Choosing the Best Payment Software for Clothing Stores

Clothing retail is a competitive market – and a specialized one. To thrive in this industry, among your many other needs, you must have a reliable point-of-sale system. Not just any POS system will do. It must be perfectly tailored to the clothing industry, with features that have been designed with the unique challenges of the fashion boutique in mind. What is the best POS for clothing stores, and how do you find it? Whether you own and run a small, bespoke boutique or manage a large-scale fashion chain, our expert guide will help you navigate through the multiple features, benefits and considerations of the different systems out there, and choose the one that is guaranteed to make running your business easier, and even help you boost your sales and profitability.

A POS system is a combination of hardware and software that you can use to facilitate sales. Its basic functionalities include the ability to complete transactions and process payments, and also to manage your finances and inventory. It is a central that enables you to run and monitor your business. Traditionally, POS systems have been installed on specially designed countertop hardware, but cutting-edge POS software can now be run on almost any devices, including tablets and smartphones, making the entire process of running a retail business much more mobile and agile. 

While there are generic POS systems that can be used in any industry, for best results it is best to find a solution that has either been specifically designed for your business, its products and its unique demands, or that can be customized accordingly. A suitable POS system for boutiques and large-scale clothing stores should have the power to streamline operations, enhance customer experience and drive business growth. When it comes to inventory management, the system should be capable of handling all the special details of your clothing products – garment type, size, colour, etc. All the core features of a POS system – inventory management, sales processing, accounting system integration, scalability, mobility, omnichannel capabilities, security and customer management – must be geared toward the running of your clothing store. When you begin your search for a POS system, channel all of your enquiries through a clothing retail lens, and make sure that POS vendors understand your specific needs.

A POS system is not just an administrative tool to help you manage your store. It is also there to help you make shopping in your store a more efficient and enjoyable experience. From facilitating a fast and easy payment process to empowering you to create targeted marketing campaigns, your POS system is a tool for enhancing customer experience. If a customer finds that you always have the items they need (thanks to efficient inventory management), make it easy for them to pay (thanks to a well set-up and fully integrated payment system) and they can develop a personal relationship with you in which you always seem to know exactly what they need and how to get it for them (thanks to advanced customer management systems), they are likely to remain loyal for years and to bring new clientele to you.

The combined power of inventory tracking and customer management means that you can optimize your clothing store at both ends – receiving and sales – and everywhere in between. You can track each item of clothing from the moment it enters your store to the moment it is sold. You can keep a close watch on which items are selling well and which ones need not be purchased again. You can track both your own purchasing history and that of your clients, meaning you can monitor and adjust your buying strategies, as well as learn your customers’ patterns and preferences.

What features and functions should retail POS solutions for clothing stores have? Aside from the basic features you would expect from all POS systems, regardless of your business, here are four key features that must be included in any system used to manage a clothing store.

A successful retail business depends on efficient, detail-oriented inventory management. Look for a system that offers real-time inventory tracking, automatic stock replenishment alerts and the ability to categorize products according to all the common variables of the clothing industry: size, colour style, etc.

Look for a POS system that offers comprehensive, customizable reports, with predictive analytics that empower you to identify growth opportunities, optimize inventory and refine your marketing strategies.

Your POS system is not only there to help you manage your inventory and income, but also to help you manage the people involved with your business, i.e. your staff and your customers. Good clothing store software allows you to monitor your staff’s sales and hours worked. It also gives you the ability to specify employee permissions so that there is limited access to certain key functionalities. For example, sales staff can be excluded from functions that are intended only for your managers.

The best POS systems are also designed to help you serve your customers better. You can create individual accounts for each customer, monitor purchases and preferences, offer discounts and other incentives, and create targeted marketing campaigns. Aside from merely facilitating sales and inventory management, it can help with both customer management and targeted marketing campaigns.

A good POS system should integrate seamlessly with your e-commerce platform, so that you bring your entire business under your control, from a single dashboard. Integration goes much further than this, however.

To choose the best clothing store management system for your business, you will need to consider the different types currently on the market. Cloud-based solutions are at the cutting edge of the industry right now, but many smaller businesses choose to work with mobile solutions. Others go with an integrated solution that includes cloud-based computing and data storage together with mobile devices and in-store POS hardware. Here are the main facts you should know about these options.

