Purchasing a POS (Point of Sale) system is a significant moment for businesses: they, impact daily operations; affect customer interactions; and effect overall profitability. Clearly a POS system can make a major impact on your business; and because it can, you should choose wisely when it comes to selecting the one for your business. To help out, INKAS® Payments would like to share some advice so you can avoid making some commonly made mistakes.

1. Ignoring Business Specific Needs

It is common for business owners to ignore the potential benefits a particular POS set-up can have for their business; instead focusing solely on cost. While cost is an important consideration, no doubt, there are other facets of managing business operations that also significantly impact profitability. An inadequate set-up may lead to down-time, and workflow inefficacies simply because it is not meant to handle the work environment it is operating in. That said, be sure to perform a detailed analysis of your business operations, considering factors such as, industry type; transaction volume; inventory management needs; and future scalability, for example, to ensure you are on the right path to success.

2. Not Considering Integration Capabilities

Even with the use of a POS, businesses generally rely on other tools to carry out their operations. The problem is, when purchasing a POS set-up, these tools are often overlooked when the shopping is done. The end result being, creating an work environment that is potentially highly inefficient due to the fact that operators then have to manage all their tools off of multiple touch-points. So be mindful of your tool-kit; and when POS shopping be sure to seek out the service of those who specialize in customized POS set-ups, like INKAS® Payments; so you can have the chance to do all your work off one centralized unit.

3. Neglecting User Experience (UX)

There are many considerations to be made from an operations perspective when purchasing a POS; and often times we found that the user experience gets lost in the mix. This is an important aspect that should be considered because the more difficult you make the payment process for the customer, the less interested they will be in doing business with you. To address this, test various types of systems, and get front-end user feedback to see which set-up your customers find better.

4. Ignoring Scalability

Even if you considered the point we already explored, another common mistake is for businesses to not anticipate their growth: they decide on a POS set-up that suits their current volume, and data handling capabilities, but if they were to grow, the system would then fall short. Such an oversight can be costly in the long-run : forcing you to upgrade; which may lead to possible downtime during the switch, and further training to get oriented with the new set-up. So be sure, to consider how your selection fits into your company’s growth plan.

5. Not Evaluating Security Features

Data security is.an increasing concern for business owners, as business operations increasingly become more digital. Despite this, proper credence is not always given to security features, when a business goes to purchase a POS. Remember: an important part in building customer loyalty is establishing a foundation of trust; this is hard to gain if the sensitive information of your customers gets compromised. So be sure that the POS set-up you choose adheres to industry safety standards (e.g., PCI-DSS compliance); offers encryption for sensitive data; and provides regular security updates.