5 Reasons Your Bookstore Needs a New POS System

Does it seem like something's just not right with your bookstore?

18:44 11 August 2019

Transactions too slow? Unhappy customers? Poor supply and delivery management? It’s probably time to update your POS system – or get one to begin with. Here are 5 reasons why.

1. Supply Management

Your bookstore can improve supply management by using an integrated vendor module, which modern POS systems are equipped with. This module manages vendors and their accounts and also has a provision for consignment and direct product purchases, vendor ledgers and supplier performance reporting.

To scan bills at payment counters, modern POS systems have something called Non Payment Tills. After scanning, bills are automatically converted to invoices. You can stop re-scanning of bills and configure POS Tills as offline. Offline tills work independently. This means that POS operations won’t be compromised by loss of internet access or if the server goes down. The offline tills are synchronized with the bookstore’s server regularly.

Supply management extends to tax benefits. Tax management options make it possible to record input tax during purchases and output tax from sales. Users can configure the tax for each product separately or for all the transactions of a bookstore.

Centralized Retail Management

With a new POS, you can complete data related to sales and stocks at one main location. Then, it will be easier for you to make informed decisions. Sales and inventory information from different location is made available at the head office, if that applies in your case.

With versatile discount management, the system applies discounts automatically while making invoices. Various discount types can be applied to select shops or centrally to all shops.

2. Detailed Receipts

POS systems give clients more detailed receipts than cash registers do. POS system software, such as Clover POS System, uses inventory data to offer much more information, including item description, price, and savings from a sale or coupon.

Some systems also offer the option to customize a particular part of the receipt, like the footer. This can be used to print coupons directly on the receipt and give information on your loyalty rewards program, or promote your social media channels.

Features like custom events for points collection, the ability to monitor customer reward information in one convenient place, rewards, tiers, and redemption - personalize offers with coupon, discount, and gift card incentives, reminders for your customers of loyalty programs, loyalty analytics to find trends and see how they drive repeat purchases, and omni-channel interaction help connect with customers with any channel and any device.

Your software needs to be API and developer-friendly and integrate loyalty programs with your e-commerce systems.

Of course, you need to take into account security and data protection compliance. The customer must trust you to create loyalty. This can be done by using roles and workflows to streamline your campaigns and enhance collaboration.

3. High payoff

A POS system can be a big commitment. Look at the time spent on staff training and data alignment and if the system will reduce waste when analyzing the impact the new POS may have on your bottom line. Your new POS should definitely have inventory management tools.

A system that doesn’t let you send registered customers targeted campaigns or support loyalty program implementation won’t create customer loyalty.

4. Fast and reliable

Running a bookstore is all about speed and quality, as with most other businesses. If your POS is slow or unresponsive POS, get rid of it now. It should have a bare minimum of features, such as being able to accept different types of payments, having an intuitive interface, having a relatively low time per transaction, and enabling customization to each staff member’s role. When looking into a new system, ask if it can work offline. Will you still be able to take orders and process sales?

Only work with trusted vendors. Do searches on vendors you’re considering and continue even after you’ve selected their product. Do searches on a regular basis. This will prevent a bad choice of a costly, slow system that will require long staff training. Your vendor should have a proven track record and offer free support and updates.

Ask about Customer Support

If you’re not sure whether they do, simply ask. You might need customer support at often as once every few weeks. This is actually very likely if you decide to buy a more advanced POS system. Some vendors tend to offer very expensive customer services, poor ones, or none at all. Still, it is a fact that most cloud-based POS system providers value customer service very highly.

When choosing a POS system, check if the customer service staff is friendly, available, and professional. Ask if 24/7 service is available if you think you might need it. Ask how much support costs, if anything, and what method of support (online, phone, etc.) they offer.

5. Dashboard and Barcode Readers

A new and modern POS gives you instant access to a dashboard displaying all of your books. You can touch the screen to choose the ones your customers want, hand them the display to make payment via debit or credit card, and issue an email or printed receipt pronto.

Modern systems like Vend, Shopify, and ShopKeep make it possible to sell books both offline and online with a single dashboard to access your customer information and orders and a synchronized, integrated inventory management platform. Book lovers will be grateful as running a bookstore can be made much easier with a new and modern solution.

Reliable POS systems support handheld scanners and barcode readers over the whole retail cycle. This ensures data integrity and reduces the chances of manual error. Still, manual entry is also an option. Barcode design is possible by choosing logos, prices, sizes, data fonts, etc. You can choose the required data fields and change their location for printing on the barcodes. You can also connect multiple barcodes to one single barcode.

Each slave barcode can represent different pricing and packaging for the master one. Invoice shows both codes and inventory are managed for the master barcode.