Most brick-and-mortar businesses use point-of-sale (POS) systems to securely accept in-person payments, especially credit and debit card payments. However, his latest POS solution does more than just process payments. With the right setup, you can manage your entire business including employee payroll, shift scheduling, and customer relationship management.
While not required for accepting payments, these additional features can help you save valuable time and streamline your operations. Empowering your small business with the right POS solution can also help you grow (at a lower cost) by increasing your sales.
Every business is unique. In other words, there is no universal feature set. That said, if your goal is to choose the best POS system for your needs, here are some of the most important factors to consider.
1. Data security
POS systems process payments, making them easy targets for criminals and thieves. This is why all commercial and non-profit organizations that accept, store or transmit card information of any kind must meet the data security guidelines set out by the Payment Card Industry (PCI).
However, PCI compliance represents the bare minimum for fraud prevention. Expand your search to include POS solutions that also have advanced fraud management tools such as:
- EMV and Near Field Communication (NFC) capabilities – both more secure than traditional magnetic stripe credit card acceptance.
- Point-to-point encryption (P2PE) to prevent potential hackers from deciphering payment card data when sent over unsecured Wi-Fi or cellular networks
- Tokenization of credit cards where account numbers, expiration dates, and CVV codes are replaced with one-time tokens that cannot be reverse engineered
2. Accepting Universal Payments
Nearly all POS systems are designed to accept traditional credit and debit cards, complete with slots for swiping the user’s plastic at the POS. However, the new POS solution has built-in NFC and EMV support, allowing a customer to dip or shake a card at her POS terminal for in-person purchases. As already mentioned, both new payment technologies are more secure than their magnetic stripe counterparts.
But modern POS systems are not limited to accepting cards.
There are solutions on the market today that can securely process cash, checks, and even electronic payments sent over the ACH network. The more types of payments your POS system can accept, the less you will have to turn down face-to-face sales.
3. Accepting omnichannel payments
POS systems come in all shapes and sizes, allowing you to choose the design that best suits your payment needs. Most businesses have traditionally relied on desktop POS systems at checkout counters. These terminals have steadily gotten smaller over the years, and many businesses now use ultra-compact desktop solutions that consume very little countertop space.
Additionally, there are handheld POS solutions designed for mobile. It was already gaining popularity even before the COVID-19 pandemic. With lockdown restrictions in place, many businesses used these portable solutions to enable them to process payments at curbs and offsite deliveries. With the right attachment, you can even turn your existing smartphone into a mobile POS reader.
However, there is another potential “POS” to consider when choosing a POS system.
If any aspect of your business involves e-commerce, it is important that your POS solution can integrate these online sales into the larger payment environment. Otherwise, you’ll have to manage two silos. That is, one for in-person sales and one for virtual sales.
This should be considered even if 100% of sales are currently occurring in stores. You may have a brick and mortar business today, but what if you decide to add an e-commerce portal in the future? Can your POS solution of choice support this expansion?
4. Payment integration
Many new POS solutions help automate time-consuming tasks such as employee payroll, shift scheduling, and inventory management. In some cases, this support is native and already built into the POS software. You may also need to download third party apps.
Either way, this integration eliminates the need to manually capture incoming sales, payroll, or inventory data. Instead, this information is automatically logged and reported. Individual components within a POS system can communicate with each other, so changes made in one area are immediately reflected elsewhere in the business.
Payment consolidation not only saves time, it also reduces human error as machines do more of the heavy lifting. The result is more accurate record keeping, making tax preparation and strategic planning much easier.
5. Reporting and analysis
Do you often dig through spreadsheets and financial statements to measure business performance? If so, reporting should be added to your list of POS system criteria. This allows you to generate detailed charts, graphs, and other custom reports to quickly identify key metrics such as:
- The best-selling and least-selling items in your inventory
- Historical sales data – segmented by payment type or channel
- Best and worst performing sales members on the team
- Business busiest hour, slowest hour, day or week
All of this information may already be in your spreadsheet, but reports and analytics give you an instant snapshot of your business’s financial health. These insights can then be used to make informed decisions about near-term challenges and opportunities.
6. Anytime, anywhere access
Another increasingly popular feature of many POS solutions is the ability to access your sales and performance data from anywhere in the world. This is made possible by cloud-based solutions that allow viewing these types of metrics from a web-based dashboard or a dedicated smartphone app. As a result, you can track (and manage) your business from the comfort of your own home or on vacation.
One final tip when searching for a POS solution. Instead of choosing a technology first and finding a provider that supports it, it may be better to find a payment provider that offers the type of his POS system you need. Having everything under one roof makes it easier to troubleshoot when something goes wrong. Instead of calling multiple customer service hotlines, you can solve your problem with just one call.
Author bio: Mihir Korke clover networkis a leader in small business credit card processing and POS systems. Clover specializes in payment solutions for restaurants, retail, personal and professional services. From desktop and mobile POS systems, contactless payments, curbside pickup and online ordering solutions, to loyalty and rewards, Clover has multiple solutions to meet your business needs.