10 Must-Have Features for Your Retail POS

April 11, 2018

For mid-market and enterprise retailers, selecting a point of sale system is a very important part of efficiently running a business. When it comes to point of sale, there is often a misconception that one size fits all. Retailers tend to gravitate towards "free" POS systems or solutions that market themselves as an ERP (enterprise resource planning) system, but do not have that capability. It is important to not only find a point of sale system that is the best fit for your retail business, but also to select a system that has all the necessary features to keep your business running smoothly.

Here are 10 must-have POS features for the modern retailer:

1. Offline Capability

A point of sale system with offline capability is key for retailers. What this means is that if the internet goes out, you'll still be able to process payments and capture customer data. You can easily continue running your business and everything will be processed and added once the system is back online.

2. EMV Payments

EMV payment capability (Chip and PIN) is vital for retailers. Over the last few years, most retailers have made the shift to begin accepting EMV chip credit cards. By not accepting EMV payments, you are not only putting your customers at higher risk of credit card fraud, but you are putting your business at risk in being responsible for any money stolen during credit card fraud. EMV payments are a standard feature of SuitePOS with Square.

3. Mobile Payments

Square with SuitePOS also offers a seamless mobile payments solution. While mobile payments are still working their way towards the mainstream, offering a mobile pay option helps retailers to keep the check-out process quick and gives customers an alternative payment option if they happen to leave their wallet in the car.

4. Sales Rep Capture

Having a point of sale system that captures individual sales rep or employee information helps lighten the workload of store managers and owners who already have enough on their plate. This type of feature can calculate employee commission or show which employees are the best sales people, helping store managers to decide if their employees need additional training or a change in their job role.

5. Digital Receipts

Digital receipts are popping up in more and more retail locations, but most retailers are still offering paper receipts. Paper receipts so often get crumbled up and thrown away or just stuck in the shopping bag to never be looked at. Retailers should be offering their customer digital receipts. Customers are less likely to "misplace" a digital receipt, and having your store name pop up in the customer's inbox or on phone helps you to get in front of the customer an extra time. It's a win for everyone!

6. Gift Cards

Easily being able to distribute and process gift cards is a must for your point of sale system. Gift cards are a great way to bring in extra sales that your business might not have normally gotten. When your point of sale system offers a gift card feature, you will then be able to easily ring up and distribute gift cards, process them, and offer store credit refunds.

7. Standard Tax

An integrated tax management feature is beneficial to retailers, especially those that have store locations in multiple states. Again, this important feature helps store managers and owners to automate their business functions by managing their sales tax compliance and auditing all through their POS system.

8. Discounts & Coupons

When choosing a point of sale system, it is important that your selection has an easy-to-use discount and coupon feature. Point of sale systems that allow for price changes and scannable coupons ensure for an easy check-out process for both employees and customers. You don't want to worry about validating as discount or waiting for an employee to calculate the promotion item when there is a long line of customers waiting to be rung up.

9. Centralized Customer Management

By being able to capture customer data through your point of sale, retailers are able to then use this information to track sales patterns, run marketing campaigns, and more. Many point of sale systems allow retailers to capture this customer information but this information does not smoothly transfer to their CRM. With SuitePOS, built for NetSuite, retailers are able to manage their customer data from the store front to back-end for the most accurate store analytics.

10. Centralized Product Management

Along with centralized customer management, it is important to have a point of sale system that features centralized product management. When the POS system works together with an ERP, retailers can better manage their inventory, supply chain, and product pricing to make sure everything is matching up as it should be from the warehouse to the store front.

SuitePOS, built for NetSuite and Salesforce, offers all of these features and more to keep your retail business running efficiently and on one single system of record.

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