When Jeff Bezos started Amazon in a Seattle garage in 1994, he was already thinking big, despite taking most of his business meetings at a local Barnes & Noble, as Business Insider explains. Your dreams for your little startup may not include becoming the largest business enterprise in the world, but then again, why not?
In the modern business world, it often seems anything is possible. No dream is too big and no idea is impossible. Taking your fledgling enterprise to new heights requires the use of innovative technologies such as ePOS for small business, which offers high-end features at prices that won’t break your budget.
The trick is to find the right combination of ePOS features and functionality for your business’ unique characteristics. The system has to meet your store’s current POS needs while also being flexible enough to grow along with the business. The many options available in ePOS for small business allow even the smallest operation to conduct business like one of the Fortune 500.
Planning Your Business’ ePOS Needs for Today and Tomorrow
Even if your store’s current ePOS needs are meager, it’s never too soon to start planning for the future. Retail Consulting Partners’ 2020 POS/Customer Engagement Survey identifies mobile technology as “the greatest accelerant to retail change and increasing customer expectations.” Mobility is one of the two features that distinguish ePOS from traditional POS systems, along with using the cloud to store your sales data.
- Customers now expect retailers to bring the POS system to them rather than having to queue up at a checkout counter. They’re demanding more payment options from the stores they frequent. Today’s ePOS systems check both boxes by making it easy to accept a range of payment types, including contactless payments and digital wallets such as Apple Pay and Google Pay. By completing transactions via mobile apps running on smartphones and tablets, ePOS systems improve customers’ experience. ePOS also makes the business more efficient and boosts employee productivity.
- By storing sales and other data in the cloud, ePOS for small business saves companies money on hardware and software while also ensuring the security of their sensitive data. The systems integrate online and in-store operations to allow customers to shop and view their purchase histories via the business’s custom app and website. The store benefits by having ready access to up-to-date sales and inventory numbers, active orders, and other data.
Modern cloud-based ePOS systems let retailers track products from the time they’re ordered to their final sale. Stores can keep close track of customer preferences and inventory trends, which helps them know which products are most popular and which aren’t so they avoid running out of stock or being overstocked.
Taking Advantage of ePOS Systems’ Scalability and Flexibility
The Retail Consulting Partners survey forecasts that the future of retail will see a variety of shopping formats as the definition of “retail store” broadens. Stores must be attuned to their customers’ shopping preferences, which will increasingly mix digital interactions with in-person transactions. Customers will be exposed to retail brands and products through a mix of social media, retail websites, and mobile apps.
Building customer loyalty starts with a thorough understanding of the store’s processes from the customer’s perspective:
- How fast and efficient are customer checkouts?
- How easy is it for customers to make changes to their orders?
- Which customer demographics should the store target to maximize its sales?
Tracking the customer experience as a small business evolves and markets change requires a scalable ePOS system designed around the way customers prefer to interact with the store, whether online and in person.
- A customer’s online and in-store orders are integrated so that shopping and payment becomes a unified, omnichannel experience.
- Stores can track backorders, returns, and drop shipments at any time and from any location while also receiving real-time inventory updates.
- The systems are flexible enough to tie into a range of accounting, personnel management, and other back-office systems.
ePOS Spurs Growth by Centralizing Business Management
Agility and presentation are two key benefits of ePOS systems for a business that plans to grow. In addition to reducing hardware and software costs, cloud-based ePOS serves as the central, integrated platform for all of the business’s operations.
- Online and in-store sales are managed through a single clear portal.
- Many of the business’s manual processes are automated. For example, barcode scanners and card readers can link to mobile ePOS apps wirelessly, and customers can receive receipts via email or text message.
- The system improves the accuracy of transactions and all sales and accounting data by eliminating points of potential human error.
- Customer purchase histories and other information is available to employees and can be used to offer customers discounts and other promotions based on their preferences and level of purchases.
- Sales and other data can be used to track employee performance and identify areas where customer service can be improved and sales can be processed more quickly and efficiently.
Today’s ePOS systems deliver the feature set of enterprise-level management tools at prices that small businesses can afford. The systems are easy for employees and customers to use, and they demonstrate to the public that your business is tech-savvy.
An ePOS for small business like talech’s does much more than simply process sales transactions. The systems are the foundation for the business today, and the pathway to its future growth, serving as the central repository for sales, inventory, customer management, employee management, and every other aspect of operating the business. Agile, affordable, and scalable, ePOS is the tech solution for retail.
