A retail point of sale system can do so much for your business, especially if you get one of the best iPad POS systems like Vend.
Vend is a cloud retail POS system with inventory management features, and it will bring so many benefits to your business, including the four discussed below.
Sync Inventory Across All Channels and Avoid Overselling
A cloud-based iPad POS like Vend POS syncs your inventory across all locations and sales channels.
When you sell a size-12 red jumper on your eCommerce store, your POS system automatically updates your inventory count for size-12 red jumpers everywhere in your network. It deducts one unit from your overall size-12 red jumper count.
The updated inventory data is then sent to and reflected in real-time at your online store, every one of your brick-and-mortar retail outlets, and in your warehouse.
There is thus no risk of overselling, especially in your online store, when your cloud retail POS automatically updates your centralized inventory count.
Typically, in manual inventory management, your inventory manager will get sales data from each store at the end of every business day. Then they will update your inventory database accordingly.
This system will work without problems if you’re not selling online. But if you have an online store, you may not be so lucky.
Let’s say you have exactly 10 size-12 red jumpers, all of which are in your Dubai outlet, and you don’t have any in your warehouse. Five people check out one each from your online store. Unfortunately, six people bought the item from your physical store.
Now, you have a problem. You only had 10 size-12 red jumpers, but you sold 11 of them. And it happened because you only update your inventory at the end of every business day instead of updating your inventory count in real-time with every sale.
Consequently, one online shopper will be really unhappy to learn that their next-day delivery is not going to happen. Can you imagine the blowback that will follow from that one unfulfilled order?
Automate Reorder Points and Avoid Out-of-Stock Issues
Imagine running an excellent campaign that generated a crazy amount of interest in your summer trench coats. You happily ring up the sales and watch your trench coats fly off of your racks.
Unbeknownst to you, though, you only have 10 units left. But you still have so much mileage left in your marketing campaign. Your ads are still running, and influencers are still happily touting your fresh trench coat designs.
Your joy soon turns to sorrow when your sales personnel start turning people away because, yikes, you’re out of stock! And that means a lot of missed sales. That means hard-earned revenue that will not materialize simply because you did not purchase replacement stocks in time.
This will not happen if you have a retail POS with built-in inventory management capabilities. Before running a campaign that you know will raise demand for a specific item in your inventory, you can set a reorder point and a reorder amount for that item.
With a reorder point in place, you can do business as usual and happily watch your trench coats fly out of your store. Your POS will report every sale across all of your sales channels in real-time, as usual.
However, once your sales volume trips your reorder point – that is to say, once your inventory count goes down to your reorder point – your POS will automatically send you an alert.
Moreover, you can also set it up to automatically order the item from your supplier in the reorder amount you specify.
Now that’s smooth and seamless stock management.
Track Merchandise Locations for Seamless Stock Transfers
With a cloud POS that automatically updates your inventory, you will have precise information on stock locations.
Let’s suppose your white cotton drawstring trousers are all the rage in your Dubai outlet. It is the weekend, and your data shows you have a lot of shoppers during weekends. Naturally, your bestselling trousers will be in demand then.
Unfortunately, you only have five pairs of white cotton drawstring trousers in your store. You can order more stocks, but that will take at least three days since your supplier is overseas. And that means you will lose your weekend sales.
Since you have a cloud POS that lets you see your merchandise location in real-time, you realize that you have 30 pairs of white cotton drawstring trousers in two nearby outlets: one in Downtown Dubai and another in Dubai Marina. Fortunately for you, these two stores sell the most trousers on Wednesdays.
This means you can order more trousers from your supplier. But, for now, you will transfer some of the trousers from your two other outlets. Then you will replenish their stocks with fresh supplies from your supplier before Wednesday comes.
You’re going to make it, after all, and all because your advanced POS system lets you monitor and track your stocks in real-time.
Get Business Insights and Revise Your Pricing Strategy
Your inventory management integrated POS system will help you mine valuable business insights from your sales data. For instance, you can see which of your products are selling very well, and how much your profit is per item.
Suppose you have a Nordic-style center table in three colors: teal, marble, and maple. You buy your center tables in bulk from your supplier at a homogenized price of AED 1100 each.
Looking at your sales data, you realize that your marble table outsells your teal and maple tables by a wide margin. Specifically, you sell seven marble tables for every teal and maple table sold.
Your marble center table is making you more money. But it can bring in more revenue if you implement a simple change in your pricing strategy.
Let’s say you are selling your Nordic center tables, regardless of color, at AED 2500 each. Knowing the popularity of your marble tables, you can add a few dirhams to this price to reflect its popularity. So, you decide to sell the marble table at AED 2600 or more each.
That’s a negligible increase but, in bulk, it should have a significant impact on your revenue.
Just the Tip of the Iceberg
A modern retail point of sale system like the Vend inventory management POS system will bring many benefits to your business. You can avoid overselling, avert out-of-stock disasters, facilitate easy stock transfers between retail outlets, and revise your pricing strategy through its integrated inventory management features.
And that is just the tip of the iceberg.
Using a POS system with inventory management features, you can change your strategies and make informed business decisions that will ultimately increase your retail sales.
AUTHOR BIO
Ross Smith is the Managing Partner at iPad POS Middle East. Based in Dubai, covering the whole of the Middle East, the company is passionate about helping restaurateurs and retailers alike find the most suitable point of sale system to meet the needs of their business. They specialize in iPad-based point of sales systems and are resellers of Revel and Vend.
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