From the first-ever cash register in a Salon in 1879 to the omnichannel experience at Starbucks in 2024, customer experiences have seen a major turnaround. Manual transactions have been replaced by automation, and contactless payments make processing a transaction inexpensive.
However, whether you own a multi-store hospitality chain or a local cafe, long queues can often become an obstacle and leave customers in chaos. Your customer experience strategy needs a custom point of sale (POS) system to shorten the customer shopping time and provide augmented experiences.
According to Statista, the POS software market is poised to generate USD 42.5 billion by 2027, increasing almost three times since 2018. In this blog, we’ll explain how owners can implement it either as a physical device or a checkout point in any location to handle transactions, track data, and monitor cash flow.
What is Custom POS?
A custom Point of Sale (POS) system is software to process transactions, manage inventory, and streamline the daily business operations specific to the business needs of:
- Service-providing organizations, public transportation, retail stores, healthcare organizations, and multi-service organizations (theatres, malls)
- Real estate and trading markets (builders, inspectors)
- Hospitality businesses like restaurants, cafes, bakeries, breweries, and bars
It enables your business to operate from anywhere in the world and keep the supply chain and finances under control. The following are the types of POS systems you can develop:
Mobile/Tablet/Terminal-based Custom POS: This type of POS requires hardware to work with debit and credit cards, like self-service kiosks with smartphones or tablets for on-the-go and contactless payments.
Cloud-based Custom POS: This is for businesses operating from different geographical locations around the world with remotely accessible online data backups and storage spaces.
On-premise Custom POS: These work on local servers, are completely customizable, and are accessible via personal computers.
How Does It Work?
POS ensures that everything from payment processing to inventory management runs smoothly with business-specific features, software, user interface, integrations, hardware, and report generation.
A POS system needs two essential components to work properly:
-
- POS Hardware: POS hardware includes card readers, physical store counter terminals, display systems, and self-service kiosks.
- POS Software: POS software consists of on-premises software for terminals and cloud-based systems for data sync and remote access.
- EMV (Europay, Mastercard, and Visa)- compliant Payments: EMV-compliant cards hold an embedded chip for increased payment security and counterfeit and theft protection.
- NFC (Near Field Communication) Payments: NFC payments are a form of contactless payment method in which mobile wallets, UPI, chip readers, ACH, and Check-21 must comply with industry standards regarding Anti-money laundering, the Securities Act, SOX, and Dodd-Frank.
Manage Your Business Operations With Ease
Choose a POS system that fits your business needs to improve workforce efficiency.
Benefits of Custom POS System
Having your own custom POS system in your business can boost customer experience and satisfaction by reducing operational expenses spent on managing inventory. You can manage reports, track purchase orders, and monitor real-time data to minimize risks and streamline checkouts. It ensures security compliance, speedy response, convenience, and performance compatibility through the following:
Personalized Customer Experience
A custom POS enhances flexibility by providing a multichannel sales approach. Your POS software can channel different ways that customers shop, whether through mobile apps, desktops/PCs/Laptops, or a retail store. Moreover, with AI-powered e-commerce personalization, you can gain better insights into customers’ desires and cater to their needs.
Improved Efficiency and Scalability
Custom POS system development increases overall business efficiency because it can be integrated with other existing systems. The integration helps automate all daily tasks, analyze the collected data, and generate reports. Most importantly, financial data, sales insights, F&B kitchen stock, incomes and expenses, and even taxation can be efficiently analyzed.
Better Inventory Management
When retail stores, restaurants, and other multi-service establishment owners receive inventory, POS solutions make it easier to scan it, enter the quantities, and record them in the inventory management system. In addition, owners can manage purchases from suppliers by having open API POS software that allows them to connect directly with the suppliers.
Increased Data Security
POS provides SSL and HTTPS protection for encrypting confidential customer information fed in through debit/credit cards, mobile wallets, and other NFC and EMV payment methods. Cloud-based POS systems perform regular automatic backups to keep data safe against thefts and phishing. They also have a two-factor authentication system and password policy, enabling administrators to manage user access.
Features of Custom POS System
Deciding the features of a custom POS system depends on focusing on customer satisfaction or expanding the business to multiple locations. Afterwards, it becomes easier to compare the features and answer the following questions:
- What is the budget, and how many locations do you plan?
- What type of customer data will you collect, and which tools will you use?
- Do you need stationery checkout points or a remote?
User-friendly Interface
A POS system’s intuitive interface ensures that the working staff spends less time learning how to provide top-notch customer service. You can customize the features to make operational management easier with dashboards.
Inventory Management
Managing inventory is a priority feature that shows detailed information on prices and item descriptions. You can also integrate automatic updates and alerts to monitor inventory levels and restocking suggestions.
Sales Reporting and Analytics
Customizable sales reports are highly useful for offering insights into different aspects of all sales activities. With integrated analytics, you can analyze top-selling products, peak sale intervals, and customer trends.
Integrations with Existing Systems
POS systems can be integrated with existing Customer Relationship Management (CRM), inventory management, online ordering and sales platforms, and accounting management systems. This facilitates communication across departments and helps facilitate faster transactions.
