9 Key Sports Shops POS Features

“The sporting and athletic goods manufacturing industry exhibited sound growth in shipments, fuelled by increased domestic and export demand.” (source). To adapt to this growing and constantly evolving sports market, choosing an excellent point of sale for your sports store is an important decision. Indeed, it is important to consider several features to meet your needs and the needs of your business to choose the best designed and appropriate software for you. 

What are the strengths of an excellent POS for your sports shops? Here are some important features to have in a point of sale to optimize the management of your sports store: 

1. Used Inventory Management
2. Repair and Maintenance 
3. Rentals 
4. Instructions for use
5. Data Synchronization With the Web 
6. Inventory Management 
7. Promotion Management 
8. Data Migration 
9. Cloud Solution

1. Used Inventory Management

The sale of used items and products, such as hockey equipment or used bicycles, is becoming increasingly popular in sports stores. A point-of-sale system that allows the sale of used inventory is an essential tool for retail merchants who wish to offer this service. Some stores sell and exchange several used sports products for mountain bike enthusiasts, so it is essential to have point-of-sale software that offers this functionality to easily track your inventory and make sales quickly and efficiently. 

2. Repair and Maintenance

If you offer a repair service for sports items in your store, such as skates or skis, it is important to have point-of-sale software that can manage the repair service. Without this functionality in your point of sale, you will need two pieces of software, which generates twice as many costs and doubles inventory management. Indeed, by closely monitoring the customer’s items to be repaired and recording them in the system, you can see an improvement in your management and reduce your operational time. With Alice POS, for example, it is possible to manage the repair service, put internal notes in customer files and ensure a rigorous follow-up of the products to be maintained or repaired. It is also easier to identify the prices and costs associated with customers’ items based on breakdowns or adjustments to be made. 

3. Rentals

This feature is particularly important for a sports store to be able to manage bike, ski or skate rentals, for example. If your store rents items, used or not, you should choose a POS software for your sports shops that ensures proper price management and rental procedures. Without an all-in-one solution, you will need two pieces of software and therefore will have additional costs and have to manage inventory twice to be able to offer this service.

4. Instructions for Use

Taking items in consignment and offering customers credit or cash in-store is an important business opportunity for your sports store. For example, a customer could deposit a road bike and you, the merchant, could take a certain amount on the sale, allowing you to make a profit on the sale of the customer’s bike. By choosing a POS for your sports shops that offers this feature, it provides an excellent additional source of revenue for your store.

5. Data Synchronization

If you have several sports stores, or if you are part of a network of stores, synchronizing data between your stores is an important feature. This makes it possible to standardize information across all your stores, since the software automatically synchronizes data, such as inventory lists, price lists and promotional offers. 

6. Inventory Management

Inventory management is a crucial element to optimize the management of your sports store. Thanks to high-performance, state-of-the-art software, you will be able to track your inventory automatically. An effective inventory control system has many advantages, such as greater flexibility concerning changes, easily identifiable information and greater accessibility, to name a few.

7. Promotion Management

This feature allows you to plan upcoming promotions in your store several months in advance, even up to a year. It is also possible to modify or add promotions from anywhere, anytime, in all your businesses. This feature is particularly useful when you have a large inventory turnover, you have several promotions that change over a short period of time or simply when you want to exhaust your stocks as much as possible. 

With Alice POS, it is possible to set up many types of promotions in your sports store, such as percentages, cash values, product groups and much more. Quickly create your flyers from the promotions entered in your system and send them to all your stores if you own a chain. You can also control your promotions from a master account, either from the main store that can send promotions or discounts created in the various franchises. Alice POS also offers the possibility to create local promotions, i.e. to set up a promotion applicable only in the local store, without applying in the other stores of the network.

8. Data Migration

By migrating your data from the old to the new POS software, you can resume your business without losing or damaging your information.  

To ensure that migrating your data is a simple and worry-free process for you, Alice POS offers data migration, as well as a training service following this transfer. Our retail experts are there to support you from the beginning to the end of the implementation of the software in your sports store and remain available to answer any questions you may have.

9. Cloud Solution

Having a cloud-based solution is a key asset when it comes to choosing excellent point-of-sale software. Having a cloud computing system allows you to optimize the security of your data by avoiding the risk of floods or fires, for example. In addition, it allows you to have access to them no matter where you are. Indeed, thanks to a cloud solution, it is possible to modify, add or delete information remotely from the comfort of your home. An excellent point-of-sale software, such as Alice POS, offers this feature and much more! 

Related Questions

How do you install a point-of-sale system?

Since the implementation of new point of sale software within a company is a complex process, our technical team is there to ensure a smooth operation and answer your questions if necessary. Our experts support you throughout the entire process, from onboarding to the use of our point of sale software.

How long does it take to set up a point of sale? 

The implementation of the new point of sale system in your company may vary depending on the various businesses. In general, the migration of your data and the configuration of the software can take about a week. Finally, the official start can take a day to ensure that everything works well.