Intro

EPoS Systems, provide a fast and efficient way of dealing with customers. They handle the calculations involved in sales (totals and change), issue receipts – these have historically been the main function of normal tills. EPoS systems, do this and a lot more. They can integrate directly with credit card payment systems, keep track of stock levels and of course keep track of customer information.

The ability to manage stock and CRM (customer relationship management) allows EPoS systems to make a measurable difference to the bottom line. Both in terms of time saved and of in highlighting opportunities and also weaknesses in a business. For example, an EPoS system in retail store, will assist in stock management – helping to highlight stock levels of top performing products so you can ensure you have adequate supplies.

At the same time, it might also show product lines that are not doing so well. Your EPoS system records a tremendous amount of information about your business – allowing you to make decisions with the benefit of the latest sales and stock information.

How Does EPoS Work?

An EPoS system comprises of computer hardware, peripherals and EPoS software ideally suited to the point of sales environment. An EPoS system can support data entry through many different devices such as computer keyboards, touchscreen monitors and barcode scanners. EPoS systems allow a tremendous amount of flexibility to choose hardware and peripherals suited to the environment. For example, in environments with very high demands like in a supermarket – EPoS can be configured to work with multi line barcode scanners, ensuring pricing accuracy and allowing cashiers to provide fast, efficient service for customers. In other environments such as restaurants the use of touchscreen monitors provides the best solution.

The other facet of EPoS systems is the EPoS software that they use. This can also be heavily customised to a variety of different environments. This allows businesses to buy EPoS systems that are suited to their business. This software can constantly be recording sales, updating stock levels, providing accurate pricing information while also helping to provide a fast and efficient service to customers. The ability to keep track of sales, taxes, stock and CRM automatically, ensures that cashiers can concentrate on providing the best possible customer experience.

Why Use EPoS?

EPoS software helps to ensure accurate pricing, faster transactions, reduces human error and improves data integrity. In larger retail environments, it's difficult to imagine keeping track of stock for thousand of items, not to mention the prices of all these items. In a retail environment, if management want to change the price of an item or run a special offer this can be done very easily using EPoS and getting data on how these changes impact sales can also be easily obtained. While it easy to dwell on the front line advantages at the point of sale, the data being recorded by the systems is of great value to management. Accurate sales reporting is vital for management, similarly the ability to have constantly updated inventory and customer data is useful for both accounting, marketing and sales purposes. For more Advantages of EPoS see our guide

EPoS Hardware

EPoS systems comprise of a PC and some sort of visual display unit (VDU), such as a touchscreen monitor. Additional peripherals such as barcode scanners and printers can then be chosen based on your requirements. The main units are either integrated, where the display and pc form part of the same unit. These sorts of integrated units may also have integrated peripherals such as customer displays and printers. Otherwise the systems are modular, where you have a standalone PC to which you connect a display and peripherals. This type of EPoS system offers far more flexibility and choice.

There are many EPoS hardware peripherals, the most common include:

• Barcode Scanners
• Cash Draws
• Chip and Pin
• Customer Displays
• Keyboards
• Mobile PDA's (for mobile EPoS integration)
• Printers
• Tablets
• Weighing Scales
• Which type of system is best, depends very much on your requirements, you can find more information in our EPoS Hardware guide.

EPoS Software

The EPoS software is designed to be powerful, yet simple for staff to learn and use. There is a large selection of EPoS software on the market, which all vary by price and business need. It's vital that you buy software that suits your needs. This is the 'brain' of your EPoS system and what your EpoS system can deliver for your business will be determined by the capabilities of the software.

As this will a vital component of your business it's vital that you evaluate a number of different EPoS software packages. The cost and additional complication of changing software later can be very disruptive. This is a good time to speak to other users of the EPoS software who are in the same line of business as you. They can offer an honest appraisal of the EPoS software and tell you how it works within a real working environment

Please note, if you are buying hardware and software from different suppliers, it's vital that you check the compatibility of your EPoS hardware and EPoS software.

EPoS Systems

An EPoS system is simply a combination of EPoS hardware and EPoS software which when used together provide an effective business solution. Many EPoS system suppliers, will be in a position to supply both the software and the hardware. This is useful as it gives you a single point of contact for any issues and challenges you face. It's particularly valuable at the beginning when you may need to rely a lot on your EPoS system suppliers technical support. If this is your first system, then it may be worth paying a little more in order to deal with a single, reputable supplier.

Maintenance and Backups

As with any regular computer system, keeping your EPoS software and hardware up-to-date and well maintained is essential. There will be periodic updates, so you should have a The importance of having backups cannot be overstated, once you begin to rely on your EPoS system to record data, ensuring the survival of that data is vital. How you plan on protecting your data is something that you should think about from the start. Data should be backed up off site, using a 3rd party service or by using a pen drive which you take offsite everyday. A good backup strategy will include regular backups of incremental data (that is data that has been updated since the last backup). Additionally, you should always have a set of historical backups, so you can go back to an older back if your incremental backups become corrupted.

