Top POS Systems for Small Businesses [UPDATED]

• Payment Processing

To ensure smooth processing of payments choose a third-party company to handle the transaction of debit and credit card payments by customers. This also ensures the security of each transaction.

• Retail POS

Industry-specific POS systems help you with product management, categorisation and inventory control, as well as enable you to run customer loyalty programs and promotions. You can also manage staff with access-controlled logins and make use of the analytics and reporting with exporting functions.

• Sales Reports

The data you receive from reports can accurately assist you in achieving your business’s goals. Data can also be used to predict how and when your customers buy products to plan effective sales strategies and ultimately decide on a sales forecasting process. You can also integrate this feature within your accounting software.

• Customer Accounts

Use this feature on your POS systems to create customer profiles, save their contact details including their email addresses and phone number. You can also give customers the option to become part of your business’s email list to get updates on specials and other marketing information. You can also send them receipts via email.

• Discount Management

Offer discounts to help improve cash flow by encouraging new clients to buy or reward loyal customers. This feature on POS systems can help track the discount management process.

• Gift Card Management

Gift cards can be used to attract new customers. This feature can offer tracking capabilities and can be integrated with other platforms.

• Inventory Management

Make sure you keep track of every single item in your inventory. With an Inventory Management system, you can stay well-informed of purchases including the resale items and the fulfillment of a customer’s order. This can all be done via cloud-based solutions such as SOS Inventory. You can also generate sales reports, set up automatic low inventory alerts, and manage order packing and shipping.

• Customer Loyalty Program

Use loyalty programs to reward regular customers. Loyalty programs can provide insight into customer product preferences and shopping behaviour.

• Multi-Location

This feature will allow your business to track inventory across multiple venues (stores).

• Yoco - Best small business all-rounder
• Wappoint - Best for Events
• iKhokha - Best for Vendors

• Device costs – Brands offer the option of either renting or purchasing a POS device. A card machine allows businesses to accept both credit and debit cards and to generate digital receipts for customers. Speed Point Card Machines start at around R4999; a rental can cost around R400 per month.
• Monthly subscription – As part of your subscription you get access to a Point of Sale (POS) application and business intelligence portal which gives businesses real-time access to sales insights and analytics, and more features depending on your package. Basic POS software can start at R450 per month.
• Transaction Fees – Standard transaction fees can start at 2.75%. These are estimated fees based on your business’ monthly turnover. The transaction fees for in-person payments cost less than the online payments. For example, you can pay 2.95% for in-person payments or 3.40% for online payments. Payments excludes VAT. Fortunately, the more you trade and higher your monthly card volume, the lower your transaction rate. You can also get a competitive rate on some company’s websites (via an online calculator) to determine your transaction fees. Most POS card machines have no monthly fees if you have purchased it.

Some companies do charge a settlement fee on their devices which can start around R2.50 per settlement (i.e. R2.50 per day for each business day traded).

Choose the Right POS System for Your Business. There are numerous tasks that a professional POS system should be able to handle – from sales tracking and accounts receivable to purchasing and inventory management.

Consider the following: 

• Ease of use

It’s important that whichever POS system you choose is easy for customers to operate to avoid taking up your customers’ time unnecessarily and limit any frustration. It is just as important that your employees can easily handle the check-out process and are able navigate the dashboard to complete essential tasks such as track sales and manage inventory.

• Integration 

A good idea is to go with a POS option with software that can easily integrate with your existing accounting software, CRM, inventory management and even e-commerce website.

POS systems providers that integrate into e-commerce websites allow businesses to accept card payments without the use of card machines. Even businesses without online stores are also able to process online card payments by sending customers a payment link on WhatsApp, email, Facebook or Instagram.

• Alternative payment options

Different cashless and contact-less transactions like the Tap & Go option or QR Codes, are popular trends according to fintech experts. Alternative payment options should be considered in any business. Due to COVID-19, customers are reluctant to hand over cards or deal with cash in stores, they have become willing to use alternative methods like QR codes.

• Security

Finally, many consumers cite security as their primary concern related to alternative payment methods. It is important that your POS system is secure against criminals seeking to steal payment card data. Additional effort will have to be made by each business to assure customers that their data is safe and secure.