Point of sale is a term used readily to
describe a transaction being processed. There are several different
kinds of POS solutions, because transactions are processed differently
for different industries or types of business. An ecommerce business for
example will use a retail POS system, because it involves buying and
selling products online. A good point of sale system must have the
ability to handle the various details required for placing an online
order.
The most common POS solution used by ecommerce businesses is
QuickBooks. Even though it’s a financial software that is primarily used
for accounting, it includes so many other functions that can be used to
manage and track multiple aspects of an online store from order
processing to inventory and customer data handling. If your ecommerce
solution includes QuickBooks integration, you will have the ability to
manage your entire business in one central location. It is the perfect
solution for anyone with no formal accounting background and makes
running a business a lot easier.A retail POS system should be able to process orders for both online shops and brick and mortar stores. A business with both an online and offline presence will have to synchronize the two for the business to run smoothly. It doesn’t matter if you have a physical store in addition to the one online or attend trade shows and other live events to sell your products, it’s important to be able to simultaneously keep track of all of your orders. Many of the offline point of sale features are exactly the same as the online ones, they include:
- Order processing
- Accept payments
- Discount, gift certificate and tax configuration
- Generate sales receipts
- Automatic inventory adjustments
A POS solution will work in the same way offline as it does online, but there are certain devices that are required in order to complete the transaction. A product that is placed in an online shopping cart must be scanned using a barcode scanner in a physical store. The product id and price are captured for a final tally. Credit card transactions are processed slightly different as well, customers must enter their credit card number during checkout online whereas the actual card must be swiped through a credit card reader to capture all the necessary information offline. The final step is either an invoice that is emailed to the customer online or a printed sales receipt using a sales receipt printer in an actual store. These three devices are combined to work in the same way as an online store checkout process, simply plug them into your computer with a USB port and transactions can be processed simultaneously.
The biggest benefit for using a point of sale system like this is it saves both time and money. Combining the management of both your online and offline orders makes running the business as a whole much simpler. Not to mention the fact that if you are only selling online at the moment or offline, you can scale your business by adding the other type in the future without restructuring your whole business.
Using a point of sales software with a full range of features can really improve your online and offline businesses. Choosing one that grows with your business is crucial. You must use an ecommerce solution capable of providing all the required online tools to easily combine every aspect of your business.
Source: Google.com
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