Retail e-commerce is gaining ground in the UAE as more people find it easy to get everything delivered right to their doorstep. Some of the latest POS Software in Dubai come packed with innovative features to help retail stores manage their business processes better using efficient inventory management.
A large part of retail business is about maintaining inventory efficiently so that the right products are available at the right time. Integrated inventory management in POS systems makes it possible for businesses to handle their stock better across multiple channels, allowing better control over the physical goods. Let us get to know more about this.
Why you should manage your inventory?
It’s quite simple: customers flock to your store – offline and online – when you have the products they need. If you have low stock of those products, you stand to lose a lot of potential customers who could have earned you profits.
Good inventory management allows you to know what these products are based on how much they sell over a period. This will allow you to keep track of products from the moment they come in, so you are able to monitor stock amounts and initiate re-orders more efficiently.
POS Apps for Retail Business
Retail business owners used to manage their inventory with just receipts and notes on paper. The latest innovation in POS software’s made it possible to handle vast quantities of products and maintain consistency in inventory databases. POS apps now come with user-friendly tools to integrate sales across multiple channels – storefront operations and online sales are run side-by-side under a common, centralized inventory system.
Dashboard View
Stock management can be accessed with a simple dashboard feature on most POS apps. This allows retail managers to get detailed metrics on stock movement and profit projections for different products. This makes it possible to effectively organize inventory right from the app.
Simplify Sales Operations
Making sales on ecommerce platforms through a POS app makes it easy to sync up sales data with the physical stock information. The POS app will automatically make changes to your catalog so that the information in the system accurately reflects the physical quantity of the products that you have in the store. Regardless of product types, the POS app would also be able to integrate inventory with accounting and customer support modules.
Eliminate Human Errors
A POS app would be able to update inventory records automatically based on the sales, so there is no need to make manual inputs to the inventory for each transaction. This makes it easy to track changes in real-time. Since all this is done automatically, there is no risk of discrepancies – like when different employees update changes to the inventory resulting in inventory value errors.
The How-to of Inventory Management
There are different ways by which retail businesses implement POS solutions to organize their inventory. Having learned all the benefits of keeping track of inventory in retail business, we can look into the ways in which inventory is managed when using a POS app.
Updating and Retrieving Items
A retail product catalog contains all the information related to the products including name, description, price and product number. Products are entered into the system and retrieved during checkout using a barcode that contains all this information and more. This is usually done using a barcode scanner. Handling Ecommerce with POS apps is even more easy – simply scanning the product with the smartphone or tablet device will sync the information with the inventory management system.
Stock Reordering
The POS app would also be able to streamline the product purchase and delivery process by automating the whole process with the inventory management system. Sale patterns of stock products – especially high-sale ones – would be analyzed and purchase orders initiated by the POS app automatically. And when the new stock is delivered to the store, it is automatically updated into the system.
Inventory Discrepancy
Generally, items are added to a POS app individually or uploaded from spreadsheets, with potential room for human error. Either way, physically counting the stock once in a while is a good way to double check if the data in the POS app is accurate. It is recommended that retail businesses engaged in Ecommerce with POS apps schedule stock inspections regularly to rule out any discrepancies or errors.
Analytics and Reporting
A POS app that offers a good analysis and reporting system would provide effective stock management for your ecommerce. This will enable you to track best-selling products, products that bring the most profits, low-stock items and dead stock through automated inventory reports. This information can be quite valuable when you choose what products to order and when to introduce promotional offers, or even drop items from sale.
Sales Performance Updates
Up-to-date sales reports would be generated by the POS app to help retail owners get a comprehensive view of how well their business is doing – by week, month or year. Moving ahead with this, it would be possible to analyze sales performance of your employees and offer bonus rewards based on this performance.
Building Customer Relationship
Understanding what customers need is made possible by analyzing their purchase history and buying patterns. The POS app uses CRM to keep track of all this information and suggest changes to inventory based on customer preferences. This will also allow retail businesses to better market new products to customers.
Mastering Ecommerce with POS app
Apart from in-store and online sales, inventory management using a POS app can be used to open up more sales channels.
Omni-Channel Sales
Social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram allow businesses to build their catalog and showcase products directly to customers. This means that users can directly access your store from the apps. POS apps can directly integrate with these platforms so that multi-channel sales are easily managed and customers receive a seamless store experience on multiple platforms.
Customer-oriented Inventory
Even small stores can enhance their online presence with a handy POS app. Shoppers check out products online even before coming into the store, so it would be a good way to let them know what products are available beforehand. Real-time inventory can be displayed on Google My Business with an integrated inventory management module that updates records accurately and displays the product catalog to customers.
Go Trendy with Smart Tech
The buy online and pickup at-store option is one way that customers can remain attached to the physical store while enjoying the convenience of making the purchase and payment online. For retail business with this sales feature, a POS app would be able to automatically complete transactions and update inventory.
Even at the store, the hassle of waiting in a queue at the check-out counter is being phased out with smart check-out solutions. Quick and convenient processing using QR code scanning and cashless payment modes have made it increasingly vital to have a POS app that tracks inventory accurately.
Manage your ecommerce with the best POS
SingleCart offers the top-rated POS Software that integrates dynamic inventory management for retail ecommerce business. Get your inventory properly organized and ready for multi-platform sales with our innovative POS Software with VAT billing features. Come grow your business with us and find your business opportunities flourish!