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If you use cloud backup for your point of sale (POS) system, you may ask yourself: Why does your backup run smoothly sometimes but take an eternity at other times? Let's explore why this happens and what can be done about this.

This came up after my previous post on cloud backup when I was asked this.

What's Cloud Backup?

Firstly cloud backup means storing a copy of your Point of Sale Data to computers far away from your shop. This protects your data if something happens to your shop, like a fire, computer problem, or, what is becoming much more prevalent, theft. A window is smashed, the computer is grabbed, and it's gone in a minute.

Slow cloud backup

Here are some of the most common reasons your cloud backup might be taking a long time:

• Your backup contains a lot of information: Your point of sale system has a lot of data to track! Since it's cheap to store nowadays, most people want as much data as they can keep, as you never know when it's needed. Rarely do people complain they have too much.
• Slow Internet: Australia's internet speeds are no longer being taken seriously and are a low priority. We are now 57th in the world, and countries like Bulgaria and Sebia are higher.

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• Your Internet Plan: A basic internet plan might not be fast enough for big backups. Many people pick their internet purely by price, not by quality. I know price in business is important, but when you have a good price, look around that price for a good service.
• Network congestion: Think of the road traffic during rush hour, In the evening, as people finish dinner and hop online to watch TV, browse, and play video games, the demand for the internet increases. If you are doing speed tests, you should check the times as speed can vary wildly in Australia by time. 
• Encryption and Compression: Encryption scrambles your data for security, and compression shrinks it to save space. These processes take time, especially if your settings are focused on maximum compression instead of speed. Contact your cloud provider to see what can be done here. I set them for lower compression and high speed than most people do.
• Your computer might be busy: Check whether your computer is going flat out when the backup is being done. 
• Your position: The closer you are to where your connection joins the network, the better your speed. Often, there is little one can do about this problem. I argued once with NBN over this on behalf of a client and was told that after the first visit, it would be fixed soon. The second guy claimed to fix it, and the third guy from NBN came in and said there was nothing they could do.

What Makes it Frustrating

The real frustration isn't just the backup time–your shop's computer and internet get super slow while it's happening! Customers can't load websites, and using EFTPOS can be painfully slow, making running your business a struggle. Many cloud backups really suck up the juice of your computers. 

Tips to Make Things Better

Here's what you can do:

• Schedule Backups for Off-Hours: Run your backup at night when the shop's closed (for example, between 1 am and 5 am). This won't impact your day-to-day operations if you do not work then.
• Tweak Compression and encryption (if possible): Many cloud software programs let you adjust the settings to improve the service.
• Upgrade Your Internet (if needed): Talk to your Internet provider about faster plans if they're available and affordable.
• Have a Local Backup Too: It's always smart to have a fast backup on hand (like on a spare computer or external hard drive) in case you need your data super quickly. Cloud backups are great for long-term protection and emergencies!

Let me know if you have any other questions about your cloud backup. ​

As a retailer, you'll sometimes need to add notes to specific transactions. Our user-friendly POS software makes this easy - providing clarity and context when needed.

Why Add Notes?

There are many reasons you may want to add notes to a transaction in your POS system:

• The item is damaged or defective, sold AS IS
• The product has no warranty
• The product is sold under some strict conditions, e.g. not for use in Australia.

It's an irregular transaction that needs an explanation to be recorded, so adding a note provides important details that give context to the transaction. This additional information can be invaluable if there are ever questions or disputes about that sale. This can be very important for customer satisfaction.

How to do the Note Taking

Our POS software allows you to add notes to any transaction seamlessly.  When ringing up the transaction, in this case, a return, there is an item on screen *Change Description* If this is pressed, you can see another option on screen *Attach as Note*.

Now, in this case, I wrote, "IT WAS BROKEN."  see where the red arrow is.

Once the return or transaction is saved, you have a complete reporting and analysis available. For example, in finding registered transactions in the cash register,

I am looking for this refund, which was done almost eight years ago.

See I am able to search for this transaction with a wide range of filters.

And here is a report of the books with the broken covers and I can find the one I am looking for.

The person looking at the transaction history will see that the book was broken, probably torn.

Enhanced Reporting and Search

The ability to add notes enhances the reporting and analytics capabilities of our POS system. Having the extra transaction details allows for more precise sales data and tracking.

Searching transactions is also simplified. You can easily filter and find specific sales using the notes field, for example, pulling up all transactions with notes mentioning 'damaged', 'discount' or 'clearance'.

Insights for Better Decisions

Detailed reporting using notes ultimately helps you make more informed business decisions. You can analyse irregular transactions to adjust buying patterns or staff training. Identify best-selling clearance items that should be reordered. Gain insights from customer purchasing habits and preferences.

Our POS software gives small retailers like you the tools to gain value from your transaction data. Empower your business with robust features for notes, reporting and analytics. We make it easy to access the information you need to satisfy customers, streamline operations and drive growth.

Insights for Better Decisions

Detailed reporting using notes ultimately helps you make more informed business decisions. You can analyse irregular transactions to adjust buying patterns or staff training. Identify best-selling clearance items that should be reordered. Gain insights from customer purchasing habits and preferences.

Standard Note Templates

To speed up the process and help you to find them consider making a dictionary of common notes. Then you can create standard note templates in the system. 

Training Staff on Notes

Train staff on proper procedures for adding notes. The notes are only helpful if they accurately and thoroughly document each unique transaction situation. Set clear expectations and guidelines.

Our POS software gives small retailers like you the tools to gain value from your transaction data. Detailed notes drive reporting, analysis and customer satisfaction. Let us make note-taking easy so you can focus on your business.

Conclusion

This is just another example of how POS Solutions software is giving retailers more in their software.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why should I add notes to transactions?

