POS terminals are just standard computers running software to facilitate the operation of a store at a point of sale. The point of sale is wherever transactions take place within a store (also referred to as the place of purchase). At a designated counter or checkout area and at the large majority of retail locations, these POS machines are located.
Consequently, the fundamental purpose of a point of sale terminal is to simply enable a customer to pay for its items. Today, this means that you are reading your credit or debit card and you are authorized to confirm your purchase and then print a receipt. However, terminals for points of sale will usually do much more. A majority of shops depend on their terminals for their inventory management. IWL220 and ICT220 are the examples of models of some good POS machines.
For example, if the arrangement is still on site, a florist may use the “point of sale” terminal of his company. In the past it would have been a manual process to confirm the location of the arrangement, including calling the driver to check his status. Point-of-sale end-users supply this kind of information with a single click system. A shop can have one or several POS terminals depending on its needs. By utilizing the POS machines, now there is no need of going to ATM.
How POS terminal works?
Each terminal has a credit-card swipe tool, receipt printer and generally a cash drawer. All devices are connected to the same server, providing a central database to collect information on all transactions in one store. A barcode scanner is also connected by many shop owners. In order to respond to a store’s unique needs, there is an endless range of devices that can be integrated into a point of sale terminal.
The cashier simply has to scan an item to save its data in the main server, after setting up the POS system. That is, it has been activated and “loaded” with the UPCs or other codes for the inventory of the store. Then the terminal sends the price to the display of the system. It is added to the total as additional items are scanned.
It sends other important data points to the server at the same time. In addition to updating the internal inventory of the shop, it also shows number of employee record for such sales. There will be no need to visit the ATM, when you are availing the services of POS machine.
This information is extremely important to the customer. If items are missing during one shift, you will want to find out which one of the guilty parties, who worked in the register. Similarly, if the same error continues, it will allow for the necessary training opportunities to know who is responsible. If you are looking to buy a good POS machine, you can go for IWL220 or IWL250 model.
Advantages of POS terminals
Dozens of POS terminals are currently in the market, so the exact advantages will vary according to the model you choose. The reason for this is that even the most basic versions offer advantages that no shop can afford without.
The most popular advantages are presented here.
As already touched, point-of-sale terminals can report on each transaction which occurs. Detailed reports say what happened during the day. Again, it is extremely helpful if one or more employees–whether purposefully or unintentionally–do not do their jobs properly.
These kinds of detailed reports can also tell you how popular certain items are. For example, if you’re a shoe store, these reports can tell you which styles, colours or sizes are the most demanded, so that you can make sure these do not go out of stock. In the past the owners of shops should be present several weeks at a time before they can glean such insights. You can monitor this information remotely with many POS systems.
Thus, we have seen some key details related to POS machines. The ICT220 and IWL250 are the most popular models of POS machines available in the market.
