Your customers have many choices when it comes to grocery stores. With all the competition, every good owner knows they must be continually improving their business. Even when you’re efficient and organized, processes can always be streamlined a little further. Features can be added to attract new customers and keep existing customers. It’s a harsh truth—a business that isn’t improving is dying.
What is one system you implement in your business that will help you with all aspects of your operation? An integrated Point of Sale (POS) system can boost sales and streamline efficiencies. Importantly, it can be purchased and operated through a single provider, making it a hands-off process for you.
What To Look For in a POS System and Provider?
Of course, not all POS systems are created equal—and not all systems will deliver major benefits to your business. Before you make a grocery technology purchase, make sure the provider you are considering can offer all of the features you need and maybe even some more.
A POS system with these key features will help your business grow and retain its customer base, improve customer satisfaction, streamline your stocking process, and ensure that you have the best solutions at a reasonable cost.
eWIC Integration: Simplifying Transactions for a Growing Customer Base
Many people are struggling in this high-inflation economy. Unfortunately, those who bear the brunt most often are those who rely on government subsidy programs. To help those on these programs, consider integrating the Electronic Women, Infants, and Children (eWIC) program into your POS system. You can attract more customers to your store and allow them to shop with ease. By working with a provider specializing in seamless eWIC integration, you can eliminate the need for separate systems, or “stand-beside units,” and minimize errors in processing government assistance payments.
Integrating eWIC grocery technology will help your store realize several benefits—first and foremost efficiency in your checkout lines. Getting customers through the line as quickly and conveniently as possible is an important part of winning their loyalty. Nothing is worse for a customer than having to stand around and wait for an eWIC payment to be processed, causing embarrassment to the customer and impatience to those behind them in line.
Complying with numerous government regulations is another excellent benefit. It’s important to configure your system so that it’s impossible for one of your employees to run you afoul of one of the many rules surrounding this program. This will help you avoid headaches, fines, and penalties later on.
By integrating eWIC, you increase your ability to serve a wider range of customers and increase your customer base. This can help both you and your shoppers thrive in this tough economic climate. When setting up your system, make sure you have a provider that helps you through the process to ensure your grocery technology meets all compliance requirements.
Electronic Shelf Labels (ESL): Elevating Customer Experience and Operational Efficiency
Changing prices and tracking item inventory are two labor intensive but essential tasks. It’s true that the process has remained essentially unchanged since the invention of the barcode. However, new grocery technology can transform the way your business displays pricing and inventory information.
Electronic Shelf Labels (ESLs) can synchronize with your POS system to ensure accurate and up-to-date pricing information is available across the store. With inflation driving up prices seemingly every week, a system that can help you adjust prices with minimal effort is a huge time saver. Simply update prices in the central system and the changes will be displayed throughout the store instantly. You save money on manual labor and your employees can spend their time on higher-value tasks. Your customers will notice the accuracy and reliability of the information they are getting. This will, in turn, increase their levels of satisfaction and loyalty.
Software as a Subscription (SaaS) Models: Staying Agile and Cost-Effective
We all know technology is advancing rapidly. We may not always need the latest and greatest phone. But when it comes to your business, you know there are advances you need to keep up with. If you source your hardware from multiple vendors, upgrading obsolescence can become an endless cycle. It involves getting quotes, researching the best systems, and then trying to get all the disparate systems to work together seamlessly.
When you source all your grocery technology from the right single provider, you can access a suite of integrated tools under a subscription model. You eliminate a large initial investment and pay a predictable monthly fee—making it easier to budget for technology. This model makes it easy for you to expand for largely the same reason. You don’t need a large investment to grow your system, just an appropriate increase to your monthly fee. As technological innovations become available, you can get access to them quickly and easily rather than going through the process of installing an entirely new system.
Let Grocery Technology Help Your Business Thrive
After having looked at a few of the ways that investing in a single solutions provider can benefit your business.
