Useful Information When Purchasing POS systems

 

POS systems allow businesses to take transactions and simplify day to day business operations. There are on premise hardware like a scanner, cash register or a card reader and cloud based systems that allow for analytics to streamline businesses. POS systems can analyze sales, manage customers through marketing tools, manage inventory as well employees through payroll and clock in/out services.

POS systems can be customised to industry, with some, like F&B requiring more specific needs like a loyalty system, table management and sometimes, automated ordering

Services and Specialisation

  • Standard Payment Systems: Cash Registers, Receipt Printers, etc.
  • Ordering Systems: iPad Menus, Kitchen Integration, etc.

What makes a good POS system?

  1. Ability to handle large number of transactions quickly and stably
  2. User friendly interface for all users
  3. Offers good security and stability (up-time)

Main price factors

  1. Type of equipment needed – Hardware prices change with industry requirements
  2. Amount of features – POS systems can offer a lot and having more advanced features like analytics will add to the total cost
  3. Mode of pricing: subscription & support costs vs. lump sum purchase for the software

Expected Price Range When Purchasing A POS System

Pricing

Hardware per outlet can range from $10,000 to $30,000 depending on your needs ie. automated kiosks. Furthermore, cloud-based POS systems may also have subscription fees ranging from $500 to $3000 per month.

Tips, tricks and challenges

  1. The most important performance indicator for POS systems is uptime. If your POS system is down at any point in time, you can lose significant amounts of revenue.
  2. Ask the provider what their SLA (service-level agreement) service promise is. Ask them about contingencies when your POS system is down and how they will deal with it and within how long. Are there any redundancies? Are there any penalties and what are the costs involved for this maintenance service?
  3. Trustworthy cashiers are one of the most difficult manpower types to recruit and can take months for positions to fill. They also constitute a pilferage and embezzlement risk. Consider using an automated cashier machine or e-menu (investment of $30,000-$50,000) to increase scalability of your business and reduce disruption to your business.

Advice from other buyer(s)

  1. “Watch for reputation, ask people about it. History, for example if vendors produce bad quality, watch out for corrections. Speed, service, value.” (Mr Lee, Cafe Owner)