5 Reasons SMBs Need More than Passive POS

Every choice a small business owner makes should improve on the bottom line. But entrepreneurs sometimes dive in with tools they have on hand, not realizing that a smarter investment can make life easier. To that end, a lot of SMBs are now seeing the benefit of moving beyond the passive POS.

A passive POS is like any other soloed technology solution. Because startups tend to use spreadsheets to track inventory, a separate accounting solution for tracking profits, and a POS with minimal capabilities to ring up orders, they make a lot more work for themselves.

SMBs Moving Beyond Passive POS

Things are changing, though. The promise of integrated technologies has been getting through to businesses. A survey from Boston Retail Partners found that small retailers want more than passive POS. The vast majority (70%) want their POS to improve the customer’s overall experience.

Nearly half want to put mobile POS tools into their sales associates’ hands and 33% want to manage data in real-time.

Put simply, as Business News Daily writes this week, small businesses want to streamline operations significantly with more than passive POS. The trend is to give SMB merchants a POS that integrates with everything from payroll to inventory management.

Obviously, SMBs see the light and technology is answering the call.

Break Down the Siloes

We’ve talked about the benefits of integrating inventory management with POS for a long time. Here are five reminders of why it’s a great idea:

1. It improves omnichannel fulfillment.
   A POS solution with real-time visibility of warehouses, 3PLs and branch stock ensures fulfillment at the register, even if the local branch has stocked out of an item.
2. It improves your supply chain visibility.
   But, when you have that level of supply chain visibility, you can avoid stock outs altogether and know when to replenish the storeroom.
3. It’s a big help in forecasting.
   Inventory management with POS lets you see what sells and what doesn’t. The data can be accrued and displayed in a ton of different reports, helping you plan for future demand.
4. It helps identify shrinkage.
   Passive POS does not help you know if there’s a discrepancy between actual stock on the shelves and what you have on the books. An integrated solution lets you double-check for shrinkage.
5. It helps you make better purchasing decisions across branches.
   As your SMB grows, centralized inventory management gives you the complete view you need to optimize purchasing decisions, not just across channels, but across multiple branches where your run your POS.

Finally, an integrated cloud-based solution that incorporates POS will be more cost effective than maintaining multiple solutions, and will set the stage for your SMB to grow .