Categories
blog POS Restaurant POS Uncategorized

Food truck POS: The one-stop solution for all type of food trucks

Did you know that food trucks are one of the most lucrative businesses? An essential benefit of the food truck industry is its flexibility in terms of location. they can go where they want and do business. But it is essential to find the right place to do business.

Managing the business will be challenging. Especially if you are a one-man business. You may not be able to efficiently maintain all business functions like inventory management, payment transactions, and customer and employee management. So food truck POS is the solution for that.

It helps you to simplify and keep your business efficient. However, here we are going to discuss everything about food truck POS.

What is a food truck POS?

The food truck POS is the system that was built for helping to grow the food truck businesses. It helps you to manage all levels of your business such as inventory, payment transactions, reports, analytics, customer and employee management, online business, and more.

However, it automates all your complex business operations and makes them simple.

Let us explain all this in a few points.

  • Save Time and Increase Sales
  • Effective Inventory Management
  • Flexible Payment Options
  • Employee Management
  • Real-Time Reports and Analysis
  • QR code menu
  • Self-ordering KIOSK
  • Multi-location management

Save Time and Increase Sales

One of the main things you need to pay attention to is time. You can enhance your service quality by focusing on service speed. The POS system allows you to speed up your business operations such as order taking, order passing to the kitchen, delivering food, and payments.

By using various food truck POS features like KOT, digital payments, self-ordering like QR code ordering and KIOSK, and a digital receipt option.

Let’s dive deep and understand how those features help you

Digital Kitchen order ticket(KOT): The digital kitchen order ticket details contain customer order details. When customers place an order the server will generate and pass the order to POS and kitchen. It helps you to reduce manual operations and facilitate a quick service.

Digital payments: Digital payments like contactless payments and QR code payments can be used to speed up your checkout process. They can use contactless payments and quickly make payments like Tap-and-go. Customers can also pay themselves from their table using a QR code.

Food truck POS can be integrated with leading payment partners based on your country. It also allows you to offer multiple payment methods such as card, cash, contactless, QR code, cheque, and split payments. This will help you to give a premium customer experience.

Self-ordering: Self-ordering systems such as KIOSK, and QR code ordering can be used to speed up your food truck business operations. Customer can place order themselves and the KOT is transferred to the POS and kitchen. It eliminates the time taken to take orders and manually transfer them to the kitchen. This gives customers more freedom to choose from the menu.

Digital receipt: After the payment success rather than printing paper receipts you can send the invoices to customers via mail, SMS, and WhatsApp. So after payment, they don’t need to wait for the receipt. However, this makes your checkout counter clean. Also, you can use the customer data for other loyalty programs.

However, it allows you to utilize the time and make your employees more productive. By using those features employees can simplify their work and focus on their duties. It delivers premium customer experience and sales as well.

Effective Inventory Management

In the past, it was very difficult to control inventory. After you make a sale you need to deduct it from the stocks manually. It is really complex and time-wasting work. There are a lot of possibilities for human errors and you cannot update your inventory in real time.

When you can’t update your inventory in real time, how do you know if your inventory has enough ingredients to prepare a certain type of dish?

Let me give you an example to illustrate this. Imagine a customer named Roy who visits your food truck. He’s really hungry and decides to order a beef burger. The server takes his order and goes to the kitchen to pass it on. However, after 5 minutes, the cook realizes that there is no more beef in stock. The server then informs Roy that the beef burger is no longer available. As a result, Roy becomes very unhappy and dissatisfied because he has to wait over 5 minutes for food while hungry.

The food truck POS helps to automate all your inventory operations and streamline inventory in real-time. POS tracks each item on your inventory. You can set an inventory level if the stock is down below that level you will get a notification.

However, it gives you a very detailed report about which product is profitable and which is not. You can also get access to the report that shows which dates are performing more sales. By getting control over the inventory you can reduce costs and keep your business profitable.

Flexible Payment Options

POS can be integrated with leading payment partners such as Square, PayPal, SumUp, Stripe, PhonePe, Mosambee, UPI Payments, Pine Labs, mSwipe, MTN Momo, Fatoora (Saudi e-Invoice Integration), SAT (Guatemala e-Invoice Integration). It eliminates the possibility of human errors and records all the financial data.

Leading food truck POS supports various payment methods. So you can offer customers different options such as contactless, card, cash, cheque, and other leading payment methods.

Employee Management

Managing staff is a very difficult job. It is really important that identify employee efficiency and inefficiency at work. POS software allows you to give permissions to employees. So the authorized staff can only access specific data. It helps you to secure your business information from other security issues.

You will get the full details of each employee. So you can understand your loyal employees. Also, every employee can understand the hours worked. Then each person can assign the tasks to be done on the respective days. This will lead to a better understanding between employees and management.

Real-Time Reports and Analysis

Data-driven businesses may always win. Without proper reporting and analytics, doing business will make you fail.

