Grocery Software: 4 Features To Look For

Running a grocery store presents a unique set of challenges — and when you spend most of your time managing customers and employees, you need help with the heavy-lifting on the back end of your operations.

A solid point of sale (POS) system streamlines all aspects of your business. But to really maximize your results, you need industry-specific grocery software to get the job done.

Here are the top four features we recommend in a quality POS system with grocery software.

Grocery Inventory Management

When you’re dealing with a high-volume industry like grocery, you need a point of sale system with inventory management capabilities that can handle the demand.

A solid POS will produce a comprehensive list of all items in stock — and their sales history. You’ll know exactly what’s selling and what’s not, so you can make informed purchasing decisions to avoid overstock and dead stock. And to easily search this valuable information, look for a system with wide-ranging filter options like department and dollar range.

Grocery software should also streamline the ordering and receiving processes. A quality system allows you to create purchase orders, and will integrate with your wholesaler — so you can import over 1,000 products at one time. Plus, with a cloud-based solution, you can scan and add products from a mobile device, including your smartphone or tablet, and update descriptions, price, and quantity on hand on the fly.

Customer Relationship Management

Customer loyalty makes a huge impact on small grocery stores. You can boost profits by up to 95 percent simply by increasing customer retention by five percent — and high-quality grocery software helps you get there.

The best way to attract buyers, and keep them coming back, is to build relationships with them. Establishing a customer loyalty program is a great place to start. Look for grocery POS software with a baked-in rewards program that assigns points to every dollar spent. Customers can redeem these points for discounts, like a 25 percent discount for every 1,000 points earned.

Try other promotions, too. Use your grocery software to create buy-one-get-one (BOGO) offers, or special deals with mix and match pricing capabilities. And an integrated e-commerce platform will open up even more opportunities. Customers value a good deal and convenience, so taking advantage of your grocery software’s promotional features is a surefire way to get your buyers back in your store.

Reporting and Analytics

For any business to find success, you must have an in-depth understanding of your sales data. Knowing which products are top-sellers, and which are not exactly customer favorites, gives you important insight into where you should spend your money and how you should stock your shelves. A solid point of sale system with grocery software will easily produce this data.

But grocery stores have unique needs when it comes to inventory management and sales reporting, because many of the products they carry are perishable. How do you account for items like spoiled milk or rotten lettuce? Your software should be able to generate shrink reports, so that you have an accurate picture of what’s in stock and sellable — allowing you to make informed business decisions to reduce overall profit loss.

Self-Checkout

If you want to take your store to the next level, consider grocery software that has a self-checkout feature. Opening up additional lanes, without having to hire extra help, can speed up operations, boost sales, and increase customer satisfaction.

This feature allows you to turn any point of sale station into a self-checkout kiosk. You can set up an all-in-one touchscreen computer, PIN pad, and even a scanner scale for customers to easily weigh and scan their own items. The software gives customers limited access to POS features — like product lookup and card payment — to ensure that your business is in your control, and protected against potential customer mistakes.

Amp Up Business Operations With Grocery Software Designed for Your Store

Choosing the right grocery software for your store can seem like a daunting task — the options might seem endless. 

Start with the basics, and decide which features you need to best support your business.

Need some guidance? Get in touch with one of our IT Retail specialists, and schedule a demo today! And if you already know exactly what you want, use our build and price tool to create your custom quote for our best-in-class point of sale solution.