There are many people who aren’t aware of point of sale software, despite it being around since the 70’s. Checkouts, tills and areas located at “the point of sale” show how point of sale software gets its name. Even checkout assistants take for granted the till software, so you’d be forgiven for not noticing it as well. Shopping would be a very different experience without point of sale software, here’s how it developed to become a staple ingredient of the retail supply chain
The Beginnings of Point of Sale Software (POS)
Point of sale software really started in the 1970’s and was thanks to the rapid development of microprocessors and technology. One of the food industries biggest innovators, McDonalds where among the first to embrace new point of sale software. Although primitive by modern standards this new point of sale software brought new levels of accuracy and speed to the whole process. Other early implementations saw the Apple mac platform being utilized in cafes and restaurants and the first bundled touch screen POS system was released for the Atari ST format. As technology progressed so did point of sale software and it was developed for the increasingly popular Microsoft brand operating system, Windows. Microsoft Windows lent itself perfectly as a stable platform that could be remotely supported and easily developed for, making it the point of sale software brand of choice.
The Benefits of Point of Sale Software
There are many advantages for using point of sale software, including increased accuracy and service efficiency. Before 1970 and the implementation of software humans had to do everything from balancing the till to inputting products. This could lead to there being discrepancies in the figures due to human error.Accounts where further disrupted if the till roll went missing or if the till fell on the floor, spilling its contents. A solution was needed as a result of the changing retail environment, that was pushing more discounts and handling goods returns more frequently. Point of sale software is able to solve all the above questions. The software can accurately store and process data from both barcode scanning and manual input.It also makes the process more secure by assigning individual log in numbers to staff, so transactions can be accounted for. In this economic situation a companies need to be 100% efficient with the accounts is a must.
Point of sale software is playing a pivotal role in retail companies achieving that.