Still using separate ePOS and inventory systems? It’s time for change!

An ePOS system is so much more than a till, although many retailers are yet to realise the potential of today’s powerful technology and still think of it as just a means of making a sale.

If your business is in its infancy, an integrated ePOS and inventory management solution will not only future proof your business, but will also save you time and prevent costly mistakes as your business grows.

If you’re already taking a multi-channel approach, for example selling in-store and on an eCommerce website, you’ll no doubt be aware of the complexity of managing a single inventory which serves two or more sales channels. For example, ensuring stock is in the right location at the right time and that all data is live and up-to-date can be an enormous challenge.

Inventory Management

Proper management of your inventory can mean the difference between profit and loss, and even success and failure. Maintaining the correct levels of your products is essential to customer satisfaction and profitability; understock and your disappointed customers will shop elsewhere, overstock and your profits are quickly eroded.

If your existing ePOS system doesn’t support inventory management, you may be ‘making do’ with end of day sales reports which are then cross referenced with your stock sheet in order to maintain your records, while undertaking frequent stock checks to ensure your data is accurate. These outdated practices are time-consuming and prone to error – not to mention costly, as time really is money in a retail business.

A quality ePOS solution with inventory management can automate these processes for you, removing the propensity for human error, and providing instant updates and reports so that your decision making is properly informed.

The benefits of a truly integrated solution

Real-Time Data

When you invest in an integrated solution, data freely flows back and forth between different aspects of your business and synchronises automatically. This provides a constant feed of live data whenever you need it and means everything is contained within a single system – all accessible through a single and unified interface.

With multiple systems issues can arise when they are forced to work together, often due to the different languages they ‘speak’ or different ways they format data. This can lead to the misinterpretation of information, ultimately leading to bad or poorly founded decision making.

With Saledock, your data is always in real time so you know you can reply upon our analytics tools to report on your inventory right down to the finest detail which allows you to not only manage the day-to-day, but to also plan ahead.

Keep Stock Moving

When you have complete oversight of your stock position, you can easily identify slow movers, best sellers and other trends by location, product range and even season. With an integrated ePOS and inventory solution you can make data-driven decisions instead of relying on your gut feeling or pouring over endless spreadsheets to try to get a picture of your inventory and use this to create special offers, discounts or promotions to shift those slow movers and turn products back into cash.

With Saledock’s analytics tools, you can easily identify where your stock should and should not be across locations and effortlessly transfer it to where you need it to be.

Make Purchasing A Breeze

A fully integrated solution not only allows you to monitor and move stock between locations, but will also support your purchasing activities by simplifying stock replenishment and product population.

Saledock’s purchasing features allow you to set custom re-order points which trigger a low stock alert, ensuring that you don’t run low on anything. When a re-order point is reached, simply transfer stock between locations or send a purchase order straight to your supplier and your stock will be replenished in no time.

And, when you use Saledock’s Xero integration, purchase orders, payments, discounts, taxes and liabilities are all synchronised to Xero automatically.

Improve Stock Accuracy

Gone are the days of pen and paper stock takes and manual entry into spreadsheets. With today’s technology, stock taking is not only faster and easier to perform, but is also much less susceptible to human error and results can be viewed in real-time throughout the process as data automatically synchronises.

With Saledock you can create stock takes in advance and then send them to your staff’s mobile phones or the rugged SUNMI L2s handheld device, via the Stock Control App. Your staff can then perform full or partial stock takes without the need for additional hardware, right from their own mobile phone or your chosen device. All they have to do is scan barcodes using their device’s camera.

What’s more, the back office will compare data with previous counts to show discrepancies or differences between stock takes so you can take immediate action to rectify or write-off losses.

Next Steps

If you’re looking for an inventory management solution for your retail business, look no further. Saledock offers a feature-rich, end-to-end solution for an affordable monthly cost. Call our UK-based team on 01904 405 989 to discuss your unique requirements or get in touch here.