The best way to retain your customers is by having a loyalty program. A loyalty program is a kind of a rewards program that is offered by a company to the customers who make frequent purchases. The loyalty program can reward the customer either by free merchandise, coupons, rewards and even some advance released products which other customers would not get. Customers automatically get more value from businesses that they are loyal to as compared to the one stop shops. A loyalty program should work for both the company and the customer. It should not be biased such that only the customer is benefiting from the program, and it is not profitable to the company.

One good reason why loyalty programs work for small businesses is that they use a loyalty point of sale system. This is POS software awards the customer automatically every time they reach a certain level in the royalty programs. Remember a loyalty program has an absolute limit of purchases that a customer should reach for them to be rewarded. The point of sale system will automatically record the number of times that the customer has visited the business and the purchases done during those visits. Sometimes the customer might have difficulties keeping up with the loyalty program, but the point of sale system makes it easier.

POS system help increase the business revenue by raising the visit frequency of a customer and the amount they spend per visit. It does this by offering an attractive reward structure and as well as attractive points per visit. For a small business with a good POS system, it’s very easy to term transactions into relationships with their customers. The more you get the customer to come back and spend on your store, the more you get to know them as individuals. This way the small business learns to treat their customers as individuals by knowing their tastes and preferences. This is easier for small businesses because it is not hard to keep up with a group of customers in your surrounding as opposed to the large companies where customers come from different places making it hard to keep up with them.

A small business with good POS software can sell the idea of a loyalty program to customers in a much better way. The POS will keep the record of the customer’s transactions based on each visit. When the customer reaches the rewards level, the small business can even reward the customer using cash. This is because the POS software keeps track of the transactions of the loyalty program per customer. A small business will reward the customer with free merchandise and also cash. A cash reward might seem risky for the business, but it is not if the business has good POS software. This would be harder for big business because of the complexity of their POS. The small business can keep a good loyalty point of sale system that will be profitable to them and also to the customer. The business will be able to retain and even call back some of its inactive customers. This way they increase sales revenue significantly.

Having a small retail business can be overwhelming if you have a traditional stand-alone point of sale terminal. A retail business can be more profitable if one is using a point of sale system. The system will be able to manage the stock, handle purchases, place orders when the stock is about to get replenished and so forth. The time when buying POS hardware was hard for small retail businesses is far gone. Thanks to advance in technology, there is free POS software that is readily available for businesses. It is very easy to acquire a point of sale system today at a low price. If you have a tablet, you can download free POS software and install it on your device. You can even have a tablet point of sale system. This is POS software that is installed on a tablet.

The right thing with the tablet point of sale is that your staff can approach customers where they are. They don’t have to wait for customers at the terminal. The staff can assist the customer in making a decision about an individual item and then make a purchase for it directly where they are. This will ultimately increase sales. According to a study, customers are more likely to buy an item when they are making a decision on whether to purchase the item or not. It is easier to convince them to purchase the item before they move from where the item is.

Small businesses should be concerned about the kind of POS hardware and software they are using. The best inventory software will alert you before the stock runs out. This way you can place an order and still have stock to sell before the order arrives. There are free POS systems which are very integrated. They will keep historical data on sales and estimate when there is likely to be a low stock condition. This kind of system can also place an order for certain inventory just in case it runs out.

If you are a small business retailer, make sure that you get the best POS hardware and software there is in the market. This will increase the sales revenue for your business in an amazing way. The POS can manage your business, and this makes things easier for you and your staff. Remember taking stock and keeping track of it is the most time consuming and labor intensive job. It is one of the most important things in a retail business. Having too much stock or too little stock is risky for the business. However, this will not be a problem if you have the best inventory software in your point of sale system.

Small retail businesses should be more concerned about how well they manage their stock and how safe they are from running out of stock. The retail business should also be concerned about gaining trust with their customers. The customers will be more confident when entering their credit card details at a point of sale system rather than a person’s mobile phone. If you are a small business retail owner, invest in a good POS system and you will have an easy time while managing your business

Posted by Melvin Bright a guest blogger

Lеt’s fасе іt, rеtаіlеrs аrе busу. Ѕо busу іn fасt, thаt mаnу dоn’t make thе tіmе tо run rероrts аnd аnаlуzе thеіr busіnеss’s реrfоrmаnсе.

Тhіs іs а bіg mіstаkе, but іt’s nоt hаrd tо fіх. Runnіng rероrts dоеsn’t hаvе tо bе а hugе tіmе соmmіtmеnt еvеrу dау, wееk, оr mоnth. Іt dоеs hоwеvеr hаvе tо bе dоnе on a regular basis. Іf уоu’rе nоt runnіng rероrts аnd аnаlуzіng уоur busіnеss, уоu’rе аlmоst сеrtаіnlу wаstіng tіmе, mоnеу, аnd lоsіng sаlеs.

Ѕо, whаt rероrts shоuld уоu bе runnіng? Тhе trісk іs tо іdеntіfу thе mоst rеlеvаnt раrts оf уоur busіnеss tо уоur рrоfіtаbіlіtу, аnd tо analyze а fеw Κеу Реrfоrmаnсе Іndісаtоrs (ΚРІ) thаt wіll gіvе уоu а сlеаr рісturе оf уоur busіnеss’s реrfоrmаnсе wіthоut hаvіng tо plod thrоugh tоns оf dаtа.

Κеу Реrfоrmаnсе Іndісаtоrs аrе quаntіfіаblе mеаsurеmеnts, аgrееd tо bеfоrеhаnd, thаt rеflесt thе сrіtісаl suссеss fасtоrs оf a business. Тhеу wіll dіffеr dереndіng оn thе industry.

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Got email 2 in the 10 email series and today it suggested I add any customer data into the system, as well as turn on built in features to add customers to the mailing list. This would allow me to generate mailchimp campaigns on demand.

I had customer lists on constant contact, mailchimp, an excel spreadsheet and a note pad. I started by downloading the lists from constant contact and mailchimp after which I entered the names and email addresses from my note pad onto the excel sheet.  The chat support asked me to share the files with them, and after looking at it determined it was  more involved process to combine the data so they asked me to open a ticket and they would create a file for me that I could then import. Which I did.

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