What is a POS System?

Point of Sale (POS)

This can mean as the commodities offered for sale, displays and business transactions.

Here, we will be talking about the hardware and software that runs both the front counter and back office operations of your business.

For a small craft store, their basic POS system would consist of a computer, cash register (with or without a built-in cash drawer), receipt printer and a reliabe POS software. For a service organization, like a lawn care company, doesn’t need a cash drawer or a receipt printer.

But they they may want to use a laser printer for their service invoices.

Again, you can easily customize a POS system for your particular business.

The centeral nerve of any Retail POS system is the computer (or computers) running the POS software.

We understand the temptation of using an older computer or even those really cheap models available through the “superstores”.

But always remember, the moment it runs, it will be depending on this equipment, so a good quality computer is a must. 

If you want high quality use custom built POS systems, branded parts you can depend on it for many years!

Same goes for all other computer components.

Your basic cash drawer may be able to do the job, but heavy duty models are built to last longer.

A CCD barcode scanner is more reliable than the old pencil type wands, but they’re still designed to work with flat, easy to read barcodes.

About laser scanners, they not only have a greater range, but they can also scan barcodes on wrap around bottles, plastic bags or follow irregular shapes much better than the CCD scanners.

Printer technology is also improving. The workhorse of the industry is used to be a dot-matrix printer, and they’re still fairly popular, but thermal printers are faster, quieter and affordable.

UPS or Uninterruptible power supplies, or battery back-ups, are affordably priced and will keep you up and running during power glitches or short outages. Remember, your business will be depending on this equipment. If you plan to use it a lot, you may spend some extra bucks to purchase the heavy duty UPS models and units.

A retail POS system does not only give you control over your transactions, it also puts a wealth of information at the tip of your fingers.

Imagine being able to compare years to date of sales with just a few keys. A database of your customers can be a powerful marketing tool.

Easily track inventory list, automatic creation of order lists and being able to adjust quantities based on seasonal demands are just a few of what a retail POS system can do for you.

To sum it all, POS systems can keep you on the race and not get left behind.

If you want to know more on how to choose the right retail point of sale system provider visit Retail-POS-Solutions to receive information on a system designed for your specific business and retail business needs.

The author of this article is a retail POS sytem professional who has been counseling businesses of all sizes from single locations to national chains for over 20 years.