When handling electronic payments, it’s important to have a system that can glide through transactions with accuracy and ease. You can think of efficient sales and inventory management as the lifeblood of your company – there’s nothing more difficult than transaction errors or slow service for your customers.
Managing sales manually can be challenging, which is why many companies choose fully integrated trade counter EPOS systems to simplify the process. But how do these systems work and what are their main benefits?
There’s a good chance you’re already familiar with EPOS systems – standing for electronic point of sales. If you’ve ever used a self-service checkout or tapped your card on a wireless reader, you’ll know the modern way financial transactions are made.
A trade counter EPOS system is a specialised sales and inventory management tool designed for various businesses. You will most commonly find them used at trade counters, wholesalers, distributors and trade supply shops.
Now that we’ve covered what a basic EPOS system is – we can move on to what a fully integrated system is. In short, this means that it can connect with other business systems. It might connect with accounting software, e-commerce platforms and supply chain management stock control systems.
You can think of it as a comprehensive system that gives you more control over your electronic sales. By linking with accounting software, you can be sure all of your sales transactions are recorded, providing fast data for accurate bookkeeping and reporting.
You can also connect your EPOS system to a wider e-commerce platform. This ensures online and in-person sales will be synced and counted at the same time. It’s an important practice to ensure consistent pricing, inventory levels and promotional offers across all of your sales channels.
Sales processing: The basics of an EPOS system will include processing sales and transactions. This means it will cover many simple things such as barcodes, discounts, processing payments and creating receipts.
Stock control: EPOS systems also offer extensive inventory management tools. This might include stock level tracking, automatic reordering and general stock management across different locations and suppliers.
Customer service: Many integrated EPOS systems feature additional customer service tools. These might include query and complaint tracking and general relationship management tools.
Reporting & analytics: Fully integrated EPOS systems offer extensive reporting of financial data – including the volume of transactions and more.
A fully integrated EPOS system comes with a number of benefits. The general goal of an integrated system is to create a comprehensive system that covers everything your business will need. Here are some of the most practical benefits:
All sales, inventory and customer data will be in one place, updated in real time on any system that is linked. This means you won’t have to enter any data manually and can instead focus on more pressing issues.
At the end of any given trading day, your sales data will be automatically synced with any accounting software you possess. This means that there is less chance for error and means your finance team will always be up to date with financial statements for quick analysis and reporting.
With improved customer service tools, you will find your overall CRM to be improved. Fully integrated EPOS tools allow you to quickly update, rectify or flag any issue that might occur during a transaction.
These customer service tools also allow you to help individual customers much better. For example, a customer who often purchases from a trade counter can have their buying history and any special pricing automatically available to sales staff. This allows for tailored recommendations and faster processing of repeat orders.
As a business grows, so does the need for more robust and intricate financial systems. This is why many businesses that hope to scale choose to use fully integrated EPOS systems.
A fully integrated system can handle increasing transactions, larger inventories and many additional sales channels – all without significant overhead charges.
Data is an integral part of any business. Adding extra data to your trade counter is a surefire way to increase order value. This data gives staff the information they need to maximise their chances of closing a sale.
Effective trade counter EPOS systems will help you and your team to personalise their sales experience. For example, when creating an order, your team will see up-sell and cross-sell opportunities for related products. You can also set minimum sales prices and create bespoke offers for customers in real time! All of these tools help to increase sales opportunities, both for customers and for your sales team.
Finding the right integrated EPOS system for your company can have many benefits. With Profit4, a fully integrated, cloud-based ERP system, you will have all of the EPOS tools to keep your sales channels fast and efficient.
Profit4 comes with a long list of useful tools to manage each aspect of your business. From a fully integrated EPOS system to many other useful tools including stock control, order management, reporting, finance and accounting. Profit4 is a scalable ERP system, suitable for SMEs and larger companies.
Profit4 also offers you seamless integration with a range of other platforms including websites, courier services, eCommerce platforms and trade counter integration. No matter the structure of your customer service – Profit4 has the tools to help you improve and scale.
