Do More With Your POS: Stock Management

Technology has evolved point of sale systems (POS systems) into a one-stop platform for managing your business.

Also read: Do More With Your POS: Get to know your customers

This development has come as a great relief to small businesses that can’t afford to employ enough staff members to fill up all the positions that are required to run a business smoothly. 

You want to make sure that the POS system you’re purchasing is integrated and automated to help you manage your business effectively. A good POS system should collect data that you can use to get insight into your business to maximise your revenue.  

Now that we have looked at the types of customer data collectable through a POS system, we will look at the stock and sales related data and the importance of collecting them. 

What is Stock Management 

Inventory and stock are phrases that are often used interchangeably in business. We will be using the term ‘stock management ’ for this blog, which refers to the process of ordering, storing, using, and selling a company’s products.

3 Benefits of Stock Management

1. Maximising Sales and Profits

One of the biggest advantages of having a data-driven POS that manages your stock is the opportunity of gaining insight that will make it easier to make profitable decisions. For instance, data regarding stock levels will give you insight into purchasing trends and products that are on-demand, which will assist you in making decisions regarding your next stock order to ensure that you have enough stock to cater for your customer’s needs and demands.

2. Increase Customer Satisfaction

Data on purchases and returns can give you insight that can assist you in improving customer’s buying experience. A buyer’s experience is the total journey a potential customer goes through from initial awareness to purchase to finally using your product or service.

If a certain product’s online orders are declining, it could be due to late deliveries or faulty products upon delivery. A decision can be taken to make use of a different courier service.

3. Reducing Stock Shrinkage

Stock/inventory shrinkage refers to the difference between the stock on record and the stock at hand. This is due to theft, misplaced items, cashier mistakes, or miscounts. Fortunately POS system can help in reducing issues such as stock theft to reduce shrinkage.

The ability to track stock movement and employees responsible for moving the product keeps employees accountable and in so doing, reduces theft.

Stock Related Data

A POS will allow you to gather the following data: 

Stock Count

A POS should have a stock management feature included to automatically count stock in real-time. The system will automatically update the stock levels with every item that gets purchased. 

With this data, you will know:

• How much stock has been sold for a certain period
• The products that are on-demand
• The not so popular products 

This insight will for instance allow you to plan your stock ordering schedule properly to avoid issues such as:

• Stockouts (when you run out of products to sell)
• Overstocking (when you have too many products on hand)
• Deadstock (when your products become obsolete before they can be sold)

Stock Value and Stock Cost

A POS system can give you the total value of your stock at hand and how much it cost to purchase the stock, which helps in tracking your revenue and profit. 

New Stock Ordering

If your POS can automatically count your stock and update stock levels, then it should have an option to notify you when it is time to stock up. 

This will allow you to keep track of 

• Order quantities
• Your ordering schedule - When the order was placed and when it was received
• The employee responsible for a specific order
• Supplier’s details

Solid stock management is important for the smooth running of your business; therefore, it would be in the best interest of the business to invest in a good data-driven POS system with a stock/inventory management feature.