Automated sales system for inventory

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Welcome back, Mavericks! Today, we’re going to talk about a topic that is often a thorn in the side of retail and restaurant businesses. Yes, we’re discussing inventory management. Fortunately, you don’t have to become an inventory management expert to run a small business. That’s because your POS system can do that for you. So, let’s dive right into our highest-rated POS systems for managing your small business’s inventory. First, you might be wondering why you should use your POS to manage inventory instead of just using a separate inventory software app. Well, a POS keeps all of your data in one place. When you use your POS for inventory management, your inventory is updated in real time as items are sold. This way, all of your sales and inventory data are synced automatically, saving you time and money. With just about any modern POS system, you can integrate an additional inventory app, if needed, to expand your inventory functionality to fit your specific niche. At the end of the day, your POS is an essential part of inventory management, and any inventory solution you use should be integrated with your POS. Keeping that in mind, let’s get started. First up is Lightspeed, our choice for the best all-around POS system with inventory management. Lightspeed is one of the most consistent and stable POS inventory systems we've reviewed. This system offers terrific features for inventory and caters to both restaurants and retail businesses. Some inventory tasks you can do with Lightspeed are view all stock on hand and see your stock value at a glance, order stock directly from the POS, and view real-time inventory deductions as items are sold and see your inventory replenish automatically when inventory is received. You can also use Lightspeed to manage your inventories across all your sales channels: in-person, online sales, and sales at multiple store locations. Lightspeed also integrates with a multitude of third-party inventory software solutions if you want to enhance your inventory capabilities even more. One of these programs is nChannel, which helps B2B and B2C retail businesses automate inventory processes across their entire supply chain. The main pros of Lightspeed are that they have specific POS systems for restaurant and retail businesses with strong inventory features for both, as well as affordable pricing and multichannel selling capabilities. On the other hand, Lightspeed can get expensive if you want all the add-ons like loyalty and online ordering, you may have to commit to a long-term contract with an early termination fee, and you will have to use Lightspeed as your payment processor, or else you’ll pay an added fee. For these reasons, we recommend Lightspeed for medium or larger restaurant or retail businesses that need Lightspeed’s eCommerce/multichannel capabilities to sync online and in-store inventories. Shopify is another great POS system for managing online inventories and syncing your online and in-person sales channels. Shopify is especially for retail businesses, so this one is not suitable for restaurants. Shopify is great if you want to do things like scan in inventory with a barcode scanner, request inventory transfers from other locations, receive alerts when you need more stock, based on sales and vendor lead time, and receive prompts to sell slow-moving products to release cash from your inventory. Shopify also lets your customers do things like place online orders at your POS in the event that your in-store inventory for that particular item is out. Customers can also buy items online and return or exchange them in your store—and your POS will automatically adjust your inventory ingly. Shopify has a ton of software integrations to expand the system’s functionality, and these integrations include dedicated inventory management systems such as Freshly for grocery stores and other businesses that sell perishable items. The main draws of Shopify are its multichannel inventory, month-to-month pricing, inventory pricing tools, and many integrations. However, the advanced inventory features do require the Shopify Pro add-on, which means the system is not cheap, even though you do get a lot of bang for your buck. Shopify also doesn’t have great offline functionality, so you’ll need a stable internet connection to use this POS. Shopify is best for businesses that need a full eCommerce website and also have an in-person store or take mobile sales on the go. Really, it can work for any business of any size that wants integrated online and in-store inventories. Next up, we have Square. The Square system is as scaleable as it is affordable, featuring a generous array of features in its free apps and bulked-up inventory in its Square for Retail Plus and Square for Restaurants Plus offerings. Square lets you manage inventories in bulk, receive daily stock alert emails, create new inventory items by scanning barcode labels, and import/export inventory with CSV or Excel spreadsheets. While Square’s basic inventory management is free, to get the most out of Square’s inventory capabilities, you will need to subscribe to a paid Square for Retail Plus plan, which includes purchase ordering and the ability to manage and send inventory across multiple locations. Using the Square App Marketplace, you can purchase additional apps to enhance your back-office inventory, such as Yellow Dog, which is a popular Square inventory add-on for concessions sales. Square is great for its free monthly pricing, free card reader, usefulness for different industries, and simplicity. But some cons include occasional issues with fund holds and the fact that its inventory features are not as deep as some other POS inventory systems. ingly, we recommend Square mostly to newer, lower-volume restaurants and retailers who want a free POS with inventory management for relatively basic inventory needs. Next up, we have Revel Systems. Revel is customizable enough to use for any industry, but this iPad-based POS is especially popular with quick-serve restaurants, thanks to its super-fast processing speed, multi location ingredient management, and quick-serve hardware options such as digital menu boards and kiosk stands that can turn your iPad into a self-serve ordering device. Revel has a strong set of retail and restaurant inventory management features, including metrics to track and find retail products, raw ingredient management for restaurants, multi Location inventory management, and purchase order and vendor management. You can also set up inventory alerts to notify you when products are running low — or you can have the system automatically order new stock. Revel additionally has a mobile inventory app that turns your phone into a scanner. While Revel has great built-in inventory features, if you need even more, you can integrate the system with various inventory management software, such as Marketman, a favorite inventory app of restaurant chains. The best things about Revel are its advanced inventory features, customizability, and kiosk functionality; but with all that power comes a higher price tag and a long-term service contract. We recommend Revel for well-established, multi-location businesses that need an advanced, customizable feature set; a smaller business with more basic needs can probably get by with a lightweight month-to-month POS like Square, Shopify, or the next and last POS system on our list, Hike. Hike is an affordable and flexible POS option whose robust inventory management could easily be used for retail or by small food carts or cafes. Hike's wide selection of payment processors, hardware options, and software integrations also add to the system's flexibility. Some of Hike’s inventory features include unlimited inventory items, full and partial inventory counts that can be scheduled ahead of time, the ability to activate or deactivate inventory tracking by product, automatic reordering based on inventory levels, and the option to track your online store inventory separately or sync it with your physical store. Hike doesn’t have as many inventory software integrations as the other systems on our list, but again, it is a more affordable system; and Hike does integrate with a few inventory programs, like Unleashed and Neto. So the main pros of Hike are its affordability and its flexibility in terms of hardware and the different payment processors you can use with this system. As for downsides, Hike is not as intuitive as some other systems and some users say the system can be glitchy at times. Hike is recommended for businesses with a large retail inventory, who want to be able to choose their own payment processor and also want flexibility in terms of what POS hardware they can use. And that’s it for our top picks. If you’re not sure if one of these POS systems has the inventory functionality you need for your unique small business, most POS companies offer a free trial so you can test the system out; also, be sure to ask the company directly if they offer the specific feature or features you need. Thank you for watching, Mavericks! We hope that this video helps you select the best POS system to help you manage your inventory. To learn more about the solutions we discussed today, visit the links in the description. And if you found this video helpful, please remember to give it a thumbs up by clicking the like button. Your support means a lot to us. If you have experience with any of these vendors you would like to pass along, let us know in the comments! Thanks again and we’ll see you in our next video!