Is a pos system an overkill for an Antiques Store ?

Innitially I wanted to be able to dispatch quick and eficently the clients and customers, avoid mistakes with the check out, be sure that employees process correctly the checkout just by reading code bar from the labels, limiting intentional&unintentional price mistakes PLUS have a link/integration with my accounting which might be Microsoft Small Business Accounting or might Quick Book Pro. (I am still evaluating both) For both cases there are interesting POS solutions.

DATA: Most of the merchandise is unique , once sold, never have again the same one (similar yes but never the same) so no reorder points or tight inventory controls and systems.

DATA: Inventory control...Just matching monthly the physical inventory with the one indicated by the software.

DATA: I do not have more than 400 items in my whole inventory.

DATA: I do not expect more than 5 transactions per day (average)

DATA: Some is done cash, most is credit.

I would be pleased in knowing opinions and similar experiences .

Thank you

A full scale POS system (in the tens of thousands of dollars) is very very much overkill, however there's a few products out there that are smaller in scope. One of the main products that I'd suggest is Masterpiece, an art gallery software solution that a few antique stores use. I used to do support for them and do lead gen now, so give me a call and I can explain to you how the system works. Its priced more or less affordably as well and has a huge amount of positives.

i can build you your own custome pos software for cheap. everyones buisness is ran a little bit different so i personally tailor it. pm me if you are interested

I sold POS systems for years, and never found anything really made for antique shops. There is one I would recommend, though. It will even export to Quickbooks, if that is what you want to do.

The program is POSitive. It is not expensive, and it has a consignment module that will allow you to easily track items in your shop on consignment, if you take any.

You can find out more at their site, where they also have bundled systems with printer, drawer, scanner, etc.

I am not an affiliate, and don't make a peeny if you buy. They have the same folks there they had in the early 90's. Good folks, they look at you as a person, not an account number. If you call them, ask for Dean and tell him Pete sent you. Not for money, just for old times sake.

Thank you very much for all the contributions. I love this place. It is great to be helped and to help.

Unfortunatly in this case all the answers are focused from a technological point of vue and that is not where stands my doubt, fortunatly I spend this last 3 years as an International Marketing Director for a consulting company based in 9 countries. I have enough knowledge about technology to resolve this challenge and in this case QB or MS SBA would be acceptable candidates due mainly to their low investment and the great integration between sales and accounting plus their almost ready to use platforms for extending to the web or toward other more specialized business processes.

Anyway my question was more from an operational day to day point of vue. Most of the art galleries and antiques stores I know, do not use POS, I would hate to fall in the gadget/geek temptation by implementing something not totally necessary in this field or maybe yes...around this last question, stands my doubt. Any art gallery or antiques store owner around ?

Thanks

What I meant with Masterpiece is that it actually integrates with such systems. I don't know if the others do or not. For example, your PC (that you already have) with Masterpiece on it turns into your POS system as well as your inventory management, web management, and invoicing systems. You can attach a bar code scanner, a credit card reader, cash drawer, etc without needing to pay the overload of money for the full POS system that would be redundant.

Personally, I think that you'd not need everything that a POS has. A bar coder scanner would be redundant if everything's unique and easily tagged -- might as well punch it in. A pole display and a credit card reader are both very useful, though.

Sounds like a POS system is overkill.

Also sounds like you need something to avoid mistakes and keep everyone honest.

Wouldn't a 2 part ticket serve as a check and balance with so few sales in a day ?

Best of luck,