Do you remember what it was like shopping in a retail store 20 or 30 years ago, before today’s era of workplace modernization? If you’ve forgotten, here’s a recap: It was quite the hassle. You had to find the items you wanted (if they were even in stock), wait in long checkout lines, deal with cashiers and their outdated cash registers, and fumble around for the exact change you needed to complete your purchase. The process was messy, disorganized, and overly complicated.
And of course, if you were a store employee, it was far worse. You had to worry about closing sales while also dealing with behind-the-scenes issues like managing inventory, absorbing training, managing schedules and timecards, and staying up to date on upcoming sales and announcements from a binder that might be completely outdated.
All of that is the bad news. Here’s the good: Modern-day innovation has done a lot to alleviate those problems. And at the center of all that improvement is the rise of point of sale (POS) technology.
Nowadays, we have the ability to automate many of the aspects of retail shopping customers used to find frustrating. Cash and cash registers are slowly being replaced altogether by credit cards and mobile payment apps. Outdated inventory lists have been phased out in favor of automated databases that are updated in real time and visible both internally and by customers. Training modules have been integrated into POS, and sales and promotions can be pushed to devices so reps are always up to speed and administrative activities can be handled all from the same devices. All of this, of course, is possible thanks to the cloud.
As retailers have begun to realize the great potential of Advanced & Mobile POS technology, adoption has skyrocketed. According to data from A2Z Market Research, the global cloud POS market is expected to grow by 22% annually between now and 2025. It’s not hard to see why – a cloud-based approach to managing a retail location gives customers and their employees maximum speed and flexibility. The buying experience is better for all involved.
If you’re looking to adopt a new POS solution for your business, there are a number of criteria you need to consider. You want your system to be user-friendly, so that employees can learn the ropes quickly and easily, and device-friendly, meaning people can access the information they need using a wide range of laptops, tablets, and phones. And happier employees mean better customer interactions, which means better perception of your brand by your customers.
Whatever systems you use should also have built-in mechanisms for tracking variables like sales figures and remaining inventory in real time meaning that you can leverage that data in meaningful ways to help drive business critical decisions. And it shouldn’t just be user-friendly for your employees – it also needs to smooth out any wrinkles in the customer experience by seamlessly transitioning from the web interface to a better in-store experience.
At Zones, we specialize in making all of the above happen. We craft custom POS solutions for our clients by bringing together the best of all technology worlds, including products from Apple, HP, Zebra, and others. Our goal is to help retail clients recognize inefficiencies in what they do – if there are bottlenecks in the process of making sales or managing inventory, we can spot them and implement high-tech solutions to address them. Across the board, our clients find it easier to manage inventory, accept payments, produce receipts, handle real-time accounting, and transmit information to customers instantly, whenever they need it.
We’ve already modernized thousands of stores and branches, including quite a few members of the Fortune 500, and we’re confident we can do the same for you. To find out more about this and other services we offer in the realm of Workplace Modernization, all you need to do is keep surfing.
Zones
Zones : Mar 7, 2016 8:20:45 AM