Adding notes provides essential context and details about irregular transactions. This clarifies the transaction record and provides transparency if questions come up later.

What kinds of transactions need notes?

Notes are helpful for any exceptional situations like damaged/defective items, clearance markdowns, customer disputes, etc. Anything out of the ordinary.

How do I add a note to a transaction?

When ringing up a sale, select the "Change Description" button and choose "Attach as Note". Type your note explaining the transaction, which will be saved with the record.

Can I view and edit notes later?

Yes, you can view and edit notes on the transaction details screen anytime. Notes can also be accessed through transaction reports.

How do notes help with reporting and analysis?

Notes allow for more detailed sales data and tracking. You can search and filter transactions using keywords from the notes field.

Should I create standard note templates?

Standard templates for typical notes can save time and ensure consistent entries. It makes it easier to find as well.

How should I train staff on note-taking?

Set clear guidelines and expectations for note-taking. Ensure staff are recording notes that fully explain unique transaction situations.

How can notes help my business decision-making?

Insightful reporting using notes allows you to spot trends, adjust practices, identify top products, understand customer preferences and more.

Why are notes important for customer transparency?

Notes reduce disputes by providing clear documentation visible to the customer on any irregularities like damages, discounts, etc.

Long queues at the checkout can drive customers away and cost you sales. Customer wait times,  studies show the average time a person will wait is 6 to 7 minutes in checkout queues before walking out. For retailers, slow cashiers can have a big financial impact. 

The Cost of Customer Frustration

When customers wait too long at the registers, many will leave your store. Some studies estimate that 10% or more of potential sales are lost to customer walkaways. And for those who do stick it out, the memory of queues will linger in their minds.

To crunch some numbers of lost sales - if your business has one walkout a day with an average sale of $30, you have lost $11,000. If it is two, you have lost $20,000+  - that is money you could have kept if your checkouts moved faster.

The risk goes beyond the immediate lost sales, too. Think of your customer satisfaction if you have frustrated customers. They often don't return quickly if they associate your shop with long waits. Slow registers cost you transactions today and cost you customer experience value in the long term. Is it any wonder why major retailers like supermarkets invest heavily to speed up checkouts? You need to take note and make changes, too. 

Average time to complete a transaction in a shop

The industry standard to do this is about 40 seconds for transaction time plus about three seconds for each item to be scanned and rung up. So if you need to ring up four things, the time taken is expected to be about 40 seconds, plus four items in their basket at 3 seconds each, so it's almost 52 seconds.

Calculating The Cost to Your Bottom Line

To figure out the cost of long queues, here are two key metrics to analyse in your store:

Average transaction time: How many seconds does it take to process each sale?

Look at your POS software's " find transactions " screen to see what typical speeds you can achieve. For comparison, I've included some transaction speeds that my clients have achieved with our POS system. 

On this cash register number, they were doing a transaction every three (3) seconds.

Here as you can see, they did transactions from two (2) seconds onwards.

On this page, it was four (4) seconds onwards. Interestingly, the $431.80 transaction that would have required scanning many items was completed in about forty (40) seconds.

Customer defection rate: What % walk away after seeing line lengths?

What you need here 

• Number of lost sales from your Retail sales
• Sales value per abandoned basket
• Profit margin lost

I would suggest looking at both weekly and yearly figures

How to reduce checkout queues

Here are some proven ideas to try in your store to keep the registers moving faster:

1. Restructure Queue Layout

Research shows a single queue line feeding multiple checkout points is perceived as fairer by customers than individual lines per register. It also helps even out speeds so no single operator bogs down line length.

2. Hide Long Lines

Retail store planning experts talk about the power of “inflow angles”. What this means is when a customer enters your store, carefully analyse sight lines to any queues - long lines early in the shopping journey can trigger an early walkway. If they see a long queue, many people looking to shop in your shop will not go in.

3. Entertain Waiting Customers

Don’t let waiting customers dwell on queue length. Distract them with something; banks often use a TV. What works in shops are items that are hot sellers. It is not the sales to just consider but the distraction value. A magazine that a customer can look through while waiting works, too.

4. Keep Registers Clear

A common complaint is when customers have already committed to queuing but see unused registers not being opened despite staff floating nearby not helping ease waits. Make sure your staff, top priority is to jump on a register when lines start to develop.

5. Scan Whenever Possible

Barcode scans are proven 3 times faster than keying in product codes. So ensure everything sold has usable barcodes - even make barcode labels for loose goods or frequently sold combos. Bundling items that often go together also minimises scanning actions at the register.

6. Integrate EFTPOS

Many of you do not use it for cost, but consider that you can save seconds on each sale by integrating EFTPOS into your point-of-sale system. Avoiding re-keying in amounts slashes transaction times and reduces miscues when switching between the terminal and register. It is also more accurate.

7. Cashier speed

When queues are long, having your fastest operators active becomes critical. Slow cashiers bantering with customers may be helpful for engagement at quiet times, but focus on processing transactions fast at peak times. Knowing checkout rates for each staffer also enables good roster decisions.

Conclusion

Even implementing a few quick wins here pays dividends through higher converted transactions and improved customer loyalty. Getting checkout queues moving faster is necessary for any retailer serious about sustaining growth. Reach out if we can help analyse your current state or provide advice beyond what was covered today.

Drive Traffic and Sales with Flash Sales for Your Business

Running quick sales events is an excellent way for brick-and-mortar retailers to create buzz and drive traffic into their stores. It can be done anytime, leading to a surge in sales and new customer acquisitions. Here I will discuss tips for planning and marketing winning flash sales for your retail business.

What Are Flash Sales and Why Do Them?