Value for Money

There is no doubt that purchasing an EPoS system can represent a large capital investment. Rather than focus on the day one cost, it's better to consider how using the system will benefit your business and how long it might take to pay for itself. EPoS can provide tangible savings on employee time and accounting. At the same time it can provide an uplift in sales through accurate pricing and by improving efficiency of your stock control. For some businesses, installing an EPoS system can be first time that begin to create a database of their customers and their behaviour. Using this data, in effective ways can pay for the EPoS system many times over. It can also provide benefits that while clearly benefiting your business are a little more intangible like improving the customer experience. Ultimately, what you get out of your EPoS system will be dependent on the choices you make in terms of hardware and software, so invest sufficient time to make an informed decision.

EPoS Buyers Guide

Price

EPoS systems represent a significant investment, even more so if you are planning on doing a multi system installation. As a buyer while price is very important, don’t buy a system solely on price. You need to consider whether a particular system meets your needs, whether the you are happy making sacrifices on the quality of the components and whether the company can afford to provide you the level of support you need. Will the company you are dealing with still be there in 2 years? There are many horror stories on business forums of companies who were ostensibly the cheapest but who quickly went out of business. You want to ensure that your EPoS partner is still there when you need them. Also consider that paying a little more for a system that does exactly what you require, solves the challenges your business faces and that saves time and makes you money will have no trouble paying for itself. It’s not uncommon to have paid for your EPoS system in under a couple of years in increased profit.

Features
Be clear about what you need and what areas of your business you want your EPoS system to assist with. What aspects of your business can your EPoS system help with? What new functionality (e.g. web sales) do you want to be able to handle? The software functionality will determine what you can and can’t do. So it’s best to be clear about what you want before you start. It’s also during this stage that you can determine how much customisation you need for your particular business. When speaking to EPoS suppliers be conscious of whether they are taking the time to understand your business and your needs. You are looking for a long term partner - if they are not listening to you, then it should be ringing alarm bells. No two businesses are run in exactly the same way; only by taking the time to understand your business can a vendor hope to provide you the perfect solution.

Support
The support provided with your EPoS system needs to match your needs. Be honest about your potential needs, do you need 7 days a week support? If so, ensure that this is something the company provide. Be clear about what is and what isn’t included in your support contract. This is even more vital when you purchase software from one company and EPoS hardware from another. What you don’t want is to sit in the middle of 2 suppliers - each of whom blames the other. This is a great argument from buying everything from one company.

Demonstration & References
While it’s tempting to go along to an industry trade show and just ‘pick up’ an EPoS system, it’s not the most considered way to buy. Similarly, looking at a nice glossy brochure may appear to be all you need to choose a system. There have been plenty of purchases made on this basis that have later been regretted (or which have undelivered). Aside from the financial investment, your EPoS system is likely to be an integral part of your business. As a buyer, you need to invest your time in the process. Take the time to have a proper demonstration, its unlikely this is something you can do in 10 minutes, think several hours. Ask for references, call up your suppliers existing customers and ask them how they find the system. If they are in the same type of business as you, they can provide a mine of information which you can use to make the most considered choice. They can also give you a far greater insight into after sales support.

Advantages of EPoS

EPoS systems help integrate a number of business systems, providing information that enables them deliver synergistic benefits. EPoS can simplify stock and ordering, provide detailed reporting for marketing and accounting purposes and a whole lot more.

Accurate Pricing
EPoS eliminates staff errors on counting, keeps your pricing consistent and means that you can easily change pricing based on other information in your business e.g. aged stock analysis or to reflect special offers and deals.

Employees
Your EPoS system records your staff activity. You can see who did what and when. It’s easy to monitor performance of staff at the checkout and by making staff responsible for the contents of their own cash drawer you reduce wastage. Stores like Costco have on display their top employees based by items processed an hour. Why do they do this? I’d say it provides them with a way to recognise their top performers, identify weaknesses and create a competitive environment. If you are not working in an environment where this is a useful metric, EPoS systems still provide a way of recording staff activity. You can see who has been voiding transaction, who dealt with a particular customer. All of this information can be recorded. The ability to have this information and review it, is a great way to reduce fraud and helps keep everyone honest.

Marketing
You can use your system for database marketing, promotions, loyalty cards and upselling.

Reporting
Quickly and easily produce reports to analyse stock, evaluate the performance of marketing ideas, produce reports for your auditing and accounting purposes. If your system is collecting the data, you should be able to report on it.

Speed
Anything you can do to speed up the transaction process, helps give your customers a great experience and improves your employees productivity. They can spend their time doing things that will benefit the business. For example, in the restaurant setting - not having to take an order to the kitchen each time might only save a little bit of time, but multiply that between all your staff over a year and it starts becoming a sizeable chunk of time. Time far better spent on looking after your customers.

Stock
Having an accurate picture of your stock, helps you insure you get your ordering right. Having an automated way of knowing what’s there, means that you can respond faster to changes in customer behaviour and this improved efficiency means you can actually hold less stock. This has both capital and space advantages. When it comes to stock takes, you can reconcile what you have against what you should have much more easily. In perishable environments, having this data and being able to integrate it with stock systems and supply chains, has an impact on the bottom line straight away.

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For all your Epos requirements please do not hesitate to contact us