How Your EPOS Software Helps You To Get Better Prices From Your Suppliers

Here's a quick and simple way to bring down your cost of goods sold and boost your profits....

Open your epos software and draw up a sales report that summarizes the profit margins for your providers.

You can use that data to negotiate better prices with your providers.

Many retailers fail to ask discounts since they don't feel like they have the leverage of the big young men. It’s not true in most of the cases. You just need to ask. The worst answer they can say is no.

For example, you could call your provider and say, "I'm taking a look at the reports in my POS software and analyzing the profit margins for my business. I can see that you're one of our top providers but our margins on your products are low.

 

In fact, they're 8% lower than our top two sellers. We truly like your products and we like ordering much more, but we need to get more money. What would you be able to improve discounts permanently?"

I think you get the idea. This is important and more powerful than simply saying, "Can I be able to get discount?"

In case if you don't have an EPOS system you can get this data, but it will take a long time to create it. With the right EPOS software, you can whip out this data in almost no time.

You'd be stunned how just asking for better prices from your providers can knock off a bug chunk of your stock costs. What's more, having genuine data before you makes it easier get what you need.

How To Use Categories In Retail POS Software And Get The Best Results – Part 1

The first tip should be simple and powerful way of increasing profits. Also, it's something you have to start doing immediately!

When you start using your retail POS software, you have to add your stock, Right? You take each bit of merchandise and enter the product number, price, selling price and other pertinent data into your POS system. At that point when you sell those products, the retail till software recollects the details of every transaction - so you can pull up a large variety of reports at a later date and time.

For example, you can pull up a report that shows what number of XYZ devices you sold yesterday. Presently this is amazing in itself, yet there's an important and powerful way to use your point of sale software.

One of the most important steps is to get on your retail POS software is to assign departments and categories to each inventory product. In any sort of situation, few retailers use departments and categories effectively. This is an important step to getting the most of your retail POS software.

When done in a right way, categorizing your inventory can give you powerful data that allows you to manage with your business more effectively. Let me give you a simple example and show you how to use this data to maximize your profits...

 

Above all, as a general guideline you should not have in excess of 10 departments and 10 categories within each department. In case if you assign more than 100 categories, you'll end up with an excessive number of insignificant categories that record for less than 1% of your business. Most of the retailers think they need more categories, however even the biggest retailers in the world manage their businesses with great success by using under 100 categories.

The technical definition of category can be defined as a group or combination of merchandise that the customer finds interchangeable. While creating your categories, consider what your customer is going to purchase. For example, if a customer walks into your store searching for a tent, they likely won't purchase a bicycle, but may choose an alternate size or brand of tent. So tents could be a category.

How to Maximize Your Profits Using POS Software

The most powerful marketing tool is the customer list saved in your POS software! For example, you can make lots of extra sales and boost your response by 1000% when sending your current customer promotions.

At the time when someone makes a purchase, they prefer buying from those who trust and who has treated them fairly in the past. If you were to rent a "cool list" you may, with a well crafted sales letter or promotion, get a 1 to 3% response on the offer. In any case if you send the same letter to your previous customers, you can see a return that is much better with response rates as high as 25%!

When crafting your marketing campaigns, you should constantly include the customer's name and customize the message. This process has proven to drastically increase the effectiveness of mailing efforts.

The issue is, mailing every one of your customers individually (composing their names and email addresses again and again) would actually take many hours of tedious work...

Fortunately, many good pos software uk resolve this issue by allowing you to merge fields into your email messages, promotions or sales letters with the goal that when people get your message, they assume you know them!

Sending customized emails or letters to your past customers can be a very powerful and profitable marketing strategy. Not only can you create instant sales revenue, however it improves your company's name recognition too...

As a general guideline, the experts say that you should keep in contact with your previous customers at least twice a year - so when they're ready to buy, they consider you first!

You may be thinking... how might I send my customers a message 2 to 6 times each year without annoying them? All things considered, you should blend in helpful information and promote your offer in a non-intrusive way. In other words, write as if you're paying special attention to your customer's best interests.

