What is the Difference Between Traditional and Cloud-Based Point of Sale System?

There is a big difference between running a business and executing effective business strategies. Many small retail businesses suffer against multinational corporations in this inflated global economy. To make your business successful you need to bring the maximum profit out of your business. This requires effective management of the business in the most convenient way possible. Therefore, most of the retail business owners are moving towards the point of sale systems to effectively manage their resources.

What Is Point of Sale System?

To understand the point of sale system we need to understand the meaning of it. A point of sale is the place where a retail transaction takes place between the customer and retailer in exchange for money. In our daily lives, we could see that every restaurant, nightclub and retail business is using the POS system to boost their productivity. POS systems are evolving at a rapid pace and are becoming more and more convenient. Even e-commerce store owners are also inclined towards these systems.

Traditional POS System:

The history of point of sale systems is as old as the business world. Retailers used cash registers and other manual record-keeping methods to track their inventory and sales. A traditional POS of modern time has a computer, bar-code scanner, receipt printer, and a card machine.

This system is installed at a fixed location where customers take their bought products to pay their liabilities. Queues are formed and every customer is served on a first in first out basis. This enables retailers to keep track of their inventory and to manage their sales effectively. The need for manually calculating bills is not there anymore. The process of billing is rapid without any fear of human errors.

What are the Key Advantages?

There are numerous benefits of a POS system which are the main reason behind their popularity. Some of its advantages in comparison with manual billing are listed below.

• When you are using an automated procedure the risk of human error is eliminated. This is very beneficial as manual tracking of error can take a lot of time and resources.
• In this busy world, nobody has the time to wait in long queues to clear their bills. POS makes checkout a lot faster as the time needed to manually calculate the price of a product is eliminated. Scanners just read the bar-codes and automatically generate bill receipts which make checkouts faster.
• Point of Sale Software keeps a detailed record of daily sales and inventory. This enables management to have a brief description of their daily sales.
• Time is considered the most valuable thing with Point of sale you could save a lot of time and money.  As the need to hiring a sales register keeper and billing person is not there anymore.
• Most people do not like not to carry hard cash and use their credit cards mostly. So, with card machines incorporated you get the benefit of accepting digital payments.
• A person running one or two stores a traditional POS system is enough for him. In a multi-store environment, a cloud-based system is preferred.

What Is A Cloud-Based POS?

A cloud-based point of sale system is hosted on a cloud platform. With the growing popularity of these systems has given rise to cloud-based systems. They have easy compatibility with most of the hardware devices and can be directly accessed through the internet.

Their ease of excess has made them popular among small business owners and e-commerce stores. As they could be managed through a simple device and internet connection. The cloud-based system holds superiority over the traditional system and some of its advantages are listed below.

Advantages of The Cloud-Based System:

• They give you the freedom to manage your business from any place. The need for having expensive hardware is not there anymore.
• A typical Point of Sale Software required updates from time to time. Cloud-based systems are managed by third parties which means that there is no need for maintenance and hiring technical support.
• You can track and manage your inventory in real-time. You can see the actual number of items available for a product. With constant reminders about inventory updates, you never ran out of any product.
• Cloud-based systems enable you to secure digital payment methods. Online banking facilities are what come integrated into these systems. So modern ways of payment make your business technologically advanced.
• The amount of paperwork is reduced by giving online payment receipts to your customers. Hourly and weekly reports about your sales and net profit give you an idea about your future revenues.
• Any digital retailer knows that bookkeeping and accounting can be a time consuming and costly affair. Retail management software is mostly equipped with popular accounting tools.
• Multiple branches can be managed through a single software and there no need to set up every branch with their system.

Which One to Pick?

When it comes to choosing a type it mainly depends on your business protocols and requirements. But a cloud-based system is designed on the basic principle of ease of use. It helps you to manage both online and offline sales. Maintaining a supply chain is the greatest challenge for every store owner. Cloud-based Point of Sale Software might be more efficient and convenient than traditional. But for small retail shop owners, they might not be necessary. So, you need to carefully examine your business requirements and plans then decide which one to pick.