POS can help you get data each day and can help you figure out which days will have the most sales. That way you can change your stock.

For example, based on a report more burgers are being sold on a particular day. Understand that this is a special day. So you know, burgers may go on sale in the coming days. You can order the ingredients needed to make a burger during the day. It also helps prevent food waste.

However, you can use food truck POS software on a smartphone. Reports can be accessed with the help of the internet even when you are not in the food truck. Because it will all be stored in the cloud.

QR code menu

The QR Code menu is the digital menu. that diners and drinkers can enter on their smartphones after scanning a QR code. The most important benefit is that the customer can place items without the need for a server. The digital menu is more engaging and useful than the printed menu.

Time to choose the best food truck POS

LithosPOS is one of the leading food truck POS software providers. The software can be used to simplify and automate all your food truck business operations. The software offers 12+ payment partners and provides multiple payment methods. LithosPOS is the best tool to grow your business, it helps you to expand your business online by integrating various food aggregators.

Why LIthosPOS is the best choice for food trucks

When compared to common food businesses the food truck business has so many challenges and benefits. While rather than investing in a common type of POS software you need to use POS which is specifically built for food trucks. LithosPOS food truck POS is one of the solutions that is specifically built to meet food truck business operations.

Let’s identify the uniqueness of the LithosPOS food truck POS system

Offline mode

A major challenge facing the food truck business is the availability of an internet connection. Even if you choose a food truck in a place where an internet connection is not available, still POS allows you to manage your business efficiently.

Even though POS is cloud-based, it can also be done offline. Transactions are recorded when there is no internet connection and sync online when the internet connection is restored.

Customer engagement

Food truck businesses are unique in that they can choose from a variety of business locations. Therefore, a great CRM system is essential, their customer database will be very huge. Lithospos collects the contact details of each customer and their buying history. By finding your loyal customers and sharing offers, your new locations, etc., you can always maintain a good relationship with them.

Also, if you return to your old business location, you can use your existing customer list to do promotions like “we are back”. It is a very low-cost marketing method. You can use various marketing platforms for that such as SMS, email, WhatsApp direct messaging, and social media ads can be used.

Menu management

For food trucks, storage of ingredients is very limited. Many items on the inventory may run out quickly. Those changes should be visible in the menu in real time. It is not possible with a printed menu.

LithosPOS allows you to automate your inventory and visible the changes in real-time in the digital menu. When an ingredient runs out of stock, the POS will notify you and allow you to change the menu quickly.

However, this will help you to enhance your service quality and give a premium customer experience for your customers.

Scalability

LithosPOS has everything you need to expand your food truck business. By automating most of your business operations you will get more control over your business. It allows you to scale your business into multiple locations(LithosPOS provides a centralized management system for managing multi-location businesses).

You can also expand your business online with LithosPOS online food aggregator integrations. You can integrate with various food aggregators such as Zomato, Swiggy, Uber Eats, and Talabat. It helps you to increase your profit and popularity as well.

LithosPOS is a cloud-based system, that allows you to simply scale POS as the business grows.

Digital KOT

LithosPOS food truck POS offers digital kitchen order tickets (KOT). Digital KOT contains the order details. When a customer places an order the order will be transferred to the kitchen and POS. The ticket will be displayed on the kitchen display system.

By using self-ordering KIOSKs and QR code ordering customers can place orders themselves. There is no need for the server to take orders and deliver them to the kitchen.

However, it allows you to reduce your labor costs and eliminate the possibility of human errors. It also helps you to speed up your service and keep the order processing efficient.

Mobility

LithosPOS is compatible with a wide range of devices including Android devices, tablets, and iOS devices. It offers versatility in terms of usage locations, be it outdoor events, festivals, or street service. With the convenience of handheld devices, you can easily take orders, process payments and perform other tasks.

However, it gives you more flexibility to manage your business. The data is stored in the cloud, so you can access the data from anywhere in the world.

Report and analytics

Detailed reports and analytics help you to identify your business performance. You can analyze your daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly sales, expenses, profits, and more. You can also generate various business reports such as sales reports, purchase reports, and other tax reports.

By analyzing the reports, you can identify your best-selling items and determine which dates generate higher sales. Moreover, it assists you in identifying the locations that generate higher sales.

LithosPOS is the one-stop solution to meet all food truck business operations.

Categories
blog Restaurant Retail Small businesses

Factura Electronica: The Advantages and Implementation of Electronic Invoicing

Electronic solutions are being used by businesses to keep their business efficient and offer better customer experience. “Factura Electronica,” or electronic invoicing, is one such innovation that transforms traditional paper-based invoicing processes. Here, we’ll talk about what is Factura Electronica, its advantages, and how to use it in your business.

What is Factura Electronica

“Factura Electronica” is a Spanish word that means “electronic invoice” in English. This is the process of digitalization of invoicing process of electronic documents. Instead of using traditional paper-based invoices, it is used to create, receive, send, and store invoices in a standard digital format such as XML.

