What do Indian retail businesses look for in point-of-sale software?
As part of our market research and understanding, we surveyed 1040 small and medium Indian retail businesses to understand the level of point-of-sale software adoption, usage, and its impact on businesses. With this page, we want to share those insights with you.
Get started for freeWelcome
Access ZakyaBusinesses that were surveyed: We reached out to a wide mix of retail businesses like Apparel, Bike, Boutique, Cosmetics, Grocery, Footwear, etc that had one or more outlets whose annual turnover is split into four buckets: Less than 5 cr, 5 cr to 10 cr, 11 to 20 cr, 21-50 cr with 45% of the respondents falling under the 1st bucket.
1. Cash bills or manual receipts are the common methods of doing billing in stores. POS software is gaining increasing traction.
- POS Software
- Cash Bills / Manual Receipts
- Excel Tracking
Around 48% of respondents surveyed are using manual operations like cash bills and around 23% use Excel tracking to manage store operations like accounting and managing inventory. So that's 71% on the whole that's using the conventional methods for managing their store operations and 39% using a POS solution.
But here's an interesting insight Among the 743 businesses that use conventional methods, 95% of them want to adopt a POS solution by 2029. 56% want to adopt in the next 6 months, showing the increasing need for POS solutions.
What is a Point of Sale (POS) Software?
A Point of Sale solution helps businesses manage their day-to-day store operations like inventory management, sales and purchases, reporting, and more all from one place. It serves as a single source of truth for all business processes and as a place to track and measure business progress.
2. Ease of Use, Cost-effectiveness, and mobile billing are the three important features that businesses look for in point-of-sale software
- Cloud software with offline billing option
- Easy to use and manage
- Cost effectiveness
- Integrated online ordering solution
- Mobile billing option
- Integration with accounting apps
- Multiple location management
- Advanced inventory tracking
75% of the businesses that want to adopt POS software by 2029 say that the ease of using and managing the solution will be a key factor that influences purchase decisions. The second and third top key features were "cost-effectiveness" and "mobile billing option".
Here's some clarity on the above-mentioned features and what you should look out for while scouting for POS software for your business.
Ease of use is the ability to use the software on your own without much training. It is the ability to set up the tool instantly and navigate the tool with limited buttons and functionalities. Think of it like using WhatsApp or Uber. It takes just 4-5 clicks to set up each of these tools, and 2-3 clicks to post a message or status or book a cab. It's straightforward and can be used even by someone who has limited to no tech expertise. That is is level of simplicity the software you use to manage billing or run your store operations needs to have.
Cost-effectiveness is the right price for the POS solution that a business uses. Here are some of the questions you need to check before purchasing a POS tool. -Am I getting all the important features at the mentioned price? -Is there any hidden cost for a specific feature? -Am I getting a good return on investment?
Mobile billing is an important feature in a POS that enables the user to conduct billing with their mobile devices by scanning the item barcodes and accepting payments. It helps you effectively manage long queues and peak hours and removes the requirements for expensive hardware setup for billing.
Mobile store helps you set up a virtual store for your business that customers can access with their mobile and place orders with your store. It gives retail businesses an extra sales channel that operates 24/7 and fulfills customer orders at their preferred location.
Reporting and analytics give you a detailed picture of your business and its performance. A good POS software should help you run reports for all important business functions like inventory, sales, purchases, and more.
3. Businesses prefer POS software as their annual revenue increases.
- POS Software, Cash Bills/ Manual Receipts
- POS Software, Excel Tracking (like accounting and book keeping, inventory spreadsheets, etc.)
- Cash Bills/ Manual Receipts, Excel Tracking (like accounting and book keeping, inventory spreadsheets, etc.)
As businesses grow and their operations increase, they turn to POS software to establish clear processes and better manage operations.
Businesses that make less than 5cr as their annual revenue are highly reliant on traditional billing methods. Only 24% of them have deployed POS software for their billing and operations. The rest 76% of these businesses still use cash bills, manual receipts, and inventory spreadsheets.
Among businesses with an annual revenue of 5-10cr, 55% use these traditional billing methods and spreadsheet tracking for inventory. On the other hand, 45% of businesses use POS software.
48% of businesses with annual revenue of 11-20cr use POS software to manage their billing and inventory management operations. Interestingly, among businesses that have an annual revenue of 21-50cr, only 26% still use manual billing methods and spreadsheets. Meanwhile, 74% of them already use POS software.
For obvious reasons, businesses opt for software and tools as their scale and size increase. It is worth asking the question- Is it just scale and size that determines the need for a technology not only in retail but in any business?
Let's face it, business operations are hard when managed with just pen and paper irrespective of the scale. So is it the lack of tech experience that stops small and medium businesses from adopting technology, or is it the apprehension that ROI would be lesser or there would be no increase in profits when software is implemented, or is there, not a proper solution in the market that addresses the specific need of these neighborhood heroes?
