There’s nothing as wonderful as having a nice coffee shop in the neighborhood where you can relax and take a break from work. As a coffee shop owner, your goal is to make your customers enjoy a nice, peaceful time in your establishment.
However, it can be very stressful to handle the long queues that form on the counter, and that is why you need a good coffee shop billing and inventory management system. This article talks about which management system you can use for your business.
Why do I need a coffee shop POS system?
You may be wondering if having a POS system for your coffee shop is necessary. Here are some important reasons why you need a POS system:
It helps your employees attend to more customers and helps the line at the counter moving fast: The lines at a coffee shop on a Monday morning are usually very long. To combat this, you will need a POS system so that your baristas can keep the lines moving and attend to more customers. Sluggish service is a huge turn off for customers.
It enables your customers to customize their orders: Everyone likes to take their coffee certain away. With the huge number of orders and the various details included in each order, it’s very easy to get them mixed up. A POS system can help you avoid this by giving your customers the opportunity to customize their orders.
It allows you to make the most of your POS’ marketing feat8res: marketing is the soul of business. Your customers will only keep coming back to you when you constantly give them reasons to. A POS system comes with a lot of exciting marketing applications that will boost your customer retention.
It gives you an insight into your top-selling and, most profitable items: it can be difficulty to identify the most profitable items un your coffee shop. A POS system shows you your top-selling items and most profitable items.
It helps to secure your business’ data as you can send them directly to the cloud: your data can be kept safe when you choose a cloud-based POS system. All your important information will be stored in the cloud and you can retrieve them anytime you wish.
What should I look out for in a coffee shop billing system?
Managing a coffee shop is very different from other businesses, especially when choosing a POS system. The perfect POS system for a coffee shop is one that prioritizes simplicity and speed. You will want to serve as many customers as you can to maximize profit.
Here are some important things to consider when choosing a POS system:
Ease of Use: A POS system that’s easy to use makes things easier for you to receive and process payments. Your POS system of choice must have a simple and sleek user interface. It will enable you and your baristas to navigate their way through the system easily.
Payment Processing: Sixty-four percent of Americans drink at least one cup of coffee regularly. It means that there’s no particular type of coffee shop customer. When you have a business that caters to a wide variety of clientele, you must have various payment options.
That is why your ideal POS system should be able to accept various modes of payment, including magstripe, digital wallets like Apple Pay and Google Pay, as well as EMVs.
Inventory management: Coffee shops usually have small menus, which increase the possibility of inventory running low very quickly. Your POS system should have the right tools for tracking inventory and alert you when you’re running low on a particular item to tackle this issue. If you can place purchasing orders with your POS system, it’s a bonus.
Customer Relationship Management: If you want your coffee shop to be known as your friendly neighborhood coffee shop, you must invest in a billing system that can help you manage your relationship with customers.
Your POS system should be able to save the names and contacts of your customers. It should also allow you to create a loyalty program or offer gift cards to your most loyal customers.
Reporting: This is the last piece of the POS puzzle. You must look for a POS system that has analytical tools. When you have reports that give you information on how your business is performing, it will help you make smarter decisions concerning staff, inventory, and other business areas. Your POS system should generate regular reports that can easily be read, understood, and accessed from your computer or mobile device.
What are the best Coffee shop POS systems?
Now that you understand what makes an ideal POS system, here is a list of the best coffee shop POS systems available in the market:
1. Square for Restaurants – Best for All-around Coffee Shops
Don’t let the name confuse you, as the Square for Restaurants POS system can work well for coffee shops and large foodservice businesses.
Features:
The Square POS system can accept different payment modes such as MasterCard, Visa, American Express, and Discover.
Square also offers new users with a free magstripe card, but Bluetooth, EMV, and NFC card readers can be purchased for $49.
When it comes to hardware, Square for Restaurants is only compatible with iPads. You can buy your iPad and iPad stand with a built-in magstripe reader from Square to build your countertop POS.
As soon as you’re set with your Square for Restaurants, you’ll be given access to a variety of intuitive features designed to make things easier for you to manage your coffee shop.
It has a drag and drop menu creator, easy to understand tickets, employee time-tracking, and preset tip amounts.
It also has multi-location management tools that allow you to manage all your coffee shop businesses from one account.
Square also has add-on features such as delivery systems, marketing tools, and loyalty programs.
What is the price of Square for Restaurants?
Currently, Square for Restaurants runs from $0 to $299 per month, depending on the plan you choose. Square also charges a flat rate for processing credit card transactions. The combination of price and the features makes it an excellent choice for any coffee shop. To get more information, square has a Dedication Page on their website that talks about solutions for coffee shops and cafes.
2. Shopkeep – Best for High Volume Coffee shops.
Shopkeep has POS systems that are specially designed for those in the foodservice industry.
Features
Similar to Square, you can process different modes of payment.
They also offer a wide range of payment options and features such as open tabs, split payments, partial payments, tip recommendations, discounts, refunds, and also enables you to print email receipts.
To run the Shopkeep POS system, you must use an iPad or Clover POS system.
Shopkeep also sells POS hardware kits that are suitable for your coffee shop’s unique needs. Ideally, for coffee shop owners, the two kits that would best suit your business are:
The restaurant kit (which includes cash drawer, iPad enclosure, kitchen printer, receipt printer, EMV, and NFC-capable credit card reader, and ethernet cable)
The quick-service kit (this includes the cash drawer, iPad enclosure, receipt printer, EMV and NFC-capable credit card reader).
Shopkeep promises its customers on their website that their POS system will allow coffee shop owners to turn over orders fast and help you make the most of your menu by helping you identify your most profitable and top-selling items.
They also have an analytics app that will enable you to monitor your business from a desktop or your mobile phone. It also comes with an integrated system with MailChimp that helps to create email campaigns for your business. Other exciting tools include an employee time clock, multi-store management function, scheduling interface, and gift card program.
What is the price of the Shopkeep POS system?
Shopkeep recently changed its rating system from a fixed-rate service to a quote-based service. This means that the price of the Shopkeep POS system will depend on the kind of merchant. Lower risk merchants will qualify for a lower subscription fee and interchange-plus pricing, while higher-risk merchants will qualify for tiered pricing. Shopkeep offers month-to-month contracts for all their customers, no matter the price you quoted.
Every business needs a POS system. It doesn’t just make managing your business easier; it also helps you save money, time, and brings in more profit. A POS system performs many functions and can help you monitor and grow your coffee shop business. Invest in a good POS system that is well suited to your business’ needs.
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The information provided on the website is only for informational purposes and is not intended to, constitute legal advice, instead of all information, content, and other available materials.
