Are inventory issues causing your business a headache? Here's an easy solution.

Your business seems to have it all: a solid plan and goals, motivated and competent employees, and terrific products. However, all of that hard work will fall by the wayside if you fail to manage your inventory properly. The great news is that today’s smart terminals and point of sale (POS) solutions contain all you need to become a stock management star.

What is a POS system?

Simply put, a POS system is the hub of your entire business. At a minimum, it should consist of a terminal, tablet or mobile phone, barcode scanner, and receipt printer.

In addition to transacting all types of payments, this mobile or stationary combination of hardware and software is usually equipped to handle numerous other business-related tasks. These include generating reports, assisting with employee management, customer loyalty, and relationship management, and storing data about all aspects of your inventory.

Inventory problems you might be experiencing.

No matter how dedicated and organized you might be, inventory management can prove to be a real sticking point for many small to mid-sized business owners. Here are just a few of the situations you may be encountering.

• You have products that people don’t seem to be buying.
• You frequently order too many of some items and not enough of others.
• It’s hard to get a handle on which workers are succeeding in selling specific merchandise.
• You don’t always have a firm sense of who is struggling on the sales floor and where their weaknesses in knowledge might lie.
• Your cash flow is limited due to several delinquent invoices that you don’t seem to have the time to chase.

All of these factors, particularly when combined, can significantly reduce your profits and drag your business down.

How your POS system can help.

Did you know that your smart terminal is a business management powerhouse? Packed with an abundance of features and capabilities, it truly can revolutionize the way you conduct your retail operations. Effective inventory management assistance is one of the greatest gifts it can bestow.

The key is in the barcode scanner’s connection to your smart terminal, POS system, or credit card reader. As soon as a product is delivered, the scanner can input the product’s barcode into your system automatically. That way, you'll be able to keep track of valuable information that includes when the merchandise was sold and who purchased it. 

Valuable details like these can be a game-changer, addressing many of the hiccups you may currently be encountering in the management of your stock. No longer do you have to refer to last week’s spreadsheets to guess what needs to be reordered. With just a few clicks, you can create a report that shows, in real time, exactly how much you have of all items. Your system can even be set to alert you when supplies are running critically low so that you can contact your supplier.

Even invoicing headaches can be significantly relieved when you have the right POS system. Today’s smart payment devices can keep track of which customers have outstanding balances and can be set to send reminder emails that prompt well-intentioned but forgetful clients to resolve their debts without much fuss from you.

The inventory-employee connection.

You have likely spent hours training your sales staff on every aspect of the products you offer, ensuring that they can provide in-person and online customers with information and answer questions as they arise. However, even the best instruction is not always effective for any number of reasons. With the help of your POS system, you can get to the bottom of breakages in this link between your salespeople and your products or services.

Your system should be designed to allow you to keep track of every item sold. Data such as the price paid, discounts applied, and which staff member made the sale can also be monitored and stored in modern POS systems. This provides you with a gold mine of details that you can dive into anytime you need to get a status report on your overall sales, or nuts and bolts intelligence about a particular associate’s productivity.

Once you have access to this information, you can use it in a number of ways. You might decide to do the following.

• Change the layout of your store, or the location of specific products to give poor sellers more visibility.
• After learning from POS reports which associates are failing to sell one of your marquee items, provide supplementary training and information to them.
• Adjust your stock counts to reflect current sales trends, leading to less waste in ordering and better use of shelf space.
• After seeing which products seem to be trending upwards, think about how to expand your offerings to include related peripherals to more intelligently anticipate future demand.

Keeping your finger on the pulse of your inventory is one of the most important steps you can take for the health and prosperity of your retail business! With a smart terminal or POS solution on your team, the task will be easier, faster, and more precise than ever before.