epos or too much?

[berrywoods]

My new stores not going to be massive, and im at wits ends if to use an epos for managing my stock or if it will be overkill, as my shops going to be a petshop i looked at a solution by easitill.co.uk. they quoted me some very high amounts, for a simple master till, for just the software i was looking at £1500 which seemed silly when other solusions doing much the same are £500 or so. I can build my own hardware wise which is no problem, i want to be able to track stock which was the main reason for wanting an epos, do you think for a small 2-3 person petstore its overkill and a simple "calculator" machine would be more suited, i didnt like the idea of having silly price stickers on everything and wanted the professionallism of having Shelf edge lables and scanning products via ean, if anyone can recomend any good but simple softwares that would be a great help

[Page]

Interesting one.

Is it not just overkill especially for now when first setting up.

You mind should be on customers and stock and marketing and not technology that you may well find you really never need.

Sometimes the theory is great but the real world practice means that it is not worth the hassle. My guess is that you will find the latter true.

Having precise figures for the last year can be great but it is the hassle of obtaining them can make it not worth while.

My butcher still uses a bit of paper and an old wooden drawer only till for change!

[berrywoods]

thanks for that, so maybe a good old cash reg will be easyier? ive just never got on with them, horid little price stickers or star price labels on everything just gives me the shivers

[shaunb]

I use an ePos system in my shop, i use it for sales as well as stock control.

The program is called OpenBravo POS. It is open source software so it is completely free, but dont be put off by that. It is an excellent piece of software and looks and works better than most paid epos software that i have used.

I have it set up with a barcode scanner and receipt printer, it is also touch screen compatible and you can use a display pole with it as well.

Hope it helps.

Shaun

[Page]

thanks for that, so maybe a good old cash reg will be easyier? ive just never got on with them, horid little price stickers or star price labels on everything just gives me the shivers

You can have lovely price stickers without the barcoding element of it all.
The options and a chance to add to your image are endless. The slick bar code side - even without POS - is one way to add a bit of an "image" but there are others!

Maybe that is a better place to spend your money.

Whatever you don't do - DO NOT get bogged down or swallowed up with this in the short term.

These technology projects can be interesting and fun (or the opposite) but is it the best use of your time in the early days. That time may come. You can always reassess after a few weeks or months or few years.

[benjamin_c]

http://www.apple.com/uk/business/solutions/retail.html

if i was to run a retail shop this would be the only option for me. if you're concerned over cost just use a 2nd hand mac mini, can be had for around £300 on ebay, as for the software side of things, just google for 'epos mac'

[Brightpearl]

Hello Berrywoods!

We do a simple but functional EPOS that's fully tied in with your stock control - abd best of all it also includes full accounting so that when you cash up at end of day, that's it, you can go home :)

It supports purchase orders, barcodes and you can even run a full website off it. Works with standard Epson compatible hardware too :)

Have a look here (http://www.thisispearl.com/support/sales/till-sales-epos-c-276_403_406_408_471.html)

... and starts at just £20 a month for one till.

Chris

[david9108]

We use something called 4POS retail which works brilliantly, runs on a PC and we bought a receipt printer and barcode scanner off Ebay for less than £80 in total. The software is only £50 and works brilliantly for us, would totally recommend it.

[berrywoods]

hi guys, sorry for not checking this thread, i had some of my fixtures deliverd yesterday and getting them into the shop from pallets was not fun, anywho, the main requirements of the software would be some simple way to intergrate my webshop, the webshop software i use (tiger commerece) allows for uploading CSV's which would be the only way to compile my products and upload them all to the web, or vice-versa, i dont intend to spend to much time pondering over what to use and how to intergrate it, if i do have problems ill go down the cash register route for now

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Intelligent retail do a package for shops with epos and web and uploading to ebay etc.

Might be worth a look but if you are thinking of doing some ecommerce to go alongside your shop but i really would not bother - do one or the other on non specialist stuff.

And you have chosen your one unless you can do both full time or are planning on serious investment in the ecommerce way outside your shop.

Messing about posting a single £5-£10 item a day for £2 -£4 profit I would suggest is going to be a poor use of time and a distraction.