Once established in a local or national market, companies will have the ambition to expand their area of influence by attacking the international market. Fortunately for entrepreneurs with grandiose ideas, some international POS softwares is made to support the most excessive ambitions!
No matter what type of business you run, you need a comprehensive and efficient retail management system to get the most out of your international business. That said, you will need to make sure you have the right components.
What Are the Components of an International Point of Sale System?
1. Cloud-Based International POS Software
If you are looking for an international point of sale system, one thing is certain: your company serves international customers. As an international business, you need a cloud-based POS system to get the most out of your business.
The Benefits of a Remote Server for an International POS System
A cloud-based point of sale system gives you access to information and data for all your stores from one single location. This allows you to track progress and make smart decisions remotely and quickly. You don’t have to travel to your store, which can be expensive.
A cloud-based system gives you all the information you need about a particular store, eliminating the inconveniences caused by geographic limitations.
Customer and Inventory Management
A powerful, cloud-based point of sale system helps you improve customer and inventory management, increase point of sale transactions, and access essential reports for better decision-making.
Since you will be using a cloud-based system, Internet connectivity is essential.
A reliable Internet connection allows other features to run smoothly, increasing efficiency.
The shortcut keys in your point of sale system allow you to easily search for products in your supplier catalogues or speed up navigation on the software. This will help your employees save time and have quick access to instinctive keys that enhance the experience of the point of sale software.
The Convenience of an International POS Software
When you identify products quickly and easily with quick keys, it serves your customer better, which improves the customer experience and ultimately drives sales.
Catalogue Accessibility
Also ensure that your entire catalogue is easily accessible (regardless of location or language) to help you or your staff to consult it easily and quickly.
A complete point of sale software will improve your daily life and your productivity in order to increase your sales!
3. Various Payments Methods for an International POS
4. Refunds and Returns Managed in an International POS
The fact that you serve international customers means that you will most likely need an online store (e-commerce) integrated with your point of sale software. You can therefore expect the delivery’s downsides: customer dissatisfaction and damage or loss of products. Customers prefer stores with customer-friendly policies in case of product dissatisfaction or questions.
The Flexibility of Your Policies
It is then essential that your business have a point of sale system that allows you to create flexible policies and options for returns, refunds and store credits.
Nurture Your Customer Loyalty
The more convenient and user-friendly your policies, the better the customer service. Customer loyalty and customer retention are improved, resulting in increased sales and profits.
Opt for an international POS system that allows you to upload all your products in bulk. Regardless of the number of products, manually uploading each product can be tedious and cumbersome.
Creating Separate Products
Your system should allow you to easily create product variations. The POS system of an international clothing store, for example, must be able to store the different variations of t-shirts. If a shirt is offered in 7 colours in a particular location and in 5 colours in another, the system must be able to manage that information.
Today, retail business owners increasingly want to be able to manage their inventory online from the comfort of their own home. In a context where you want to offer an international service, it is even more important to be able to perform certain tasks remotely such as the use of barcodes, order management and inventory management.
Uses of Barcodes
An ideal international POS system should allow you to print barcodes and other labelling. The barcode helps you know exactly where a particular item is in your system. Whether you’re buying new stock, shipping it to other places, and selling it, barcodes will keep you up to date with all that vital information and stay the same.
Manage Your Inventory Orders
Your point of sale system should make it easier for you to place stock orders for your different stores. It should help you create a stock order and send it to different vendors through your system.
You can also opt for a system that automatically generates and sends orders for you. If your products are permanent, a system with an automatic ordering feature will save you a lot of time.
Keeping your inventory in order makes it easier to manage your business internationally. This logistical aspect is essential to identify the assets and liabilities of your business (all of your goods and services).
Count Your Inventory
Stock counting can be tedious, especially if your business is international. An ideal POS system should therefore facilitate inventory counting and allow you to use a scanner to count digitally rather than manually. This way, you’ll save time and avoid a whole inventory headache.
Inventory Transfer With an International POS
A stock transfer feature is essential for any business operating in different physical locations. Your POS system should allow you to easily transfer your merchandise between your stores so that you can easily move them from one location to another when you are a franchisee.
Promotions
Choose an international POS system that will allow you to run inventory transfers easily so you don’t have to manually update prices or product information when offering promotions and discounts.
8. Dashboard and Reports in an International POS
Your POS system’s dashboard should provide you with an overview of each store’s performance. You should be able to find out how a particular store is doing without having to search for detailed information.
Reports Features
Your POS system should have essential reporting features across multiple activities. The ideal international POS system should provide you with detailed reports that help you track your performance.
Reports of Data Relating to Each Store Available in the International POS
The system should also be able to report information and data on the inventory of each store (for example, your best and worst sold items). This helps you make smart merchandising and pricing decisions for future business projections.
Some POS software will allow you to push changes to your store data within a store network. Thanks to this account management, you will be able to modify your product sheets so that the information is automatically distributed throughout your entire network.
Reporting Stakeholders
Your point of sale system should allow you to evaluate the performance of your staff in different stores. You should be able to tell which department needs revamping or improvement or which store is hitting its sales targets. The ideal system should help you answer these questions.
This type of software should also give you insights on who are your best customers in a particular location and how you can retain them. This way, you are able to offer the products that your customers prefer, which builds customer loyalty.
Choose a software that has a dashboard with features that will help you better understand your customers, employees and stores.
9. Access to a Customer Database and Your Properties in Your International POS
Your point of sale system should provide you with essential customer information for each location to help you serve them better. Information and data such as purchase history and preferences help you make smart merchandising and marketing decisions.
Customer’s Information
The system should also come with custom properties that help you decide what kind of data you want from your associates (names, addresses, contact details, etc.). This information and data will help you make better business decisions and build store loyalty.
Store Information
The success of your international business is represented by your POS system since it significantly crosses various aspects of your international business, such as customer and inventory management, business reports and information, and overall performance of the company.
Having the international POS system access to an information-rich database can be beneficial for your business, as it allows you to track the various activities of your stores remotely.
To get the most out of your international business, you need cloud-based point of sale software that meets your business needs. It should include an effective point of sale system, an effective inventory and customer management feature, as well as detailed reports on the performance of each store.
Your point of sale system is therefore an essential tool that determines the performance of the company on an international level.
