Running any retail business can be a challenge — but if you own a hardware store, you understand the needs of a high-volume business with unique inventory.
Operating a hardware store doesn’t have to be hard, though. You just need the right business tools, like a point of sale (POS) system, to help you succeed.
Let’s get down to the nuts and bolts of a solid hardware store POS system: Here are four features to look for.
Hardware Inventory Management
From power tools to plumbing supplies, hardware stores carry a range of unique products — so you need a point of sale system that can navigate the ins and outs of your inventory.
Look for a POS solution that has a case breaking feature. This will allow you to break cases of different supplies, like packs of screws or washers, and easily reconcile your inventory counts.
With your wide range of products accounted for, think about how you’ll streamline your checkout process. A point of sale system designed for hardware stores has customizable hotkeys, so you can input all of your items — and with an unlimited number of SKUs, you can make sure nothing slips through the cracks.
It’s also important to find a solution with mobile capabilities. Use any mobile handheld device, including smartphones and tablets, to scan items and add them to your inventory list — a cloud-based system streamlines this process by guaranteeing you have access to your POS from anywhere you can connect to the internet.
Sales and Financial Reporting
In order to run a hardware store successfully, you need to understand the numbers — especially when your inventory counts are possibly in the thousands.
Generating sales and financial reports is key to making smart business decisions, and a POS with prebuilt reports will pull your store data to instantly produce sales, inventory, customer, and employee reports.
These reports give you insight into what’s selling and what’s not, so you can restock your top sellers, and dump the dead stock.
A system with a perpetual database eliminates the need to print your reports — every transaction is recorded and timestamped. You can also directly email these reports to yourself, your accountant, or whomever else you might choose.
Purchase Orders
Stocking tons of products usually means you have tons of vendors, so it’s important to look for a point of sale system with a streamlined purchase order process.
A solid solution allows you to track all of these vendors in a single database. You can reduce the number of items that aren’t producing much profit, and stick to stocking your shelves with your top-selling items — whether that’s a circular saw or pack of screws. Plus, you can set reorder thresholds directly in the system.
To make purchase orders even easier, a hardware store POS system will also directly email your distributors, so you never have to worry about running low on inventory — even if you’re tied up in other business operations.
By integrating ordering with sales and inventory, you cut down on wasted time, meaning you can get back to business and spend more time with customers.
Tag and Barcode Label Printing
Hardware store supplies range from ceiling fans to door knobs to roofing nails, and these items can be difficult to label.
A point of sale system that works for hardware stores will have a built-in barcode printing feature. You can easily price those hard-to-label products to streamline the checkout process (and to keep customers and cashiers happy).
A label printer will also create shelf labels, so buyers can check prices at a glance and you can keep your aisles organized, which is a must for high-volume businesses.
Boost Your Business With a Hardware Store POS System
Hardware store owners understand the importance of using the right tools to successfully ramp up business — and that includes finding a POS system that can handle unique inventory.
All you need is a starting point.
If you’re ready to upgrade your point of sale solution, schedule a demo with one of our POS Nation specialists today! Or use our build and price tool to create your own custom quote.
