POS Software Blog

Setting Prices

Every business is different, but each time someone comes to the point-of-sale, the opportunity exists to develop a lasting business relationship with that person. But way too many storeowners reject this business tool from their POS software. 

One of the greatest challenges for independent merchants is inventory control.  In most cases, inventory is the largest investment for the independent merchant.  So, controlling costs in this area is critical to the success of the small business.  Automating the ordering process, the checking in of shipments, physical counts and controlling shrinkage can be time-consuming and painstaking tasks for smaller retailers.

The cash register was invented in 1879 by James Ritty.  James Ritty was a saloonkeeper in Dayton, OH whose bartenders often pocketed the profits instead of turning them over to their boss.  James’ brother John was a mechanic who helped him design the first, most basic of cash registers to preserve profits in their saloon.  The original device did not even provide a drawer for storing cash.  It consisted of a series of keys that represented specific amounts of money.  The concept came to Ritty while he was on a steamboat trip to Europe.  He found himself intrigued by a device that counted the number of rotations in the ship’s propeller.  Brilliant!

In 2011, the National Coffee Association reported there were 22,549 coffee shops in the USA.  This was an 18.4% increase in the number of stores over the previous 3 years.  We are clearly a nation that loves our java.  More importantly, we love the charm and atmosphere provided by these coffee shops and tea houses that seem to appear on every street corner.  We love the aroma, the décor and the trendy music playing in the background.  As a society, we love the entire coffee shop experience.

There is nothing in the world like the charm of a small, independently owned and operated café.  Small villages in Europe are lined with these small treasures.  Most towns in America offer a fair share of these gems as well.  Smaller cafes provide a warm intimacy that is very hard to come by in the larger chains.  Each has its own persona in terms of ambience and menu offerings.

Multi-site merchants are faced with numerous challenges.  This is why the franchising model continues to grow in its success.  However, many independent business owners continue to operate multiple locations without going out to the franchise market.  Obviously, it is impossible to be in more than one place at the same time.  So, owners must build a solid and trustworthy team of people around them to ensure profitability.

As a small business owner/operator, you are faced with day-to-day challenges that affect your bottom line and ultimately, your livelihood.  Obviously, the best way to increase the bottom line is to increase the top line through growing your sales.  However, in the current economy, this is sometimes a greater challenge than putting controls in place to increase the bottom line through gained efficiencies.  The perfect balance of building new revenue and protecting the current revenue and assets yields the most significant positive outcome.

Restaurant operators were generally early adopters of POS technologies.  Even smaller independent owners and operators recognized the business benefits of an automated POS solution.  Both full service restaurants and quick service establishments jumped on the POS bandwagon early and often to maximize efficiencies and control costs in their operations.

For merchants, gathering customer data is now more critical than ever.  Increasing competition in all retail segments has significantly increased the need for merchants to stay in close contact with the core customer base.  There are many good reasons to gather customer data at your point-of-sale including: