Decision making can be very stressful, especially if there is a lot on the line. The more important the decision, the more stressful you'll find the undertaking. It is no different for owners who are looking for a grocery store POS system for their businesses. If you've been in the grocery business for quite some time, it should become clear to you how much the point of sale system impacts different areas of business.
The requirements of your store are unique to its size, customers, and employees, among many others. Overall, you'll need the best grocery store POS system if you intend to have a competitive advantage in today's fast-paced world. Like mentioned earlier, choosing a POS system is a momentous decision. Hence, it shouldn't be hurried or taken lightly.
Perhaps you feel all your store's needs is an iPad POS system. Sure, these devices are elegant and mobile. However, you need to slow down and carefully consider the present and future needs of your business. Today's post aims to help you uncover all the necessary elements you need to consider before you get started with any grocery store POS systems.
To make the entire process as comprehensive as possible, we've provided a checklist to walk you through the entire process. With the help of this guide, you should find the best POS system for grocery store businesses. The kind of system that meets the needs of your business and still remains within your budget.
Calculate Your Budget - Upfront or Monthly Payments
The major factors to consider while calculating your budget are the following:
- The software pricing for your grocery store POS system. You can either pay a SaaS fee or sign up for a license.
- POS hardware cost - Usually, the average cost of your equipment would range between $2500 to $7000.
You can either lease your hardware and pay for services and software monthly. This option makes the initial cost of setup very affordable, especially if you are looking for a supermarket POS system. However, those with lots of cash can opt for upfront payments; you save more in the long-run. However, you need to remember that you'll have to make separate payments to cover maintenance.
Essential Elements for Your Grocery POS System
Now that you've determined the right budget for your business, let's take a look at some of the key features you need to check before choosing a grocery store POS system. Typically, most of the essential features of the POS system for grocery stores are features common to other retail stores. However, we've outlined some grocery specific features you want to be looking for.
Ultimately, the exact features your grocery store POS system needs are purely preference-based. With the list below, your search should be quick and easy. So here are some of the essential features you want in your grocery store POS system:
- Employee management
- Customer display
- Inventory management
- Shelf labels
- Time clock
- Support for bottle deposits and multiple taxes
- Cloud grocery integration
- Third-party add-ons and integrations
- Mobile self-checkout
In addition to these features, you want to ask yourself some questions to help define the primary criteria for your grocery store POS system search. Below are some of these questions:
- Will your store accept eWIC or EBT?
- Do you currently have a processor, and will you stay with it?
- Do you require a cloud-based or locally-installed system?
- Will you like a scanner or a scale?
With these things checked off your list, you would have considerably narrowed down your list of possible grocery store POS systems to choose from. Hence, coming a lot closer to selecting the ideal POS system for your grocery store.
POS Hardware for Your Grocery Store
Usually, you have a better understanding of your system and its needs. Hence, it's likely you have a good idea of the kind of equipment you want to use. However, we believe you can use all the help you can get, since the POS market is saturated with different hardware, all coming at different prices and specifications.
Therefore, let's take a closer look at some of the POS hardware your system will need for seamless management.
Scale
If you operate a traditional grocery store, you'll most definitely need a scale to go with your POS solution. The scale is an indispensable device for putting a price according to the item's weight.
Card Reader
It's necessary to emphasize the need for a card reader to complete your grocery store POS system. Sure, it sounds like a no-brainer. However, leaving out this essential piece of hardware could break your entire checkout process. So yes, we are feeling an obligation to mention it explicitly.
Also, remember to ensure that your card reader of choice accepts all the payment options for maximum customer retention. It should accommodate their need, not yours - after all, you're buying to serve them, not the other way round.
Barcode Scanner
The barcode scanner is another essential equipment. Without a barcode scanner, your grocery store's POS system isn't quite complete. You can either choose the inbuilt ones or wireless barcode scanners. These enable you to ring up sales quickly, making your customers happier shoppers. Remember, the barcode scanner also plays a central role in making your inventory management much more automated.
PIN Keypad
The PIN keypad could either be on the screen of a smart device or a physical keypad. You want to use this to offer PIN verification to your customers.
Receipt Printer
The modern grocery store POS system offers customers different receipt options. Hence, you should select a receipt printer that gives your customers physical receipts. Overall, the fundamental use of the receipt printer is printing receipts. Therefore any hardware that does this effectively and efficiently will do.
Cash Register
At this point, it's undeniable that the number of cash-paying customers keeps reducing. However, it will still take a while before we have a 100% cashless society. Till then, you definitely need your grocery store POS system to have a cash register. After all, you wouldn't want your employees handling all the cash your customers pay without a safe and secure drawer.
Choosing the Best Grocery StorePOS System
Having made it this far in this guide, you should be considering your next move in choosing the best grocery store POS system for your business. Well, if you're still unsure at this point, just know that you aren't alone. The large majority of retailers, restaurateurs and grocery store owners find it hard to settle on one specific POS vendor.
Hence, we recommend you consider this last piece of information so as to gain insight into the POS needs of your business and take that leap.
Built for Grocery or is Grocery a Feature?
The blunt trust is the fact that many POS vendors out there that claim to offer grocery store compatible systems, only have a feature or two to offer. They aren't really built for groceries. Here is the reason why - from observation, you'll realize that grocery has very stringent requirements due to the high volume of customer traffic.
Therefore we commend you check if a scale, scanner, eWIC, and EBT are integral to the grocery store POS you intend to choose. If this isn't the case, maybe you need to reconsider. Also, the sophistication of the reporting features should be top-notch. Hence, you want to find out how the system presents sales reports.
Takeaways
With the insight and knowledge gleaned from this article, we believe you should be closer to choosing the best grocery store POS system for your business. Remember, you need to keep in mind the needs of your business, and these needs should align with the needs and expectations of stakeholders, especially if you avoid dealing with difficult customers. To learn about how to get the most ROI from your POS system, check out our other articles. We post regular content on POS solutions for small and large businesses alike.
