How Retailers can take advantage of POS Analytics to improve their business
Most Retail Businesses have implemented Point of Sale Software in order to ensure smooth sailing of the daily activities of a business. The simple reports and analytics from your point of sale software ensure that the daily activities of the business are efficiently carried out. It provides you with sales and inventory data over a specific period of time and this, in turn, provides the retailers with important insights in regards to when their goods are sold. In order to understand how this data can transform one’s business, retailers need to have a more global view of their business.
The first step is to gaze beyond purchasing. POS Solutions show retailers the number of items on shelves and in warehouse hence enabling retailers to know when the stock is critically low or out. But another important insight that the Point of Sales software provides is that it helps the retailers analyze their inventory cost of ownership. The total cost of Ownership informs the retailers about which supplier has the best pricing and services. The main problem in the current scenario is that most retailers only look at the vendors per item price versus cost per unit while purchasing. This is misleading since a low per-item price may have hidden costs that the retailers are unaware of.
The second thing that retailers need to keep in mind is how well they know their customers. It is important for retailers to understand the customers purchasing habits because of this, in turn, allows them to manage their inventory in an efficient manner. In order to do so, retailers can separate inventory into categories in order to create reports for average sales every month. The peaks and dips in sales data over a period of time can provide retailers with a better idea of their customers buying habits. This insight is helpful for forecasting the busy seasons as well as the slow ones. In case of retailers that have multiple stores, understanding the differences in sales between each store can help provide an understanding of the demographics and local competition. This can help improve the sales of underperforming stores by implementing changes.
Marketing is another very important aspect that can be done efficiently and effectively with the help of the POS Analytics sales data. With the right Retail POS Software, retailers can effectively target the customers with direct marketing campaigns. During periods of low sales, retailers can advertise discount prices which might help increase the sales and during peak sales, retailers can feature the higher priced items in high traffic areas of the store. The analytics that Point of Sale Software provides can also be used for the targeted marketing campaign. The product categories in the sales report can help point out all those products that are underperforming. Retailers can then use the customer's email list to market these products directly, this, in turn, generates awareness and can improve sales.
The analytics of Point of Sale software is also effective in getting one’s employees involved as well. The POS Analytics should provide individual sales report. It is very important to know the products that your employees are selling because they might only be comfortable in selling a certain category of products. Hence analyzing their individual sales data can help discover missed opportunities that can generate more revenue for the retailer. Also training one’s employees can also help increase their performance. Various studies have shown that training employees are an efficient way of increasing sales and at the same time retailers can ask them for valuable input on the analyzed sales data to make positive changes as well.
Hence it is clear that POS Analytics helps provide retailers with important information that can have a positive impact on the sales of the business. From employees to inventory and marketing, using POS inventory solutions can improve every area of one’s business.