Footwear retailers require a point of sale system that offers the right features—such as inventory management, purchase management, automatic alerts, reordering capabilities and upselling capabilities—to meet customer demand and succeed in a competitive marketplace. Armed with these basic features, footwear retailers will be in an excellent position to capture more market share and grow their revenue.
Key POS for Footwear Retailers
According to The NPD Group, U.S. consumers spend an annual $62 billion on footwear, and footwear retailers want to capture as large a chunk of that market as possible. A lot of that ability depends on choosing the right POS with features that fit the unique needs of the footwear retailing industry. Here are some features to keep in mind:
- A POS system connected to a footwear retailer’s loyalty program, which helps customers access discounts and other special offers to build a loyal customer base. Research from the White House Office of Consumer Affairs shows that loyal customers are worth more than 10 times as much as what they paid for during their first purchase.
- Automatic sales prompts related to purchases. It is important to be able to upsell to customers, which means a sales team needs these prompts to recommend the right items. If a customer purchases a pair of hiking boots, the purchase will also send a prompt to offer waterproof protection, hiking socks and shoe treatment kits.
- A POS system that helps sales teams analyze customer purchasing history and customize recommendations based on this history.
- The ability for clerks to use computer tablets or POS devices to show customers available in-store footwear products and how customers can benefit from them.
- Tools to analyze sales trends to target customers with promotions and discounts on items that drive more traffic to a store.
- Allowing sales staff to bundle items to sell as a set, such as bundling shoe care lotion with a shoe care brush to build a gift package for the holidays.
- The ability to apply markdowns to specific items, product groups and bulk footwear items.
Inventory Capabilities Are a Must
Advanced inventory capabilities are also essential and are key to a successful POS system for footwear retailers. In the footwear industry, footwear specifications like style, size, brand, color and width are all important to the consumer. The right POS system helps retailers classify inventory based on a variety of metrics and pull up the information they need on individual items quickly.
Keeping stock levels “just right” is another reason why an efficient inventory system is key, especially when footwear can take up a significant amount of stockroom and warehouse space. According to IHL Group, overstocking and out-of-stock items cost U.S. retailers nearly $252 billion in lost revenue with overstocks costing around $123.4 billion annually and out-of-stock issues coming in at $129.5 billion per year.
With the right POS inventory system, footwear retailers can ensure that store managers and individual employees can track stock within stores and even inside centralized warehouses. Retailers will also benefit from a POS system with automatic reordering, where automatic orders are placed when stock levels reach a certain level.
POS That Scales
A POS system that grows with a footwear retailer is also essential, since it must integrate seamlessly with existing hardware, such as cash registers and optical scanners. It also means retailers want a POS system that scales as they add new stores, add a warehouse distribution point or run a new holiday sale.
Ultimately, a POS system designed with the needs of footwear retailers in mind is key. By offering the essential features footwear retailers need to drive sales and successfully manage their inventory all year round, a POScan be a crucial tool to keep pace with the demands of the modern business environment.
