Inventory & sales

As retail habits change and evolve, so too has the retailer’s need for a robust point-of-sale solution. Such is the necessity of having a system that can do everything that without one, retailers are starting to wear the brunt of it, as seen in their bottom line.

Within that ‘everything’ schematic then, is a point-of-sale that includes a sales and inventory tracker that updates the most pertinent aspects of a business in real-time.

Certainly, the retail industry is not far removed from the pen and paper days of inventory management and sales recording, but the advent of the online POS system has made the increasingly complex process, turn into something streamlined and accessible for everyone to use.

Indeed, the growth of POS terminals that track inventory and sales has become so pronounced in today’s world because of how the industry has matured, especially in recent years.

Consider the popularity of non-cash transactions like PayPal and Apple Pay, and the online e-Commerce juggernaut that has brought growth to so many businesses around the world. These are new additions to the retail industry that make old methods of counting stock obsolete, and why the retail POS Terminal market size is forecasted to surpass $45 billion in 2024.

Efficiency: Saving time, saving money

Championing the need for one point-of-sale system that can do many different things are obviously easy enough to understand, but to grasp it in terms of sales and inventory requires context.

Say you’re performing a sale – 3 jackets and 2 pairs of jeans – at your clothing retail store. A potent POS, will then automatically adjust your inventory counts for those two stock items, whilst allowing you to conduct the transaction to your customer, without you having to do anything.

This is where the need for a POS system is most significant as it is used to simultaneously track sales and inventory in real-time. The added benefits of time saved and efficient software book-keeping to a business is priceless. And of course, this doesn’t just have to be sales and inventory but even your customer data – if you add one to a sale – which can be recorded as well.

Moreover, in having one system performing all these functions, the need to have multiple record-keeping processes, potentially doubling your costs, is eliminated. Save time, and save money by utilising a point-of-sale system that does it all.

Hike Tip: As Hike POS is an omnichannel POS solution, everything from your inventory to your sales orders and customer data, is connected under the one, centrally located system. All aspects of your store operations are updated in real-time, across all your various platforms.

Optimizing inventory management

Looking at the inventory management part of your POS, a sophisticated system can go beyond just the counting of stock that enters and leaves your store. It can ensure that your business operations are always on top of your most pressing needs, in a way that’s not intrusive.

For example, Hike POS gives retailers the option to set:

• Automated Re-Order Reminders: Set re-order points on your products, to remind you when inventory is about to run low. These can be customised for any product, so you adjust the points in the way they are suitable for the item (e.g. order more stock for best-selling items). When the product hits the re-order level, you will receive an automated reminder.
• Bulk Import, Export & Edit: The export and import function in Hike lets you add, update and count thousands of inventory items at once. Apply important cost price updates or other information without delay.
• Inventory Counting: Whether you choose to do cyclical or full inventory counts, Hike makes the job a painless one. Schedule counts in advance, and even action multiple partial counts at once. With a barcode scanner, all it takes is a simple point and click for your count to get started.

Confidence in extra security

With important features like sales and inventory, it makes sense to want to ensure that all your data is safely secured. Given the functionality, a smart POS system is likely to be cloud-based, so it makes sense to want to know how your sales and inventory data is protected.

Whilst we can’t speak for other POS system, Hike POS employs password protected logins to all staff that will be using the system. Admins (Business Owners) can even set individual user privileges, meaning that certain staff will only be able to access the parts of Hike that are relevant to their role. This is not to mention the fact that as a cloud service, your entire inventory and sales data is available to you at anytime, anywhere, regardless of your presence in-store. With complete, and customisable reporting, any transaction, and stock movement will be immediately known to you.

Furthermore, Hike POS is hosted by Amazon Web Services (AWS), which is ISO 27001 certified. AWS data centres are secured with biometric, 24-hour surveillance and 24-7 onsite staff, which protects against unauthorized entry. Indeed, modern technology has also given rise to modern security threats, so having the ease of a secure system will certainly alleviate one of the pressing issues any POS retailer may face.

It’s common for nostalgia to arise amongst older generations, who can feel overwhelmed by the sheer volume of modern technology, and it how it has changed processes.

However, one thing that we can be relatively confident in is that technology has dramatically improved the way retailers conduct things like performing a sale and managing their inventory. Having a POS system that does those things, are of essential importance in today’s retail age and one that businesses simply can’t afford to live without.

That being said, it’s important to try and test the POS that a) fits your requirements, and b) is easy to use. We touched on it previously, but having a thorough reporting and analytics tool on your sales and inventory, can be just the thing you need to improve your business and make better business decisions.