It can be easily integrated with accounting systems, making it easier to track and manage financial transactions, and helps you to streamline your invoicing processes, reducing manual errors, improving efficiency, and accelerating payment cycles. It also contributes to a more sustainable and environment-friendly approach by reducing the use of paper.

You should ensure compliance with local tax authorities and regulations when implementing it. Because specific requirements and regulations for Factura Electronica(electronic invoice) may vary by country or region.

Invoice Electronic is very helpful in increasing efficiency, accuracy, and convenience in financial transactions when compared to traditional invoicing methods.

Overall, when compared to traditional invoicing methods Factura Electronica is helpful to increase efficiency, accuracy, and convenience in financial transactions.

Advantages of Factura Electronica

Electronic invoicing helps you to cut the higher cost and expenses of your business. It allows you to automate various invoice operations.

Automation plays an important role in electronic invoicing. It helps businesses to improve and keep efficient. Here is how Factura Electronica helps your business.

Paper printing cost: printing is one of the main costs of doing work with invoices. By reducing it you can eliminate the need for printing, postage, and physical storage of paper invoices. So you can cut the cost related to that such as paper, ink, envelopes, and postal expenses.

Minimization of manual data entry: E-invoicing automates the invoice creation and processing workflow. It allows you to reduce manual operation as well as the need for labor.

Faster Processing and Payment: Electronic invoices can be created, sent, and received instantly. This helps businesses increase cash flow and negotiate early payment discounts with suppliers.

Streamlined Workflow and Reduced Administrative Effort: By automating business operations you can reduce manual operations such as invoice processing, approval, and record keeping. So it allows you to keep your business operations organized and cost-effective.

Enhanced Supplier Relationships: E-invoicing enables smoother communication and collaboration between businesses and suppliers. By improving the efficiency and accuracy of invoicing processes, businesses can build stronger relationships with suppliers.

So you can negotiate for discounts, improved payment terms, and better overall cost management.

Automated Invoice Generation: Electronic invoicing helps you to generate invoices automatically based on predefined templates and data from your accounting or ERP system. Because of it, you don’t need to do any manual operations. So it also eliminates the possibility of human errors.

Faster Processing and Delivery: Electronic invoices can share through email, WhatsApp, and SMS. It is faster when compared to traditional invoices. That took so much time to invoice processing and delivery to customers.

Real-Time Tracking and Monitoring: You will get real-time access to the data and check the status of invoices like sent, received, viewed, or paid. This will give you better control over your invoicing processes.

Automated Payment Reminders: Factura Electronica system offers a payment reminder option. You can set reminders for overdue invoices and reduce the need for manual follow-ups. It improves cash flow by encouraging timely payments.

Streamlined Approval Workflows: Electronic invoicing allows for streamlined approval workflows by enabling digital signatures and electronic approvals and eliminates the need for physical document circulation and manual signatures. It reduces approval cycle times and improves efficiency.

Easy Access to Invoice Archives: You don’t need any physical storage space to store paper invoices. The data is stored in the cloud. So it allows an authorized person to access the data and easy to find and manage it.

Integration with Accounting Systems: E-invoicing platforms can integrate with accounting or ERP systems, which allows direct synchronization of invoice data. It helps you to manage complex accounting operations easily and saves you time.

Data Analytics and Reporting: You can generate reports on invoice systems and identify statuses, payment trends, outstanding balances, and more, It helps you to take data-driven decisions.

Enhanced Accuracy: There is a possibility for errors in manual operations like data entry, and payment transactions. By automating those operations, you can enhance accuracy and keep business efficient.

Compliance with Tax Regulations: Factura Electronica helps to comply with tax regulations and eliminates the risk of noncompliance penalties by adhering to the legal requirements of electronic invoicing


Compliance with Tax Regulations: Factura Electronica helps with tax compliance and reduces the possibility of the risk of fines.

Implementation of Factura Electronica for your store

When implementing electronic invoicing (Factura Electronica) for your store, you need to consider some points. The requirements and process may vary depending on your country and the regulations. Include these in our consideration.

Research the legal and regulatory requirements: The invoice regulations may vary based on country. Understand the formats, data fields, digital signatures, and other guidelines you need to follow.

Choose a compliant electronic invoicing solution: You need to use software that offers electronic invoicing solutions like LithosPOS. It is reliable, secure, and capable of generating and managing electronic invoices. LithosPOS is the major POS software provider that offers electronic invoices in countries like Guatemala.

Integration: POS solutions can be integrated with the electronic invoicing system used in your country. This allows for a smooth flow of data between the POS software and the invoicing system.

Obtain necessary certificates or credentials: You need to make sure you are following all the guidelines of the country. You may need to obtain digital certificates or credentials.

Set up: Based on your needs configure information such as your business details, tax identification numbers, invoice templates, and other relevant settings.

Test and validate: It is better to conduct testing to ensure that the system is generating accurate and compliant invoices.

