How much should an EPOS software system quote cost?

For many retailers, there first effort to acquire an EPOS software system is to contact some suppliers and ask for quotes to meet their needs. Often they will call up suppliers and expect to get a quotation over the telephone. What many retailers fail to appreciate is that giving an off-the-cuff quote for an EPOS system is very difficult and quite dangerous. Retailers will generally hold onto the first price they receive, and then get disgruntled if the EPOS supplier tries to increase the quote.

A more correct process is for the EPOS salesman to hold a discussion with the retailer to discover their exact needs. Whilst this covers basic information such as how many tills and branches the retailer needs software for, it will also cover other matters such as the requirement for items such as postcode lookup software and chip and pin installations.

More often than not, such investigations by the EPOS system salesman will result in a software demonstration of some sort. This is usually because the retailer wants to see what features the EPOS software has, and, more importantly, find out whether this particular EPOS system will suit their requirements. The salesman will analyse their requirements and then make sure that any peculiarities are dealt with my the EPOS system package they are trying to sell. For example, you might sell stock that has an age limit, and the salesman should show that features for point of sale age checks are present.

After a demo, the salesman should then issue a quote. This quote might cover hardware, such as specialist retail PCs, receipt printers and barcode printers.

How much are these quotes likely to be? It depends a lot on the hardware. Many EPOS salesmen will combine the hardware and the software together on the quote as a single price, whilst other, more honest salesmen will divide things up to clearly show what you are paying for. A single site single till system, with hardware could be a little as £2000 or perhaps as high as £4500. It depends a great deal on the hardware. Do not forget that the cost price for a simple PC is only a few hundred pounds, whilst a combination unit expressly for EPOS with a built in touch screen could easily cost £1500. The price will increase as you add branches. A multi site system with a single till at each branch can easily cost £4000 per site. There will also be charges for additional users, this can range from a few tens to a few hundreds of pounds ,depending on the price model that particular supplier uses.

If you want ecommerce as well, this can easily add £2k-£3k to the cost. And this is probably quite a basic cost. Ecommerce projects can be quite expensive, especially if you need bespoke functions and you end up rotating through a couple of design changes.

You also need to make sure any annual or monthly charges are also covered in the quote. Some software is paid for on an annual basis so you need to make sure all this is included in your budget.

The important thing is to get quotes from at least three suppliers and compare. It is of the utmost importance to make sure that the software really does handle you requirements, and that you speak to a couple of reference sites in the same market area as yourself.

If you still doubt the validity of a quote, please feel free to email it to us at web@epos-technology dot co dot uk for a second opinion!