POS Systems in the Age of E-commerce: Bridging Online and Offline Sales

While E-commerce has become a mainstay for many businesses and helps them reach otherwise out-of-reach customers, it hasn’t replaced brick-and-mortar stores.

In some ways, the more online shopping grows, the more consumers search for special in-person experiences at shops. Since it’s becoming novel to take a walk around town and pop into different stores and browse, there’s lots of business still to be done “offline”.

In this guide, we’ll show you how you can use modern POS systems to merge the two approaches for selling in your business so you can continue to grow your online store while also pushing in-person sales.

POS Systems and E-commerce Sales

But what’s POS? POS (Point of Sale) systems refer to the technology that retailers use to sell their products to consumers. Usually, this involves the use of both software and hardware to capture the purchase and also process the transaction.

The retail POS market is due to grow beyond $34.6 billion by 2030, so it’s a fast-moving and growing technology.

Historically, though, POS systems could be as simple as a cash register to process initial payments. Over time, customer data tracking became more important to retailers as it allowed them to develop a deeper understanding of consumer purchasing patterns.

Fast forward to the present day, and modern POS systems are designed for businesses that might also have eCommerce stores. This way, they help retailers bridge the gap between online and offline sales with seamless data integration and CRM (Customer Relationship Management) capabilities.

(Source: Fit Small Business)

In a survey from PwC charting the future of e-commerce, 89% of participants said that the trend towards e-commerce would continue to increase, showing that online sales are here to stay.

A unified sales management approach gives you the power to oversee every individual transaction made in your business, which opens up various options for improving both marketing and sales strategies.

The Benefits of POS in the Age of E-commerce

Switching to a modern POS system in the age of E-commerce could be one of the smartest moves you could make for your business. Streamlining your operations across the board, you can start to leverage the customer data you collect in meaningful ways.

Personalise Your Marketing

One of the easiest ways to keep customers coming back for more is to personalise your messaging. 65% of eCommerce stores reported an increase in conversion rates after personalising their marketing. 

Make every email, SMS, and other communication you send relevant to different customer profiles, and you can continue to sell long after that first purchase.

Audience segmentation allows you to send targeted email campaigns to different types of customers across different demographics and psychographics. For example, if you sell sports trainers, you could speak to parents whose kids are into sports with one email and “sneakerheads” with another.

You can also set up loyalty programs that cater to different interests and incentivise repeat business. Based on how customers purchase (in-store or online) and what they purchase, you can reward them in a way that they’ll appreciate.

Unified Inventory Management

POS systems help you organise and coordinate your customer data, but they also equip you for streamlined inventory management.

Before modern POS systems, many businesses would struggle with managing inventory both for their brick-and-mortar and online stores, leading to stock discrepancies and difficulties in fulfilling orders on time.

Now, it’s much easier to keep track of inventory for both offline and online stores as POS systems can synchronise inventory levels and store the information in one interface. Now, you can rely on your software to automatically update and reflect when a purchase has been made, when you’re low on stock, and when you’re at risk of overstocking.

Streamline Payment Processing

Everywhere customers go these days, they expect to be able to make seamless, almost instant purchases. Whether it’s a tap of a card or a swipe of the phone, convenience is now king.

Digital wallet payments account for 41.8% of all online payments globally, so do not cause them to lose out on potential sales.

Modern POS systems facilitate this payment efficiency and typically support a range of payment methods, including:

• Cash payments
• Credit and debit cards
• Mobile wallets (e.g. Apple Pay)
• Cryptocurrencies

Plus, every purchase goes through your software and adds to the data you have for that customer. Some retailers even offer hybrid sales, whereby consumers can add items to their digital cart and complete the purchase in-store.

Moving with the Times

To remain flexible and adapt to shifting market trends and consumer purchase patterns in the age of E-commerce, it’s important to use the latest technology for your business.

(Source: Hostinger)

Customers have come to expect a certain process and level of service these days, to the extent that even just omitting one or two payment methods could cost you a sale.