Train your staff: Provide training to your employees to manage, generate, and handle electronic invoices. It can help you to follow proper procedures, compliance requirements, and any changes to your invoicing processes.

Start issuing electronic invoices: Now you can generate and share them with your customers. You can directly share it to their WhatsApp, email, and SMS.

Overall, Factura Electronica helps businesses with cost savings, improved efficiency, and following tax regulations.

Categories
blog Branding Customer experience POS Restaurant Restaurant POS Retail Retail POS Small businesses

Unlock Success Across Multiple Stores with our Powerful Multi-Store POS System

Without relying on technology it is hard to manage a multi-location business. Innovative systems like Point of Sale can help you minimize the efforts you need to pay to run your businesses and offer higher output. By integrating each of your multi-business operations together you can automate various business operations.

So what’s exactly a multi-store POS?

Multi-store POS is a point of sale system is system that is helpful to multi-store restaurants and retail. It automates complex business operations like inventory managing, payment transactions, reporting and analysis, and employee and customer management.

Smart POS like LithosPOS is built for restaurant and retail businesses. LithosPOS provides everything needed for the growth of such businesses.

As the business grows, so does the need for manpower to manage it. It is very expensive and wastes time. But you can reduce those costs by using a POS system like LithosPOS.

Benefits of a multi-store POS

Let’s discuss the benefits of a multi-store pos

Centralized management

With centralized management, business owners or managers can access real-time data and insights from each store location. So by having a centralized view, you can streamline operations, implement consistent pricing and promotional strategies, optimize inventory distribution, and ensure a seamless customer experience across all stores

Inventory management

The system provides real-time data which you can monitor your inventory and keep it profitable. This provides visibility into inventory levels at each store location, allowing businesses to track stock levels and avoid stockouts or overstocking.

All product information such as SKUs, descriptions, pricing, and attributes are stored and managed centrally. This eliminates the need for duplicate data entry across different stores and is very helpful in reducing errors.

However, Inventory management is one of the main complex operations to manage when it comes to multi-store businesses. But automating those operations makes it easy.

Stock transferring across your locations

When a particular store runs low on a specific product, the system can generate alerts or notifications to notify the inventory manager. They can then initiate a stock transfer to fulfill the demand and maintain adequate stock levels at each store.

It eliminates human errors that could appear when managing your inventory and make the process simple and secure.

Multi-store promotions and pricing

It allows you to easily track and analyze the performance of your promotions. The centralized POS allows you to manage your promotional campaigns for all your stores. You can define discounts, special offers, and loyalty programs that apply across your stores

Customer management

It allows you to manage your entire customers of different business locations. Customers can redeem targeted offers from any of your stores. They can also use loyalty coupons to get special offers. So, it makes more simple to manage them with 100% efficiency.

The multi-POS include some features such as:

Centralized Customer Database: The centralized customer database stores customer information such as names, contact details, purchase history, and loyalty points. and this data can be accessed from any of your stores. If a customer makes a purchase from one store and then buys from another store later, you can still access their data. This helps you identify loyal customers and provide them with special discounts or rewards to enhance their experience.

Customer Profiles: As we discussed above the POS collects customer data and stores it in their profiles. It helps you to quickly identify their buying behavior and give special consideration if he is a loyal customer.

Unique Customer IDs: It gives unique customer IDs for each of your customers. So, when the customer purchases any of your stores you can simply identify him using the ID.

Loyalty Program: Integrate a loyalty program to reward and incentivize customers. The loyalty program should be integrated with the multi-store POS system, It allows customers to earn and redeem loyalty points across your different stores

Analyze performance

Getting report and analyzing it is one of the best features provided by smart point of sale software like LithosPOS. It allows you to analyze your business performance and identify which business is growing and which are not.

Employee management

A multi-store business has hundreds and thousands of employees. Managing them and identifying their efficiency and inefficiency is challenging.

Using the POS system you can set employees access and permission based on their roles and responsibilities.

However, It also benefits time and attendance tracking, staff scheduling, and performance tracking.

For better understanding, we have shown the above content in a table.

BenefitDescription
Centralized managementEasily manage and control multiple locations, including sales, inventory, and employee performance
Inventory managementMonitor real-time inventory data to optimize profitability, track stock performance, and identify trends
Stock transferring Seamlessly transfer stock between locations, ensuring adequate inventory levels and avoiding stockouts
Multi-store promotionsImplement consistent pricing and promotional campaigns across all stores, maximizing sales opportunities
Customer managementEfficiently manage customers across different locations, enabling them to redeem offers and use loyalty coupons
Performance analysisAccess comprehensive reports to analyze business performance, identify growth opportunities, and make data-driven decisions
Employee Management Set access and permissions for employees based on their roles and responsibilities. Streamline time and attendance tracking, staff scheduling, and performance monitoring across multiple stores.

However, to get succeed in a multi-store business, you need to consider point of sale system. It simplifies your complex business operations and secures your business.

