Why Computerize?
A Cash Register Replacement.
A Computerized
Cash Register system replaces your old fashioned cash register. A Cash Register
has a single purpose. It tells you how much money your business has taken in
during the day. It can tell you that you took in $350, but it can’t tell you
how much of that money is profit. It can’t tell you how much inventory you have
on the shelf. It can’t tell you how many bottles of soda your business sold
today. A computerized cash register can instantly tell you that you have $350
in your cash drawer. It will tell you that $225 of that $350 is profit. It can
tell you that you sold 123 bottles of soda today and that you still have 246
bottles on the shelf. It can also tell you what items you should order today
because your stock is low.
Reduce Theft.
By computerizing,
you can reduce theft in your business by an average of 2 ½%. An average
small business doing $500,000 per year can reduce in-store theft by an average
of $12,500. How? Your employees become more involved in watching the store inventory
if they know that every piece of inventory in your business is being monitored.
Reduce Inventory Shrinkage.
By watching
your inventory and comparing on shelf inventory to your computerized reports,
both you and your employees are much more careful about giving away inventory,
retaining obsolete inventory, monitoring breakage and non-theft inventory that
"walks" out of your business, as well as checking inventory as the items enter
your store. You can reduce inventory shrinkage by up to another 2 ½%
by computerizing.
Reduce Your Inventory.
By watching
your inventory reports, you can make sure that you order more wisely. You don’t
need 150 snow shovels on the shelf in the summer.
Increase Your Inventory.
You don’t
need 150 snow shovels in the summer, but you may need 500 more batteries for
your store during the month of August. Many stores order products based on what
they think they sell. If you check your inventory reports and see that you sold
500 batteries last August, it gives you a good clue to help make sure that you
don’t run out of batteries this August. Watching your inventory reports increases
your efficiency.
Watch Your Margins.
By reading
your reports you may find that you sell 10,000 batteries that cost 48 cents
for 50 cents each and that you sell 100 flashlights that cost $1.98 for $9.95
each. Your inventory reports will help you to stock more products that give
you greater profits and fewer products that give you the least amount of profit.
Speed Customer Checkout.
Computerizing
speeds up your customer checkout. With a barcode scanner, you can checkout a
customer in half the time required with a cash register. Even if you don’t use
a barcode scanner, your checkout is still faster and more accurate because you
are entering inventory item numbers which are automatically tied to pricing
specified in Cash Register Express for each inventory item.
Accuracy.
Every item
in your store has a price associated with it. Never again will you have to figure
out how much that flashlight sells for. Your clerks will stop guessing those
prices.
Keep Track of Your
Customers.
Your best
customers are your present customers. No matter what type of store you have,
you should try to obtain the name and address of every one of your customers.
Keeping a customer list is an obvious asset for a clothing store. You want your
customers to keep coming back, especially when you have a sale. The importance
of keeping a customer list is less obvious in a hardware store, but extremely
important. Mailing to your customers periodically keeps them coming back. Your
vendors may even help you pay for the cost of the mailing. Mailing to your customers
is the best form of advertising – even if it is just a quick postcard listing
a few new sale items. Every mailing to your customer list will always be positive
to your cash flow. What about a store such as a convenience store? You don’t
have to get the name and address of every customer that walks into the store,
but you should get the names and addresses of your best customers.