Not all point of sale systems are the same. Especially those designed for customer-centric businesses like coffee shops, bars, and salons. The best POS system for coffee shop is the gateway to safer, quicker and more secure transactions. Hence, choosing one can involve a lot of confusion and sometimes tension of not being able to find the right one. Rightfully so, there is so much on the line. Your entire customer experience might depend on the kind of checkout system you have in-place.
Choosing the best coffee shop pos system can be a major challenge. After carefully considering the different factors, we observed that there is a consensus among most global coffee shop business owners. The aim is to deliver the best possible experience by serving delicious coffee in an inviting and friendly atmosphere. All this is possible if you choose the best POS system for coffee shop businesses.
You can realize all the goals of your business only if you have the right devices and tools at your disposal. Whether you plan to maintain the best possible customer retention strategy or prefer live and customized daily reports, the best coffee shop POS system can deliver all these and more.
It’s a great time to be in the coffee shop industry. Because the current market value of the entire industry is more than $45 billion. This is expected to grow every year at a rate of about 3%. You can attribute this growth to factors like “hyper-professionalism’ and “excellent customer experience” - both significantly depend on the type of coffee shop POS system you choose.
The possibilities of growth in your business are endless - who knows, you may even get some Starbucks patrons to switch sides. So let’s take a close look at some features of a coffee shop POS system.
What is a Coffee Shop POS System?
The point of sale system for your coffee shop is essentially the combination of software and hardware that helps process payments and serve customers during checkout at the cash register. It’s a system that helps you complete financial transactions with your customers.
Typically, your coffee shop POS system comes with a screen, receipt printer, credit or debit card reader, and a cash drawer. These form the hardware components of your coffee POS system. However, we must state that the best POS system for coffee shop must have three essential physical items:
- Touchscreen (example iPad)
- Cash drawer
- Credit card reader
Apart from these, other essential features include your wireless barcode scanner and printer for issuing receipts.
If you are looking at a modern POS solution (and we hope you are), you’ll have to choose between two types of software options:
Cloud-based POS systems - this option provides you with a POS software that’s essentially backed by cloud-computing. Hence, you get all your information stored in the cloud. This way, when your hardware gets damaged you still have access to your data. All you will need is an internet connection to connect to the cloud server. Plus, other workstations can also access the POS software, whether they are on-site or off-site.
On-site POS system - With this option, you buy and manually install it on a computer that’s located on the premises of your business. The system remains available to you through this computer but not on other devices.
Making the Right Choice for your Coffee Shop
For a successful coffee shop, everything needs to run smoothly. Your profit margin and cash flow depend on your ability to ensure customers get their expectations met. Naturally, many coffee shop owners and managers begin thinking about their grinders, espresso machine, and other appliances when they think about improving their business. Sure, these are all important.
However, like a coffee shop owner, you should aim for exponential growth not a simple addition of profits. Hence you should look for a POS system that enables you to complete transactions at light speed. In fact, the best POS system for the coffee shop becomes the single most important piece of investment in the long run. Because, employees come and go, but the right point of sale becomes a life long companion that ensures you have all the necessary information when you need them.
Let’s face it, if you can’t make sales, you cannot process your transactions. With the best coffee shop POS system, not only do you get all the help you need to make, but you also make smarter business decisions and we’ll get to that later in this article.
First - Determine If Your Coffee Shop Needs a POS System
Before we proceed, let’s take time to clear out any doubt about whether you need a point of sale system. So, it’s apparent that the way we do business has changed considerably. What would your answer be if I asked you when was the last time you paid with cash?
That’s why a modern and reliable POS system has become so instrumental in many business settings all over the world. Hence, you don’t need to struggle to complete and switch between transactions like smartphones, credit cards, and debit cards. You know as well as we do that today’s customers are increasingly becoming fond of cashless paying options.
According to reports from the Wall Street Journal, 2016 was the year credit & debit card transactions surpassed cash-only payments. This implies that your business can only remain competitive if it has the best possible means of processing these transactions.
So - Yes, you need the best POS system for coffee shop to ensure you get to process payments and offer your customers the payment options they’ve all grown fond and accustomed to.
The Best Type of Coffee Shop POS System
Undoubtedly, the most reliable option is the cloud-based point of sale system. They are more robust and secure. Talk of convenience, they make it easier for you to get real-time reporting updates on the different metrics essential to the well being of your business.
Hence, when it comes to your money and coffee shop business, we strongly recommend that you don’t compromise on quality. Go for the best POS system for the coffee shop and ensure you get the best options for features like inventory management and cash flow management.
Also, a cloud-based POS system helps you save space. This is because as a modern POS option, it’s hardware is relatively sleeker and more compact. Hence, you don’t have to worry if you are already looking for more space on your counter for other items. You’ll surely get enough room to position a cloud-based POS system.
Usually, we inform owners about all the things that can go wrong when they choose the wrong POS system for their coffee shop business. This helps us to show how crucial of a decision it is to select a POS system for your business.
Disadvantages of An Inefficient POS System
From frustrated employees to unsatisfied customers, the effects of using an unreliable point of sale system can totally disrupt your business. However, it’s clear that some of the most disruptive effects include the following:
- Lost data
- Frazzled employees
- Lost sales
- Loss of customers to the competition
We believe everyone running a business has the best interest of their businesses at heart. As such, none of these things listed above should happen to your business. You want to avoid all these incidents as much as possible, especially during the morning coffee rush.
Therefore, if you wouldn’t want to see your iPad POS system crash just when you’re about to accept a payment, then we advise you use the best POS system for coffee shop. Note that once your POS system crashes, you can only accept cash and how many customers carry cash nowadays? Your guess is as good as ours.
Hence, you need to get a system that holds your sales and gives you live reports on how much revenue you generate every day.
Final Thoughts
As a coffee shop owner, you want effectiveness, reliability, security, and convenience in your POS system. And all these are guaranteed with the best POS system for coffee shop businesses. With Sygnio, you don’t have to look very far to find all your desired features and functions in a point of sale software. Having a dependable system makes all the difference. If you think about the best espresso machine for making coffee, why should you accept anything but the best when you need to choose a POS system for your coffee shop business?