A flash sale is a promotional event where you offer items at a discount for a very short period of time - usually 24 hours. This create a sense of urgency and excitement that many customers will look at. The limited time frame convinces shoppers they need to buy now before missing out on the fantastic deal.

Done right, flash sales can:

• Generate a rapid boost in sales and revenue
• Attract new customers into your store - Customer acquisition
• Clear old or excess inventory
• Create buzz and visibility for your business
• Increase customer email signups and social media followers, use your customer loyalty

Brick-and-mortar retailers can use flash sales as periodic events throughout the year to spike sales during slow periods or when introducing new products and to liquidate old stock.

It works anytime but can also be used around holidays, events, or seasons, flash sales help you capitalise on timely opportunities. You can align them with occasions like back-to-school, Halloween, Mother’s Day, or the summer clearance season.

7 Tips for Creating a Successful Flash Sale - Retail marketing

Flash sales may seem simple, but excellent execution is critical to driving traffic and conversions. Here are six tips for planning and marketing a profitable limited-time sale:

1. Strategically Select Sale Items - Promotional sales

Carefully curate the products or product bundles you’ll discount for the flash sale. Pick items that:

• You have overstocked and want to clear out
• Have wide customer appeal
• Will entice shoppers to make additional purchases
• Allow you to maintain adequate profit margins

Avoid putting your newest, trendiest merchandise on sale so you don’t diminish its perceived value.

2. Set Clear Start and End Times

Be very specific with the start and end date and time so customers know exactly how long they have to get the deal. Twenty-four hours or less creates optimal urgency.

For example:

Starts: Saturday, November 18, 9 a.m.

Ends: Saturday, November 18, 9 p.m.

3. Offer a Realistic Discount

You want your discount deep enough to excite customers and make them feel like they’re getting an incredible bargain. You need to be careful here if it is not enough, you look silly, and if it is too much, then you will sacrifice too much profit. Do the math to ensure you can offer huge savings without losing money on each transaction. You can maintain strong margins by only discounting certain items while keeping everyday prices on others.

4. Inventory management

The quickest way to kill a flash sale is running out of the promoted products. Calculate expected demand and ensure you have enough excess inventory on hand to meet it.

Nothing disappoints shoppers more than finding their desired item already sold out, which can even damage customer loyalty. It’s better to have leftovers than to turn away empty-handed customers. You should be able to sell it later.

5. Small business marketing

Heavily advertise your flash sale through:

• In-store signs and window displays: Place bold, colourful signage at your entrance and throughout your store to spread the word to foot traffic use to the max your In-store marketing. You can use this signage again after the sale in a few months.

• Social media marketing: Run your shop on Facebook and Instagram to reach a broader local audience. It costs nothing.

6. Plan Accordingly with Staffing and Operations

Alert your staff to prepare for an influx of customers during the sale period. Schedule adequate employees to handle the customer traffic so shoppers don’t have frustratingly long wait times. Brief them on what you are trying to do clearly to prevent misunderstandings, you need to provide decent customer service.

7. Update your Point-of-sale (POS) system

Make sure your POS software is up to date with the information required.

Flash Sale Ideas for Different Business Types

Here are examples of successful flash sale ideas for specific types of shops, I have seen.

Newsagency

• Summer fun flash sale - Buy one get one half off outdoor water toys and games
• The magazines company gave them some magazines to move on their flash sale -  It did not cost them anything, they just asked.

Pet Supply Shop

• Adopt-a-pet sale - 25% off pet beds, leashes, bowls, and toys
• Stock up and save flash sale - 15% on some food and treats

Make Your Next Flash Sale a Success

A well-executed flash sale takes strategic planning, savvy marketing, and strong operations. But the reward of increased traffic and sales make it a highly effective periodic promotion. Remember to select sale items wisely, offer deep but profitable discounts, stock up on inventory, advertise heavily, and prepare your staff.

What other tips do you have for small retailers looking to run successful flash sales events? What kind of promotions resonate most with you as a shopper?

Good luck, and let me know how it went for you.

Using PLU and SKU Numbers to Streamline Your Retail Business

Running a retail business requires careful attention to the details. Managing your stock and inventory efficiently is crucial for keeping things running smoothly. This is where PLU (price look-up) codes and SKU (stock keeping unit) numbers come in. Implementing these simple tools can help streamline your operations and save you time and money.

Read on to learn how these codes can help you speed up checkout, better track inventory, improve purchasing efficiency, and more!

What Are PLU and SKU Numbers?

Before we dive into the benefits, let’s define what exactly PLU and SKU numbers are:

PLU codes are universal identifier numbers assigned to products, particularly produce items and other goods sold loose without barcodes. For example, a PLU code for a Granny Smith apple might be 4152. Suppliers assign these 4-5 digit codes and allow retailers to look at pricing and inventory data for produce.

Retailers can optionally use a range between 3170-3269 to create their own internal PLU codes for produce items. Please do not count on them being available, though. Many suppliers are idiots and will occasionally supply items with these PLUs. Interestingly, this happens in newsagencies despite standard stock file standard requirements explicitly forbidding this practice.

SKU numbers are unique ID codes that retailers assign to track stock-keeping units. They allow you to monitor specific product variants in your inventory. For example, you may assign SKU #101 to Coca-Cola Can 375mL, SKU #102 to Coca-Cola Bottle 1L, etc. These 1-3 digit codes help differentiate product sizes, colours, flavours, etc.

Now, let’s look at why using PLU and SKU numbers can benefit your business.

Key Benefits of Using PLU and SKU Numbers

Implementing PLU codes and SKU numbers offers several advantages that can help streamline operations and boost efficiency:

Faster Checkout and Fewer Errors

PLU and SKU numbers speed up the checkout process by allowing cashiers to simply enter a code instead of searching through the system for the product. This is especially helpful for loose produce items that don’t have barcodes.

