The global POS system market is projected to grow from $25.24 billion in 2022 to $70.75 billion by 2029, growing at a CAGR of 15.9%.
You need POS systems if you’re in a customer-facing business with selling products as the core. In fact, millions of retail and hospitality businesses are using Point of Sale software to streamline customer management.
Looking for Point of Sale Software? Check out SoftwareSuggest’s list of the best Point of Sale Software solutions.
The right POS software will give businesses complete control over their sales and revenue. It helps increase efficiency, boost profits, and offer a great experience to customers. However, when looking for POS systems, you must narrow them down based on your requirements.
But how do you pick the right POS system? How do you know which pos features to look for? Well, we’ve curated a POS software features list. Let’s look at it.
What Are the Key Features of a Point of Sale System in Retail Business?
The POS features that retail stores must look in a POS system includes billing, inventory management and tracking, detailed reports, customer profiles, and more.
Let’s look at these POS system features in detail.
Billing and Order Processing
Retail POS software must support billing and order processing. In addition, it must allow you to scan items for billing, generate invoices, and add discounts, customer details, and additional remarks.
Inventory Tracking
A POS system should also serve as good inventory management software and make the process effortless as it is the most essential POS feature in a system. You should be able to monitor all the critical information about the inventory counts, from individual SKUs to the overall number of units. Moreover, it allows you to count the stock digitally rather than manually, saving time and money.
Customer Data Management
A good POS system has customer relationship management features. For instance, you can use their mobile number or email ID to share customer satisfaction surveys for your business. You can then make necessary changes as per their feedback.
It should also have a customer loyalty feature to drive repeat purchases. For example, you can award points to customers based on their purchase history and encourage them to shop from you for exciting rewards and discounts.Automated Purchasing
A good POS system should make reordering effortless. It should allow you to place orders with vendors automatically based on different factors, such as low stock and lead time. As a result, it will help prevent stockouts, save holding costs, and avoid lost sales by ensuring you always have sufficient inventory.
Multi-location Capabilities
You’d want a single POS system to manage multiple stores across locations. While most POS systems charge an additional fee for multi-store management, some tools have in-built multi-store management features. Here are some things it allows you to do.
- Manage your catalog from one place.
- Transfer products from one location to another depending on the requirements.
- Count and reconcile inventory.
- Run your loyalty programs across stores.
- Set role-based access to prevent unauthorized access.
- Group and segment your database to enable personalization.
Payment Card Industry (PCI) Agreement
The right POS system must comply with PCI requirements. PCI is the short form of PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards). If your POS system is not compliant with PCI, you will be responsible for,
- Paying for card replacements.
- Paying the bill for investigations into detecting fraud.
- Reimbursing customers for purchases made using stolen card details.
- Fines from payment companies, banks, or the government.
Reporting Tools
Reporting and analytics are important POS system features to have. You must be able to generate in-depth reports of any time frame to gain real-time business intelligence. It should also have a dashboard that gives a broad overview of how your store is doing on key performance parameters.
Source: Zoho
Furthermore, it should allow you to track employee productivity, identify the top performers, and monitor other metrics. And while ready-made reports are great, your POS system must allow you to generate custom reports.
Real-time Reporting
Cloud POS system comes with real-time reporting features. It allows you to monitor sales and store performance in real-time, irrespective of where you are. In addition, you can log in to the POS software and see the data. Even restaurants need a POS system that allows them to monitor their sales in real-time to make better decisions about their inventory.
Digital Signage
Digital Signage helps to generate additional revenue by selling advertisements to vendors or suppliers. It also promotes feature sales, impulse merchandise, and cross-sells products. Furthermore, you can deliver messages enterprise-wide or target specific audiences in key locations or display advertisements on LCD pole displays, full-size LCDs, and pin pads.
Shipping Integration
One of the important POS features is shipping integration. It should make it easier to ship products to customers. The shipping module communicates directly with shipping carriers to get real-time shipping quotes. It displays available shipping methods and prints shipping labels at your register, including customer receipts and tracking details.
Mobile Payment on Site
One of the fastest-growing trends in the retail business is mobile payments. This is because it enables faster checkout. Customers can scan a QR code and complete the payment within seconds, reducing the wait. It not only saves people time but also makes your business profitable.
Employee Management
Retail POS system features also include employee management. You need a system that enables you to create an account for each employee and track their sales record. The biggest advantage is that it lets you manage your staff efficiently and optimize productivity by keeping a tab on what and when they are working.
Source: Loyverse
You can set goals for each of them and see if they are productive at work. The system should also be able to password-protect the account. For example, there are many stores where sales reps are expected to move from the desk once a sale is over. In that case, they would need to protect their account from anyone else trying to use it.
Easy Installation and Integration Capabilities
Any POS software you decide to implement mustn’t interrupt your existing business model. Thus, one of the most important POS features should be easy installation and an intuitive interface. It allows even a non-tech-savvy person to operate the software easily.
And the next important thing is that it should seamlessly integrate with other third-party apps or services you use, such as eCommerce solutions or accounting software. This results in easy functioning as you can manage all your tasks from one place.
Return and Refund Policy Feature
In today’s time, if you want to make your customer happy, you must have a good return policy. 62.58% of customers expect retailers to allow them to return items within 30 days of purchase.
A store’s return policy is crucial to its success. That’s why your POS software should be able to implement a shopper-friendly return policy as you desire. It should provide flexible options to return items for both store credits or refund the amount directly to the customers’ bank account.
Product Variant and Composites
You may have the same products in different variants as a product dealer. Your POS software should be able to display all the variants in a single product link (in your online store) rather than showing them as different products.
Plus, when you are running promotional offers, there are times when you club the products together to get an extra discount. So instead of showing the products differently and doing the discount calculation, the system should be able to collect the deal as an item itself at that lower price.
Bulk Stock Imports
Almost every week or month, you need to update your stock. Imagine how time-consuming uploading all the products manually could be. That’s why you should get a system that allows for bulk uploads simultaneously. This is also helpful during the sale season, as you won’t have to go through the tedious process of manually updating each item.
Customer-Facing Display
If your retail shop offers a customer-facing display screen, it would be nice to have that feature in your system. Though it’s not necessary, customer-facing displays allow transparency into the transaction. It makes it easy for customers to point out if any mistake is made in the order before the bill is generated.
Loyalty Programs
Loyalty programs help improve customer retention, thus gaining the right momentum. Giving out store points or rewards every time a customer makes a purchase, they will keep coming for more. Not every POS software comes with a built-in loyalty program feature. But it should be compatible enough to integrate with third-party services in the case seamlessly.
Barcodes
For POS software to be effective, inventory management is crucial. And for inventory management to work efficiently, it should be able to print barcodes, or any other labeling methods, so that you can keep track of each product. The barcode system allows the system to know exactly where the items are.
Promotions
Promotions are run for a limited time to lure customers into the store. However, every time you decide to run a discount offer or any other exciting deal, it can get tedious if you have to update the price or product info manually. That’s why you get a system that lets you easily run a promotion without creating much fuss.
The Bottom Line
Investing in the right POS software is critical for your business’s success. Therefore, ensure you analyze all the POS features before making a decision. These 20 POS features are essential to increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of your retail store. You can also check different ways of selecting the best POS to make an informed decision.
Rohit Rajpal is an accomplished writer and data enthusiast passionate about unraveling the intricacies of information and data. With a deep understanding of the subject matter, Rohit strives to simplify complex concepts and make them accessible to readers. Rohit’s expertise in the field and his knack for clear and concise communication make his blog an invaluable resource for those seeking clarity in the data-driven world.
