Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Online point of sale systems

Online Point of sale software (online POS software) is software that retailers use to calculate sales and operate the cash drawer; it is the computerized cash register which retailer may access in the Web. Online Point of sale software adds up the sales total, figures the state sales tax, calculates the change back from the amount tendered, and automatically adjusts the store's inventory levels to debit the amount of inventory sold.

Online Point of sale software packages can vary considerably in capability, so the savvy retailer will want to assess their own situation in web and needs before making a selection decision. Inventory management capabilities suitable to a multi-store chain are probably overkill for a single boutique store and the care and feeding it would require is probably not worth the additional effort.

At a minimum, your online point of sale system should handle sales, manage your inventory database, run a barcode scanner and allow you the capability of querying your inventory and sales database in a flexible way.

Make sure your online point of sale system can search your inventory database not only on item description and SKU (stock keeping unit - a unique ID you assign to all items you carry), but by category, vendor and keywords. Without the keyword search capability, all your employees must know and remember the exact SKU for every product; a keyword search informs your employees that the hair bows for baby girls, for instance, are entered as 'girls hair bows' and not 'hair bows for girls'.

Click here to get acquainted with one of the online point of sale systems!

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