Fewer steps mean fewer opportunities for mistakes. Cashiers won’t have to guess which cucumber or apple variety they select. Quickly entering PLU and SKU codes results in faster customer service and shorter checkout lines.

Better Inventory Tracking

When each product variant has its unique SKU number, you gain much tighter control over inventory tracking. Your point-of-sale system can generate detailed reports by SKU showing exactly which items are in stock, which are selling fastest, and which need reordered.

This granular data makes it easier to minimize excess inventory and stock the right amount of each item. No more guessing how many of each t-shirt size or colour to order. The sales velocity by SKU tells you exactly what’s moving.

Increased Efficiency for Purchasing and Receiving

Standardizing your SKU system greatly improves efficiency when purchasing inventory and receiving deliveries. Purchase orders, delivery paperwork, and item labels must only display the SKU to identify each product variant.

Employees will immediately know exactly which item or size is being ordered or received just by glancing at the SKU number, speeding up processing time considerably.

Improved Data and Analytics

With all inventory uniformly tracked and identified by SKU, your sales reports and analytics become much more useful. POS reports can break down sales and profits by specific product variants rather than just lumping all similar items together.

You can see which SKUs have the highest profit margins, fastest inventory turns, or slowest sales velocity. This allows smarter purchasing and promotion decisions. You can also identify underperforming items that may need to be discounted or discontinued.

Setting it up is very easy.

1: Open Stock Maintenance and look up the item.
2: Click on the "Prices" tab
3: Scroll to the far right on the pricing grid to see the "PLU" field.
4: Click EDIT and enter a number here (for example, 101 for an SKU and 4152 was the PLU for the apple above)
5: Click SAVE

Now, in the cash register, when you are ringing up a sale, enter the PLU into the "price entry" box, and press ENTER, and our point of sale will find the item immediately!

PLU and SKU Best Practices

To maximize the benefits of using PLU codes and SKU numbers, keep these best practices in mind:

Keep SKU numbers short and simple - Long, complicated SKU codes lead to errors when entering the POS and paperwork. Stick to 1-3 digits if at all possible.

Be consistent - Decide on a standardized format for your SKU numbering and stick to it (e.g. category letter + sequence number). Please don’t make it overly complex. For example, one of our clients that sells T-shirts uses SKU starting with #1 for the small size of a V-neck T-shirt, SKU #2 for the medium, SKU #3 for the large, etc. This allows precise tracking of each inventory item.

The main advantage of SKUs is that retailers can customize them to fit their needs. They might encode specific attributes into each SKU.

For example, they were starting SKUs with a "B" for blue products "R" for red products. Or "S" for small, "M" for medium", and "L" for large. This can help employees quickly identify products.

Assign unique codes - Never reuse SKU numbers, even for discontinued items. Your retired products should still show their historical sales data.

Print SKUs on labels - Clearly printing the SKU on product packaging, shelves, or item tags makes it fast and easy for cashiers to enter.

Cross-train staff - Don’t just train cashiers. Ensure everyone, from inventory managers to purchasers, knows how to use and apply SKUs.

Conclusion

As a retailer, implementing PLU codes and SKU numbers requires some initial work but pays off tremendously through savings in time and money. Your business will benefit from faster checkout, tighter inventory control, increased purchasing efficiency, and improved sales data.

Contact our team to learn more about setting up and using PLUs and SKUs in your retail operation. We would happily advise you on the best practices and system options to boost productivity. Investing in these simple tools will streamline your business for years.

Provisional forecasts by the Australian Retailers Association (ARA), in conjunction with Roy Morgan

These predict $66.8 billion will be spent in the November to December 24 Christmas trading period- broadly in line with last year (up slightly by 0.1% or $74,000). Here is the estimate by retail category

The full report is here.

So get Your Retail Business Holiday-Ready.

Here is an updated checklist to help you prepare for the coming holiday season. This holiday season is most of my clients' busiest time of the year. Many of you will do half of your trade in the next few months. To get the most out of it, you need planning.

This guide covers points you need to review and prepare your retail business for this holiday season.

Step 1: Get Your POS System Holiday-Ready

The point of sale (POS) system is the heart of your retail operation. A glitchy or overloaded POS can ruin the holiday shopping experience, lose your sales, and damage your reputation.

Here are tips to ensure your POS is ready for the holiday rush:

Test Backup Registers and other Hardware

• If you are bringing old POS computers out of storage, test these well in advance to confirm they work. Computers not used frequently have problems.

• Verify where these computers will have proper cabling, the network connections work, and it works with our POS system.

• Test these extra computers by processing a few sample transactions.

• Make sure you have adequate printer paper, receipt rolls, printer ink, and other POS consumables. I suggest shopping early.

Step 2: Review Your Finances

This proved to be a problem last year, so I decided to add this point this year. The coming holiday season strains finances as it requires increased inventory expenses and seasonal staffing. Here are some tips to keep your finances under control. Make sure you have enough. 

Step 3: Plan and Stock Products

Smart inventory planning prevents out-of-stock that can sink holiday sales.

Analyse Past Sales Trends

• Run sales reports from prior holiday seasons. Identify your top-selling products at this time of year.

• Look for trends on seasonal best-sellers, big-ticket items, and gift purchases.

Order Seasonal and Holiday Products

• Make sure to order enough holiday decorations, gift sets, appropriate greeting cards, etc.

• Make sure you have enough top-selling products and proven items. Shortages can be devastating.

Communicate Early with Suppliers

• It is a good idea now to discuss orders and delivery logistics with your suppliers.

Step 4: Prepare Your Team for the Holiday Rush

A great staff is crucial for executing a smooth and prosperous holiday season.

Start to schedule Staffing Levels

• I suggest reviewing last year to prepare.