LithosPOS multi-store POS

LithosPOS is a leading point of sale software provider for all types of multi-store businesses. We are trusted by 6000+ retail and restaurant chains. With its industry-leading features, including integration with 12+ payment partners, multiple payment methods, online ordering and eCommerce integration, inventory management, accounting integration, and much more.

The interesting fact is LithosPOS support intention is to support all types of retail and restaurant businesses. So the price of the software is affordable for anyone.

Best forRestaurants and retailers
PriceVisit pricing
Free trial14 days free trial
eCommerce POS integrationYes
Payment processingYes
Customer loyalty programYes
Accounting integration Yes
Marketing integrationYes
Inventory managementYes
Aggragators integrationYes
Multi-location managementYes
Report and analyticsYes
Employee managementYes

Faq about multi-store POS

Can I monitor sales and inventory levels for each store individually?

Yes, you can access your store reports and analyze the performance of each store. and take appropriate actions at the right time.

Can I transfer stock between different store locations?

Yes, you can transfer stocks between your stores. The multi-store POS lets you identify low stocks and transfer across your locations.

Can I analyze the performance of each store separately?

The multi-store POS allows you to analyze and take appropriate business actions. You can analyze the reports of each store separately whether it is an online or offline store.

Is it possible to integrate other business tools and systems with a multi-store POS system?

Yes, you can integrate various business tools like CRM, accounting, inventory managing software, payments, online ordering, and e-commerce platforms. POS simplifies managing those business functions and allows you to manage them through POS.

How can I get started with a multi-store POS system for my business?

You can set up your LithosPOS account within 5 minutes. and start selling with it. LithosPOS is one of the leading point of sale software providers.

Categories
blog Restaurant POS Retail POS

Frequently asked questions about POS

POS (Point of Sale) systems date back to the early 1970s when the first electronic cash registers were introduced. The POS system has made so many changes in the restaurant and retail industry. In the 1980s it made more advancements. In the early 2000s, the Internet became widely used, and this led to the popularity of cloud-based POS systems. That made the POS system more flexible. This made business owners access business data from anywhere.

It made complex business operations simple and efficient. You can manage various business operations together and simplify all areas of your business.

However, there are so many questions raised about POS systems. In this blog, we would like to answer every question about POS systems and it will clear all of your doubts.

What is a POS system?

POS system is a combination of hardware and software that can be used to simplify and keep efficient your business. It helps you to fulfill the sales transactions. The POS software is the operating system used on the hardware devices such as computers, tablets, mobile, cash registers, barcode scanners, receipt printers, and payment terminals. It allows you to manage your inventory, payment, customers, employees, and other sales business operations.

2. How does a POS system work in sales?

When a customer makes a purchase the salesperson enters or scans the item to the POS. The POS system calculates the product price. Customers choose a payment method such as a card or cash. The system processes the payment and updates the inventory, deducting the sold items from the available stock.

3. What are the key components of a POS system?

There are 7 key components that have a POS system

  1. Hardware: Hardware is the physical components including a tablet, cash register, barcode scanner, receipt printer, and card reader.
  2. Software: Software is an essential part of POS. it includes managing sales, inventory, and other business operations.
  3. Payment Processing: Payment processing makes sure your payment transactions are simple and secure. It helps you to offer multiple payment methods.
  4. Inventory Management: Inventory management helps you to keep your inventory operations efficient. It tracks every item in your inventory and notifies you when the stock goes down.
  5. Sales Reporting and Analytics: Sales reporting is one of the reporting features in POS. It allows you to generate reports such as sales, purchase, and tax reports. You can access to the data from anywhere and analyze the business performance in real time.
  6. Customer Relationship Management (CRM): It allows you to manage customers and enhance your service quality. POS tracks each customer by creating customer profiles, recording purchases, and keeping history, loyalty programs, and marketing campaigns
  7. Integrations: POS software can be integrated with various software such as accounting, CRM, Inventory, and more. It allows you to manage the business and everything connected with POS.

4. What features should I look for in a POS system

There are several features you need to look at in a POS system.

FeaturesConsider these
Customer Supportmake sure you will get support from the software providers team. and solve the bugs and issues that may happen
User friendly interfaceUser-friendly interface
Inventory managementIt should have a wide range of inventory management capabilities, including real-time tracking of stock levels, automatic alerts for low inventory, and the ability to generate purchase orders.
Sales Reporting and AnalyticsIt should provide detailed sales reports and analytics, such as daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly sales summaries. This information can help you make informed business decisions
Payment ProcessingMultiple payment options should support, including credit/debit cards, mobile payments (such as Apple Pay or Google Pay), and cash. It should also be able to integrate with popular payment processors
Integration with Other SystemsThe POS system should be integrated with other business software, such as accounting software, customer relationship management (CRM) systems, or e-commerce platforms.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)A POS system allows you to capture and track customer information, manage loyalty programs, and generate customer reports.
ScalabilityThe POS system should be capable to support and grow with your business expansion, such as multiple store locations or an increasing number of products.
SecurityThe system should have the option to integrate with existing hardware and software.
Ease of Integration and UpdatesThe easy-to-use interface that minimizes training time for your staff

5. Can a POS system handle inventory management?

Yes, LithosPOS is equipped with inventory management functionalities that allow businesses to track and manage their inventory.