Cloud-based solutions empower you to process payment in-store and online, securely moving money between your customers and you. They can be set up extremely quickly, and are exceptionally safe and secure. They allow 24/7 access to data and allow full integration with whatever software and hardware you use in your business.

As the name suggests, mobile POS systems allow the processing of payments using mobile devices. In some cases, this may involve merely downloading an app onto a tablet or mobile phone. In other cases, mobile credit card readers can also be incorporated into the system.

Integrated retail payment software incorporates cloud-based solutions, mobile devices and other software and hardware into a comprehensive retail management system. It can help businesses manage their payments, cash flow, and finances, on one platform that encompasses all hardware and software components. It can also increase productivity and help businesses get paid faster.

The right POS system is not only there to make running your business easier and more efficient. It is there to make your business more profitable. It can do this in a variety of ways, from streamlining the sales process and preventing stockouts to facilitating customer management functions that help you maintain a loyal clientele.

The most basic functions that payment software performs are the facilitation of the sales process and accurate, effective inventory management. Both of these are crucial to keeping customers happy. When customers purchase from you, they want a smooth, quick and easy transaction, and they want to know that you are prepared to accept whatever payment option they are most comfortable with. A good POS system facilitates fast payment and is versatile and scalable when it comes to payment options.

Effective inventory management ensures that you always stock the items your customers want. Fast-selling items can be replenished efficiently through real-time stock alerts and automated replenishment orders, ensuring that you never have to lose a sale due to stockouts. Further than these core elements, you should also seek out a POS system that is capable of the following.

Whether you have one store or several, you need to be able to know exactly what stock you have at any given moment. As soon as a sale is made at one location, you should be able to see the changes in your inventory, even if you are accessing the system from a different branch – or a different country, for that matter. By tracking clothes within your business in this way, you can maintain firm control over your inventory, helping to ensure that you never run out of stock of popular items and that you can facilitate effective and accurate communications between your different locations – even making stock transfers when necessary.

The best way to keep track of all your stock is to assign a unique code to each item. You may receive stock from your supplier that already has barcodes, or may need to create barcodes for your stock. Your system should be capable of both reading these stock-keeping units (SKUs) and generating them when necessary. Scanning barcodes usually requires the use of purpose-made scanners, but newer systems can make use of the scanners and cameras on mobile devices.

One of the most important features of modern POS systems for clothing stores is their ability to integrate with the other elements you use in your business.

The most important integration requirement is the ability to process payments using all popular payment methods. Your system should have the capacity to read and process credit cards, as well as facilitate payment using a variety of other methods. If credit and other financing options form a part of your business, your POS system should be equipped to create customer accounts and give you the ability to track payments and balances.

Your POS must be integrated with any other software you may use to run your store, especially accounting programs. When your POS integrates with your accounting software, you can ensure accurate financial records in real time, streamlining all your bookkeeping tasks. If you use a platform like QuickBooks or Xero, you should not have any problem finding payment software that will integrate with them. By doing so, you can ensure that all sales data, expenses and inventory updates are automatically synced. Each time you sell an item or add one to your inventory, your POS will instantly update your accounting system. There is no need for manual data entry and the risk of error is much lower.

Before you make your choice, take the time to do a thorough retail POS comparison. If you are not sure where to look, we can help. Let’s compare some of the most popular retail payment systems for clothing stores:

How do you implement the best payment system, given all the options you have, and everything involved with mastering the software quickly so you can incorporate it into your daily business as quickly as possible?

Before choosing your POS system, it is always best to assess your business’s needs and capacities. This will help you and your POS vendor understand exactly which system will suit you best. Some POS suppliers, such as Access2Pay, will do an assessment for you at the very start of the process. Our experts will learn the ins and outs of your business and then tell you exactly what you would need from a POS system with features that would optimize your business.

Whichever POS system you choose, it is essential that it comes with comprehensive training, as well as ongoing technical support. Once the system is set up, specialized trainers should come in and teach your team how to use the software, or – as is the case with Access2Pay – train key personnel so that they can then teach other team members. Once the system is up and running, and your staff have been trained, the vendor should be contactable all day, every day, to help solve any technical issues that might arise.

All of these benefits and more can be found in Access2Pay, the quality POS solution created by InfoCorp. We have designed our system to be customizable and adaptable to suit the needs of multiple retail sectors, including the fashion and apparel industries. If you are looking for the best payment and inventory management software for clothing stores, look no further. Contact us for more information about our retail POS solutions.