Looking to grow your grocery store’s sales? Then you need the right tools for the job.
A grocery point of sale (POS) system is your most valuable asset on your journey to boost your grocery store’s profits. Your point of sale system isn’t just a cash register; it offers a wide range of features that can help you generate more business and enhance the customer experience.
Keep reading to learn five key ways a grocery POS system can take your sales to new heights.
1. Speed Up the Checkout Process
In a bustling grocery store, every second counts. A Forrester study found that 85% of grocery customers think checkout speed is one of the most important aspects of the shopping experience — and if checking out is a pain, customers are less likely to give your store another chance.
The good news is that your grocery POS system is a critical tool that keeps checkout lines short and ensures a pleasant shopping experience for your customers.
A few time-saving features to watch out for in a grocery POS system are:
- A customizable touchscreen to tailor your POS system’s interface to work better for your employees and access the features they need most.
- Multiple options for payment, including credit cards, debit cards, EBT, and contactless payment.
- Integrated scanner scales to quickly scan and weigh produce, meat, and other catch-weight items.
- Ways to look up customer loyalty information quickly via phone number or name.
- Missing item reports to review items that didn’t scan and update their information on your system.
By themselves, these features aren’t huge time savers, but together they can keep lines moving and create a positive impression as customers leave your store.
2. Reward Customers for Shopping at Your Grocery Store
Did you know that retaining a current customer is five to seven times cheaper than finding a new one?
That’s why generating repeat business is such a foundational way to boost your grocery store’s sales. One of the best ways to keep your customers coming back again and again is to create a customer loyalty program through your grocery POS system.
A loyalty program lets you offer special perks to encourage your customers to visit more often and spend more per visit. For example, customers enrolled in your loyalty program may earn a certain number of loyalty points for every dollar spent in your grocery store, which they can then redeem for a discount during a later visit.
If you use a points-based system, make sure that:
- Customers have an easy way to see how many points they’ve earned.
- You clearly explain or have signs that show how many points they need for rewards.
- You don’t make rewards too out of reach – if the number of points to earn a basic reward is too high, then most customers won’t bother signing up.
You could also create member-exclusive discounts that apply automatically at checkout when a customer enters their loyalty information. Creating signage that advertises these membership-only discounts is a great way to incentivize people to sign up.
A loyalty program helps you build a solid base of customers who are willing and excited to purchase their groceries from you. Luckily, your grocery POS system makes it easy to set up a loyalty program and track its success over time.
3. Run Strategic Promotions
All customers love a sale, but the best sales are based on your customers’ favorite items and shopping habits.
A grocery store POS system not only makes running promotions easy; it gives you the data you need to make each promotion meaningful.
Your grocery POS system will reveal your best and worst-selling items, seasonal trends, and customer shopping habits — all of which you can leverage to plan successful sales and promotions that are tailored to your business’ needs and your customers’ preferences.
Here are a few simple examples to give you some ideas:
- You notice many items in your cheese section are about to expire, so you run a flash sale or a buy one, get one (BOGO) offer to move that inventory before it spoils.
- In your sales reports, you notice that sales of ready meals spike around lunch time, so you create a mix and match lunch deal to upsell your customers.
- In the summer months, sales for chips and dips are consistently high. To take advantage, you put a selection of both on your endcaps and create a “buy two dips, get the third free” deal.
You can also use the sales data from your loyalty members to segment customers based on different shopping habits. You can then send targeted coupons or discounts based on the things they buy most frequently.
4. Take Your Grocery Store Online
Online grocery shopping remains a highly popular option for customers and highly lucrative… but mostly for bigger chains.
Luckily, that’s changing. POS systems with e-commerce integrations make it easy for small grocery stores and markets to offer curbside pickup, delivery, or integrate with popular services like Instacart or Mercato.
Adding these options is a great way to boost sales, reach more customers, and modernize the shopping experience to match your bigger competitors.
The foundation of online sales is having a robust inventory management system (more on that below) that can sync your in-store and online inventory. That way, customers will get an up-to-date view of your stock with accurate product descriptions.
Second, look out for systems with consolidated order management. This will provide an overview of current orders, prioritize them, and automatically send updates to customers. This will ensure your new online sales don’t fall through the cracks.
5. Take Control of Your Inventory
Inventory management is crucial for maintaining a profitable grocery store. If your customers aren’t able to find what they need on your shelves, you’ll lose sales and see a dip in customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Ineffective inventory management can also result in financial losses due to spoiled perishable items, such as meats and produce, or expired shelf-stable items.
Your grocery POS system is your greatest asset in taking control of inventory and reducing shrinkage. It should give you an accurate overview of your inventory in real time, helping to keep your grocery store well-stocked.
Grocery-specific POS systems can track expiration dates, alerting you when items are going to spoil so you can run flash sales. Shrink reports help identify problem departments or storage issues, allowing you to proactively address problems as they arise.
Integrated purchase orders and receiving are also major time-savers that eliminate inefficient manual processes. You can also set low stock alerts for important items, ensuring you restock on essentials before they run out.
With the help of your grocery POS system, you’ll be able to perfectly balance your inventory and see your profits grow.
Grocery Store POS Systems: 4 Top Picks
A grocery store POS is a must-have, whether you’re opening a small grocery store for the first time, expanding to new locations, or upgrading from an old system. But every store’s needs are different, and it’s important to pick a system that’s the right fit for you.
Here are four suggestions.
- Lightspeed – For large, multi-location operations: Lightspeed creates highly scalable solutions for general retail, including grocery stores. What sets Lightspeed apart from others on this list is its highly scalable inventory and multi-store management, making it easy to manage stores across a wide area. However, it’s worth noting that power comes at a higher price tag compared to the other options here.
- Square – For small grocery stores on a smaller budget: Square is a popular retail POS system with a selection of user-friendly hardware and software options. While lacking many of the advanced or grocery-specific functions of our next two picks, Square has several highly affordable options for small businesses on a limited budget (but just remember, their hardware is proprietary, so you’ll need to buy new hardware if you ever choose to upgrade).
- Markt POS – For small food markets and delis: Markt POS (spelled without the “E”) is a solution specifically built for small food markets and delis. In addition to grocery-specific reports and inventory functions, Markt also comes with features for quick-service ordering, making it a good choice for small food markets that also prepare and sell fresh meals in-house.
- IT Retail – For new grocery stores or existing stores looking to upgrade: IT Retail is our comprehensive supermarket and grocery POS system. Our software is packed with a range of grocery-specific features for better inventory management, shrinkage tracking, and e-commerce. Better yet, our system is compatible with a wide range of existing hardware, making it ideal if you’re looking to upgrade your system without buying everything all over again.
While we’d like to say our system is the perfect fit for every business, that wouldn’t be the truth. Instead, we encourage you to create a list of your pain points and goals, then schedule a few demos to ask specific questions and assess different providers to determine if they’re a good fit.
Related Read: 7 Signs It’s Time To Replace Your Grocery Store POS System
Boost Your Bottom Line With the Right Grocery POS System
Your grocery store POS system is your most valuable sales partner, helping you make more sales in less time, cultivate a loyal customer base, design successful promotions, and optimize your inventory.
Choosing the right POS solution for your grocery store is the first step in taking your small business to the next level.
If you’re ready to see your grocery store sales tick up, consider IT Retail. Designed specifically with the grocery industry in mind, IT Retail equips you with all the tools you need to boost your business’ bottom line.
Try out our easy build-and-price tool to create your dream POS system.
by Luke Henry
