Point of Sale (POS)
July 9, 2019
Point of sale (POS) is the location at which the customer makes the purchase. Simply put, it is the place at a store where you take out your wallet to accomplish the purchase. Usually, a modern-day point of sale accepts credit cards, debit cards, cash, mobile banking. Take a look at the example of POS at a coffee shop:
POS consists of two key components. Software and hardware. They are essential to get your POS up and running. Let’s now take a look at hardware components of POS:- Monitor/tablet. It displays the product database. It also shows employee clock-in and viewing sales reports.
- Barcode scanner. It is responsible for the checkout process.
- Cash drawer. A secure place to keep cash for transactions.
- Credit card reader. It allows customers to pay with a credit/debit/smart card.
- Receipt printer. Though email and text receipts are rising to prominence, paper receipts remain essential.
- PIN pad. That is a keypad where clients print down their PIN codes. That is how a PIN PAD looks like:
Now, let’s list down the software components of the POS:
- Sales reporting. It records and analyzes your sales volumes.
- Customer management. Allows keeping in touch with a customer thanks to marketing tools (emails, sales, e.g.)
- Employment management. The software tracks your employees’ working hours. It also monitors their sales, which allows you to see the top performers.
- Inventory management. It manages when and how often you need to reorder products.
