Urgent Advice: Cloud and Subscription Based POS Software Programs

For those of you using Cloud and Subscription Based Point of Sale Software:

I am sure that many of you have seen the vast number of retail stores and restaurants that are currently closed or only offering limited service. I am in the process of having phone conversations around 50 retailers across the US (of varying sizes and type of products being offered).  While it would be awesome if all of them survived this economic downturn, it is clear that some will not.

That means that the point of sale companies will see declining monthly revenues. It is very likely that some point of sale providers will not survive the economic downturn either.  Most likely on the restaurant side of things but I expect to see some closing on the retail side as well.

Thus I would highly suggest ensuring that you are keeping a backup of all of your inventory/product, customer, and supplier information on a daily basis.

You may be able to request a backup from the place that provided your point of sale system.

Alternately, you should be able to run product, customer, and supplier reports at the end of each day and then export these reports to a spreadsheet. These exported reports can then be saved to a thumb drive, dropbox, or similar as a CVS or similar file.

This is purely for your protection in case you no longer have access to your point of sale system due to the provider ceasing operations.

Please contact me at kevinantosh@gmail.com or 208-340-5632 with any questions.

VEND Receives Investment Funding to Expand

Auckland, New Zealand based Vend has received $8,000,000 in funding to expand operations in the United States and Australia. Note that the amount is in New Zealand dollars.

I haven't heard much about Vend other than it is a monthly fee based retail point of sale system designed to run on tablet computers (appears to be iPad based for sales functions and PS/Mac browser based for management functions).

Vend appears to offer the core point of sale functions along with some additional add-ons for more specific needs.

Since I have no personal experience with Vend, I can't pass along any detailed comments related to the functionality, satisfaction, reliability , or user satisfaction with Vend. I would make a general comment that there are already 100+ point of sale systems to choose from in the US so hopefully Vend will find the niche to differentiate what they can offer specialty retailers in a point of sale solution.

Note: I have asked Vend to schedule a demo of Vend and offer more details of what makes Vend different from the other POS solutions designed for mobile devices. I will let you know if I hear anything from them (24.April.2014).

Owning versus Renting Point of Sale Systems

One of the more recent trends in specialty retail point of sale systems is the ability to 'rent' a system. Generally one monthly payment includes the software, hardware and support.  Traditionally, point of sale systems have been purchased outright (or leased with intent to own after 3 to 5 years).

This question came up again when I was co-chairing a retail technology forum at the IFTD show in Reno, NV.

The answer simply comes down to down works best for your budget. An outright purchase means that you own everything and can start enjoying a return on investment with your system. However, just like some people prefer to lease a car, a monthly rental payment tends to be easier on your budget.

Things to watch out for when renting a point of sale system include the following:

1. Is everything included in the monthly payment (software, hardware, support and upgrades)?
2. Do you still have access to all you customer and inventory information should you decided to switch to a different system?
3. What happens if the company goes out of business?
4. How are hardware repairs handled?

The final pondering point we talked about at the conference is that renting will cost more in the long run. With a typical point of sale system starting around $3000.00, we determined that utilizing a similar system with a monthly payment of $79/month will cost $4740.00 over the course of five years.

In the end - it is what works best for you and your budget.  Of note, there are some 'free' point of sale systems being offered. We all know that nothing is free - these companies make money on the back end by charging higher fees for credit card processing or similar services.