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Electric Shop Treatment
Listed under: Retail Clinic
Published: Tuesday, December 04, 2007
A time-saver, trend-spotter and crimestopper. But at over £5,000, is an EPOS system really worth investing in?
Costing an average of £5,200, many small retailers can find it difficult to justify splashing out on an EPOS system (computerised till). A new report has revealed that 70% of small and medium business can see the benefits of upgrading, yet only 40% have actually adopted the machines. A spokesman from City Arts and Crafts in Exeter agrees that SMEs are often left with no choice over whether they want an upgrade or not. “I'm a one-man shop really so the cost of installing one of these as well as all the bits that it has to come with is off-putting,” he explains.
But Chris Barling, CEO of EPOS suppliers Actinic, the company who carried out the research, believes the investment is well worth it. “EPOS helps you reduce stock levels by maintaining up-to-date stock information and automatically generating purchase orders. It allows you to identify slow and fast moving items, and adjust your prices to make the best of prevailing trading conditions,” he says. “The system means you can monitor staff performance and honesty, and thus limit the opportunities for fraud. Many also use it to measure the effect of changes such as extended opening hours or moving products around.”
A computerised till can also speed up customer servive. “Bar-coding saves time because you don't need to price each item individually, and scanning at the checkout is faster and less error prone than pressing buttons,” highlights Mr Barling.
"Businesses in the UK still seem to find it hard to invest in things that will make them more efficient, even when they recognise the need,” he comments. “This is in stark contrast with the US retail market, which is considerably more productive than the UK, and where it's hard to find a retailer without an EPOS system.”
But Chris Barling, CEO of EPOS suppliers Actinic, the company who carried out the research, believes the investment is well worth it. “EPOS helps you reduce stock levels by maintaining up-to-date stock information and automatically generating purchase orders. It allows you to identify slow and fast moving items, and adjust your prices to make the best of prevailing trading conditions,” he says. “The system means you can monitor staff performance and honesty, and thus limit the opportunities for fraud. Many also use it to measure the effect of changes such as extended opening hours or moving products around.”
A computerised till can also speed up customer servive. “Bar-coding saves time because you don't need to price each item individually, and scanning at the checkout is faster and less error prone than pressing buttons,” highlights Mr Barling.
"Businesses in the UK still seem to find it hard to invest in things that will make them more efficient, even when they recognise the need,” he comments. “This is in stark contrast with the US retail market, which is considerably more productive than the UK, and where it's hard to find a retailer without an EPOS system.”
