Suggestions For POS Systems For A Retailer?
We are beginning to contemplate a new POS system after ten years. We're a small retail business, one location. Looking for something easy to use, but also with the ability to run reports and track employee hours. Anyone have any advice, either on systems they love or ones to aviod? Thank you.
290 Comments
1.9k Views
Answers (1-10)
I use SquareUp. They will send you a chip card that you can use on a mobile device via bluetooth. It's super easy, you cab run reports from your online dashboard and the fees are the lowest of all POS systems. Best of all NO CONTRACTS. Visit http://www.squareup.com
Hope this helps.
I WOULD NOT go with a POS that is any way attached to ,or offered by any merchant processing company. Go down to sams or costco and see what they have on the shelf out of the box. Do some research on what they have and start from there. Support can be an issue , so again, steer clear of any thing attached to a merchant processor, theyre selligng merchant service , not POS systems, or POS system support. As far a s merchant service . I ve been with chase, first data , ameribank, and a half dozen others. I am currently with Signapay , and they have been , by far , the best with service , support, equipment, and MOSTLY, their fees. They havent crept up every year, have always been as stated , not bait and switch , nor surprises , even when we exceeded out high transaction limit.
My family (father) has been in and still is in the POS Industry for the past 50 years. I would highly recommend that you sit down with a professional and let them know what your needs are and your budget. They can give you the advice you need before you make a huge purchase on something that might not fit your business in a year or two. The company name is ERC Parts in Kennesaw. It will be well worth your time to consult an expert on this. Hope this helps!
DO NOT use First Data!!!! They are scammers! They don't tell you everything, get you in contracts with A LOT of fine print and then charge A LOT of extra money. Look them up online. You will see A LOT of people that were taken by them
Shop keep is really good, tracks employee's hours, inventory, and will run whatever report you need. monthly it's 49 bucks and if you have any questions or need help they are always there. work's with your I-pad, printer driven cash drawer
Hi Linda, for our retail store (2,100 sq.ft.) we decided on a system by ECRS/ScanGenius. They have a separate software program for our business (dietary supplements) as well as for many restaurants/bars in our town. Depending on what you retail, they may have a system for you as well. This system is extremely competent, and, not only give you reports on almost imaginable, but is also set-up to keep track of inventory and therefore help you with re-orders. The actual ordering program lets you set-up your own parameters, as well as "assist" you in your ordering; it's very nifty! After you put your order together, It will actually electronically send the order straight to the company you are ordering from through a program called "Gateway" (takes 3 seconds, or so) and then you can actually track if they received your order. This has happened to us before, where a company claims they never received any orders from us.
Anyway, there is a lot to say about it. I think 'price' is relative; it depends on how many man hours you now spend on ordering, keeping track of inventory, and mis-pricing items. This also comes with a label-printer that spits out any price/product label you need, in the size that works for you. This has eliminated employee pricing mistakes, as well as time spent using pricing guns and changing prices (where many mistakes happen), which doesn't make your customers happy... There is the ECRS headquarters in North Carolina; but there is an office in Great Falls, and there is local service, when needed.
Good luck to you.
I uses square. It's worked fine for me.
Linda, we have a low cost tablet based system that will exceed your needs. It does inventory, time keeping, billing, loyalty, gift cards and much much more. It runs $24.95 per month and we will load your inventory for you as well as train you as often going forward as necessary.
Send me an email with your contact info.
Tony Norrie
www.altirasadvisors.com
[email address]
We use Square and are very happy with it. Square allows merchants to accept mobile credit card payments via a plastic dongle that can be inserted into the port of a phone or a pad. Square, like a credit card company, takes a cut of the transaction (2.75% per swipe or 3.75% plus 15 cents for manually typed transactions), and no other fees.
Linda, I have an excellent connection for you. His name is Michael Whitlock. His company is Transaction Expert. We went through Michael for our credit card processing, and a number of my colleagues have used him for POS systems. Michael doesn't fence you in with unreasonable contracts the way other services do, and they have all kinds of perks on the POS machines. Plus, they are in tune with the regs, which is very important if you want to avoid fines. Michael provided superior customer service every time I had a question (and I had a lot of them). If you would like more information, email [email address].