25 Advantages of a POS System – Key Benefits for Businesses

Are you still using an analog cash register in your retail store? It’s probably time to upgrade, as there are numerous benefits of POS systems for retail businesses.  

Interested to learn how they can help? From centralizing your analytics (think accounting, sales and inventory data in one place), to enabling faster transactions and more positive customer experiences, the advantage of a POS is that you can operate smarter, process more transactions, and even grow sales.  

As you consider different POS systems, look for the right features that will help you be more efficient. Here are the top 25 advantages of using a POS system in your operation: 

1. Efficient Checkout Process 

POS systems automate the checkout process, making it faster and more efficient than traditional systems. This is critical in places like convenience stores and liquor stores, where customers expect a fast checkout process.  

Ultimately, the key advantage here is better customer experiences. You’ll reduce wait times and get customers in and out quicker. By being more effiecient, you’ll reduce lost sales, grow average orders, and build loyalty. Here are specific benefits of a POS for checkouts: 

• Automatically calculate the total cost, reducing human error. 
• Use barcode scanning for quick product identification. 
• Update inventory in real time, eliminating manual updates.

2. Inventory Management  

POS systems provide real-time inventory tracking, a feature absent in traditional systems. A quality POS will help your business quickly improve inventory control issues and reduce problems like stockouts.  

For one, items checked out will be automatically removed from your inventory counts, resulting in more accurate inventory data. Plus, a POS integrates with inventory scanners, allowing you to update your data faster after manual counts. A POS can help you improve inventory control in these ways: 

• Reduce stockouts and overstocking. 
• Automatically update inventory after each sale.
• Provide alerts when stock is low. 

3. Sales Reporting  

There is a ton of useful data in your POS reports, especially relating to sales. These reports can help you make data-driven decisions, like optimizing your prices, or adjusting inventory due to seasonal sales trends.  

POS systems generate detailed sales reports, unlike traditional systems, which require lots of hours in Excel to sync data. POS reporting can help:

• Provide insights into business performance. 
• Help identify best-selling products. 
• Track sales trends over time.

4. Customer Management  

A POS system doesn’t just allow for faster checkouts and better data. Most modern systems include CRM components that allow you to store and organize customer data and launch loyalty programs.  
 
This feature will allow your business to offer personalized service and better understand your core audience. This benefit of a POS will help you: 

• Build customer loyalty through personalized offers. 
• Track customer purchase history. 
• Enable targeted marketing campaigns. 

5. Employee Management  

An all-in-one POS can eliminate the need for a time clock, as you can use the system to log employee hours. This provides insights into individual performance, and it can also help your business reduce loss (e.g. using biometric security logins for access control).  

Employee management in your point of sale can help you: 

• Monitor employee sales performance. 
• Track employee hours for accurate payroll. 
• Help identify top-performing employees. 

6. Accept Multiple Payment Options  

Accepting more payment options can increase your sales and improve customer experiences. Without a POS, you might need a variety of devices to accept today’s evolving payment options; a POS centralizes card processing for your business.  

Some of the benefits of a POS payment processing system include: 

• Accept credit/debit cards, mobile payments, and contactless payments. 
• Speed up the checkout process. 
• Increase sales opportunities.

7. Improved Customer Experience 

There are numerous ways a POS will benefit your customer service. Not only will your inventory control improve (reducing out-of-stock issues), but you’ll also offer faster checkouts, more payment options, and, with loyalty program tools, you can personal promotions and offers.  

A POS helps improve customer experiences in these ways: 

• Offer features like self-checkout and mobile payments. 
• Reduce waiting times at checkout. 
• Provide personalized customer service.

8. Reduced Human Error  

Manual pricing errors, cash handling mistakes, and even skimming (cash theft) is a real problem for many retailers. However, POS systems automate a lot of these tasks, and they allow you to put cash handling protections in place.  
 
As a result, a POS minimizes human errors. Key benefits include:  

• Ensure accurate billing. 
• Reduce discrepancies in inventory. 
• Automate calculations to prevent errors.

9. Loyalty Programs    

The best POS systems integrate with loyalty programs. That means you can easily launch, track and promote a loyalty rewards program. This allows you to a) offer targeted promotions, b) reward your customers, and c) drive more frequent purchases. 

Key benefits of POS loyalty programs include:

• Encourage repeat business. 
• Track customer points and rewards. 
• Offer personalized rewards based on purchase history.  

10. Ecommerce Integration  

More and more businesses offer an omnichannel shopping experience. Therefore, it’s essential that your POS system syncs with your online store. By creating an omnichannel database, you’ll have more accurate inventory data, which can help you improve fulfillment efficiency. 

Some of the key benefits of an omnichannel POS system include:

• Allow for seamless inventory management across multiple sales channels. 
• Sync online and offline sales. 
• Provide a unified view of customer data.

11. Marketing Tools 

The best POS systems will transform your marketing programs. This includes features like a CRM program (loyalty and email marketing), POS reporting (to find sales insights), and improved customer experiences. 

However, many cash register systems also integrate with upselling tools and digital signage, allowing you to test in-store marketing campaigns to drive sales. Some benefits include:   

• Track customer purchasing habits and preferences. 
• Enable targeted marketing campaigns. 
• Help identify effective marketing strategies. 

12. Expense Monitoring  

Without a POS, tracking business expenses is a tedious, time-consuming task. A modern point of sale can completely automate this task, gathering vendor data, expenses, and cash flows in a single database.  

