The cash register has been around for over a century. It isn’t hard to understand why they’re still popular despite their shortcomings. Simple cash registers are reliable, cost effective, and can be installed very easily. But as the world moves forward with technology, businesses have to update operations to meet customers’ demands for modern tech. Cash registers are simple to use but that means that they aren’t capable of maximizing your business’ potential. Purchasing a point of sale (POS) is an upfront investment. However, it leads to savings in multiple areas of your business, both in the long and short term. These savings add up once you factor in the time saved, fraud and theft prevented, and the additional features. POS systems are becoming the standard through all industries, and we have keep up to remain successful.
Payment Diversity & New Markets
In 2019, credit and debit cards were the top two methods of payment throughout Canada. Contactless payments are also experiencing a huge surge in growth as younger generations move toward leaving cash at home. Using a smart device to pay for purchases is secure and younger people will prefer it to carrying cash around. This means they expect to be able to make payments from their smartphones, cards, and other tap enabled devices. Having a POS is essential in being able to handle the volume of transactions that cashless payments add to your bottom line. Cash registers are slow to adapt to new technologies, but POS makes it a seamless transition.
Prevention of Theft and Fraud
Employee theft and fraud disproportionately affects employers and owners that only use cash registers for transactions. This is something that can severely affect your bottom line so every business should have a way to spot it quickly and accurately. Most commonly, this is done by making false voids and returns so it is difficult to spot if there is no regular analysis of those numbers by employee. Since it’s easy to hide theft on a small scale, shift performance trends are a great way to spot it. POS systems keep sales records and help you spot irregularities quicker.
This is not an immediate cost reduction, but it significantly helps later down the road. Having a POS allows you to retrieve receipts and transactions with a few clicks, giving you peace of mind when dealing with voids, chargeback claims, and returns.
Cost Reduction and Sales Increases
Since POS systems are far easier and more intuitive to use, businesses usually see an increase in throughput and sales. This is because the system allows you to handle more customers more quickly. Not only does increased throughput increase your sales, the short training on the POS offsets the costs of labour required to onboard new staff. It also significantly decreases the potential for human error. About 53% of retailers that installed a POS reported that they experienced a decrease in expenses. 40% reported an increase in sales simply due to the installation of the system. A study by Microsoft Business Solutions published the following table on what a retailer can expect from a POS installation after the first six months of use:
Wiz-Tec’s iPOS is one of the most versatile and comprehensive point of sale systems in the market. Explore its capabilities within gas retail, car wash, and tax exemption.
1 thought on “Why a POS is a guaranteed improvement to a cash register”
This year turned out to be very difficult. But we’ve optimized and reduced the cost of our products with good inventory management through our POS! It definitely helps with daily tasks.