10 things to consider when choosing a supermarket POS system

Running a supermarket has become highly competitive and challenging due to the rapid rise of quick commerce (Q-commerce), changing customer mindsets, and evolving technology. Providing a superior shopping experience to customers can help retain your customers among the growing competition, and owning the right supermarket POS helps provide seamless customer experiences.

This comprehensive guide covers everything you need to learn about supermarket POS, broken into simple sections for you to absorb easily.

Table of Contents

• What is a supermarket POS system
• Importance of supermarket POS software
• Key features to consider in supermarket POS systems
• 10 things to consider while choosing a POS system for supermarket and grocery stores
• Questions to ask before choosing a POS for supermarkets and grocery stores
• Why is Gofrugal the best supermarket POS software?

What is a supermarket POS system?

Supermarket POS is a set of software and hardware used to manage transactions in a supermarket. Although traditional POS were used for simple checkout processes, the scope of supermarket POS has grown.

Today, you can handle billing, process returns, manage inventory, support multiple modes of payments, and provide offers and discounts through a supermarket POS. Furthermore, supermarket POS systems have evolved to offer mobile-based POS and cloud-based POS in addition to the traditional stationery POS terminals.

Importance of supermarket POS software

After the ecommerce boom, customers have several shopping options, so it has become harder to attract customers to stores, increase walk-ins, and run your business with traditional operational practices and marketing methods.

A comprehensive supermarket POS can provide delightful shopping experiences with omnichannel shopping, super-fast checkouts, and loyalty rewards. This smooth experience can increase your brand value, earn customers' trust, and increase repeat business value. With a robust supermarket POS, you can serve more customers, handle multichannel orders, and increase your business revenue.

All this transactional data with analytical reports can help you analyze patterns and make informed business decisions. You can make the right purchases at the right time to ensure optimized investments and sell slow-moving inventory with integrated offer management to reduce your inventory carrying cost.

Key features to consider in supermarket POS systems

Super-fast billing

Ensure supermarket POS enables your staff to complete billing in minimal time with minimal training. The supermarket POS interface should be easy to use and intuitive so staff can quickly identify the products and their prices, know the current inventory, and complete billing easily. It should offer super-fast checkouts with flexible payment choices and seamless payment integrations.

Accurate purchases

The supermarket POS should empower you to make accurate purchase decisions with complete purchase history tracking. You should be able to handle purchase returns seamlessly with real-time inventory adjustments and easy credit management with suppliers. Automatic reordering capabilities in supermarket POS with minimal human intervention will be an added advantage to assure accurate and profitable purchases.

Efficient inventory control

Supermarkets sell different products—perishables, seasonal items, regularly selling items, and slow-moving items. Maintaining and tracking accurate stock of all the SKUs is key to serve your customers better without stockouts. A robust supermarket POS will help manage inventory efficiently with batch-wise inventory, real-time stock monitoring, and accurate waste and expiry tracking.

Loyalty and CRM

A good POS system should record all customer data and their transaction, so you can segment customers and curate personalized offers for them. It should have the capability to reward customers with loyalty points, offers, discounts, and rewards that encourage repeat purchases and build customer relationships. You should be able to send these promotional messages to customers via SMS or WhatsApp integrated with your CRM features.

Seamless integrations

Supermarket POS software should support seamless integrations with ecommerce platforms for unified inventory and sales management. It should be adaptable to hardware like weighing scales and barcode scanners so you avoid human errors, run your business smoothly, and offer a good checkout experience.

Insightful reports

The POS system should have extensive reports of sales trends, purchase patterns, top-selling items, inventory transactions, and more to provide valuable insights on how your business is performing. These analytical reports help forecast future needs, plan your purchases, and make informed decisions.

10 things to consider while choosing a POS system for supermarket and grocery stores

1. Business needs

First, assess you store's specific needs that would require you to implement a supermarket POS system. These needs can arise when you want to overcome current process flow constraints, process high order volumes, handle high customer walk-ins, handle many SKUs (items), and grow your business. Understanding your business needs provides better clarity while choosing a retail POS.

2. Business size

The size of your store, number of locations, and business model are key factors to be considered while choosing a POS system. If your store is small, the POS should be sleek but if you have a larger storefront, you have more freedom. If there are multiple outlets, there will be multiple counters. In that case, you need a POS system that can handle billing independently.

3. Features

The features and functionalities play an important role in deciding on the right supermarket ERP. Look for a POS software that offers necessary features such as super-fast billing, accurate inventory management, real-time analytical reports, flexible payments methods, loyalty and offer management, built-in CRM, integrated accounting, and easy integrations.

4. Ease of use

The supermarket POS should be intuitive and user friendly. Your staff should find it easy to navigate across the screen and menu and start operations quickly without much training and support.