Here are some of the benefits of tracking expenses: 

• Track daily expenses and revenue. 
• Provide detailed financial reports. 
•  Aid in financial management and budgeting

13. Time-Saving 

How would you business change if you could automate tedious tasks like inventory control, accounting, and data analysis? This is one of the most important benefits of a POS system.  

By automating tasks, you free up time to a) test new marketing, b) train your staff, and c) work on big picture tasks that offer get pushed due to day-to-day management requirements. Here are some of the benefits of POS automation:  

• Automate tasks like inventory updates and sales reporting. 
• Allow staff to focus on customer service. 
• Save valuable time for business owners and managers.

14. Security   

Security and loss prevention can both have a big impact on the bottom line. POS systems include security features that can affect the most common theft problems that retailers face.  

For example, our SMARTtill cash management system creates instant cash reconciliation reports, helps with balancing registers, and can save businesses $7,000 per year (per machine). Another benefit: Biometric logins make access control safer. Some key security advantages of POS systems include:  

POS systems offer secure transactions. They: 

• Protect both the business and its customers. 
• Secure customer payment information. 
• Prevent unauthorized access to business data.  

15. Tax Calculation 

Save time during tax season and reduce tax errors with a POS. Here’s why that’s possible: POS data collection makes it easier to create year-end reporting, making filing and tax prep easier. POS systems tax benefits include:

• Ensure accuracy and compliance. 
• Automate tax calculations based on location and tax laws. 
• Reduce the risk of tax errors.  

16. Order Management  

A key advantage of a POS system: It will help you automate reordering. For example, you set reorder points in your inventory database. When stock levels reach these points, the system can automatically create a purchase order, send it to your vendors, and place an order. 

POS systems advantages for order management include: 

• Make it easier to track and fulfill orders. 
• Provide real-time order updates. 
• Help manage online and offline orders in one place.  

17. Real-Time Data / Remote Access  

If you’re using a cloud-based POS or an on-premise system, you can remotely access data from a central dashboard. This allows you to instantly gauge performance across multiple locations, for example, as well as see sales in real-time, and make faster decisions.  

Some advantages of real-time data include: 

• Allow for immediate decision-making. 
• Provide real-time sales and inventory data. 
• Help identify trends and patterns quickly.

18. Scalability  

An all-in-one POS system can grow with your business. For example, as you add more POS machines and stores, you can integrate these into your existing databases. This centralizes inventory and sales data. However, with traditional systems, you have to purchase individual machines and integrate them yourself. 

Here’s how a POS helps with scalability: 

• Able to grow and expand with the business. 
• Allows adding new products or locations easily. 
• Support increasing transaction volumes.

19. Return and Refund Management  

Tracking refunds and returns is a nightmare without a cloud-based system. Doing this manually is difficult to track, and it often results in manual errors. Here are some of the ways that a POS simplifies refunds and returns:  

• Track returns and exchanges. 
• Automate refund totals. 
• Help maintain good customer experiences.  

20. Vendor Management   

Along with reordering capabilities, the CRM in a POS will also help you organize vendor data. This can include points of contact, invoice status, and more. Some of the vendor management benefits of a POS include:  

• Track orders and payments. 
• Manage supplier contacts and contracts. 
• Help maintain optimal inventory levels. 

21. Cost-Effective  

In general, traditional cash register systems are expensive, and as you grow, costs can increase exponentially. With an integrated POS system, you’ll reduce the need for multiple systems (e.g. credit card processing, POS, and inventory management).  

Plus, you can save time by mastering a single system, rather than needing to learn a CRM, cash register, and accounting software. Some advantages include: 

• Reduce the need for multiple systems. 
• Save time and resources. 
• Offer a high return on investment. 

22. Data Backup  

Data loss is a real problem if you’re using an analog system, and once data is lost, it cannot be recovered. Cloud-based POS systems, for instance, allow you to automate data backups, helping to reduce downtimes and lost sales data. Key benefits include:  

• Protect valuable business data. 
• Ensure data can be viewed from anywhere. 
• Prevent data loss in case of device failure.  

23. Customer Upselling  

A POS with an integrated Upsell tool can take sales to the next level. For example, these systems essentially integrate signage with customer data, allowing you to promote targeted deals to your customers. Our customers generate a 20% lift in sales when using Uplift, our customer upselling tool.  

Advantages of a POS with upselling capabilities include: 

• Promote targeted deals to your customers. 
• Increase impulse sales and cross-sales at the register. 
• Increase conversion and average order values.  

24. Technical Support  

When you buy a traditional cash register system, you don’t have a relationship with the company. You won’t be assigned an account manager, for example. In general, you don’t have a support you can call anytime. Support staff can help you if you experience network issues, if you need help connecting your POS with a tool, or if you want to learn how to use a new POS feature. Some key benefits of real-time tech support include: 

• Help resolve customer queries quickly. 
• Reduce downtime and data loss.  
• Cut costs working with third-party tech support. 

25. Integration with Other Software  

Generally, a POS can sync with a variety of tools to expand its capabilities. Our Enterprise Retail Suite includes numerous tools that integrate with FTx POS, including digital signage, customer loyalty, upselling, age verification, and inventory management tools.  

Here are some ways to POS integrations benefit your business:  

• Sync data across different software. 
• Reduce costs, time working with multiple software vendors.
• Create a single business management solution and streamline operations.

Grow Your Business with FTx POS 

Let us show you all advantages of using FTx POS in your business. Schedule a demo today to test features, learn more about our retail suite tools, and see our retail POS system in action.