How To Know It’s Time To Update Your EPOS? Part - 1

EPOS technology has evolved at a quick pace over the previous decades. POS is no longer just cash and carry transactions: it has become a key point of engagement and an important source of data that retailers are using to take care of other systems and enhance the customer experience over all channels. There are many new touchpoints, new operating systems, new hardware solutions and new technologies affecting retail software and retail business that were inconceivable a couple of years ago.

Is it time to update your POS? Maybe you've had it with service calls, complaints about your current solution’s performance, or may be you're looking to try new customer engagement strategies that aren't supported by the legacy solution. Whether it's limitations or frustrations (or sometimes both) that impact your decision to explore multiple options, then the time comes when investing resources into a new system gets significant for the business' health and continued progress.

1. Customer Experience Suffering

Does your POS give all the tools required to create the astonishing customer experience you've imagined? Perhaps you're looking to give new kinds of promotions, or manage loyalty programs in creative, innovative ways. Perhaps you need to accept new kinds of payments or offer customers the chance to get paperless e-receipts.

Efficient transaction processing is not enough, today’s retailers need customer centric features such as, configurable customer profiles, surveys, omni-channel integration, online order at the store and many more. In case you're not ready to able to provide the customer experience you require to stay aware of competition and grow your business, it's certainly time to think about updating your POS.

2. Unsupported Solutions

Most software providers will just help their solutions for a limited period of time. In the long run, customers will be compelled to pay more for support, or to upgrade solutions. Furthermore, EPOS software designed to work with the operating systems and hardware that was available at that time. Many retailers are still using epos solutions developed for the now-defunct Windows, leaving them potentially vulnerable against cyber attacks and needing them to pay more for support compared with latest operating system. Faced with the need to update servers, POS hardware or peripherals that can never again be fixed, holistic replaced or supported, many retailers understand that it's also a good time opportunity to modernize their epos software.

3. Omni-Channel Challenges

Shopper expectations with regards to omni-channel retailing have evolved colossally in the past few years. Buyers demand a reliable brand experience, whether they're shopping online in stores. They couldn't care where a product is available, they essentially want their hands on it, and fast. It's no longer accepted for partners in stores to not know real time stock over the chain. Customers won't wait for associates to call other stores hoping to discover the product they want.

Retailers need to enable in-store pickup of online orders and store satisfaction of products ordered from anywhere. A few retailers try to get by with workarounds in more seasoned solutions that cause efficiency loss and introduce lots of risk of error. Latest epos system designed for the real factors of omni-channel retail will enable automated process for order fulfillment, provide a holistic view on the customer over all channels and allow all customers to access real time stock information from all stores and warehouses.