Tills for Shops!

Getting the right till systems for small businesses is a big part of what Epos Now does. However, in the last few decades technology has evolved so much that someone who started running a retail business in the 1990s may now find themselves behind the times and struggling to keep up. Don’t worry though: this article explains the many things an EPOS system can do for retail businesses like yours.

Knowledge is power, power is sales

Possibly one of the most valuable EPOS features is the extensive reporting provided, allowing you to understand more about your store and make better business decisions. Modern tills collect all available data about sales which can be separated into categories and individual products so you know for certain what your bestsellers are, as well as which products are holding you back.

When compared with older technologies, the value of these detailed reports becomes very obvious. As well as telling you when people pay with cash or with credit cards, Epos Now reports can be broken down into time periods and intervals, so you’ll know which products sell best in the morning or afternoon, in spring or in summer, on Mondays or on Fridays.

This also means you can monitor any tweaks and changes you make, and you can access the reports at the wholesaler as you buy fresh stock. Which product gives you the biggest sales boost when placed in your window? Which product still sells well when placed in the darkest corner of the shop? Which new products do people like most? With access to knowledge like this, you can satisfy your customers' needs like never before, and ensure that your business operates at the best possible level.

Pricing and promoting with penny-pinching speed

Once you’ve determined your best products, the best tills for shops can quickly implement new prices, update your stock information and, should you wish it, run promotions with jaw-dropping speed. Older, manual input systems required every product to be price-marked so each sale could be typed into a till to calculate the total price; most EPOS systems can scan products and will have spaces for hotkeys and stock management systems. But the best systems can go much further in helping you with day-to-day management. 

Epos Now’s back office space can instantly scan or search to find products even a list of tens of thousands, to edit cost or sale price, stock figures and barcodes. Crucially, it can also then print out a shelf label so customers can see the new information, too. This can all be done in seconds. In the event you branch out significantly, spreadsheet imports can update your products list by thousands at a time, all through the super-simple Bulk Import app.

If running a promotion, retailers using Epos Now can add and remove products or entire categories by search, editing the amount discounted, and can switch it off at the click of a button. As a manager, you can set which days the promotion will run, even months in advance (taking pressure off the busy Christmas season). Promotions run without an EPOS system need to be remembered in order for discounts to be applied, but the best current tills for shops will take the money off automatically.

Once it’s time for a restock, Epos Now provides several shrink-reducing options, including setting up your pre-order so that once the stock arrives, there’s no hold-up putting it on to the shelves. You can mark each product as received and get on with your day. Alternatively, you can pick them up, scan them and put them straight on the shelves. With the rise of mPOS (mobile point of sale) you can purchase a mobile till with a built in scanner, to update stock while out on the shop floor.

These time-saving abilities of EPOS systems make the best till a worthy investment, reducing your need for extra staff, creating more opportunities for boosting sales and giving your employees more time to work on customer service, the retail experience, the nitty-gritty cleaning and polishing of your beautiful shop.

A customer’s best friend

With more time to work on customer relations, having easy access to customer data becomes vital. The time you spend with customers is much more profitable if you know what they bought the last time they visited your store.

In the 20th century, it was standard for customer accounts to be stored in paper records. Most businesses now find themselves storing data on a computer in one form or another: a company spreadsheet, an in-house program, or even a more basic word document. With cloud storage, even retailers with multiple till points can update customer data while business takes place.

Cloud storage saves huge amounts of time during service and later when checking accounts, repaying credit or managing a gift cards system. Invoices can quickly be emailed out to customers, balances can be confirmed immediately, and if a customer wants to confirm something bought previously, you can tell them so they can buy it again!

Just like your products list and stock information, if you encounter a large number of new customers at once during expansion or after purchasing a business, customer information can also be imported. With Epos Now, the software you rely on is prepared for you to grow.

A safer sale

Another feature of a POS solution that can be a real boon to retailers is staff management and the added security and stability it brings. Epos Now systems can be set up so no staff member is able to execute something they are not trained or allowed to do.

Security can be improved by deciding who gets use of the No Sale function, which opens the till without making a sale, or who can make refunds. Each staff member can be given a preset role with predetermined permissions, and staff can be given a code to access the sales page.

Creating your staff hierarchy also means as new members gain trust and ability, they can gradually be given greater responsibility. For example, the end of day process can be performed as usual, with “expected” and “counted” values so you can spot discrepancies. But it can also be done blind, so a staff member cannot compare figures, only input what they’ve counted in the cash drawer. This means you can leave early should you need to, and check your EOD figures at your convenience.

While setting up staff, Epos Now tills can also allot an hourly wage to staff which, using the clock-in/clock-out feature, then gets used to complete your payroll. Another feature that provides greater accuracy while saving time.

Taxes? Not a problem

While the value of data collection is outlined above, the time saved calculating your taxes is noteworthy in its own right. Epos Now systems automatically calculate monthly, quarterly and end of year tax in exportable forms.

Amongst our many app integrations we are able to export information to Sage, Xero and Quickbooks to save any time wasted on data input. Thanks to these functions, you won’t have to spend any more time than absolutely necessary on your taxes, leaving you free to get back to business!

Tills for shops: the Epos Now retail offer

Whether you’re a clothing or convenience store, sell electronics, vapes, or any kind of gifts. Epos Now technology provides the very best retail POS:

• Update all your stock in minutes
• Accept payments with an integrated card payments system
• Manage staff, products, and customer accounts with an easy-to-use program
• Integrate with any of the hundred app integrations designed for businesses like yours, including website builders like Shopify or Woocommerce for online ordering
• Grow your business and control multiple sites all in one place
• Expert customer support available 24/7

Get in touch with our experts on +353 1 963 8949 to talk about our reports, our integrations, or anything else you think could help your retail outlet grow.