked easy to use software you shouldn’t have trouble!
Hi I'm Ivan, CEO of MerchantOS. Welcome to our company blog. Here you'll find news about our company and helpful information for those interested in point of sale systems. If you're new to our blog be sure to check out these posts:
March 2nd, 2009 at 11:46 am
#1 is a very good point for any prospective pos buyers to consider. Buyers should demand a demo of the system they are purchasing and at least get a feel of how the system work.