• It is not too early to start to prepare a roster.

Step 5: Market and Advertise for the Holidays

Promotions, offers, and campaigns tailored for the holidays can drive significant traffic and sales.

• If you are into Social Media, I would recommend starting to tell your customers that you have some good things for them. 

• Even a simple sign can do wonders. Make sure you have it.

Holiday Preparation Checklist

Here is a checklist summarizing the key tasks for getting your retail store holiday-ready:

• [ ] Test and update POS software and hardware

• [ ] Review inventory levels and sales histories

• [ ] Order seasonal and holiday-specific merchandise

• [ ] Communicate expected order volumes with suppliers

• [ ] Check your shelves and plan where to put the holiday goods.

• [ ] Check your financing

• [ ] Review your coming staff roster

• [ ] Confirm staffing arrangements for store opening event

• [ ] Consider a holiday-themed marketing campaigns

• [ ] Make sure you have signs to decorate your shop

Conclusion

Your retail store can thrive this holiday season with proper planning across your POS systems, finances, inventory, staffing, and marketing. Leverage the checklist above and the recommendations in this guide as you prepare for a busy holiday sales season. Let us know if you need any assistance getting your retail business holiday-ready!

Your point-of-sale (POS) system can give you crucial information that can help you drive your retail productivity, accuracy and profits. To do that it needs accurate information. Are you getting good information? One key retail metric (KPI) often overlooked to reveal how efficiently your POS system operates is the scan rate percentage %Scan.

Luckily, your POS Software can give you this and show you how to improve this.

Why the Scan Rate Matters

The POS scan rate (%Scan) shows the percentage of products scanned compared to the manually keyed-in at the cash register. A high scan rate translates directly into faster transactions, shorter checkout lines, and happier customers. It also results in fewer errors and less waste that hurt profits. Manually entering product codes is slower, more demanding on staff over a shift, and inevitably leads to mistakes. The industry standard is that cashiers make around one error for every 300 characters typed daily.

In contrast, scanning barcodes with a POS scanner takes just a fraction of a second and is a million times more accurate! The higher your scan rate, the more transactions you can process, lower errors, and provide better customer service. Better product information captured during scans also gives you valuable data for purchasing, promos, inventory and more.

Checking Your Scan Rate

Finding your current scan rate percentage is easy using your POS reporting. Go to the cash register reports, open the Sales section, and select "Dissection Sales/Profitability for a Given Period".

Go to the cash register reports.

Then go to sales.

Once there select

Dissection Sales / Profitability for a Given Period.

Now run the report with a year of data.

You will see a column with %Scan; the higher, the better. Looking through this list, the problem department is marked with a green arrow.

Run it for at least the past 12 months to see trends. The %Scan column reveals your overall rate across products and departments. Ideally, you want to see your scan rate consistently above 90% for maximum efficiency. Look for low percentages that stand out. While the overall rate matters, drill down into individual departments and product categories in the report. This allows you to pinpoint sections of your inventory that need scan rate improvements.

How to Boost a Low Scan Rate

If your scan rate is low, identify underperforming departments or products lagging in scanning. Then, focus on addressing the root causes:

• Missing barcodes - Confirm all inventory has scannable barcodes printed and attached. For any products without barcodes, quickly print and add barcode labels.
• Faulty scanners - Your barcode scanners may be aging or defective. The industry standard is that a scanner is built to last about three years, and then you have a bonus.
• Staff training - Cashiers may need refreshers on scanning techniques and procedures. Observe them on the POS and provide feedback to build good habits.
• Product database - Check your POS system to ensure the product database matches all items to the correct barcodes. Add any new products that are missing.
• Check items - Sometimes the barcodes are not clear, if so notify the supplier and consider using inhouse barcodes until this can be fixed.

Scanning Drives Retail Success

Improving your POS scan rates pays for your bottom line. It reduces wasted time and costly errors while increasing transaction speed and customer satisfaction. Make it a priority to monitor scan rates, identify underperforming areas, and address gaps. Turn your POS system into a competitive advantage!

Introduction

Selling greeting cards are a profitable business opportunity for retailers as they have high sales and margins. 

Greeting cards are considered the department in the shop that can be the fastest and best improved by monitoring by POS Software. Improvements, when done, are often immediate.

The problem now is that most of the greeting card management today in most stores is done by the sales representatives of the card companies. These people are notorious for making decisions that maximise their companies, not the retailer. This is because, in the past, managing this department was extremely difficult using manual methods as there were too many greeting card lines, but it is easy with POS Software designed to do so. Today by utilising POS Software, you can rapidly and effectively see which cards are selling well and which do not.

Now, what you can do - the action plan!

Your POS Software is tracking the cards sold. Most of you have the data inside your computer now. You can use that to make informed decisions about your greeting card stand.

Review your top-selling report by quantity and the last 12 months. Set up an arbitrary minimum sales number.

Say you want to find now your slow-moving stock that you are holding. This is a quick step by step way of doing just that.

Go to reports and select stock, see the red arrow on the image here.

Now enter in the criteria you require.

Where it is brown is the date range, I suggest starting with a year, but it's also good with three months.

Where it is blue, enter the minimum sales figure from the top-selling report.

Where it is purple is where you specify the greeting card department.

You then get a detailed report showing the value of the stock holdings and the amount moved in this period. I think many of you may get shocked by its value.

Further analysis

> Now analyse your cards by category using your sales data. See which categories are selling well and which do not. This information will help you decide which categories to expand and which to contract.

> Review greeting card sales by their position on the stand to see where your cards are selling well. Your best-selling cards should be in the best places. What you are trying to do is place the cards to maximise sales.

> To identify seasonal patterns, retailers should also keep an eye on trends in sales over time by categories. These patterns can to used to maximise profitability.

