How to Use Your POS for Inventory Management
November 2, 2018
A major benefit of using a point of sale (POS) system is that you can spend more time on customer service and less time counting receipts and inventory. Here are 7 tips that will help you use your POS to limit inventory tracking to 15 minutes a day.
POS systems are checkout terminals where a computer is used as a cash register. One of the many advantages of this type of system is that it works as a perpetual inventory management system.
When you ring a transaction through your POS, it interfaces with your inventory data and automatically updates it. It will do this across locations and in real-time. Some POS systems interface directly with retailers accounting programs that not only feed in inventory numbers, but also accounts receivable, sales, and returns/exchanges.
The inventory management functionality may vary depending on the POS you use, but there are a few key functions you should look for in your POS. These tools will help you track sales data and save you serious time with inventory management.
1. Manage Bulk Inventory Imports
Start your inventory management off right with quick and accurate bulk importing. Import new inventory or transfer inventory over from an old POS or online store by simply saving your current inventory as a CSV file and uploading it into your POS. This cuts hours out of inventory work so you can jump into inventory management when you receive a new shipment.
2. Instantly Bundle Products
Creating packages of bestselling inventory or for special occasions like holidays doesn’t have to be done by hand. The right POS system will group inventory to create gift baskets or form sets. Use the same inventory management tool to reverse the work when you’re no longer selling bundles. This makes creating special bundled offers easy (imagine how much time you save during the Holidays) and is equally efficient when the deals pass (save time after the New Year!).
3. Barcode and Label Curation
You can effortlessly update inventory by scanning or reprinting labels with your POS. Add products, purchase orders, stock takes, and supplier returns to your inventory. With a barcode scanner or USB, you can scan barcodes or relabel inventory as needed. You won’t have to save up the tasks that turn into a huge project later.
4. Product Performance Insight
Your POS inventory management automatically tracks your best selling items so you can keep inventory up, and identifies low-selling items you might want to put on sale or close out. This gives you quick insight into product performance, informing your inventory strategy.
5. Categorize Your Products
Your inventory management tool can help you define and adhere to your product organizational system. Based on what works best for your business, your inventory management system will categorize your products by name, type, brand, supplier, supplier code, SKU, handle, and tag. These functions will help you to easily build reports, review inventory counts and coordinate your online store collections, all with minimal time and effort.
6. Track Profit Margins
Of all the things a POS system does for inventory management, none is more important than how it helps you track profit margins, especially with large inventories. Begin tracking your profit margins during your bulk inventory importation, when you mark the wholesale cost of your inventory. Your inventory management system provides data on your profit margins, highlighting hot and poor sellers. In short, this system will make your business more profitable.
7. Mobile Inventory Management
Your POS software is online, which means you manage inventory from anywhere. This is a huge advantage for mobile work and for managing inventory in multiple locations. This means you never fall behind with inventory management, even if you’re offsite. You can do quick checks and updates from anywhere so work doesn’t build up into a time-consuming project later. This also helps you monitor issues like employee theft and ensures you never run out of your most popular products.
Inventory Management in 15 Minutes a Day
We have clients using the Marketing 360 Payments® POS solution that have cut their inventory management tasks down to 15 minutes a day. And these are clients with substantial inventories, eCommerce websites, and multiple locations.
They do this because of the 7 steps we’ve outlined here. The bottom line is that POS systems automate much of the work involved in inventory management, saving you time while making your work more accurate. Add to that the sales and profit margin insights the software provides and you have an indispensable system for modern retail.
If any of what we’ve described here is news to you or your POS system isn’t up to par, contact us immediately. We are well beyond the point where this type of inventory management is just nice to have. It’s a must-have if you want to be profitable and competitive.
*Results are based on past client performance. Individual account performance may vary. Results are not guaranteed.
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