6. Is it possible to integrate a POS system with other business tools?

Yes, you can integrate POS with various business tools such as accounting, CRM, inventory management, e-commerce platforms, online aggregators, payment gateways, and marketing and sales tools.

7. What types of businesses can benefit from using a POS system?

The POS can benefit all types of retail and restaurant businesses such as groceries, supermarkets, jewelry, electronic stores, coffee shop, food trucks, pizzerias, bakeries, quick service, and more.

8. How secure are POS systems?

One of the best ways to secure your customer data from hackers is encryption. When the payments and customer data are fetched to the POS it encrypts the data and secures it. Because everything is cloud-based the data is secured from the physical damage and threats.

9. Can a POS system accept different payment methods?

Yes, leading POS software like LithosPOS allows you to accept various payment methods such as cash, card, mobile wallets, QR code payments, and contactless.

10. Can a POS system generate sales reports and analytics?

Yes, POS helps you to better understand your daily, monthly, and annual reports such as sales, tax, and purchases. You can also access and analyze the sales data in real time.

11. Are there cloud-based POS systems available?

Yes, LithosPOS is a cloud-based smart point of sale software. it allows you to manage your business remotely from anywhere in the world.

12. What are the benefits of using a cloud-based POS system?

By using cloud-based POS you can simplify and manage the business with efficiency. It allows you to access the business data from anywhere and manage, you will get real-time data and analytics, It helps you to scale and manage with flexibility, It automatically updates and checks security vulnerabilities and fixes, It is easy to integrate and higher compatible, and cut the maintenance and other costs.

13. Do I need an internet connection to use a POS system?

Smart POS systems like LithosPOS can be used without an internet connection and make sales. After the internet is restored the data will be sync to the cloud.

14. Can a POS system handle multiple locations or stores?

Yes, POS can help you to manage your multiple-location business operations. POS provides a centralized dashboard, inventory management options, reporting and analytics of each business, loyalty program options for each store, and employee management, which helps you to expand your business.

15. Can a POS system be used for online sales?

POS helps you to expand your online business. Whether you owned a restaurant or retail business POS helps you to scale your business to online. POS allows you to integrate with various e-commerce platforms for e-commerce and food aggregators for restaurants, manage your online and offline orders, do online payment processing for online transactions, automate inventory, and generate reports and analytics.

16. Are there POS systems specifically designed for restaurants?

LithosPOS is a leading POS software provider which can meet restaurant business operations. It was built to fulfill all the needs of restaurant owners. It helps restaurant businesses to automate all their business operations such as inventory management, payment operations, generating various reports like tax and sales, vendor management, and customer and employee management. It also helps to scale businesses online by integrating online food aggregators and payment partners.

17. Can a POS system track customer data and offer loyalty programs?

Yes, POS allows you to track every customer who is interacted with your business. It records the contact details and purchase history of each customer. It helps you to identify your most loyal customers by analyzing the spending history of each customer.

By using the contact details of each customer you can run various marketing campaigns such as direct messages, WhatsApp, social media-targeted ads, and SMS marketing. It allows you to target them and share personalized offers.

18. What type of customer support is available for POS systems?

LithosPOS provide 24/7 call and chat and email support. Our team of highly skilled professionals is dedicated to assisting you whenever you need help. You also have the option to get support by sharing your screen via AnyDesk or TeamViewer. This allows our team to provide more comprehensive assistance and better address your needs.

19. Can a POS system integrate with accounting software?

Yes, POS can be integrated with various accounting software. LithosPOS helps you to integrate with leading accounting software such as SAP, Oracle Cloud, QuickBooks, Emaar, ZohoBooks, and Tally.

20. Can a POS system handle mobile payments?

You can use POS on mobile devices and handle payment transactions. POS systems can integrate with popular mobile payment apps like Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay, or other mobile wallets. Customers can use smartphones or wearable devices, such as smartwatches, to make payments.

21. Are there POS systems that support multiple languages?

Yes, LIthosPOS Support multiple languages such as Arabic, Chinese Old, Chinese New, English, Spanish, and French.

22. How often should I update POS system?

The POS system automatically updates. You don’t want to manually update. The updates can include bug fixes, security patches, feature enhancements, and compatibility improvements.

23. Can a POS system handle offline transactions?

Yes, POS can handle your offline orders very efficiently. You will get very detailed reports of the details of your online and offline orders. So it allows you to manage your offline business transactions such as payments, inventory, customer management, employee management, and more.