> Now compare your greeting sales data to previous periods. You can see how your greeting card stand performs by comparing sales data to prior periods.

> Your sales reports can also help you identify your price points in the greeting card. Using it, you can quickly determine the prices for cards your customers are willing to pay.

Quantities on Hand

If your stock levels are incorrect, you must consider a stocktake to proceed.

Retailers should track inventory levels to avoid overstocking and increased storage costs. It is common in your storage area to find cards just sitting there.

Set up a monitoring schedule.

Set up a regular schedule to watch your card sales and stock information. It takes little time to do this once you are set up.

Conclusion

Using your POS software sales data analysis can be a more lucrative department.

Executive Summary:

> Greeting cards are a lucrative business opportunity for retailers due to their high margins and sales.
> POS software that monitors sales of greeting cards may result in immediate sales increases.
> Retailers frequently rely on management from card companies' sales representatives, who may not put the retailer's interests first.
>Greeting card sales can be effectively managed, and data-driven insights for decision-making can be provided by POS software.
>Top-selling cards can be reviewed, sales can be analyzed by category and location, seasonal patterns can be found, sales data can be compared to previous periods, and the best price points can be found using POS software.
>Additionally, retailers can avoid overstocking and storage costs by monitoring inventory levels and establishing a monitoring schedule.
>Retailers can increase their greeting card department's profitability by using sales data analysis in point-of-sale software.

A/B testing is a formal system used when you have an idea you want to test. It's simple to understand, easy to implement into any aspect of your business, and free. It is used by both large and small companies alike to make business decisions that increase store sales.

All you need is accurate information from your POS Software and some time.

You pick a period generally a month, like for like. An example of like to like is Jan 2021 to Jan 2022, Feb 2021 to Feb 2022, etc.

For this post, I will consider the example of swapping your books and art supplies.

Now make sure you have the sales information for these departments in the previous period you are adopting. Then that can collect the same information for the coming month.

So do you have the book and art supply sales?

If so, make the change and wait a month.

After the month, go to register reports.

Now select the item marked "Sales Comparison for a Given period".

Now select the dates that you wish to compare. You will get pages of detailed information showing how you are performing compared to the previous period. Now see what was more successful.

The reason this system works well as different audiences behaves differently. Something that works for one company may not work for another. You are trying to find the best practice for your business.

It can be used for anything, shop hours, price increases, etc.

This is another example of how powerful our point of sale software is for retail management.

Sometimes we see stock sales, still going on long after they are over. This, of course, costs the shop money.  Administrative errors are one of the major causes of stock loss.

If you see this as a problem in your shop, here is a quick way to check.

Go to register reports> stock

There you will find a report "Stock on Sale Between a Given Period"

Now we will keep it quick and straightforward here.

Now what I selected here this month and ticked "Show all within period"

As you can see, some of the sales dates that are active are quite old. Now you go over and check it.

This is a very useful report. So it will be worth going through some of the more detailed options.

What happens is that when you go to your point of sale software and check your selling report to see how things are selling. You will find items that are selling well but are making little profit. The question often raised here, is even accepting that the item is not making much, is it drawing people into your shop who buy other products?

Well, we can help you somewhat. The reason I say somewhat will be explained here.  

Go to Register reports.

Now select "Top N Stock Sales for a Given Period"

Now put in say a year of sales and ask for the top 100 by quantity. 

Outcomes a report with the top sellers for that year. 

I have not got the heading here, but I will explain. Look at the envelope 

45 is the stock ranking. It is the 45th best selling item in the shop. The 300 is the quantity sold. The next roll is profit, which is $77.45. In comparison, the item on top of it at 44 made the store $1159 profit. Now for many retailers would say to themselves is $77.45 profit enough to justify having this item? Is it enough to even pay the rent, much less the labour and other charges?

Now another issue that most retailers will ask here is, as it does sells well does it bring people into my shop who buy other products? That is very hard to measure, but we can give you an idea.

Go to reports > Sales register > Stock Sales companion sales by period 

Now in options put in say last financial year and put in the product ENVELOPE TUDOR....

Now out pops up a report which will give you a listing of all the items that were sold with this item.

Then at the end will be a total.

The last number is the profit of $265.01, which is the total profit of all the items sold with this item. 

Now the question is how much of that profit of $265.01 would you have made anyway with or without that profit. That is something you have to decide. 

An analyst like me, as a first-level approximation in the absence of any other information, would probably say

A third would have brought something else in the shop to replace the envelope 

A third would have left and gone elsewhere

A third would not have brought the envelope but everything else.

So I would say the loss involved in dropping the product is 

2/3 x (the actual product $77.45) + 1/3 x ( companion sale of $265.01) = a loss of about $140.

If you can do a better estimate let me know.

The most successful selling methods in retail - cross-selling.

Ideally, what you are trying to find is products that sell well to the item being purchased. For example, the purchase of a comb could be cross-sold with hairpins and elastics. 

However, in practice, it is quite hard to suddenly present items that sell well with a specific item to a customer. So what people do is place a  small pile of items on the counter that people tend to buy impulsively.

 
The first point to do is to identify these products. A quick trip to your competitors might be in order here. It will give you an idea, now check what your top-selling items, which is easy to find from your top-selling reports in our point-of-sale system are.

But your top sellers change over time. Ask yourself will today's top seller be a good seller tomorrow. Typically in retail, what you expect to see is that an item that sells 50 today will sell about 66% of 50 or about 30 tomorrow and day after that 66% of 30 and so on. What you need to do is identify today what is selling well to check you have adequate stock for tomorrow on the counter.

And it is easy in our point-of-sale system.

Go to Register reports.

Now select "Top N Stock Sales for a Given Period."