5. Integrations

Evaluate if the supermarket POS system can be easily integrated with ecommerce platforms, loyalty and CRM brands, payment devices and gateways, and backend ERPs.

6. Price

Keep the one-time investment for hardware, software, accessories, certifications, and shipment costs in mind, as well as variable costs such as monthly or annual subscription rates, payment processing charges, AMCs, and support cost. Consider the value even if slightly costly, but ensure you do not exceed your budget.

7. Scalability

Ensure the supermarket POS software is easily scalable for a variety of product categories, multiple locations and outlets, and varying customer needs as you grow your business. It should support additional features and integrations as your business needs keep changing.

8. Customer support

Choose a POS that offers complete training, adequate help resources, and quick support to run your business smoothly and efficiently. Learn the different channels through which you can reach the POS vendor for support (email, phone, and live chat) and choose the POS that meets your needs and preferences.

9. Security

Scrutinize the POS software to make sure it has robust security measures to keep your data safe. The POS software should have PCI compliance, data encryption, audit trail logs, user access controls, and authentication mechanisms to protect sensitive data and payment transactions.

10. Hardware compatibility

Verify that the supermarket POS software is compatible with standard hardware such as weighing scales, barcode scanners, thermal printers, and cash drawers, for easy and quick checkout processes.

Questions to ask before choosing a POS for supermarkets and grocery stores

Business management/administration

• What are the current challenges I face in my business today?
• How advanced should the POS be to manage my business from anywhere?
• How much of my budget can I invest in a good supermarket POS?
• What kind of reports do I need to make better business decisions?
• Can I avoid data misappropriation by staff with centralized security controls?
• What level of my presence is needed in the store?
• Can I run my business from anywhere with a cloud solution?

Operations

• What features should I look for in a supermarket POS to run my business efficiently?
• Do I need multiple billing counters to ease the crowd at the counters?
• How easy should the POS be to use, considering the skills of my staff?
• What is the level of training required to start using the supermarket POS?
• In case of any unseen failures or disasters, does my data remain protected?
• Can I provide an omnichannel experience to customers with my supermarket POS?
• Can I import the master data from another ERP seamlessly?

Features

• Does the supermarket POS handle purchases, material inwards, and returns easily?
• Can I control the price of items instantly based on price variations?
• Can I manage inventory with multiple batches across multiple stores and locations easily with the supermarket POS?
• Does the POS enable me to do accounting and GST filing easily?
• Does the POS have loyalty and CRM features to expand my customer base?
• How can I transfer stock between stores or from a warehouse to my store?
• Does the supermarket POS have hardware integrations with prominent vendors?
• Does the supermarket POS have the ability to process orders from multiple channels at the same time?

Help and support

• Do I get 24/7 support to address my inquiries and solve my challenges?
• What are the channels through which I can get support?
• Are there adequate help resources, manuals, and training materials to refer to in case of any doubts?
• Are the issues and requests addressed transparently with the ticketing mechanism and customer feedback?

Business growth

• What is my plan to expand my business online?
• What are the integrations I can do with my POS to grow my business?
• Is the supermarket POS scalable as I expand the business?
• Does the supermarket POS help run multi-outlet chain business?

Why is Gofrugal the best supermarket POS software?

Comprehensive ERP solution

Experience an all-in-one supermarket ERP to manage complete supermarket operations such as billing, purchase, reordering, inventory, stock auditing, repacking, stock transfers, offers, loyalty, and other CRM features with real-time analytical reports.

GST-integrated accounting

You no longer have to use isolated tools and switch between solutions for your accounting needs. Create ledgers, vouchers, and journals; file taxes and returns; generate e-invoices and IRNs; track balances, receivables, and payables; and more with GST-integrated accounting software.

Scale your business

Expand your business seamlessly with an easily scalable and robust cloud solution. Manage your multi-outlet and multi-warehouse supermarket business centrally and ensure complete business control. Make inter-store stock transfers accurately and manage your inventory efficiently.

Wide range of integrations

Enjoy simple integrations with ecommerce platforms, loyalty and CRM brands, payment devices and gateways, backend ERP, and POS devices to grow your business. Ensure enhanced sales and inventory control through integrations with hardware devices such as barcode scanners, weighing scales, and cash drawers.

Provide an omnichannel experience

Enable your customers to shop with you from anywhere with an online ordering app and the ability to deliver items to their homes easily with home delivery management. Provide an omnichannel experience by allowing them to shop with you in-store, do self-checkouts, and place orders through ecommerce platforms.

Choosing the right supermarket POS is an important investment you make in your business. Having learnt about the features to evaluate and factors to consider, you hopefully have the information you need to choose the perfect POS system for your business. Don't wait; explore the features of Gofrugal POS now!