How to Choose the Best POS for Supermarket: 8 Easy Steps

Retail competition is soaring all-time high. Moreover, e-commerce is busy eating into offline retail sales. Therefore, the surest way to win more sales is by offering a superior in-store shopping experience. Here is where ‘POS for supermarket’ comes into the picture.

A pos software revolutionizes the way supermarket owners manage their sales, billing, and inventory. Furthermore, in 2020, the market share of POS systems in the retail industry surpassed $9.3 billion.

So, if you are searching for good Supermarket POS software, we bring to you eight ways to scrutinize your options.

Let’s get the ball rolling!

1. Map the Custom Requirements for your POS for Supermarket Business:

So, when it comes to Supermarket POS Software, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Your pos for supermarket business challenges and add value to your business.

And most probably, the first set of questions that must hit your mind include:

• Does this POS software accelerate your billing and checkout processes?
• Do I need custom features with customized dashboards and business-specific reports?
• Is the POS solution provider willing to customize the supermarket software for my business?
• Does the software fit seamlessly with your supermarket infrastructure?
• Can it make up for an accelerated billing process and better customer experience? Does it integrate with several peripherals (scanner, customer display, scales, cash drawer, etc.)?
• Does the software offer a gentle learning curve for your staff?

The above questions will help you with the initial filtering process. However, before that, you must jot down all your business requirements and challenges.

A traditional supermarket setup is most likely to address challenges like:

• Slow billing process and long queues at the checkout process.
• Manual inventory management can be labor extensive and unproductive.
• Inaccurate and inadequate reporting.
• Faded customer experience and lower sales, etc

Additionally, you must check if the proposed supermarket software resolves these challenges.

Moreover, you may use the above questions as hooks to adjust your sails while discovering the best POS for your supermarket.

2. Make Security A Priority When Deploying POS for Supermarket:

Digital and mobile payments are gaining popularity in the retail business model. Most importantly, it plays a vital role in supermarkets. Thus it makes businesses liable for safeguarding crucial credit card information for their consumers.

Hence the retail POS system you choose for Supermarket Management must offer high-end security and robust data encryption.

Moreover, your supermarket system is most likely to have several types of

users. Besides, you might wish to manage different access levels for these users.

For instance,

A cashier must not have access to the sales reports or vendor data. Or you might wish to implement a POS-enabled Cash Register Control to safeguard your cash.

So, you need to check if the potential POS for Supermarket offers multi-level access management.

The security concern can further escalate when you have multiple supermarkets or grocery stores. The ideal grocery store software must allow you to create any number of users. And it must help you define specific access levels for these users.

3. Check the Inventory Management Features It Offers:

How do you ensure that you are not running out of stocks during peak traffic days? Moreover, are you managing the inventory expiry schedules profitably?

Therefore, seamless Store Inventory Management is a significant key to success in a supermarket business.

Improper inventory might be hindering cash flow due to overstocking. Additionally, unmanaged stock expiry schedules may result in enduring losses.

Moreover, there is always a risk of ruining customer experience with “Out of Stock” labels.

The supermarket software you choose must help you mitigate these challenges. Therefore it must offer credible inventory management capabilities.

An ideal POS for Supermarket must offer inventory management features like:

• Consolidated inventory data from multiple stores.
• Notifications to remind stock clearance and upcoming expiry schedules.
• Notification to indicate stock replenishment requirements.
• Assign Barcodes to items for smooth payment processing.
• Add Serial Control for proper inventory tracking and eliminating shrinkage losses.
• Automated supply chain management, etc.

4. Scrutinize POS for Supermarket for Multi-store Management:

You might have multiple stores in a location, or different locations, or even in different cities. Therefore it makes sense to opt for a supermarket or grocery store software that offers a Multi-store POS feature.

But some POS systems restrict their capabilities to multi-store data tracking. Moreover, they fail to offer true multi-store management features.

Moreover, your POS software must scale with your business. So, place your bet on software that offers features like:

• Tracking data across all the stores from the backend.
• Defining the management headquarter to manage all the stores centrally.
• Managing pricing, promotions, and inventory across all stores.
• Tracking inventory data and inventory movement centrally.
• Tracking staff productivity and user access from the defined headquarter.

5. Compare Marketing Features to Boost Your Store Sales:

Whether gearing for Holiday sales or regular promotions, you need your POS Software for Grocery Store to guide your marketing efforts.

Crafting the right promotion deals has always been a challenge for supermarket owners, and the traditional promotion strategy is mostly generic across several stores.

