8 Reasons to Switch to a Cloud Point of Sale System

Are you in the market for a point-of-sale (POS) system for your retail business? You’re not alone, and you’ve come to the right place if you’d like to learn more about how this kind of system works.

We are guessing you already know what POS software is. But just in case, this is a system that cashiers use to handle transactions (and much more in the background) as customers buy products from your business. And you may be increasingly familiar with the term “cloud computing”, which refers to the practice of using a network of remote servers hosted on the internet to store, manage, and process data, rather than a local server or a personal computer.

Why should you pair POS technology and cloud technology instead of any other system you are already using? In a nutshell, because cloud-based POS software is a significant upgrade from cash registers and offers incredible benefits for your business as well.

We’ve put together a list of the eight most important benefits of choosing a cloud-based POS software for your business right now:

1. Better remote control of your operations
2. Better mobility
3. Risk reduction
4. Easily accessible reports
5. Better promotion management
6. Cost reduction
7. Greater efficiency
8. Better customer service

Now here are all the details of these benefits.

1. Better Remote Control Of Your Operations

Although managing a retail business is a full-time job, you are also entitled to a vacation! This means that there will be times when you’re not available and can’t make sure things go as planned.

Have you noticed how quickly things get out of control when you’re not around? Even in the middle of a vacation, you may have to resolve a crisis that arose because you weren’t there to coordinate things.

You may also have noticed that employee efficiency may decline when you’re away, and that goals and targets are not met. Also, some managers or supervisors may not work well together and may not achieve the same level of productivity as when you are around.

But this doesn’t have to be the norm and it’s even avoidable. Especially when you have a good cloud-based POS system in place.

This software enables you to better control your operations remotely by helping you monitor the various departments and how they are running even when you are away. This allows you to react quickly to any issues that may arise.

For instance, you can know that a new order wasn’t placed when stocks ran out. You can also tell that activity at certain checkout terminals wasn’t as high as usual. This information can help you resolve common business issues as soon as they arise, even when you’re away, and prevent coming back to a bigger crisis.

2. Better Mobility

Not only does POS software automate the sales and inventory management process, but it can be installed on different workstations and integrated with internet-connected mobile devices such as Windows tablets.

This option is doubly convenient, first for you and your team and second for your customers because you will now be able to access your data, create invoices and prepare orders even when you are participating in a special event.

For example, at a sidewalk sale organized by your local retail association, you can create the invoice and accept payment without having to go back inside. You can also enjoy the same benefits when you attend a trade fair or convention. Bring your tablet or laptop and log into your account to find all your data.

Fortunately, many people are already very adept at using modern devices, so your employees won’t need a lot of training to master the use of this advanced technology to manage your retail business and serve your customers.

In the past, employees needed weeks of training before they could master the use of POS software. This is no longer the case. After only a few hours of training, your employees will understand and have adapted to your innovative POS system. In other words, with this modern system, you will hit the ground running!

3. Risk Reduction

Having a good POS system can significantly reduce all kinds of risks compared to a cash register system.

And if you have chosen a cloud-based POS software, your data is in good hands because strict security protocols have been put in place to ensure the management of the IT system.

Cloud technology ensures a full and automatic periodic backup on one or even several remote servers. It even allows the POS software provider to include automatic and regular updates. These updates increase the security level of the software.

You can also help reduce risk by properly managing employees’ access to and their roles within the POS system.

It would be very expensive to have these benefits without a POS system. However, a good modern POS software includes these security features directly in the system you use for your business.

4. Easily Accessible Reports

Without adequate information on what is going on in your business, you have to trust your feelings, which means that you can’t always make the right decisions. That’s why it is so important to have access to clear comprehensive data and statistics on your operations.

But unless you switch to a modern retail POS software, you can’t access this information easily or in a timely manner. With such a system in place, however, you can always get important insights about your business whenever you need them. This would save you and your employees a lot of time as there would be no need to manually compile and prepare reports.

The POS system can easily create accurate and reliable reports that are available at the click of a button. This way, you can know when a certain product is out of stock or is selling too quickly, so you change your reordering schedule. And don’t forget, thanks to cloud-based technology, you can access these reports from anywhere.