Categories
blog Restaurant POS Retail POS

Guide to the Best POS Systems for UK Restaurants

The restaurant industry is one of the most profitable businesses in the UK; however, competition within the industry is also high. After the pandemic, conditions have improved, leading to a resurgence in the restaurant industry. Reports indicate that restaurant owners and customers alike are keen on continuing to utilize many of the digital innovations that were adopted during the pandemic. A case in point is the dramatic increase in the use of digital payments and online ordering.

However, everyone offering these digital services. To stay in this competitive market you need more than that. I mean you have to focus on increasing customer experience and other business functions to succeed. So, in this modern world for bringing customer experience you can rely on technologies. For a restaurant, the POS system Is the number one technology

POS system helps you to manage, simplify, and give customer experience. It works as a centralized platform and allows you to manage different business operations through it. It is really important to choose the right system that is compatible with your business and country. You have so many options in restaurant POS systems in the UK. 

Let’s discuss why you need to consider restaurant POS systems that are built for UK restaurants,

LithosPOS for UK Restaurants

Lithospos is a fast-growing SAAS retail-tech company. We support 5000+ independent f&b/retailers and 100+ chains in 70+ countries. Key markets: US, UK, GCC, South Africa, India. It is a cloud-based, integrated POS software, so you have seamless integrations possible with payments, e-commerce, and online ordering. Embrace modern tech for retail success. Trusted globally for high-quality, affordable solutions. Automate billing and POS for faster, smarter business control.

Best forRestaurants and retailers
PriceVisit pricing
Free trial14 days free trial
eCommerce POS integrationYes
Payment processingYes
Customer loyalty programYes
Accounting integration Yes
Marketing integrationYes
Inventory managementYes
Aggregators integrationYes
Multi-location managementYes
Report and analyticsYes
retail pos software | Lithospos

Why you need to invest in the right POS software

The POS software makes your business simple and facilitates a smooth business. Before searching for the right software, you must know what features make a POS complete.

A smart POS works in various business functions and keeps those automated and efficient. It allows you to streamline all your business operations. The right software that fits your business should be capable of meeting your business needs such as inventory, reports, employees, and customer management. That is the feature that makes the POS system complete.

Pro tip: Business functions such as menus, service methods, payment integrations, and online ordering vary from country to country. It is imperative to choose a leading POS system that includes various features for each country. LithosPOS is one of the leading restaurant POS systems in the UK that are partnered with payment partners. like SUMUP, Adyen and Tidypay.

The reason why UK restaurants need a specific POS system

Let’s discuss more deeply why UK restaurants need a specific POS system.

Payment integration: Integrated payment is one of the key features of a POS system. It helps simplify your payment operations by integrating POS with various payment partners.

LithosPOS provides a wide range of integrated payments. It allows you to choose the right payment partners based on your country. For example, Stripe and SumUp are popular payment gateways in the UK. Customers are more likely to choose those payment partners. Customers will be highly satisfied and this leads to better customer retention when you can meet customer needs.

The projected total value of transactions in the Digital Payments market for 2023 is estimated to be around US$439.30 billion in the UK.

Digital payments are growing exponentially. Customers are choosing payment methods like contactless cards, Apple Pay and Android Pay. Smart point-of-sale systems like LithosPOS allow you to accept money from different payment methods.

Online ordering: One of the key features of UK Restaurant POS is the Online Ordering Aggregator. The restaurant can scale its business online with the help of aggregator integration. POS allows you to manage your online and offline sales through your POS dashboard.

POS can increase your sales if you integrate with online food aggregators. It is important to ensure that the POS you are using or going to buy can be integrated with UK-based online food aggregators.

Menu Engineering: better menu engineering will boost your profit margin. Identifying your customer’s needs and their favorite items can help you to construct a profitable menu.

POS system tracks your sales and identifies your trending items. Based on that you can manage stocks and make sure the ingredients are available.

Customer preferences may vary based on location. If you have multiple restaurants, you can understand the popular items at each location and plan the menu accordingly.

Customer Support and Updates: 24/7 support from the POS system is a must to get proper support for any queries and doubts that may arise in the software and to carry on business operations without any interruption.

It’s a good idea to ensure that the system providers you plan to purchase from can provide support for your business in the UK during business hours. So it is better to choose POS providers who give 24/7 support.

Customer Loyalty Programs: POS tracking customer details such as name, contact details, and buying history. You can use the data and run targeted marketing campaigns. It allows you to run loyalty programs tailored to the UK market such as offers like exclusive discounts, rewards, and personalized promotions.

Reservation and Waitlist Management: The POS system allows you to manage reservations and waitlists, allowing UK restaurant owners to optimize table utilization and provide a seamless guest experience. It makes it simpler for employees to manage customers, and you can keep your restaurant simple and manage rush hours.

Integration with Accounting Software: Explain how the POS software integrates with popular accounting software used in the UK, making financial management, tax reporting, and purchase and sale reports are simple to generate.

