Opinion by Josh Harrison
We asked Kounta GM Josh Harrison to identify the biggest challenges for bricks and mortar stores using old or out of date point-of-sale (POS) systems.
Adapting to a new POS system can be difficult for a reasonably experienced retail staff member, but can be even more daunting for those who have never used a POS system before.
Searching and locating where products are within a POS is one of the most common challenges any new staff member faces as a result of archaic legacy POS systems. It pays to have a POS system that has an easy-to-navigate, user-friendly and flexible interface.
Training new and existing staff on using POS is often seen as a time-consuming task by a business due to having just one or a limited number of staff trained on using the POS system upon installation.
This results in having staff who aren't trained in troubleshooting, consequently affecting the in-store customer experience.
As a new team member, it takes time to become knowledgeable about a store's products. Having software that runs on smart phones and tablets and not just on a fixed register, allows team members to get immediate access to answers both online and from within the POS system while on the floor, engaging with customers.
Businesses have to deal with the monumental task of processing reports and managing stock and inventory manually, which is time-consuming due to the lack of ‘smart’ POS systems.
Having a POS that generates automatic reports and provides businesses with real-time information reduces the human errors that can be made caused by having several people managing that.
Josh Harrison is the GM of Kounta, which is “is an extremely flexible and scalable online Point of Sale POS Software System that is quick to get started and easy to use yet powerful enough to run your businesses,” according to a company statement.