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February 2008 |
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Your Source of Useful Information for Retail & Hospitality Businesses |
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New Point-of-Sale Systems for 2008 The Point of Point-of-Sale Regular Retail Management: Setting up a stores inventory |
New for 2008: CREST H for Quick Serve and Table Dining The CREST H is here. "CREST" is an acronym for Complete Retail Electronic Sales Terminal, and "H" is for "hospitality" This latest model features: All metal construction. Detachable cash drawer. No cables to connect or to become disconnected plus all quick serve and/or table service software. Truly a "Complete" solution.
This configuration significantly reduces the space required for the Point-of-Sale system and it can be used in a typical retail environment as well with the addition of a barcode scanner. Link to more information on hospitality POS systems
With the general trend in retail business toward larger chain stores, franchising, and the attainment of greater purchasing power to push prices down for the retail consumer, small retail store owners have to be savvy. A point-of-sale (POS) system can provide both the sales marketing tools and time saving inventory management tools, the small retail business owner needs to be successful! First of all, lets define exactly what a point of sale system is and note at the outset that advances in modern micro computing have made a computerized point-of-sale system affordable! What is a point-of-sale system? Unlike a the old fashion cash register, which is an adding machine that produced a paper receipt total and had a cash drawer to take in and dispense money, the computer based POS system is a powerful sales and marketing tool, plus inventory purchasing and management tool. By the way, the POS system also adds up items purchased, prints a receipt and has a cash drawer. The components to a point-of-sale system are: first of all a computer, running specialized software, an electronically controlled cash drawer, a receipt printer usually narrow 40 column, a barcode scanning device, a magnetic card reading device and optionally a customer display. There are as many variations to the above description as there are small retail stores, and there are many different ways to purchase a POS system; from the completely self contained turnkey system, such as the CREST system from Point-of-Sale Systems of Los Angeles CA, to software and peripheral components available from many computer automation consultants such as POS International of Fort Lauderdale FL. Whether a particular retail store decides to go with the simple turnkey system or decides to implement the process themselves, the overall cost will range from $3,000 to $7,000 for a small retail store, affordable either way. Now let's look specifically at why a retail store would want to implement a Point-of-Sale system. There are at lease four (4) main reasons to use an affordable POS system: 1) Increase Sales, by Increasing Customer Service. Let's look at all of these areas individually. Customer Service, or sometimes more recently referred to as "Customer Relationship Management" is to an increasing extent the single most concept for a small retail business to master. Almost all small retailers know, the key to their success is to offer higher quality service and even higher quality merchandise than is available at their larger competitors. Most small retailers know they compete on quality not the lowest price. Therefore, whatever the small retailer can do to establish service that is more accurate, quicker and more efficient the better. A POS system makes completing the sales transaction fast and easy. Merchandise is identified quickly by an almost instantaneous scan of the item's barcode. No looking up price, no numerous keystrokes, no waiting to correct mistakes; improved customer service equals higher customer satisfaction. Multiple tenders: part cash, part credit card or check - no problem. Tender with a store credit - no problem. Return merchandise, for refund, for store credit, for exchange - no problem. Any variation on any payment type for any type of merchandise: fast, accurate and efficient. Sales people have more time to concentrate on assisting customer's selection of merchandise. Customer's image of the store? Very positive. The point-of-sale system allows the customer to be identified and their purchases tracked. That simple fact allows a limitless number of direct and in-store marketing promotions that will bring customers in, and encourage their spending. Some examples are: Coupons printed at the point-of-sale for purchases over say, $100. Coupons for lifetime purchases over say, $5,000. Percentage off, or value off certificates sent to customers on their birthday's, anniversary's or other special occasion are little advertisements that create a positive image of the store every time they are viewed. Customers keep the marketing piece in their wallets or purses and are therefore encouraged to visit the store every time they view the piece. Customers are thinking of the store more often, are positively encouraged to visit the store; and therefore more customers will come to the store than would have without the direct marketing. "Shrinkage" is a catchall term to describe the loss of merchandise through both known and unknown reasons. Items broken, or damaged are the reality of the retail business, as is theft from customers, employees and vendors. A POS system contains a database of all items in a store, who they were purchased from, how much was paid for them and how many there are. By implementing a regular system of inventory audits, the retail management knows exactly what is missing and approximately when, that allows an investigation as to causation. The reality is that the mere fact that a person knows that the inventory is being accurately counted is a huge deterrent to theft. The most powerful feature of the point-of-sale system has nothing to do with sales, rather it will save huge amounts of time and allow for accurate control of inventory. By using purchase orders to order and bring into a store all of the merchandise, very accurate cost