Employee Management
A POS system makes managing employees easier by implementing user accounts with role-based access. This provides more security, allows for monitoring attendance and hours, and allows for analyzing sales performance.
Multi-platform and Location Support
Multiple platform support enables better accessibility across different devices, even when they aren’t in any physical store. Additionally, support for multiple locations brings uniformity across products and prices for real-time sync and inter-location inventory transfers.
Payment Processing
POS systems improve payment processing efficiency and speed up checkout by introducing self-checkouts, high-speed scanners, card processors, and digital receipts. It swiftly handles sales transactions by integrating popular payment methods to optimize calculations.
Real-time Data Access
When managing multiple stores, tracking inventory data from all locations becomes easier with inventory management with a POS system. It tracks data in real-time and ensures accurate synchronization across all stores regarding stock levels.
Engage with Customers with Personalized Experiences
Grow your business with better visibility across different locations from a central system.
Steps to Build a Custom POS System
Building a tailored POS system requires a business to find a niche on which they can focus their entire development. Here are a few questions to consider:
- Is your business planning to work with other large businesses in different locations?
- Which integrations are you looking to build?
- Do you need a separate feature for each operational requirement?
- Is your business looking for a specific POS e-commerce package?
To answer the above questions, here are some steps you should follow:
Requirement Analysis & Planning
Building a POS system is complex because it requires a high level of security as it carries out millions of transactions and processes payments. It generally requires hardware devices like cash registers and a smartphone or tablet that scans products, computes prices, and processes them. Accordingly, you can also choose to integrate barcode scanners, card readers, and receipt generators.
Design & Development
Designing a POS system starts with a well-defined architecture that is scalable according to merchants’ and owners’ needs by deciding the type of POS you want to build. If you have a small restaurant business, we recommend starting with a monolithic architecture. However, if you have a multi-chain business with different venues, a microservices architecture is an approach worth considering as it requires complex domain logic.
Integration & Testing
POS systems need integration with various other systems, such as e-commerce platforms, accounting management systems, payment gateways, and inventory management systems. This step can be challenging, so it’s wise to partner with a custom POS system development company. The team can carefully examine and manage the hardware and software required to integrate with network-connected devices.
Deployment & Launch
Once the interface has been designed, it needs to be deployed into a database that stores all the relevant information regarding products, customers, inventory, and sales. The developers start writing the code logic to deploy the POS system efficiently and enable it to perform tasks like product scanning, payment processing, and inventory management.
Maintenance and Updates
A POS system offers an evolving landscape of multiple format setups and locations that require regional and regulatory updates. Lastly, regular software updates are essential for modernizing the architecture, addressing configuration issues, implementing feature requests, and monitoring infrastructure.
Cost to Build a Custom POS System
The cost of building a custom POS system depends on the type of hardware, software, and customization level you choose. Here are some considerations you should keep in mind that can affect the development costs;
- Some POS systems run only on brand-specific devices, while open-source POS systems can run on any popular device.
- If small retail businesses want to develop a POS system, the cost depends on the credit card processing.
- The type of license also affects the costs, such as subscription fees for recurring software use or perpetual licenses for upgrading or support services.
Nonetheless, a custom POS with basic features will cost around USD 25,000 to USD 50,000. Advanced features can increase the cost by up to USD 80,000.
Before building any of the above custom POS systems, a business should know its features and how much each one would cost:
| Type of POS System | Features | Approx Pricing |
|---|---|---|
| Mobile/Terminal POS System | Portable, mobile checkouts, card reader, code scanner, Transaction processing, customer data collection, inventory management, and reporting. | From USD 300 for hardware and USD 60 – 180 per month For iPhone – USD 400 |
| Cloud-based POS System | Cloud access, payments, inventory management, order fulfillment, analytics | From USD 300 for hardware and USD 60 – 180 per month Payment processing fee of 2.6% |
| On-premise POS Systems | Scan code/look up products, payments, works without internet, data security | USD 8,000 to USD 12,000 for hardware + USD 800 to USD 4,000 for installation |
The cost also depends on the type of business or industry you cater to:
| Industry Type | Hardware and Software Costs | Installation and Payment Processing Fee |
|---|---|---|
| Restaurants/Dine-in | USD 3,000 to USD 8,000 USD 200/month |
USD 300 to USD 8000 + 2.5% |
| Cafes/Bars | USD 1,500 to USD 3,500 USD 200/month |
Upto USD 4,000 + 2.5% |
| Retail | USD 2,000 – USD 4,000 USD 200/month |
Upto USD 2,500 + 2.5% |
| Healthcare | USD 2,500 to USD 8,500 USD 200/month |
Upto USD 4,000 + 2.5% |
| Supermarkets | USD 3,000 to USD 6,500 USD 200/month |
Upto USD 5,000 + 2.5% |
Conclusion
Improving customers’ retail experiences is the ultimate need on which today’s entrepreneurs thrive. Customers and business owners both look forward to the shift from traditional payment modes to electronic and contactless payment systems. Additionally, they want a shopping experience when they decide to shop from a brand.
With Moon Technolabs, you can modernize your business and accelerate the customer experience by building custom POS systems optimized for your unique needs. Our custom POS system development team offers innovative pathways to making informed decisions and growing your customer base.
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