However, the right POS for supermarkets can help you redefine your retail marketing strategy.

You will have a tab on your sales data, your store-specific customer data, customer trends, and whatnot.

You now know your top-selling products, the best sales hours/days, and inventory expiry schedules. That is a hot pot of information, right?

You can use this data to craft rewarding promotion offers for your supermarket or grocery store. Therefore an ideal supermarket software allows Promotions Management capabilities like:

• Centrally manage promotions across multiple stores.
• Use in-built promotion templates to speed up the marketing process.
• Produce personalized deals and manage their threshold limits.
• Prioritize and deprioritize deals in case of two or more offers.
• Manage clearance sales around the inventory expiry schedules.
• Boost Holiday Season and Shopping Season sales, etc.

6. Choose the POS for Supermarket that Focuses on Growing Repeat Sales:

Do you know what is more important than choosing a POS for the Supermarket?

Choosing the ‘Right’ POS software.

Customer loyalty is inevitably a key parameter in your supermarket sales. And you aren’t betting on seeing all new faces in your supermarket every other day.

Therefore, your chosen supermarket POS software must help you grow repeat purchases.

You must be able to plan a Customer Reward Program and add customers to your program. Moreover, they must be able to check their loyalty points transparently. You must also redeem them for their next purchases.

Hence this approach will encourage them to revisit your stores and make repeat purchases.

Any POS software must offer compatibility for managing membership programs. Additionally, you could encourage loyal customers to the membership program. Besides, you can offer member-only discounts for growing repeat sales and loyalty.

A good supermarket software is most likely to assist you with centralized management of these loyalty programs.

7. Consider the POS Deployment Options and Offline Operations:

How are you willing to deploy the POS software for your supermarket? Is your supermarket infrastructure also ready for on-premise deployment?

It is better to choose a POS provider that offers you multiple deployment options. Moreover, it gives you the flexibility to deploy POS on-premise, on Cloud, or partly on both.

Another concern that may bring you disappointment is a POS downtime error owing to lost internet connectivity.

In this case, you might need to switch to offline processes until the internet is back.

But, if you choose a comprehensive cloud-based POS, it works even during no internet times. Thus it ensures that you do not lose any data and offer a seamless customer experience.

8. Enquire About Training & Post-deployment Support:

Is your POS service provider helping you draw out more from your POS system?

Furthermore, what’s your immediate action when your POS system faces unknown downtime errors?

If you do not have answers to these questions, maybe you need to reconsider your POS system provider. 

A POS provider must be your go-to person in case of any downtime or discrepancies.

Use this questionnaire for scrutinizing and before choosing the right POS system provider:

• How do you assist me with the deployment of POS software for supermarkets?
• Do you provide custom POS training for my team?
• Does your team provide dedicated post-deployment support?
• If my POS system faces any downtime errors, will you help me resolve the same?
• How soon can your team help me eliminate any technical discrepancies in my POS system?

Considering that Supermarket stores usually have a large employee turnover. Therefore you must enquire if the POS system provides an inbuilt ‘Training’ module for any new users.

Summary:

Choosing the right supermarket or grocery store software can be daunting. Therefore I hope the above points make the huge job look comfortably seamless for you.

Here is just a walkthrough of the above points to help you draw quick insights:

8 Easy Steps to Choose the Best POS for Supermarket or Grocery Store:

• Check if the POS solution meets your specific supermarket requirements.
• Choose a POS that ensures data security, role-based access management, cash security, etc.
• Scrutinize inventory, inventory expiry, and supply chain management capabilities.
• Check the POS features to manage multiple stores from a single location.
• Compare the promotions management features
• The right POS for supermarket must help you grow customer loyalty and repeat sales
• See if the POS is compatible with your infrastructure. Also, check if it offers support during internet downtime.
• Inquire about the training and support offered by the POS system provider.

• Check if the POS solution meets your specific supermarket requirements.
• Choose a POS that ensures data security, role-based access management, cash security, etc.
• Scrutinize inventory, inventory expiry, and supply chain management capabilities.
• Check the POS features to manage multiple stores from a single location.
• Compare the promotions management features.
• The right POS for a supermarket must help you grow customer loyalty and repeat sales
• See if the POS is compatible with your infrastructure. Also, check if it offers support during internet downtime.
• Inquire about the training and support offered by the POS system provider.

Wish to know more about the crucial features of Supermarket POS Software? Connect with us for a Free Consultation.