One of the most effective ways to position your retail business for success is to automate and modernise manual operations. This allows you to be more efficient, opens up potential for expansion, and empowers you to better serve your clients.
But what if you already have a sophisticated point-of-sale and retail management system in place? What can you do to advance in the game?
Enhance your customer experience with POS integrations.
So what kind of integrations should a retail store look for in a POS system? Lucky for you we have cracked the secret code. Here are the top 5 integrations that every retail store’s POS system must have to manage all aspects of their business and scale up.
Payment Processors
Integrated payments are all about harmonising the systems and platforms that facilitate a business’s payments. With retail shops, this often involves connecting your point of sale (POS) system to your payment processor so that data flows smoothly from one platform to the other.
This solution eliminates the requirement for customers and credit card information to be manually entered at the checkout counter. Because your POS software is linked to your payment processor, all relevant information is available when you start the process with your payment terminals.
It’s also worth noting that modern shoppers are moving beyond traditional payment options like credit cards. You will never have to turn away a customer who wants to pay by swipe, tap, dip, sign, or any of the newest contactless technologies, such as Venmo or Apple Pay. Customers will always remember that your store offers a choice of convenient payment alternatives that can cater to their expectations. But responding to their demands requires integrating your POS with the correct payment systems, which could translate into a competitive advantage for a retail store owner.
Marketing Integrations
It is critical to maintaining contact with your customers. If you use email or text message marketing, you know that staying in touch with customers not only keeps them informed about the latest products or updates in your business, but it also keeps you top of mind, which leads to traffic and sales. However, this strategy will only be effective if your messages are timely and relevant. You must communicate with your customers in a way that speaks to their needs in order for your emails or text messages to be effective. Visual content is also a unique way to keep your message in the consumer’s mind. Many businesses create marketing poster and flyer for their business by using online graphic design tools or apps like PhotoADKing or flyer creator and visualizing their content or messages.
Does that mean you have to send individual emails to each and every customer?
Ludicrous!
With POS software with marketing integrations, you don’t.Â
It helps create customer records in your marketing system automatically, including customer name, email, phone number, birthdays, and even information such as customer purchase history, frequency of purchases, totally spent, and a total number of orders. This type of integration allows for powerful marketing automation and targeted campaigns.Â
For example, you can design marketing campaigns for your mobile repair shop that are only sent to customers who have purchased specific cell phone accessories, spent more than a certain amount, or visited your store a certain number of times if your repair shop software system is integrated with Mailchimp, a popular email marketing software.
As shoppers are increasingly turning to online search tools when looking for stores to visit or products to purchase offline. Getting in front of people searching online opens up massive opportunities for offline traffic and sales.
No you don’t need to set up an overly complicated online marketing strategy just yet because software integrations with your POS system have your back in this department as well.
Just showcase your brick and mortar store’s inventory online with the help of POS integrations like Pointy and NearST. And lo and behold every time someone searches for a specific preowned cellphone model locally, your mobile repair shop’s name will pop up on Google.
E-commerce Integrations
Integrating point of sale and ecommerce is essential for any retailer who conducts business both online and offline. Your channels should be in sync with one another so that sales, inventory, and customer data flow smoothly from one system to the next. The last thing you want to do is sell something online just to discover that it has already sold out offline.
Prices and promotions in some retail industries fluctuate dynamically dependent on stock levels. The travel sector is well-known for fluctuating hotel room and airfare pricing based on availability. But for these algorithms to work effectively you would require each channel to be updated in real time.
Say yes to E-commerce Automation!
Inventory synchronises between your eCommerce site, marketplaces, and your point of sale system when you use a POS eCommerce integration. It automatically updates product descriptions, stock levels, and prices from your point of sale (POS) system to your eCommerce websites, eBay, and Amazon stores, making it easier to manage both offline and online channels.
Employee Management
When a POS system is integrated with employee management, supervisors and store owners can move away from less efficient paper based procedures. When creating employee schedules using a digital system, it is easier to identify employee availability, requested time off, and other elements that make scheduling difficult.
Employee management capabilities in a POS system make it simple to track hours using clock-in and clock-out. Compensation can be handled through the system, reducing payroll complexity on payday.
Retail business owners can easily configure security settings on the system to manage staff access. A new employee, for example, may only have access to basic POS operations, whereas a long-term assistant manager may have access to additional information.
Sales performance and other personnel performance measures are also available to retail managers. This approach makes it easier to track valuable employees for shops who grant performance-based pay raises. So if your repair shop software is integrated with employee management tools, this would take a matter of seconds.
Whether managers require assistance with day-to-day operations or long-term staff retention tactics, an integrated, modern POS makes it easier to keep the retail store running smoothly and employees satisfied.
Accounting Integrations
Keeping your money in order is critical regardless of the stage of your business, so ensure that your POS is securely integrated with your accounting software. You’ll save a lot of time by not having to conduct manual bookkeeping and reconciliations, and your life will be much smoother come tax season.
Accurate financial data is critical because it influences how business owners and accountants make critical choices. A POS system with Accounting integrations can seamlessly collect data from several locations, helping store owners classify them by sales, average ticket size, and customer amount. This is where you can track trends, performance, and compare results to goals to get a true picture of how your firm is going.
By connecting your POS to accounting systems such as Quickbooks Online, you may save time on every transaction and hours in administration. Enjoy a life with no more double-entry, less human mistakes, and faster end-of-day reconciliation.
Do yourself a courtesy, and delegate data flow to automated procedures so you can focus on making sales. You will thank yourself for it later!
Managing a thriving retail business requires a lot of trial and error. When the going gets tough, POS integrations can come in handy. Just add more functionality to what you’ve already invested in, and create a network that manages your business for you.
