Reasonably priced till system

hunnie

Hello,
We are about to open a shop and whilst I would be happy spending £70 on a basic till, son-in-law, wants us to get a quite expensive computer based system with cash drawer, PC monitor, bar code scanner, etc.
The till drawer alone costs £100 and to me this is over sophisticated for our small concern.
What is the best system?
Do retailers all need the latest equipment now to track stock levels by computer? Or do you still use manual checks for re-ordering.

If anyone can suggest a reasonably priced system it would be most appreciated.

regards, Hunnie

steve1980

Use whatever you are comfortable with. Go to a Makro/Costco etc and have a look around at the tills.

InsideInsurance

A lot will depend on what your doing and what sales channels your using.

If you've got a physical store and an ecommerce site you can link the two together in terms of stock and therefore able to show live stock situation on your site. If what you sell you're just picking up from the local cash and carry it isnt much of a problem as if somethings out of stock you just pick it up that evening before posting. If you have to order shipments from China by freight then to take an order for something out of stock is much more an issue.

paulwf

My advice would be to get the £70 cheapie (check ebay and any second hand dealers to get something even cheaper) just to start you off for a month or two so you can then find out what your requirements actually are. The problem with getting a fully computerised system with stock control (called an EPOS system) is they are all different and you need to know exactly what you want out of it before you go ahead and get one.

Don't leave it too long to upgrade though, even if it is just a mid range till with more department buttons, as you'll probably regret not capturing that sales and customer information and you can't go back and get it later. Knowing what sells (and what doesn't!) month on month is vital, what you think is a good seller is probably a lot different to what the cold hard facts tell you. Getting your stock right means you can hold less stock (so less cash and space tied up) but sell a lot more so it is vital to be able to analyse your sales data.

There are loads of other advantages to a full on EPOS system but for now I'd say being able to capture sales history is the main thing.

Suarez

Take Paul's advice! Great post

paddyrg

would erply.com help? http://www.erply.com/windows-point-of-sale-pos-download/

You run it on a PC. They also have fully online versions.

coupleuk

It does really depend on what you're selling and how many product lines you have.

I would suggest getting a mid-range till (under £200 on ebay) which allows you to identify each stock item and add a scanner if your store is really busy - you can identify departments / sub departments too.

It will probably allow you to program messages on your receipts too.

Many can be linked to pc software as well.

If you find it all too much for your business model, you can still use it as a bog std till.

From experience (4 shops with 8 epos tills), I would stay away from an EPOS system UNLESS you are employing large numbers of staff.

Yes, an EPOS till can HELP identify fast/slow selling lines high/low profit earners, sales trends etc etc BUT they are only as good as the time you are willing to put into them - time you could be out on your shop floor actually selling stock, stocktaking, shelf-filling etc.

One final thing to consider - a bog standard till will typically use 1 power socket, whilst an EPOS till will probably use 3 at the till point and a further 2 in your back-office. The electric bill alone is a reason for keeping it simple.

Good Luck

s_b

just to throw a quick spanner in the works
if you have a till system that identifies everything sold then you can also use it for everything stolen if you keep your stocking lists up to date
you can then find out which lines are being stolen the most and action it
one further thing,do not leave any change on the till make every transaction a till opening event and get a camera on it
this way anyone playing tunes is easily identifiable and if you can, once up and running get a friend to come in for a small value cash item to check security
dont say its family only as these can be the worst thieves too

goodas lookas

paulwf

s_b wrote: »

just to throw a quick spanner in the works
if you have a till system that identifies everything sold then you can also use it for everything stolen if you keep your stocking lists up to date
you can then find out which lines are being stolen the most and action it

A good point, and it also helps to prevent one of the most common types of fraud. This is the one where someone steals an item then brings it back for a refund claiming it is faulty and doesn't have a receipt. If you have a sales history - even if you don't have live stock levels - you can soon tell if they are genuine or not. You'd be amazed how many times people try and get cash out of you doing the theft and refund trick.

hunnie

Hi,
Thank you all so much for your replies, really helpful!!
From what you have said, I still think a till would be fine but perhaps a slightly better one than I first envisaged.
Its only a small dance shop but we do have several lines from different suppliers - cheaper jewellery, hair accessories, bags etc.
I must admit I hadn't even considered theft much!! Will have to make a decision soon.
Thanks again everyone
regards,
Hunnie

coupleuk

Hi Hunnie

I'm guessing that you will have less than 500 stock lines and that your customers will be more focused on customer service than simply being rushed through the checkout (though they wont want to be hanging around behind someone else - human nature!).

Are you planning to put price labels on your stock? - if so, I would go for a price gun with 2 print lines - one for the price and another for a unique product code.

For instance, if your price gun allows for 5 digits, you could allocate the first 2 for the supplier and the last 3 for the product item - that would allow you to have upto 99 suppliers and 999 items for each supplier.

Be sure to use the preceding 0's as this will help later on ie "fred blogs ballet supplies" would be supplier "01" on your price label and "pink ballet shoes size 5" could be item "001" - making your product code "01001".

As you enter the price of the item into the till, just write down the product code on a pre-formatted sheet your son-in-law has designed and printed.

Then, when you are quiet, you can enter those codes into an excel sheet and you will get the same results as an EPOS till

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and you will have saved yourself £2,000+ in the process.

TBH I think you will soon know exactly what stock you have sold and you will automatically know whether you have a particular item and size on your shelves - you just get to know these things being a retailer.....you also get paranoid when you cant find something you're sure should be there.

Good Luck