If you own a shop you will know exactly how hard the preparation is: finding a location, planning the shop, sorting out the fit-out, dealing with endless paperwork. Then you finally open, and discover there is a whole other pile of things to manage — selling, taking payment, ringing up sales, handling inventory. All of it is the day-to-day of running a retail shop.
And in time you will inevitably have to think about more besides: devising promotions to draw customers in, planning how to get customers signing up as members so you build a base, and analysing your sales data so the shop keeps trading effectively.
So what can be done about all that hassle? Ordinarily we would suggest two ways of running a shop that lighten the load, keep your work nimble and make managing a retail shop far more efficient.
1. Hire staff or a team to help
What could be easier than not doing the work yourself? Hire someone specifically to handle the administrative side — running the shop, setting up promotions, handling inventory, recording members, summarising sales — and you need not do any of it. Simply gather the information you have and hand it over.
It sounds simple enough, but hiring someone capable across all of that plainly costs a fair amount. If your business has only just opened, or the shop is small, you may prefer to put the budget into something else, such as buying more stock. And if you leave it to daily-wage staff, mistakes and problems can creep in just as easily.
2. Use a smart POS system to make everything easier
A shop management POS system is more than something to ring up and take payment with. It helps you run several sides of the shop at once — and each POS system comes with a different set of features. So what can Qashier POS do? Let us look at how a shop management POS system from Qashier helps run a retail shop.
2.1 It records sales accurately
Every sale rung up through Qashier POS is recorded in the system automatically, so nothing slips through — and you can go back and check at any time.
2.2 It handles inventory
Qashier POS lets you add your inventory data, and when a sale goes through the inventory is updated to the latest figure automatically. There is also an extra feature that lets you set an alert for when stock is running low, so your shop is never caught out of stock or overstocked.
2.3 It sets promotions up in advance
When you come up with a new promotion — a per-item discount, or the more you buy the cheaper it gets — you enter the details once yourself. Set the promotion up in advance through the POS and on the next purchase the price drops according to the conditions you specified, straight away.
2.4 It stores customer data and runs a membership scheme
You can hold the details that matter about your regulars, name and phone number alike. You can look at the purchase history of customers who are members, which is enormously useful in improving the shop, and you can create special offers for them as well.
2.5 It produces sales reports and helps you analyse them
When you sell through Qashier POS you can summarise the day's takings easily, which saves you time. You can also look at sales across whatever date range you choose, and drill into the sales figures for each individual product or category.
2.6 It helps you manage your staff
Qashier's POS system lets you look after and manage staff better. You can set each person's role and which features of the POS terminal they can reach, and you can calculate their commission. There is a clock-in system too, so staff can record the start and end of their own shifts.
2.7 It lets you run the shop wherever you happen to be
You can reach your data and run the retail shop through the Qashier POS back office from anywhere, because it is a cloud POS that keeps your data online. So whenever you want to look at or change something in the shop — sales, products, promotions — you can do it from anywhere. Which also means you can take your shop to your customers, wherever they are.
2.8 It keeps your data safe
Your data will not be lost, because your shop's data is always backed up online. So even if something unexpected happens, or the POS terminal develops a fault, you can be confident that everything belonging to your shop is still safe.
You can also decide which members of staff get access to which data on the POS terminal, which lets you be confident about the security of your information.
From all of the above you will have a fair picture of how many tools there now are for running a retail shop. Pick whichever appeals to you.
And with Qashier POS you can try it free, through the Qashier POS app on an Android device, to start running your retail shop. Some features are limited, but everything you need for the basics of running a shop is there.
You can also take Qashier POS as a hardware-plus-software package, and Qashier's POS terminals come in several forms to suit what you need.
Start managing your shop better with Qashier today
If you would like Qashier to be the assistant to your retail business, get in touch for more information. We are ready to support shops and restaurants alike, with a POS terminal for retail shops and an effective POS system, plus support from our team seven days a week.
For more details, reach us on Line Official: @qashier.th or call 02 544 0267