Point of Sale system is a common term among businesses in the retail sector – in physical stores as well as e-commerce. This article gives you information on what a Point of Sales system is, what features they offer, and what solutions PostNord offers for optimising your POS system.
What is a Point of Sale system?
A Point of Sale system is a system in which actors in trade – for example a store or a café – register purchases and administer other functions related to sales. It can also be called a cashier system.
In its simplest form, a POS system can consist of just a regular, manual cashier system, while more advanced systems can have a range of features and integrations connected to, for example, warehouses and invoicing.
Also read: Enterprise Resource Planning
Standardised POS system or a system tailored to your needs
Nowadays, there are many different Point of Sale systems to choose from on the market. Some of the most common operative systems for POS include Windows XP, JavaPOS, Unix and Concurrent DOS.
As a business owner, you can choose between buying a readily developed and standardised POS system, or get a tailored solution based on the unique needs and conditions of your business. Ready-made POS systems are generally more common among small businesses, while larger organisations frequently have solutions designed specifically for them.
The input of payments is the foundation for everything else
The core of a Point of Sale system consists of one or several units for input of payments. This is because the registration of payment transactions is the foundation for all other sales related data.
Units for input can be cashier machines in a physical store, or a digital cashier function in an online store. In stores with multiple cashiers, each one is its own point of sale – even if, naturally, they are connected to the same software.
The units for payment, in turn, typically consist of the following components:
- Receipt printer
- Barcode reader
- Card terminal
- Digital screens and computers
Using hardware components like those listed above, customer payments are inputted in the cashier system. Transactions are registered in the software, from where various types of data can be created and logged.
What information can a POS system generate?
The data you can get from your POS system depends on how advanced the software is, and what features the system supports. The larger the business, the more features you might benefit from.
A modern Point of Sale system should, beside being able to register payments, at the very least be able to:
- Generate reports on inventory and any deviations
- Generate sales reports
- Generate and send electronic receipts and order confirmations
- Have digital screens and computers
- Store and manage customer data
- Track purchases, returns, exchanges and claims
- Generate result reports and key numbers
mPOS – Mobile Point of Sale System
The new generation of POS systems is often cloud based and has stationary as well as mobile hardware components. These systems are called mPOS – or Mobile Point of Sale systems.
An mPOS system gives you the ability to further improve the flows of your business, and to offer customers more flexibility, better service and a more tailored shopping experience.
Examples of mobile units are units for self-scanning, and self-checkout cashiers.
The POS system is the core of your business
Point of Sale systems were first launched in the early 1970’s. Since then, POS has become the right hand of all retailers, and an essential tool for optimising sales as well as the business as a whole.
If you work in retail – online or in a physical store – you would be wise to invest in a great POS system that meets the needs of your business, and which can contribute to optimising sales.
If you run a smaller company, a simpler and standardised program might be more than enough. If you need additional features and tailored solutions, there are plenty of options to get a tailored POS system specifically for your business.
Sharpen your POS system with PostNord integrations
At PostNord, we want to help small and large businesses better succeed, to accelerate growth and reach both high goals and the biggest dreams.
If you work in retail – and perhaps primarily in e-commerce – we offer innovative integration solutions that can easily be linked to your POS system, to make everything related to shipping and logistics of products to customers more efficient.
With the PostNord integrations you can, among other things, implement smart features like the automation of purchasing shipping using CSV or Excel files directly in your POS or business system. The features aim to simplify and improve the steps of the sales process related to transporting orders, to give you more time and space to focus on other things.
Access to our integrations is gained through our business portal, PostNord Portal Business. In it, you will also find many other great business tools for smarter, faster and better handling of product transports – including Skicka Paket, Spåra Paket and Postbox.
Want to learn more about how our integration solutions work and how we can assist your business when using a Point of Sale system? Get in touch with our customer support and we’d be happy to tell you more.