Now the following pop up.

I selected a day. You usually would put in today

Outcomes a report with the top sellers for today.

Now, these need to be checked that you have enough stock.

Experiment and try it out. If you do it right, many of your customers could be buying two items instead of one. Your basket size will go up.

Once you get experienced, you will develop a better idea of what these cross-selling products are, and I do not recommend low margin sweets. Ideally, you want items with good margin that move.

By incorporating these trends into your sales process, you proactively identify cross-selling opportunities on an ongoing basis.

In your point of sale software, now is a very powerful tool to see your cash breakup. Any study of this is getting into the heart of a business.

So off we go, in the main menu select "End of day."

Now in your Options menu marked in green, tick everything, so you are going to get as much detail as you can. 

Now in the Option above, as for the following 

Now you are going to get a detailed report on all the cash takings for the last 12 months.

Now one part that I do suggest that you look at is the Sales Payment Breakup, in that you can see an analysis of how people are paying in your shop. I am sure just that alone will make interesting reading.

Enjoy!!!

Our POS software is built for speed. It is the fastest in our market space, but we are increasing the speed on the next version. 

Time, after all, is precious and I think it is essential that as technology continues to move we take advantages of the latest advances to keep your business running as quickly as possible.

Some places it is nice, no-one likes to wait for a long report but in the cash register its critical.  If the queues start to get big, then people walk out and I know from personal experience nothing upsets us more then seeing people dumping their proposed purchases and leaving.  It gets worse as people seeing a long queue in your shop do not even come in.  

Today, most of the time taken in processing a transaction is independent of the point of sale software. Every customer when being processed today should be greeted with a friendly smile, hellos exchanged, they are processed, the cash or EFTPOS is handled, goodbyes are said, and they go. The industry standard to do this is about 40 seconds a transaction plus about three seconds for each item to scanned and rung up.  So if they want to buy four things, the time taken is expected to be about 40 seconds plus four items in their basket at 3 seconds each so it is about 52 seconds. 

Very little of this time is actually due to the POS software slowing down the transaction.

Here is the current speed test of about 20,000 cash register transactions in a busy shop.  Note when the new version is out in beta, I will do an update.

The average speed of a transaction was about 36 seconds a sale which is what I expected as our clients tend to have low numbers in their baskets and they are almost all in high volume pressure environments.

Here is what the graph looks like 

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As you can see in a pinch, our clients are doing transactions much less than 36 seconds as you can see here in seconds.

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I think our clients should budget about 36 seconds plus or minus here. 

People if you are close often, as a retailer in a shop lose sight of the big picture and stare at the details. It is easy to do.

Here is a quick report that can instantly show you what people/companies are essential in your business. In register reports go to > stock sales. Now you will find the following report

Click on it. Now although there is a lot of options here, let us make it simple and just put in last financial year

Now, will pop out a report showing which suppliers contributed the most to your business. Often they stand out as it is not uncommon nowadays for two or three suppliers to give you 80% to 90% of your business. I suggest the figures you concentrate are the number of sales and profit. The number will show why people are coming into the store and the profit will tell you where the money is being made.

An interesting exercise here is after studying this report say to yourself "I am a ..... seller"

Right now if you go into any shopping centre, you will see almost everyone is offering a buy now pay later(BNPL) option. There is little choice for many shops as Australians are dumping credit cards and going for them. Already more than a million Australians have stopped using credit cards and are using these services. So today BNPL startups are popping up like mushrooms in Australia, and although there are plenty of players in this market already, the interest now is that CBA bank has announced that it is moving in a big way into this market and soon I am sure the other banks will also move into this market.

Although each offering of BNPL is different, I think the following is a fair comment, unlike the credit card most of the fees are paid for by the merchant, not the customer. Most merchants that use these services do so because these services do push their stores thus increasing their sales.

The other issue is that a BNPL customer if you have the right products for them, is a good customer. Here is an analysis of a zip customer 

They buy more each time, and they buy more often, the operative point being here, do you have the products for these customers? 

So the big problem for many of my clients is that with credit cards whereas the fees are relatively small and can be either absorbed and/or charged to the client, with a  BNPL model, the costs are much higher, about 5% and it can be tough to charge this back to the customer as both the customers and the BNPL do not like it this chargeback. A hairdresser who was my client, charged a woman a surcharge because she used zip, the customer went on social media to complain, within hours zip picked it up the twitter and rang her and asked her to please explain. 

This leaves many of my clients with a problem, either give up a large number of clients and a major market or offer BNPL. The answer will be a decision for each store. 

If you do laybys, I do suggest that you switch at least for this service over to BNPL. If you do your sums, the extra costs and bother to you in laybys are just not worth this 5% fee.

If your layby customers do not have a BNPL account consider this when I did an experiment, I found that it took me about 2 minutes to get a BNPL account.  

Now assuming you do decide to go into this space well the question is which one do you use. Currently, there are two big ones, Afterpay and Zip. You can go for others but these two you need to look at first. Both are I think are reliable. Both run extensive marketing campaigns which do benefit the merchants that do use them. Both have a lot of followers. Generally users of these services, I find have both.

As a comparison, Zip big plus is that it lets you sell higher-priced items, its costs are a bit lower, and it pays faster. Plus it is easier to get, and they bug you less. Afterpay will put conditions on its use and in fact on all payment types that you use which blew my mind, if you have Afterpay in your shop, if you do a cash transaction you must abide by Afterpay conditions even though it has nothing to do with them. I have never seen Zip do anything like that. This is why I suggest if you are thinking of entering this market, try Zip first. Once you have bedded it down then look at others.

If you want to investigate more, click here.

PS Whatever you do, what you need to consider is that BNPL is clearly the future, soon I predict that all shops will need it.

