One of my competitors has released recently a benchmark study of what a study of their clients would show the return on investment of point of sale software to a retailer.
The figures they come up with are impressive. Like always, they do *NOT* state what standards they use for their calculations. I strongly suspect that like always they make up their own but anyway, they quote percentages and I think it does interesting reading
Stock (Inventory) a 3% improvement.
I can believe this. I think its a gross underestimation.
Just being able to put a figure on it, is a big step.
as I have seen just being able to qualify figures and manage thousands of items in a department better is a big plus notably as it reduces dramatically stock-outs.
We have had clients that have reduced stock holding by 30%. The Wikipedia quotes examples of 25% to 30%
Time saved in Purchasing a 50% improvement
Once set up, which can take some time, you can use automatic orders and save, I would say often much more than 50% of your time. What people tend to do is print out an automatic (focus) order. They then look and adjust, make some changes often quite minimal and send off an order by fax or email.
VIP a 4% improvement
Managing a VIP club is difficult without a computer system. A good VIP club in a typical shop we have is also coming in about that too. Today about 79% of Australians are in loyalty programs.
ecommerce 6% of sales
A good website attached to your shop should now be generating at least that. We have clients that are doing much more than that. Having one means your shop is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
