We are a POS software company so, naturally, our advice will be choose POS software over a cash register … here’s why:
A cash register offers little security against employee theft. This alone should knock out using a cash register in any situation. With employee theft accounting for around 75% of all theft in retail businesses, the more you can do to track, understand and mitigate against it the better. POS software offers excellent security / control over employee theft. The key is to use POS software well, properly.
Using a cash register denies the business an opportunity to truly understand what is happening in the business whereas POS software provides that data and averages those insights.
It is as simple as this:
- Cash register: you sold something for this amount of money.
- POS software: you sold these items for this much. It can even show the customer details, what was sold with it, how they paid and more.
Sure a cash register can feel like lower cost and easier to run. However, with employee theft, data loss and insight denial a cash register is a far more expensive solution for a retail business than POS software.
Good POS software for a specialty retail business can cost $3.00 to $5.00 a day. This is a small cost when you consider the data and insights value to a business compared to the ignorant cash register alternative.
Compared to a cash register, good POS software will help a retail business:
- Cut labour costs.
- Reduce customer theft.
- Reduce employee theft.
- Reduce the overhead of dead stock.
- Increase sales.
- Better manage supplier relationships.
- Better manage employee resources.
- More successfully lay out the shop.
- More easily and quickly sell online.
- be more appealing to a prospective purchaser.
Sure, a cash register can seem like the easy to use and easy to understand way to take payment at the sales counter. The reality is different. If you want to maximise the opportunity of your retail business, POS software is a better and far more complete solution for the business. It nurtures the data and insights that enable you to be a business person rather than a button pusher.
The future of retail management in POS software driven. cash registers are old school, from the past, not useful to retail today.
These are some fo the reasons we recommend POS software far ahead of a cash register for small business retail.
