For a retail store to be successful, lots of components need to work together. It’s a bit like a football team – if the striker can’t score, you’re not generating any conversions; if the midfielders aren’t doing any running, you’re not going to keep up with the competition; and if the goalkeeper can’t make any saves, you’re leaking resources where it matters most.
Just like a good team, there are multiple parts of your EPOS system that all have to be functioning at their best in order to drive growth. If part of it becomes outdated – just like if a player goes down injured – you need to make a substitution and bring in an upgrade.
How to know it’s time to make a change
If you feel like your store’s growth is suffering, watch out for these key things to indicate whether it’s time to upgrade your EPOS.
1. Slow system during busy periods
This is the most obvious sign your EPOS needs an upgrade. It’s match day, queues are forming at the checkout and yet you’re forced to make customers wait because your EPOS won’t load properly and you can’t get the information you need.
This can be a real problem with conversion rates – both in store and online. If a customer enters a store and sees a long queue at the till, they’re likely to choose not to purchase at that time, and may forget to return at all. Similarly if they can’t complete a transaction online then that cart will be abandoned and the customer will likely look elsewhere.
A reliable EPOS system eliminates this problem. You don’t need to worry about connectivity issues or not being able to handle periods of high demand. Swan EPOS even offers offline functionality with real-time data, so information across stock, loyalty, accounts, payments, orders and more is always accurate and there’s no waiting for the till to download the latest update.
2. Outdated reporting causing lack of insights
If your EPOS system is slow or takes a long time to pull through information, you could end up dealing with outdated reporting and therefore not have the right detail you need to make data-driven decisions. If this is the case, you could invest money in areas of your business which don’t return, or miss out on opportunities for growth because you’re focusing on the wrong thing.
In a highly competitive landscape where every purchase matters, not having reliable business insights can cause a real knock-on effect and lead to some bigger problems further down the line.
With a reliable, upgraded EPOS system, you can be sure all information is up to date and you know where to invest more funds. Cygnus EPOS from Swan transmits transaction details to the back office in 0.02 seconds, so with it on your team you’re never going to be left behind.
3. Struggling with stock control
If the way you keep track of your stock isn’t working properly, you could end up with a surplus of products that no one wants and a lack of the ones people do. Imagine if a team signed a new star striker and the shirt was never available in the club shop, you’d end up with a lot of unhappy customers and a severe loss of sales.
After all, meeting customer demand is key for a retail store, so it doesn’t matter if that’s for shirts, socks or stickers, if you don’t have what the customer wants, your reputation is going to be affected,
A reliable EPOS system always puts the customer first and that means things like stock management are built into the core features. Swan Retail System provides a single, real-time view of stock levels across both store and online, with the added ability to set stock alerts when items are running low. This means you can stay ahead of customer demand and ensure you always have the items people are asking for.
Ready to upgrade the EPOS in your club?
With reliable EPOS, there’s no reason why sports clubs can’t trade like other retail stores. Swan Retail has been nurtured in retail stores for years and is now available to make an impact in the sporting world – with big name clients like Leicester City, Ipswich Town and Wigan Athletic already part of the programme.
If you want to find out how Swan could work for your club, get in touch with a member of our team today.