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Drawing a map of where your shoplifting is happening in your shop can be very useful. To do this, you need to have done a stocktake in your point of sale software.

Now what we want to do is draw up your shop on a big piece of paper or white cardboard. I suggest using a pencil as you do sometimes need to correct it. To get the figures either use a tape measure or pace it out.

Now, this might be what the planogram for your shop looks like.

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Once you are happy, with what you have done this, make at least four photocopies, label two quantity and the other two value. The rest put aside, you can certainly use them. 

Now go to your point of sale system and get the valiance reports in the stocktake section.

Now on one of the quantity planogram jot down the figures for missing quantities and on the value planogram put down the numbers for missing values. The subtotals there will speed up the process.

When you are finished, start adding up the totals for each area. Now divide the result into three groups,

Blue = Good
Yellow = Moderate to bad
Red = Very bad

They generally stand out

Now on the appropriate fresh planogram for quantity, mark with the appropriate colour. Now do the same with the fresh value planogram. 

Now your planograms will look like this.

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Your quantity ones will show you the number of times people have stolen off you and the value one, how much it has costed you.

See where the green arrow points, apparently there is something to investigate at these spots. See the green arrow pointing to red. This is a problem area. Everything around is blue, so it is not the location it probably is a blind spot or the goods there are very desirable for people that shoplift. 

What is a real worry if it is behind the counter because then its staff.

One point to watch, it that although you have identified the area where the loss is coming from it may not be the spot the actual shoplifting is done. 

Give it a try as I am sure you will find something.

Technically a wasted discount in retail is a discount that you give for an item that you would have sold without the discount because consumers would have bought the products at a total price so the discounts didn’t generate extra sales or volumes. This is a big problem in loyalty marketing as the first ones, in general, to take advantage of discounts are the regular customers the business has.

So with this in mind, a well-known management company  Nielsen Pacific, looked at the food and grocery marketing in Australia, which is worth about $51 billion a year. They estimated that about 38% of all products sold this year were discounted, and of that, about 20% of the total discounts were wasted. 

Reading their report I decided to do a calculation of the effect of discounting, particularly just how much extra one would have to sell to generate the loss of income due to the discount. Now I will do the calculation without GST as it changes nothing here.

So let us imagine you are selling 100 of a product a month at $1 with a margin of 30%. 

Turnover = $100

Cost  = $70

Profit  = $30

Now say you give a discount of 10%; what you need to do is now sell 150 products as your turnover is 150 x  $1 x (1-10%) = $135. Your cost is 150 x  $1  x (1-30%) = $105. Your profit is $135 - $105 = $30. So you have had to sell 50% more for the same profit without a discount.

In reality, you will need more as handling costs, storage costs, display costs, etc, will be more, too but let us leave that point for another day's discussion.

Now if I do the same calculation for a discount of 15%,  you have to sell 200 products or 100% more to get the same profit before the discount was issued.

So I decided to make a graph of what it looks like, which I think you will find interesting. 

The blue line is for a product with a 25% margin, the red line is for a product with a 30% margin, and the green line is for a product with a 50% margin.

As you can see, the low-margin products are much more affected by discounting, but even here once you start hitting a 15% discount a product with a 50% margin, needs a lot more sales to justify the deduction. 

As a rule of thumb in retail, every 1% discount needs at least a 3% increase in turnover to break even.

This is why wasted discounts in loyalty marketing are a big issue.

If you want to know what your discounts are, check your end-of-day reports.

The number of bill payments over the years have dropped over the counter, but it is still a big market, so many of our clients do process Bill Payments over the counter. The big plus is that it brings people into the shop. 

I would say in it promises to be a big market for the next few years. It is not just the older people, but large numbers of young and middle-aged people who pay over the counter because they can do it in cash and there are also transient people such as people who are temporary residents who have limited access to Australia's banking. These people all use phones, electricity and heating and even in this day of the internet much is paid over-the-counter.

When I did a benchmark study of our clients, I would say taking out the people that do very few, probably just their own bill payments, that left the average shop doing about 2 to 3 bill payments a day. So clearly it does bring people into the shop. How much would you pay to a Facebook consultant to get that numbers of people into your shop and buy something?

Looking at sales history, it does appear that they do buy more, although how much tends to vary a lot. 

The time taken to do a transaction is minimal. My benchmark study shows what I saw seconds. 

You get paid instantly.

On the other side, quoted fees for each transaction are small, but with our system, you are under no obligation. You can charge more if you want, by introducing a service fee. No-one can stop you because we are not an agency and we are not telling you how to run your business.

Finally, there are no commitments. If it does not work for you, you can stop using it whenever you like. 

PS If you are doing Bill Payments now, contact us as far as I know our offering is best as unlike others we do not charge or take anything out of your commission. Most importantly we probably have more billers - Australian Post, for example, I saw in a post with BPAY had about 2,000 to 3,000 billers while our Bill Payments service has over 40,000 billers. From a marketing perspective, there are many advantages in this larger pool of billers as our clients as in many areas will have a monopoly on many products as they are the selling long tail and niche products. Also, in practice retailers today make most of their profits from items that few others have. Someone needs to pay an obscure bill, and they need to pay in cash, where are they going to go? They cannot go to a post office as they do not handle it. So hopefully, they will come to our client, once a month.

Our Point of sale software can be set up to issue a special warning if a stock item being scanned price is under cost. This warns people scanning that item at the cash register that something is wrong and needs to be checked.

If you feel that you may have a problem here or you just want to check if you are selling too many items that are excessively large discounts,  I suggest you do is run the following report. 
 

Press transaction enquiry as highlighted in red, now select the relevant options, it actually, a good idea to do it once and then do it again with different departments that appear and check out the results.