To get your innovative juices flowing, here are a couple of great ways to get more sales and improve customer loyalty. You could...

•  Automatically send thank-you letters after huge purchases.
• Notify them about discounts - As an esteemed customer, I wanted to inform you regarding a 10% discount sale we're having for our past customers!  
• Send birthday cards.
• Send articles or informational newsletters.
• Send promotional emails for add on sales - I saw you bought the XYZ gadget. You should   consider the XYZ attachment which encourages you do various things.
• Send letters to regain lost customers - I saw you haven't been back for more than 9 months. Here's a no strings attached voucher for £ Amount to get you back to see us once again.
• Promote your service by sending a letter that says - Your XYZ product was last serviced on XX/XX/XXXX and we're having a tune up special for just £ Amount... 
•  Offer a week sale to your top 200 customers.

The potential outcomes are endless. The key is to customize your mailings, create a powerful offer, and explain the benefits of what you're selling. The test and track the results of each campaign. In case if you find a winner, continue running it two times every year, or as long as it's effective.

How Your Business Can Grow With POS Software UK

In recent years, dramatic advancements in technology have improved POS software UK has changed the retail environment. Checkout is faster and easier. Rewards and referral programs allow you to engage customers in the way you had never before. Barcode scanners and power analytics have made stock tracking more efficient than before. These technologies, in addition to others, create a positive customer experience and make sure new and return business.

Point of Sale Software UK Goes Beyond the Cash Register

Does your Point of Sale Software UK do more than basic transactions and accept payments? It should. Your POS should be the life line for your complete operations. A powerful, integrated POS can quickly process payments, track inventory, create financial reports, manage staff and collect customer details. These package features do more than saving time as they save money and provide sales analysis.

According to the Entrepreneur magazine, your POS software UK must balance functionality and ease of use while achieving growth and success of your business. Here are three different ways POS software will manage your business to grow:

1. Bundled Features

With the right POS, the front end of your business can grow and handle increased traffic at the cash register. The back end of your POS collects sales and customer details. These bundle operations help streamline work process, so you can break down customer purchases to know trends and analyze business for the next week, month, or quarter. Understanding the needs and wants of your customers makes a better experience. 

2. Stock Management

Stock management costs time and money, an important aspect for all businesses. Having more or less stock in inventory can bring about lost profits. You should know what is on your racks anytime in the day and what is required for tomorrow. Product management is a powerful tool to grow you business and accuracy is an important part of your business analytics.

Another area of concern is product returns. Your POS should handle with real time purchases, just as returns. This keeps your stock current and easily tracks your product going in and out the door. The front-end customer experience is smooth, while the back-end is easily handled with the simple scan of a barcode.

Also, inventory management helps detect theft, an important source of stock shrinkage, which makes it a different line of defense against unnecessary losses.

 

3. Reporting

Do you know the highs and lows inside your business cycle? Or on the other hand your highest margin products? Every day, weekly and monthly reports can describe trends in revenues. Your point of sale software UK should provide you with simple and quick reporting functions. Connecting horizontal business areas like sales, marketing and finance in a single place increases efficiency. Your integrated POS can eliminate the need to draw reports from various apps and rather, simply answer the questions regarding your business.

These reports help you identify any hindrances that are in your way toward growth and assist you in finding those nagging issues that affect daily operations. As an example, take a look at product "freshness." If stock sits too long, it goes stale. With the right POS, you can find out where stock turns sour transforming an obstacle into opportunity.

Staff ultimately contributes to your bottom line. Your point of sale software UK can disclose you which staff members are the best and others that need assistance. This is an incredible way to set sales goals and incentives for your team. Reports will allow them to fill the gaps in their sales knowledge, or strive to make more positive contacts to increase sales.

Making the Switch

Finding the right POS software UK can be a challenge, particularly if you have a bloated legacy system preventing you from achieving your potential. For a long time, we have seen what works and what doesn't. That is the reason we've created a complete, integrated POS system that is easy to use, easy to learn, and that has the basic tools to improve all areas of your business.