If you are running a small business, there is no denying the fact that you will run into a variety of challenges which you might not be equipped to mitigate. However, with a high-quality POS system, you will be able to mitigate these challenges.

The reality is that you cannot be everywhere and oversee everything at all times, but with a cloud-based POS system you will be able to monitor your business wherever you are.

Let’s take a look at some challenges that you could face:

Challenge 1: Employee Theft

Employee theft is the biggest challenge that your business can face. One of the best ways to monitor and potentially prevent employee theft is through a pos system.

These features can help you in preventing theft:

• Inventory tracking

Pos systems can help in monitoring your inventory levels and can be of assistance in determining inventory theft. You will get insights that will help you in making sense of the inventory used during a particular period. Furthermore, pos systems also allow you to track the employees who were on duty when the hike in inventory usage occurred.

• Money theft

Businesses that operate without a pos system can trust that they employed people of integrity, and they have no way to prevent them from stealing money. Money theft is easier with cash transactions and can be easily covered up in the books.

However, with a pos system, you can link the software to the cash drawer and only set it to open for cash tractions. These cash transactions can be traced to the reports that are automatically generated by the system. A pos system also makes it difficult for employees to cover their tracks.

It is important to limit actions like cancelling transactions and manual operation of the cash drawer to managers.

Challenge 2: Inventory Management

Inventory management is an important part of business management. If you can’t strike a balance between inventory on hand and demand, you will end up with out-of-stock or overstocked inventory. Both lead to a loss in revenue and out of stock inventory will push customers away to businesses that will be able to cater to their needs. As mentioned above, a pos system enables you to keep track of your inventory levels and the demand based on sales history and customer behaviour insight. Therefore, you will be better prepared for your busy days and have enough inventory for your quieter days.

Choose a pos system with strong reporting and analytics capabilities.

You should be able to get the following information:

• Your best selling products
• Your slow-sellers
• Products that are running low
• Peek days

Challenge 3: Gathering And Analysis of Key Data

Data is king! If your current pos system is not giving you the depth of data that you need to improve your business, then you need to switch to Waitr. Pos systems can provide you with any data from date and times of purchases to location of purchase, which can help you to make more informed business decisions. This data would have otherwise been difficult and time-consuming to gather with a manual process.

Here are a few examples where the data can be used:

• To empliment growth strategies
• SEO optemization to rank website higher
• Targeted promotion
• Inventory management

Challenge 4: E-commerce Integration

The need for an online presence is on the rise with customers spending more time on their mobile devices and businesses seeking alternative ways of branching out without the costs involved in building physical stores. Cross-channel pos software makes it easier to integrate your physical store into an online platform and synchronizes all your data.

Read all about Waitr’s online platform here.

Challenge 5: Loss of Data

Cloud-based pos systems prevent the loss of any data related to sales that is vital in making business strategies. Additionally, businesses like laundromats require clients to present receipts to pick up their laundry. With a cloud-based pos system, your customers can be rest assured that they will receive their package even if they lose their receipt as all their information can be retrieved by searching for their account.

If you feel like your current pos system is not giving you enough support, then it might be time to reconsider your pos system.