A simple yet effective way to maximize your opportunities is by leaning on retail technology to do the heavy lifting.

Small and medium-sized retailers should always be looking for new ways to “strike gold” when competing in the marketplace. Having obstacles may seem frustrating and even at times overwhelming when running your retail business. But it certainly does not have to be, especially with the current advancements in retail technology. If business owners begin to look at problems in a new light with the information that a powerful and intuitive point of sale (POS) system produces, headaches can turn into blessings.

The following are a few examples of how a small or medium-sized retail business can turn some common issues into advantages.

Implementing Custom Classifications

Retailers who have a specialized product listing may feel overwhelmed by how much they have to customize their POS to deliver their desired results. However, the more specialized a store’s product listing is, the more a retail software’s capabilities can shine. Point of sale software can be customized to create custom classifications for products that will allow retailers to reach a level of organization that previously would not have been attainable. Automation has made it much easier for retailers to continue to run like a well oiled machine.

For example, a high-fashion shoe store might want separate categories for brand, size, sub size, color, and heel height. With precise inventory management, managers can know immediately when certain types of shoes were low in stock or what similar shoes could appeal to a customer without having to depend on a sale’s person’s imperfect memory. The possibilities are endless and could end up ultimately becoming a deciding factor to the success of your business.

Updating Hardware Doesn’t Have To Be A Burden

POS and retail software is quickly becoming platform independent meaning that an array of devices (i.e. smartphone, tablet, desktop) can all serve to function as your POS system. This is all made possible because of the major adoption and implementation of Cloud technology. This technology is quickly allowing retailers to gain an upper hand on their competition as they are able to look at store records, ring up sales, and study consumer habits from virtually anywhere.

In this way, business owners who feel weighed down by the idea of constantly having to update hardware could be in for a real treat when they discover that they don’t have to update their equipment as much as they originally thought. This helps all members of your team including employees to begin to operate on the same page with some educational support.

Staying Up-To-Date with Emerging Technologies

We all know technology is constantly evolving, and it’s up to you – the online retailer – to keep up with the “latest and greatest”. Not only will it help you compete, it will improve the experience for you, your staff, and most importantly, your customers.

One of the most important retail technologies that’s constantly evolving is Point of Sale (POS) software. A modern POS system consists of CRM, inventory management, accounting, automation, Cloud technology, POS hardware (i.e., computers/tablets, card readers, cash draws, barcode scanners, receipt printers, mobile POS devices), and more. It’s important to choose a retail solution provider that supports all these components, and keeps up with industry changes.

Evolving Your Customer Service

Keeping a close eye on inventory and sales can help sales associates know when and if it’s time to reward a faithful customer with something extremely unexpected and equally gratifying. The gratitude to such a favorable gesture will make your employees happy to be using POS software while also incentivizing your clients to keep coming back for more.

Collecting information such as an email address, to be able to send newsletters, special offers, birthdays and anniversaries greetings, can be utilized into a powerful weapon that keeps customers happy. Pairing this with advanced inventory management and you can send out interesting deals and offers for products which are overstocked to not only help yourself but also keep your customers happy.

Monitoring Is Constant

Retailers constantly need to know what products are being over and under-stocked and which products are over and under-performing. Under-stocked products can be reordered and over performing products can be displayed in greater frequency. But what should you do about overstocked and under-performing products? Again, this a chance to turn an obstacle into an opportunity. By offering increased commissions to salespeople or deals to customers, these products, which might have been forgotten or ignored in previous times, can begin to move off shelves to make way for more profitable merchandise.

The right technology can even enable automated purchase orders for your stores replenishment, based on your current inventory levels, in real-time.  Retailers can set pre-defined minimum and maximum inventory levels, and once your software reaches the threshold, an automated purchase order can be generated so that the right amount of inventory is on hand, ‘just in time’, at all times.

With retail software, your company, no matter the size, can highly benefit by using the correct point of sale system. By changing the narrative, problems like spending the time to identify and classify inventory or taking some time during low season to learn about new features can become a chance to improve your business, make it more efficient, and impress your customers.