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Delving Into POS Usage For Principals
In the supply chain industry, principals sell their products through local distributors to go to retail stores. This is why most principals end up unaware with what is going on with their products on the market. Advotics developed a breakthrough solution to know more granular and actual metrics of sold products to the end customer, by building a POS system with endorsement from the principal.
What is a POS?
Point of Sale (POS) is a system used in the retail industry. The system allows business owners to track cash flow, sales, inventory, etc. Commonly linked with the POS are a cash register, receipt printer, scanner, and debit/credit card reader. You can stil find an offline POS system on the market but nowadays, most of them are computerized.
What’s different in POS System that is endorsed by the Principals?
1. Digital Product Identity
During the production line, Advotics will print out QR codes to each product. By incorporating unique serial numbers, companies can see product movement as its record time stamps throughout all distribution layers. From the production line in the factory, warehouse storing, distribution and up to the retail stores.
2. POS System
The principal sponsored the POS system for each store owner. So, before going into the customer’s hand, all principal’s products are scanned/recorded at the end of the sales transaction. Products can be scanned in a form of barcodes or QR codes, or manually picked in the POS menu. Advotics POS system then will indicate the products sell out (retailers sell to end customers). The system will read the product data and automatically update the store’s inventory level.
Benefits for Principal
1. Data
There is a lot of data that the principal can get from sponsoring a POS system to retailers. Principals can now know the inventory level as well as pricing that each retailer set. This information is crucial if the principal wants to know their market price in each area of distribution.
Previously, we discussed on how QR codes are identify products to be tracked throughout all distribution layer being scanned. This way, the principal now can know real-time market absorption and how long products are sitting in a store before being picked up by the customer. The principal can calculate this by tracing all the timestamps that the products have collected.
Every time products get out of the retailer’s door, the principal will know how frequent and how varies the market consumption is in each area. Later on, the principal can use this data to predict and tweak the strategy to fit end customers’ behavior.
2. Branding
It goes the same way as brands putting logos on racing cars. By endorsing the POS system, the principal is putting their names on the market. Endorsements are more effective than advertising because it’s more personal.
To go even deeper, principals can also set up a loyalty program for end customers. Every time a customer buys the principal’s product, they may gain a loyalty point by registering their phone number to the retail stores. This is very beneficial to the principal because not only that they can push their products forward, they can also build a more personal relationship by incentivizing them.
3. Competitors Insights
Endorsed POS system allows cashier to scan or choose all purchased products by the type or SKU within the store, including the competitors’ products. This is why tapping into competitors’ pricing, inventory levels, and market share is a huge advantage to have.
Benefits for Retailers
1. Technologically Advanced POS
One of the biggest benefits for retailers is getting a brand new POS system out of charge! POS system simplifies and streamlines store owner’s payment transactions. Integrated with the cloud, it maintains all transaction records in a reliable, organized and efficient method.
Advanced POS system also allows a variety of payment gateways. It’s primary used when physical card or cash is not present at transactions. In other words, it is essentially a POS for digital payment methods, such as mobile wallet.
2. Real Time Inventory Check
Every batch of deliveries that have been received by the retail stores gets scanned right away. The system then will calculate how much inventory does the store has for each product. Whenever the product gets picked up by customers and scanned at the end of the transaction, the POS system will automatically update the inventory stock in real-time.
3. Sell Out Incentive
The principal can detect how many products are sold in each retailer. With this information, the principal can set up incentives, in the form of loyalty points or cashback for retailers. By having a deeper relationship with your store owners, they will most likely refer your products instead of competitors’. Hence, this strategy will motivate retailers to lead with a specific brand or product.
The Future of POS System
We believe in the few years there will be more cutting-edge developments. Not only in the POS system but also in the SaaS industry. Imagine if the POS system can self-order products straight to distributors if the stock levels are running low. It doesn’t only detect inventory but store owners will never run out of stocks!
We’ve talked about the benefits of POS System for not only store owners, but also the principals, and it’s never too early to establish it in your company’s distribution network. Contact our sales representatives to know more about endorsing the POS system to your retailers!