4. Businesses see an increase in revenue after POS software adoption and save time.
- Yes, 0-20%
- Yes, 20-40%
- Yes, 40-60%
- Yes, 60-80%
- Yes, more than 80%
- No, we have not seen an increase in revenue after adopting POS
When asked if the businesses saw an increase in revenue after POS adoption, 98% of them who use POS software said yes. Among the businesses who said yes, 37% of them stated that they saw a 20-40% increase in their revenue, while another 27% said that they had seen a 40-60% increase.
67% of the businesses that use POS software say they easily save one to more than two hours a day after adopting the solution, showcasing how digital solutions help improve operational efficiency.
So, we have it now. POS software helps businesses increase sales and enhance their productivity.
5. Popular POS software used by businesses, reason for their choice, and their implementation time.
- Marg Compusoft
- Shoper 9 (Tally)
- Shopify
- Ginesys
- LogicERP
- Wondersoft
- Quanto
- Unipro
- Retailcore
- Wings ERP
- Vyapaar
- HD Pos
- Just Billing
- Epaisa
- Rancelab
- GoFrugal
- Other (Please specify)
Around 27% of businesses that use POS software use Shopify, around 13% use Shoper 9 by Tally, around 9.22% use Wondersoft, around 9.71% use Just Billing, around 5.83% use LogicERP, and likewise.
61% of the businesses selected a particular vendor based on ease of use, 59% selected it based on performance, around 50% said features, around 47% said costs and around 32 percents said the solution they use should integrate well with other tools their business use.
Around 40% of the respondents said it took them a minimum of 24 hours to implement their current POS system for their business, around 22% said it took them at least 4 hours, and around 17% said it took them at least 2 days to implement the solution.
Shopify is a powerful cloud-based commerce platform that helps business manage their in-store and online sales effectively. The POS system offers features such as inventory tracking, sales and customer management, reporting, and more. The company also offers a range of hardware to support its POS software and is a main attraction for large enterprises.
Shoper 9 by Tally is a complete enterprise retail solution that addresses the general requirements of any retail business like billing, price management, purchase management, and more. It offers an integration with Tally ERP for other important retail functions like accounting and finance.
Wondersoft is an on-premise POS solution that works well for businesses that have multiple outlets. Businesses can effectively manage their billing, monitor stock levels, sales analytics, and more.
Just Billing is a cloud-based POS for retail and restaurant management. Key features of the platform include billing and invoicing, inventory management, customer management, reports and analytics, and more.
Logic ERP is a comprehensive solution for large businesses and enterprises. From sales and order management to finance and human resource management like payroll and employee records the platform provides many features and modules that suit businesses of large scale.
6. Lack of important features, lack of software updates, and performance issues are key areas of improvement in the current POS system that businesses use.
- Facing performaces issues
- UUnable to integrate with other software
- Software enhancements stopped
- Missing advanced features
- Log time
- Other (Please specify)
189 of the businesses surveyed that use a point of sale software to manage their retail business said lack of important features is one of the major issues they are facing with their current POS system while 180 of them said that the vendor they are using has stopped software enhancements after a certain point and 169 of them said they are facing frequent performance issues.
7. More than half of the businesses surveyed said they would switch to a modern retail POS in short time.
- Yes, in the next 6 months
- Yes, in the next 1-2 years
- Not now, maybe in the next 3-5 years
- No, I don't want to adopt POS
635 of the 1040 businesses surveyed said they would adopt a modern retail POS out of which 55% said they would adopt one within the next 6 months 30% in the next 1-2 years and around 9% in the next 3-5 years.
75% of the businesses said they expect the software they opt for should be easy to use, 46% said the software they use should be cloud software with offline billing support and 34% said it should integrate well with other accounting apps.
Understanding all these metrics brought key issues faced by small and medium retail businesses that the POS software they use needs to solve
The software small and medium businesses implement has to be easy to use and require very little training for the store's staff to use right from day one.
The solution should scale with the business as its size and scale increase. For example, when the business expands with more than one outlet and increases the number of cash counters etc- the software should be able to accommodate those needs.
With evergrowing competition between online and retail and between other stores in the same locality, small and medium businesses need to differentiate their shopping experiences to attract new customers and retain existing ones.
There's an increasing need to be able to serve customers at their preferred location and give them the convenience of ordering from a store online
The modern retail POS built especially for small and medium-sized retail businesses.
Zakya is a cloud-based retail POS that helps businesses sell better, manage their entire business, and join the digital revolution in one hour or less.
Zakya is easy to set up and requires very little training for users to get started.
Businesses can now bill in multiple Indian languages and print invoices in the language that their customers prefer. With features like multi-outlet management, users can add their different warehouses and branches and manage operations across each of them seamlessly from one place.
With options for integrated payments, businesses can connect different EDC devices like Pinlelabs and Paytm and accept payments digitally. The mobile billing option gives businesses the flexibility to bill customers easily by scanning items using their device's camera and providing a fast checkout from wherever they are in their store.
With Mobile Store, businesses will now be able to generate a unique URL for their store with all their items and share it with their customers so they can order from the convenience of their homes and have items delivered to their location.
There's a 15-day free trial of the product that you can try out for your store today.