The processes that are required for a business owner to run a successful retail operation are often as numerous and varied as the inventory actually being sold. From training new-hires to ordering inventory, all of these different processes must work together in harmony for a retail store to stay competitive.
While executing every strategy with perfection may seem like a lofty goal, a unified POS and back office management system may just be the magic formula for a more profitable business.
Here’s why:
1. A Centralized Location to Collect Data
When you have various forms of data scattered around different devices and files, it can be difficult to get an accurate picture of all of your operations, and make sense of all this data when combined. It’s easy to miss important facts and figures, which impairs your ability to make informed decisions. It also leaves you vulnerable to security issues.
A unified POS and back office management system gives you a centralized location to collect and access all of your financial and operational data in a secure way, and ensures all this data is up-to-date. This also helps to streamline time consuming processes like manual data collection and reviewing. You’ll have a convenient overview of aggregated data across all of your locations within one system.
2. Increased Visibility
The increased visibility that a unified POS and back office management system provides can help you make more profitable business decisions. You can access real-time data to forecast inventory and labor needs, and develop more sensible pricing models.
Access to back-office information can also improve your counter staff’s ability to answer questions on inventory and pricing, and can allow them to access customer account details when they need to. The end result is an entire team that is empowered to do their jobs to the best of their ability.
3. Real-Time Inventory Management
The ability to manage and monitor inventory in real-time is game-changing. A unified POS and back office management system provides you with integration between what has been sold and what’s in your current stock, so you know exactly when items need to be replaced, which greatly improves forecasting.
You can also view the speed at which different items are being moved, so you have less collateral tied up in slow-moving products, and see any positive or negative trends. For example, any resulting purchases from marketing activates can be measured in real-time, so you have viable insight into which of your promotional efforts are most profitable.
4. Enhanced Customer Service
Customer service is a necessary piece of the overall retail puzzle, and if you provide exemplary customer service, you are much more likely to remain competitive. An effortless way to achieve this is to provide frontline staff with access to the information they need in order to better assist customers.
Customers often have questions about different products, and your sales associates need to have this information at their fingertips in order to provide a better customer experience, speed up orders, and make the sale.
Conclusion:
As a hardworking business owner, you deserve tools that can assist you in making the best decisions that will help grow your business. If your business is struggling to maintain separate front and back office systems, it may be time to consider the multiple ways in which a unified POS can help streamline workflows and provide new visibility.
