Do you feel like your POS resembles the ancient, bulky cash register from the early 2000s or do you have a tablet POS system that you installed two years ago that is not even able to show you customer purchase history? Do you feel like there could be a solution out there that can truly simplify the tasks of running your retail store? Now is the time to look into the advances that are now available and affordable for the small to mid-size shop.

Retailers today most likely do not want to stay late after closing, checking off what products have been sold that day on an excel sheet, or worse, by hand on a piece of paper. Switching to more efficient POS systems will help benefit your small business by not only making your life and your employees lives easier, but also contributing to higher profits and creating better customer satisfaction.

Not convinced? Well, here are some more reasons why you should keep your POS system updated:

1. Managing inventory can be easier: Conducting stock counts on an excel sheet, or worse, by pen and paper is such a laborious task. Traditional cash registers are not equipped with the ability to keep track of your inventory levels in your store. However, with modern POS systems, there are certain applications that can help manage what products go in and out of your store in an instant. You will never run out of a customer favorite as you will always be in the loop of the demand that your store is experiencing. You can also find out which products are not high sellers and if you are overstocked or understocked on a certain item.
2. Smartphones and tablets are the new trend: If you are still using that ancient cash register, it is definitely time to upgrade. As stated earlier, these POS systems are not highly built to provide the necessary information that you need after processing tons of transactions in a day. Also, these machines can hold up the customer line. Smartphones and tablets create an easier way to get through your line in just a couple minutes. You can have a customer sign up for a loyalty program in just a few seconds while also answering their questions using these new pieces of technology. In addition, smartphones and tablets can have tons more features and applications than that of a cash register. They are easily accessible and can be brought around anywhere in the store.
3. More customer satisfaction: Customers today are growing to be more tech savvy than before. Customers as young as 15 years old and older are more than capable of making a purchase on a smartphone or tablet. These people are looking for a faster way to make their purchases as well as an easier way to find the product they need if they are buying online. If your customers are satisfied by the end of their purchase because of the quick way they were able to buy their product, then not only are they happy, but you are also. Your updated POS system can help create your brand image by fulfilling your customers’ needs which can lead them to leaving great reviews on your Yelp page!
4. Analysis and data reports are available instantly: Receiving accurate data about your business is key, especially if you need to figure out different ways to better improve it. With the right POS system and software, you have access to a great outlook on your business right at your fingertips. There are certain applications, such as nGauge, that can help “monitor all your key metrics from sales and margin to stock days and inventory turnover.” These analysis and data report features can provide accurate statistics on how well your employees are doing as well as how well your products are selling. With all this information at hand, your business can improve immediately.

These are just a few of  multiple other reasons why you should update your POS system today. So, what are you waiting for? Go update your POS now!

Big data, Interoperable data, Temporal data, Spatial data, People data, Qualitative data, Quantitative data, Attribute data, Discrete data, and Continuous Data; If you are not doing it your world will end the Amazons of the worlds will devour you, run and hide!

I don’t think so!

I believe most SMB’s only care about one thing, Smart Data! If you don’t have smart data it’s all noise. Smart data is about how the data is interpreted and presented to users in easy to implement steps that make their processes better. It’s not about quantity and dimensions, it’s about presentation to the consumer of that data.

With that in mind it’s important to focus on providing SMB’s with actionable analytics that help them improve daily operations and better understand their customers. At retailcloud our focus is on providing the data in such a manner that it intuitively conveys source, context and perception. Our KPI application, ngauge and our TabPOS dashboard at a glance will allow the merchant to see how inventory segments are performing and how associates are engaging with customers.

Smart data is not limited to dashboards, our recommended items algorithms based that is used to increase units per transaction at the POS and also to drive traffic to the retailer’s ecommerce site using our premium receipts and our Stock Index which ranks top and bottom performers using an algorithm based on Stock days, GMROI, opportunity costs and other data points are examples of ways that smart data can be used to increase sales and optimize inventory levels.

It does not require a business owner to process data, the visualization of the data should convey a feeling of what requires additional investigation and then the retailer can drill down to review actionable analytics and in some cases some predictive modeling.

So as a consumer of the data, give me smart actionable data that can be visualized and recognizable and I’ll leave the big data as well as the binomial, nominal, and ordinal data for you.