information can be acquired, reorders of merchandise can be automated, and accurate profitability determined. Imagine simply requesting a report of all items that should be reordered at any given time and the report is ready in seconds. Further imagine that the purchase order for that merchandise, addressed and referring to the vendor's item numbers not the retailer's, with price break quantities and last cost amounts filled in, is printed ready to be sent by email, fax or post to the vendor a few seconds later. Or, if a store stocks items available from several vendors, ask for a purchase order report based on lowest price vendor and have that purchase order printed in just seconds. These capabilities offer a very significant cost savings in terms of personnel time and are much more accurate. There is much more to point-of-sale than this article can hope to explore but hopefully this has created an awareness for the small retailer of the enormous value of point-of-sale. Where do you go from here for more information about how a point-of-sale system can work for you? Here are several suggestions: Point-of-Sale Systems offers free information in their on-line library, available from their web site at www.point-of-salesystems.com; they also offer a free telephonic consultation so it would not hurt to call. Books written to provide hands-on useful information are scarce, but a good source of both articles and books is available from the National Retail Federation. The NRF also represents many large national retailers so not all of their information is as specifically tailored as one might like. The NRF can be reached via their web site at www.nrf.org. Finally a perhaps the best source for information is simply the awareness gained by observing other retailers using POS and even asking a few questions. When in another store take notice of what information is being acquired and how it is being used. Ask yourself what is liked or disliked about the process? How could it be made better? While, a system can be implemented by the do-it-yourselfer, the advantages to having professional assistance, in the selection of software and equipment plus configuration of the database, installation and training can not be over emphasized. With everything else a store owner/manager has to do, and to get the most out of any POS system, if at all possible look to get competent professional help from a firm that has done POS installations and can offer referrals. Many computer consultants may believe that they are competent to complete a POS project but do not realize the complexities of retail management. They may know computers and computer systems but there is more than that to creating a point-of-sale system that accomplishes all that can be done to maximize a store's potential.
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| Retail Management Department |
Setting up a Store Inventory with a POS system Barcodes offer a fast, efficient way of identifying products in a point-of-sale (POS) application or inventory control application. A scanning device "reads" the code translating it into letter and numbers, thus saving considerable time and avoiding mistakes as occurs when typing in the information by hand. Assuming such combination of letters and numbers are in a database as part of the point-of-sale or inventory control program, the item is matched to the database and such information as price, quantity on hand, vendor, cost etc. are identified and made available to the user of the POS system. Definition of Terms: Barcode, UPC Code, Product Code What are these different codes? A barcode is a series of vertical lines (horizontal depending on how you hold the printed code) which can come in some twenty formats. Combinations of the lines represent numbers and alphabetic letters. The various formats create barcodes of different sizes and densities, that is the thickness of lines and the distances between the lines. More on why this is important later. UPC stands for Uniform Product Code, this is a unique numeric code that is assigned by the Uniform Code Council (www.uc-council.org), an Ohio based organization that acts as a central clearing house and a kind of referee so that no two products have the same code. Manufacturers of products pay an annual fee to the council and receive a unique Manufacturer Identification Number . The manufacturer then creates product numbers in combination with the manufacturer number. Thus, "04901134" will always be Diet Coke, no matter what store or POS system is selling and scanning the can of Diet Coke. A common misconception is that the UPC contains price or other information; no, a UPC or a product code simply identify the product, a POS system must match that code to a code in its database to determine price and other information. A product code is simply the code for a product created and assigned by a business. Any business, with the appropriate software, printer and labels can create any type of code they want and affix it to an item. More than you ever wanted to know about barcodes The fact that there are different code formats becomes significant depending on how the codes are scanned. Different technologies can "read" different types of codes. For example a "code 128" is a so called, "low density" code, the printed bars are comparatively large as are the spaces between them, the code therefore is larger, and it can be read by less expensive low density barcode reading devices such as "Closed Coupled Devices" (CCD). Typically, CCD barcode scanners are only ¼ the cost of a laser barcode scanner. Most low density codes are printed on 2 5/8" x 1", address sized labels. Higher density barcodes may be only ¼' high and easily fit on a 3/4" x 3/4" label. These higher density formats have comparatively thin lines and small spaces between them. Such small formats must be "read" by devices capable of discerning the subtle differences of dark and light. Usually, laser barcode scanning devices are employed to read such small labels. An important consideration when creating barcodes is the fact that alphabetic letters take many more lines and spaces than numbers. That is one reason why all UPC codes are numbers only, so they do not take up much space on a label.