These reports can even let you know which products are popular and selling well and which ones aren’t, or you can use them to analyze whether your latest promotional campaign is working. The best part is that you can get this information in real time.

With cloud-based POS software for multiple stores, you can get all the information you need about various branches within your retail franchise or chain in one place.

Now you can combine your retail experience, intuition, and accurate and reliable data to help you make better decisions for your organization.

5. Better Promotion Management

Tracking promotional campaigns can be difficult, especially today, where there are several ways to market your products, services, or brand to your customers. Therefore, having a system in place that makes it easy to apply and communicate the promotion can be a huge advantage to you and your business.

With a good POS system, not only can you track promotions, but you can also incorporate them into the system. Modern POS software allows you to create special offers by customer or product category, discounts, coupons and other promotional options like gift cards or loyalty programs to market your brand to your customers. This way, you will save a lot of effort and money.

Once the campaign is over, you can access the reports section and analyze the results of your promotion to find out what impact it had on your customers and sales.

6. Cost Reduction

On the financial side, profitability and expense control in a retail business are top priorities that must be carefully considered when choosing POS software.

For example, it becomes difficult to control expenses and daily operations if you choose not to use a POS system to run your business.

This would mean hiring more employees to handle things like inventory management and manually tracking all transactions within your business. For multi-store retail businesses, you would need to hire more managers just to coordinate the different outlets within your franchises.

In addition, purchasing traditional retail management system equipment can be quite expensive. You would be responsible for purchasing all the equipment needed for the server and cash registers in addition to managing updates, backups, and security aspects.

But by opting for a POS system, especially a cloud-based one, the project quickly becomes profitable. The initial investment is minimal, and the software provider takes over much of the IT management.

These days, cloud-based POS software is very affordable and offers many great features at lower costs. Besides reducing labour costs, these systems also ensure more efficient use of personnel. For instance, instead of having your inventory manager spend hours or days going through the inventory to confirm out-of-stock issues, they could spend that time on more productive tasks like providing excellent after-sales service.

7. Greater Efficiency

Without good POS software in place, your business would be very inefficient. A lot of resources would be needed to handle the tasks that a good POS system can handle. Businesses should strive to avoid these pitfalls by using the right resources in the right places and leveraging their employees’ strengths to enable them to achieve a higher level of efficiency.

POS software, as opposed to traditional cash registers, makes everything run more smoothly. As mentioned earlier, with this system in place, inventory management will be easier and lower operating costs will become a reality.

But the most important thing to remember is that efficiency leads to greater productivity and better performance, which ultimately translates into greater profits.

In other words, a retail business looking for a great way to improve its bottom line needs to add a good POS system to the equation.

8. Better Customer Service

As you can see, customer behaviour is changing all the time. This is quite obvious just by looking at the difference between the needs of millennials and other generations. To appeal to everyone and earn their loyalty, companies must learn to use technology.

One of the easiest things to improve with today’s technology is the speed of in-store service. With traditional cash registers, customers must wait as the cashier enters details of their purchase into the machine, one item at a time. Today’s consumers no longer have that kind of patience.

But this shouldn’t worry you if you have a modern POS system. These systems make entering information a lot faster.

The customer experience is also about being able to meet customers’ needs. For example, would the customer like to receive a copy of their invoice by email? This feature is available in a good POS system. The customer won’t have to hold on to another receipt, which they often can’t find when it comes time to request a refund or an exchange.

Thanks to digital technology, POS systems usually offer the best means of serving your customers. Generally, technology-oriented customers like simple processes and are more often satisfied with services provided by a business with a POS system.

By choosing a cloud-based POS system, you ensure that you can always respond quickly to consumer needs. Remember that regular updates are available and are intended to adapt certain features to new behaviours.

Conclusion

From the list above, it becomes evident that combining your day-to-day operations with cloud-based POS software is now a critical requirement in an organization.

The technological evolution of these systems in recent years and the possibilities for continuous development, thanks to the regular and automatic updates that are included, make managing a business much easier.

Although we have talked about eight reasons why you should switch to a cloud-based POS system, the list of reasons for getting such a system is much longer. But we’ve covered the most important reasons together. So, if you haven’t made the switch to a POS system yet, it’s high time you gave the idea some thought!