Are you looking for a fully featured EPoS system provider for your Milton Keynes premises?
An EPoS system that keeps your sales staff nimble with customers and minimises friction at the all important point of sale is worth many times over the investment cost.
Easy uploading of products or services, an array of price discounts and account-based sales configurations, plus flexible back-end reporting all help to increase your ROI on an EPoS.
With the right EPoS you can:
✅ lower your data entry overhead
✅ make more revenue
✅ retain more custom
✅ upsell and cross sell
✅ get granular detail on your sales
And with an EPoS system that offers an easy-to-use, yet advanced interface, the right solution can be just the answer to seizing control of your profit.
Our experienced consultants have the inside track for helping you choose the best EPoS system for your Milton Keynes business.
What is an Electronic Point of Sale (EPoS)?
EPoS stands for ‘Electronic Point of Sale’. It’s a modern till system consisting of a software platform with compatible hardware units.
Together, both EPoS software and hardware forms a formidable partnership that far exceeds the commercial capabilities of the old fashioned manual cashier tills.
Using EPoS brings transaction-based data to the forefront of your retail sales strategy.
It practically equips your front-line staff with critical business intelligence for serving customers in smarter and more profitable interactions.
Here’s the journey of EPoS it its primitive form as a paper-based loyalty program to today’s fully digitised, hand-held payment terminal system:
EPoS systems have many parts to them. All parts working together to deliver a specialised point of sale solution.
Specialised being the operative word.
Every business is different and therefore the point of sale should be flexible enough to provide an exact match against your needs.
Look out for industry focused EPoS systems too, serving let’s say:
- hospitality
- general retail
- salons
- takeaway restaurants
These are just a few common examples of ‘industry specific’ EPoS solutions.
EPoS systems, by nature, will be highly customisable.
Features, templates, workflows and labelling should all be areas that you as a user can manipulate to suit your business requirements.
This will make the system easy to use and ultimately profitable.
What does an EPoS system do exactly?
An EPoS system will give you a data-driven cutting edge for helping you optimise your customer’s retail experience.
Simply said, EPoS has 4 components:
- database
- software
- tills
- peripherals
And through these, the EPoS system enables your business to:
- capture customer purchase data
- fulfil customer transactions
- edit and amend product or service data real-time
- inform sales staff or cashiers with valuable customer related insights at point of sale
- generate management reports
- reconcile accounts
- integrate with CRM and other business software for smarter business workflows
EPoS is your answer to making most profitable use of your sales related business intelligence.
From this you can leverage all sorts of managerial improvements to increase profitability e.g. price adjustments based on product purchase history etc.
Benefits of using an EPoS system
EPoS systems are a cross between (a) data management and (b) operational service delivery tool.
The benefits of using EPoS are:
- Empowerment to make better (and more profitable) managerial decisions
- Saving time by reducing duplication
- Eliminating paper record errors
- Single data repository better data integrity
The EPoS system is a profit maximiser for any retail business that has an in-person customer sales point of sale.
How to use an EPoS system?
Every business will use an EPoS system differently. Therefore the nature of an EPoS platform is that is must be highly configurable.
That being said, there are some commonly held phases of use for most business that depend on EPoS:
Data management plan
Firstly, before any practical handling of machines or a software program, you should produce a data management plan.
This will comprise your high level strategy for:
- what data you will collect?
- how it will be processed?
- for what purposes?
Next, you need to identify ‘who’ is doing ‘what’ with the system.
User training
Supporting your cashiers with competent handling of your EPoS functions reduces friction at your point of sale.
This in turn improves sales conversion and increases revenue per sale through upsell and cross sell.
EPoS user training should include routine functions like:
- Log-in
- Custom screen configuration
- Product search
- Product options
- Promotional discounts
- Split billing, for example…
Display configuration
Much like your own mobile phone interface, an EPoS till system can be customised to array user functions in the most convenient place for each individual.
Controlled by log-in credentials, each user can personalise the till display to suit their needs.
Call and retrieve
Data recollection is a key function of EPoS systems.
Users in various contexts will need to ‘call’ data from the database to assist in the sales process.
Common reasons might be:
- CRM customer related data like address in takeaway businesses
- Product pricing
- Inventory levels
This keeps the sales conversation relevant, well informed and connected. This level of personalisation gives rise to increased in sales conversion and revenue per sale.
Data entry
Either by upload or manual input, data entry is the seed sown for every EPoS system.
.xls, .xml or .csv file extensions are commonly permitted digital file formats used for upload.
Having some spreadsheet crunching skills will help you prepare data prior to upload.
Processing
Receiving of input data, performing calculations and registering transactions.
There are all common processes performed by EPoS systems.
Also, ‘ID logged activity’ is key for promoting employee accountability and managerial monitoring.
Another area of specialised functionality is restricted user access controlled by login credentials. This helps you control which users have what type of system privileges. A key feature for prudent managerial oversight.
Back office reporting
Reporting for common managerial purposes like:
- decision making
- accounts reconciliation
- inventory audit
- tax submission
- employee assessment
…are common to most EPoS systems. But with specialised views for certain industries like RevPAR for hotel EPoS, for example.
How to choose the best EPoS system provider in Milton Keynes?
Due diligence in selecting your ideal EPoS vendor will go a long way toward achieving good return on investment.
Here are a few tips toward helping you make the best choice:
- Don’t get swayed by flash hardware: what your system looks like should never dictate the deal – always think of usability, functionality and flexibility to fit in with how your team intend to use it.
- Always trial: get your hands on a license prior to commitment, pass it round your team and get user feedback.
- If you are migrating, ask for their “done-for-you” or white glove service: data migration at the best of times can be problematic, make sure you get your EPoS provider to access responsibility for doing this. *Saves huge hassle in the event of a migration hiccup.
- Be sure to factor in all price variables including per user license for example: some EPoS system vendor have pricing tiers which jump when you’ve hit a certain number of system users, for example. Make sure to know how growth will impact your system costs.
- Always request vendors to include system config and user on-boarding: configuring the system to do exactly what you want can be quite laborious. Make sure you get a hands-on commitment from your chosen provider who will pick up the slack during set-up.
To get started, simply click on the button below and fill out the quote comparison form: