Lawn and garden centers sell unique products, ranging from power tools to pine straw — and these items present different challenges to business owners than traditional retail inventory.
To make sure your lawn and garden center is the best in the business — and continually growing — you need a point of sale (POS) system tailored to your industry: these five features are an absolute must.
Tag and Label Customization
Lawn and garden centers don’t sell your typical retail products — items can range anywhere from bags of mulch to oak trees to lawn mowers. And most of these items live outside, meaning their labels need to be weather-resistant. A solid POS system will have a built-in barcode label printing feature, and garden center-specific labels are printed on plastic so that they’re protected from the elements — from excessive rain to long-term sun exposure.
These products can also be oddly shaped — long handle shovels don’t stack perfectly on a shelf, much less lend themselves to easy labeling. A point of sale system will allow you to customize the size of your tags (and even switch up the font!).
Cut time and reduce waste by creating labels specifically designed for your products.
Hotkey Customization
Do you have products that are difficult to scan, even with a solid labeling system? Simplify transactions — and make the process more efficient — by using customized hotkeys to quickly ring up common non-scannable items. Program products like pine straw into your POS system, and simply tap the button on your touchscreen to add the item to your customer’s order.
Hotkeys also streamline your business’ ability to ring up services and fees — a delivery charge can be added within seconds.
With such a wide variety of products and services, in all shapes and sizes, the ability to add items unique to your industry and your store directly from your point of sale software is key.
Equipment Rental and Work Order Tracking
Lawn and garden centers can easily increase profits by renting equipment, like blowers, tillers, and chainsaws. Use your point of sale system to track all rentals, including quotes, due dates, hardware serial numbers, and service history.
Your business may also work with wholesalers and contractors, so your POS system should have the capability to maintain and manage these accounts. Track A/R, issue invoices, and collect payment — straight from your point of sale.
Managing equipment rentals and work orders can be done manually or through other types of software, but a modern POS solution that already integrates these features offers a time and money-saving upgrade.
Inventory Management
For any retail business, inventory management can be tedious. But lawn and garden centers carry unique products, so it’s important to find a POS system that can track different units of measurements – from gravel by the pound to edging by the foot, and everything in between.
You can also streamline inventory counts. Use a mobile handheld device to scan items, and the system will generate a discrepancy report, so you can identify inconsistent product counts.
Constantly keep tabs on your inventory with a cloud-based system that can be accessed at any time, from anywhere.
Financial Reporting
Business owners understand the importance of financial reporting, and a quality POS will handle all of the grunt work for you — it can instantly pull data to produce sales, inventory, customer, and employee reports. Many systems have prebuilt reports, simplifying the process — but the capability to create customized reports specific to your lawn and garden center is also important.
Use this information to your advantage — tracking sales gives you insight into what’s selling and what’s not, so you can promote the top sellers and ditch the products tying up your cash.
Find the Perfect Lawn and Garden Center POS for Your Business
Lawn and garden centers are technically classified as retail stores — but they face different challenges, from tracking contractors to managing unique inventory. You need a point of sale solution specifically designed for your industry — to make sure you run your business as smoothly and efficiently as possible.
Schedule a demo of our POS, and we’ll show you how to meet those challenges.
