RETAILING POS Systems - The Heart of Your Operation – by Jeff Cinciripino, JeffCinciripino.com, Former Owner of Scuba Shack, Rocky Hill, CT
My first job as a teenager was in a fish market where we completed sales using an old NCR cash regis- ter. We would press the buttons as- sociated with the price of the product, ring it up and manually calculate the change due to the cus-
able your business to operate effectively and efficiently. These solutions can range from simple sales transactions to a wide range of capabilities like inventory management, customer relationship management, sales reporting, calen- dar functionality, website integration and more. The two basic hardware components of a POS system include the POS terminal, either a computer or tablet for processing the sale transaction and a card reader for cap- turing customer credit card data. There are specialized POS terminals that incorporate card reader functionality. A re- ceipt printer should be included for those who prefer hard copy receipts even though most POS system software al- lows for digital receipts to be sent by email or SMS. While not absolutely necessary, a barcode scanner will help speed up the checkout process. Now that you have decided to invest in a POS system, where do you start? There are several considerations includ- ing: Size and industry-specific needs ▪ Budget ▪ Scalability ▪ Technical Support ▪ There are many POS systems on the market today with
tomer. Fortunately, we did not have to determine sales tax given we were selling food. Calculating sales tax was another issue altogether. How things have changed in the past decades. Technology has made certain aspects of running a business a whole lot easier. Today we have robust Point- of-Sale (POS) systems to effectively help us run the show. A couple of years ago I was doing a presentation on dive computers at a trade show. After I finished, a young dive- master approached me to ask about what systems I used to run our dive shop. He was affiliated with a dive shop that didn’t use a lot of technology and was actually keeping in- ventory on note cards. We talked for a few minutes on how that translated into day-to-day operations and it was not very efficient. Given our access to cost-effective technology today, I could only scratch my head and think “Why do you want to work that hard?”
Dive shop owners are very passion- ate professionals. Many have become owners because of the love of scuba diving and the underwater world. The dive shop owners are the soul of the business. Your POS system should be the heart of the operation. The majority of small business owners can be overwhelmed with their roles and responsibilities. We wear many hats that include retail sales, service and maintenance, travel coordinator, instructor, finance, pur- chasing, and perhaps bookkeeping.
prices that can range from $40 to $100+ each month. Many of the sys- tems available today can be looked at as industry neutral. Examples of these industry neutral POS systems include Shopify, Square, Clover, Lightspeed, Revel Systems and more. Quickbooks had offered its own point of sale solution for their desk- top version. This has been discontin- ued and Intuit has partnered with Shopify to provide point of sale ca- pabilities.
Dive Shop 360
The retail dive shop is a unique business model with four major areas of focus including retail sales, training, service and travel. Given this uniqueness, strong consideration should be given to an industry-specific POS solution. One of the prominent solutions for dive shops is Dive Shop 360, having evolved over the past 30 years. Dive Shop 360 started as AJV’s Dive Shop Express, a lo-
We need systems to facilitate operations that allow us to stay ahead of the fast pace of today’s business environment. According to the Small Business Association’s blog by Anita Campbell, “Investing in a POS System is hailed as being the one best things you can do for your business.” POS systems include the hardware and software that en-
PAGE TWENTY-SIX | SCUBA DIVING INDUSTRY
Made with FlippingBook - Online Brochure Maker