With every transaction you complete with your POS system, the software is collecting information. This information is stored within the POS software and is worth more than gold to your business if you use it correctly. If you’re an online retailer, or simply running a site for your store, you’ll be surprised just how much of an impact your POS system can have on your online sales. Here’s how that precious POS data powers online sales.

Identifying Sales Trends

Curious which of your online items are the hottest right now? Your POS system can tell you exactly what your sales look like, and which items are attracting the most attention and selling. These sales trends will let you know which items to focus resources on, and most of all, give you an idea of what your customers like.

This is incredibly valuable information for creating ad campaigns, ordering stock, and identifying busy seasons or monthly sales trends. With all of this information provided to you via your POS system, it’s convenient to access and simple to analyze.

You’ll also learn how much you’re making from those bestselling items, so you can calculate your gross profit margin and decide whether or not those items require a different supplier or perhaps even a slight price increase.

Website Traffic

Once you know how much product you’re moving per day on your site, you’ll be able to get a good estimate of how many people visited your site in a day. Website traffic is essential to keeping your sales high, and identifying trends in traffic rates can help you address any problems that may arise like site errors.

You may also be able to find a POS system that has traffic-counting tools built-in, so you’ll get a precise count of how many people visited your site that day. You can compare this with your number of transactions to find how many leads turned into paying customers, or your Conversion Rate.

Conversion is important for a website because you want as many visitors as possible to purchase one of your products. Having a 100% Conversion rate is, of course, improbable, but there are companies that can obtain a conversion rate as high as 90%. How much better would your business do if 90% of your site’s visitors become paying customers?

Using your conversion rate, you can make changes to your site to further your conversion rate. Take a close look at features like your site’s navigation. If it’s slow and clunky, making it flow better can help keep customers engaged. The simplest fixes can often mean the difference between a focused customer and a disengaged one.

Inventory

Knowinghow much inventory you have on hand, predicting how much you’ll need, and placing accurate orders for more can all be quite tricky without a good inventory management software to assist you. POS systems have real-time inventory tracking tools that help track and manage your stock, and in combination with detailed sales reports, help you make more accurate estimates of how much stock you’ll need.

Inventory is a vital component to keeping your sales high. Correct inventory counts mean that customers visiting your site will get accurate information on how many units of a particular item are available. Have you ever went to order something that said “in stock”, only to find out there weren’t any left? Frustrating, isn’t it?

Don’t let your customers experience this frustration because of incorrect counts. Track your inventory with your POS system, and pay close attention to those notifications when your stock begins to run low. You wouldn’t want your customers to miss out on their favorite items!  

The best part about a POS system is that even if you have both a storefront and a website, your inventory will be automatically reconciled after a sale, providing accurate counts to both the store and the site.

Creating Customer Profiles & Tracking Orders

If you want to get to know your customers’ purchasing habits better, your POS system is the perfect tool to do so. With customer profiles, you’ll be able to look at everything your customers purchase on an individual basis, acting as an electronic receipt and an important piece of information for your marketing efforts.  

When you know what your customers are purchasing, you can tailor your ads to appeal to their individual tastes, and thus increase the likelihood that your customer will follow up on the ad and make a purchase. A customized ad speaks to the individual rather than a blanketed group, making the customer feel appreciated and understood.

Using your POS system, you’ll be able to generate reports on individual purchasing habits, item sales, customer visits, and more. A POS is so much more than just a cash register. The software can literally transform your business and your website and help you tailor each to increase sales and customer satisfaction.

Conclusion 

With e-commerce quickly becoming the world’s foremost way to shop, it’s vital for any online retailers to have the latest tools to optimize their site’s purchasing system and keep customers engaged. Increasing your conversion rate with smoother pages and a secure POS system will help boost your sales and keep customers loyal to your brand. A loyal customer is much more likely to recommend your brand, bringing in new business and reaching potential customers you never would have known about otherwise.

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