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| Retail Marketing Department |
Ways to Pull Customers into Your Store In spite of all the technology available there's still only one time-tested way to help ensure the success of your retail business. Get customers to walk through your front door. Driving foot traffic to a bricks-and-mortar store may seem something of a lost art, but it's no less critical to the health of your business than it ever has been. Here are seven tips (three this month and four next month) to get your front door swinging. Have a grand opening. Planning on opening a business in the near future? Make Day One as big a deal as possible. But first have a "Soft Opening" open for family and friends and even the general public up to a week before the "Big Day" This allows you to fine tune procedures, practice sales techniques and use your point-of-sale system. Pick an appropriate day, perhaps Saturday for an "Official Grand opening" Provide food, offer door prizes, and serve up other enticements and entertainment to make the day memorable. And, while you're doing it, keep tabs on who shows up. "Nothing is as powerful as a grand opening to attract customers," says Robert Smith of Robert Smith and Associates, a Rockton, Ill. , public relations concern. "But, once they arrive, your drawings and guest book should collect their names and addresses or ask for their business cards." Plan on holding other promotional events. Just because your business has been up and running for a while doesn't preclude celebrations that attract foot traffic. Any promotional event that draws attention can be effective. Look into an in-store raffle or giveaway, and advertise the event as widely as your budget will allow. If yours is a business that can somehow connect with a local celebrity -- say, an author or sports figure -- having him or her on the premises can bring in clientele. But, no matter what you do, make it sufficiently fresh and appealing. "Promotional events have to be really exciting and different; otherwise, people just won't come," says Rick Segal, author of "The Retail Business Kit for Dummies." Make your business newsworthy. Foot traffic on the day of an event is one thing. Attracting business beyond that 24-hour window is something else again. That's why it's important to leverage media whenever possible. For instance, donating a portion of the day's take to charity can win a flattering article in your local newspaper. Taking a completely different tack, investigate whether a radio station would be willing to broadcast live on the day of your promotional event. The key is to grab the attention of customers who can't make it in at that particular time. That drives foot traffic in the future. "The more creative the event, the more likely that a newspaper will write about it," Segal says. "And that makes it all the more likely that customers will read about it and come check it out." By Jeff Wourio Continued next month..
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| Your Emails & Letters |
NOTE FROM THE EDITOR: We would like very much to hear from retail store/hospitality owners and managers. We want to use this section of the newsletter to have your real world experiences shared with others and to be a kind of clearing house for great ideas in both the retail and hospitality industries. So please send us your comments, suggestions, thoughts and ideas to: info@point-of-salesystems.com or jas@charcola.com, you also call us at 310.379.3739 or mail us at: Point-of-Sale Systems.Com To act as an inducement, if we use any of your input we will give you a $25, $50 or $100 gift certificate (depending on the amount of material you supply) from your choice of either Point-of-Sale Systems.Com or Charles Carroll Associates. You can use the gift certificates to purchase POS supplies or get a discount from any accounting, tax or consulting services!
Karen, "Raskers" (Santa Barbara), A women's clothing store I just wanted to let you know really appreciated how quickly you were able to get my store set up and ready for our opening night party. I know that I really did not leave enough time to properly get all of the inventory into the database much less get the training on the use of the system. But a deadline is a deadline and the Press waits for nobody. Everything went reasonably well and we sold over $1500 that night! Here are some of the lessons I learned that might save someone from a heart attack if they are planning on opening a store. First, I should have installed the POS software on my laptop and created inventory as I ordered it rather than trying to get the input done the day before the store was to open. Second, I should have had the POS system installed and training completed at least one week prior to the store opening so that the staff could have lots of time to get comfortable with the sales process and the end of the day procedures. Lastly, while the system is easy to use it is still at its core a computer. Basic computer skills really are required and we should have taken the time in the beginning to understand things like Windows start up and shut down procedures, network database location, file names and what extensions mean. Well the next store I open will be easier, but I'm not going to open another store for a while! Regards to all, Karen (Back to Top)
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| Point-of-Sale System News |
Letter from the Editor- Greetings! Well 2008 is here and it is already February! This edition of "The Point" marks both an end and a beginning. First it is the beginning of our first newsletter that I hope will be a source of new ideas for small retail and hospitality businesses. Second it is the end of years of me telling myself that we should have a newsletter. I remember 10 years ago when a client asked me for a Point-of-Sale System to go with the Accounting system I had just installed. I remembered that my girlfriend at the time advised me not to get involved with Point-of-Sale as I knew nothing about it. Well she was right and wrong. I did know nothing about Point-of-Sale then, but I learned a lot and it brought us a lot of new clients and a lot of fun and I am very glad I did not listen to her (although I still respected her opinion!). So I hope that our years of experience in retail and hospitality will allow our readers to gain some insight and become better business owners and managers. Here's to your success! Jon Schillinger, C.A., Esq. |
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