The very first Point of Sale (POS) equipment was a mechanical cash register, introduced by James Ritty following the American Civil War. He was the proprietor of a saloon in Dayton, Ohio, USA, and sought to stop employees from pilfering his profits. He invented the Ritty Model I in 1879 inspired by seeing something that counted the revolutions of the propeller on a steamship. With the assistance of John Ritty, his brother, he patented it in 1883.
The very first registers were entirely mechanical, without receipts. The cashier was needed to ring up every transaction on the register, and when the processing key was depressed, the cash drawer opened, and a bell would ring alerting the manager that someone was making a purchase. The original machines were only simple adding machines having neither a till roll or recording mechanisms.
Through the years, more improvements were incorporated in the cash registers, including the functions of printing out receipts, recording individual classes of sales and listing all transactions. In the early seventies, the computer driven cash registers were introduced.
The first computerized cash registers were essentially a mainframe computer configured so a store controller might control certain registers. These point of sale systems were the first ones in a commercial sense to utilize client-server technology, peer-to-peer communications, Local Area Networks (LAN) backup copies, and remote initialization.
By the late eighties, retail software based on microchip technology was widely integrated in mainstream retail companies.
Today, retail point of sale systems (POS) are almost unrecognizable from where they started. Present day POS systems are faster, safer, and much more reliable than their forerunners, and permit merchants to survey every part of their business from a single, integrated point of sale system.
The most valuable features of worthwhile a point of sale system are:
Easy Quick Checkouts: The POS system should streamline the checkout process. Whether you are ringing up sales or processing orders, a couple of clicks of your mouse should rapidly move your clients through the payment process.
Up-to-the-minute inventory overview: The POS system should enhance the inventory management by reducing inventory investment and out-of-stock conditions. Using the right retail software, you’ll always know what’s on-hands, on-order, as well as in-transit.
Customer retention: The POS system should track customer information and ideally include a built-in loyalty program. Being aware who your clients are and what they are purchasing will help you in the task of getting them to return for additional purchases.
Automated buying: The POS system shouldn’t only suggest reorder amounts, it will also permit you to easily place purchase orders with your suppliers.
Integrated ecommerce: The POS system package should have the ability to expand your activities to ecommerce with minimum effort and expense.
PCI compliant: The POS system should safeguard your customers’ charge card information along with your business. If you are using retail software that isn’t compliant with PCI DSS standards, you might be susceptible to hefty fines.
Reviews library: The POS system ought to include a comprehensive library of built-in reviews so that you could personalize records to suit your needs.