How much to spend on EPOS?

Owners of small retail businesses can spend wildly varying amount of money when investing in a new EPOS system. You could just go and buy a simple electronic cash register for a couple of hundred pounds, or you can spend over £10,000 on a fully featured EPOS system.

In my experience, a small to medium sized retail business should be looking to spend around £5000 per branch on EPOS. This might seem like a odd figure, and a curious way of expressing it, but it makes sense.

The more branches you have, then clearly the larger your business. IF you are an owner operator in one branch, your experience will make the business successful. You probably work 6 or 7 days a week, and know your retail sector backwards. However, as your business grows, you need to rely on other people, who are less dedicated and less exercised.

The best way of keeping an eye on things is with a decent EPOS system. As the number of branches increases, you will have staff and managers working more and more independently, and therefore you need to rely more and more on your EPOS system to give you vital information to run your business.

It is also normal to make an on-going investment in your EPOS system. Whilst the initial outlay might be £10,000 it is not unusual to spend half this again each year as you expand and need training or extra branches. IT is impossible to deploy a perfect EPOS system into a small to medium sized retail business on the first attempt. You need to constantly re-invest and improve as the situation changes.

Some retailers hate spending on EPOS - especially on EPOS consultancy. A visit from the EPOS system consultant might cost over £500 for a single day visit. In some areas or sectors you might pay closer to £1000 for a single day of training and consultancy. Many retailers just think the consultant is doing daylight robbery. However, a sensible retailer will realise that a decent consultant can stream line the company EPOS system and make things run better. If a consultant visits and helps develop a solution that saves you 3 hours of work a week, at a modest salary you've just saved £1500 per year, and made your business better to boot!

It might seem like alot of money, but unless you invest sensibly in your EPOS system, your business will never be able to grow.