eCommerce Store

Running a retail store is difficult enough, but combining it with an eCommerce system is just pure madness, or that’s what we thought first. But with the help of point of sale (POS) systems, you can easily make this happen and simplify store management. 

A POS system provides a point or place where the transaction is carried out and a receipt is generated. It provides a storefront for your retail store that takes care of orders, customers, employees, sales, inventory, and much more, along with syncing your eCommerce store orders, thus improving customer satisfaction by streamlining the shopping process. 

Why Integrate your eCommerce and Retail Store?

A POS system increases e-commerce sales and conversion rates by simplifying the shopping experience with many of its features. Let’s discuss some of them below.

1. Fast and Accurate

A POS system provides fast and accurate results and data analysis. It controls all backend operations of your physical and online stores and provides detailed reports regarding profit margin, current marketing campaign response, best-selling products, peak hours, email marketing, running promotional offers, and much more. Thus, you can improve your store’s performance and create strategies based on accurate results.

2. Inventory Management

One of the most tedious tasks of owning a store is inventory management. But with a POS system, you don’t have to worry anymore. It auto-syncs all your stores, online and offline, and updates inventory in real-time. Thus, when a customer buys a product, it will be deducted from in real-time, and therefore reduces the risk of human error, stock mismanagement, low stock error, etc. It can also send alerts when an item is low in stock and requests for restocking automatically.   

3. Improves User Experience

With a POS system, you can create a customized shopping experience for your customers through its customer management feature. It creates individual profiles of your customers and also enables you to send email notifications regarding sales and coupons. You can also send rewards and discounts to your loyal customers. Moreover, you can explore your customers’ past purchases and shopping behavior to know which item is best and what your audience prefers. This results in increasing trust and loyalty, leading to increased customer retention and engagement.

4. Saves Money 

As most of the processes are automated through a POS system, the number of employees or experts required to handle these operations become very few. A single agent can handle a store at a time and also automate calculation and sales tax so no time is wasted. Thus, you end up saving a lot of money.  

Read Also – Five Ways To Effectively Manage Inventory For E-Commerce Business

How to Integrate POS and eCommerce?

Before we move on to discuss the many ways you can integrate a POS system with your eCommerce store, there are few questions you need to ask to determine what you are looking for. 

It’s important to discuss how this integration would work? What features do you want? What information will be auto-synced in real-time? What is the cost of maintenance? Does it offer customer support? What payment options it has? And much more. Once all of these queries are answered and you want to go through with the integration, choose any of the 3 mentioned ways below to get the job done. 

1. Using Plugins

The quickest and easy method for POS and eCommerce integration is by using a plugin. If your store is built on popular eCommerce platforms like WooCommerce, Shopify, etc. you can easily find many plugins that enable POS system integration and automate all backend operations of your online and offline store. For example, there are multiple WooCommerce POS plugins, both free and premium to help you find the ultimate solution for your omnichannel business. 

2. Custom Module 

If you are not satisfied with any plugins provided with your eCommerce platform, you can create your own custom module for POS integration. Although this can be quite difficult and costly, as you would need to hire a professional. But a custom module enables you to create a system with the features you want and scale it up however you like afterward. 

3. API Connection 

In case you already have a preferred POS system available, you can easily integrate it with your eCommerce store by searching or customizing an API connection. You can either ask an expert or your POS provider to help out in this regard. 

Final Words

A POS system can be a great investment for your business as it helps you combine your multiple online and offline stores and handle all backend operations, thus you can focus on other aspects of your business. A POS system removes human error, enables you to sell from multiple resources, and manage customers, employees, orders, and much more automatically. It is the perfect solution to lessen the workload and simplify your shopping experience.

Read Also – Future Anticipations from Ecommerce Business from the Year 2021