LithosPOS can be integrated with leading accounting software such as SAP, Oracle Cloud, QuickBooks, Emaar, ZohoBooks, and Tally. It will help you to automate your accounting operations.

To run and grow your restaurant business in the UK the POS system will be the solution. At the same time, it is really important to make sure you are investing in the right restaurant POS system in the UK.

Author’s Recommendation:

LithosPOS, an integrated POS Solution for F&B businesses.

 LithosPOS restaurant POS offers plenty of restaurant-specific features like integrated payments, multi-kitchen management, aggregator integrations, Queue management Apps, waiter Apps, advanced menu management, kitchen display, and Kiosk app to efficiently manage a restaurant. It monitors trends and automates PO to efficiently manage inventory. With an easy-to-use UI and 100+ integrations including payments, aggregators, accounting systems, and E-commerce, checkouts are 20% faster, enhancing the customer experience and efficiency. Works on iOS, Android, and Windows. interestingly they offer a 14-day free trial to learn the systems.

Key benefits:

Integrated Payments With SUMUP and Tidypay.

Ensures fast and secure payments and makes the checkouts 20% faster and more efficient, eliminating the need for manual entry and preventing clerical errors.

Aggregator integration with Deliveroo and GloriaFood to streamline order delivery.

The orders placed are directly received in the point of sale and managing the online orders and delivery becomes easier.

Integrated with Shopify.

It helps simplify selling across multiple channels by sharing product, inventory, sales, and customer information between your offline store and online store. This integration helps to centralize your business management and minimize manual reconciliations, enhancing efficiency.

Categories
POS Restaurant POS Retail POS Small businesses

Smart POS: The Future of Point-of-Sale Systems

To meet your business operations you need to invest in the right smart POS system. Rather than investing your time and human efforts to manually manage your business, you can use modern technologies. Technology is getting more advanced day by day. 85% of small businesses are investing in technologies to get success in their business. Now you have technologies that can reduce and simplify various business operations. It automates the most important and complex operations.

Managing inventory, payments, customers and employees can be challenging. And you need more manpower to manage those operations manually. A smart POS system helps you to manage and simplify your business operations. It automates most of your business operations and executes with 100% efficiency.

A smart POS system like LithosPOS can integrate your various business operations together and allows you to manage everything in one software. For getting better insight into a smart POS system let’s dive into deep.

What is LithosPOS?

LithosPOS is a cloud-based smart POS software designed to streamline retail/restaurant operations, providing businesses with the tools they need to manage their operations efficiently. LithosPOS integrates with other systems such as accounting software, marketing tools, inventory management systems, CRM software, and other payment systems.

We integrate with over 50 payment providers and have analytical account integration with SAP, Oracle Cloud, and Zoho Book. It’s used by 6,000+ businesses across 70+ countries and supports 5 languages. We also provide aggregator integrations with Uber Eats, DoorDash, Deliveroo, GrubHub, and more. Registered in the US as LithosPOS, Inc.

Key Features of LithosPOS Smart POS

Inventory management

Inventory management is one of the key features of LithosPOS. It helps you to automate complex inventory operations. It includes generating stock and notifying you when inventory goes out of stock and preventing the possibility of losses.

LithosPOS is a point-of-sale system that offers a range of features to help small and medium-sized businesses manage their sales and inventory. With LithosPOS, you can track inventory levels, manage customer data, generate sales reports, and more.

Tracking Inventory

With LithosPOS, you can track your inventory levels in real time. That means that you always know how much stock is available in your inventory, and you can easily generate stocks when stocks go down. You can also set up automatic alerts to notify you when inventory levels fall below your preset level.

Automated Inventory

It helps you to automate your inventory ordering process. When stock levels go below a certain inventory level, the software automatically generates purchase orders and sends them to your suppliers. This helps you save time and ensures that you always have enough stock in your inventory to meet customer demand.

Barcode Scanning

Barcode scanning makes it easier to manage your inventory. With barcode scanning, you can quickly and accurately scan products and update inventory levels in real-time. This helps prevent stockouts and ensures that you always have the products your customers expect.

Stock Keeping Unit

SKU(Stock Keeping Unit) is a unique identifier that gives every product in your inventory. It allows you to quickly identify the items in your stock and their placement. When a customer asks for a specific item you can check the availability and identify its placement. It helps you to speed up your service and provide a better customer experience.

Customer Relationship Management

Customer relationship management (CRM) features to help you manage your customer and improve customer experience. You can also use your existing CRM software by integrating with LithosPOS. and it makes more simple to manage your customers.

Managing Customer Data

Managing your customers can be simplified using LithosPOS. You can store customer contact information, purchase history, and other relevant data in the system. By analyzing the data you understand your loyal customers and provide personalized offers and services.

Customer Loyalty Programs

LithosPOS allows you to create customer loyalty programs to boost customer retention. You can use the customer data and set up different types of loyalty programs such as point and tier-based. It will encourage customers to make more purchases to earn rewards. This leads to increase customer retention and drive more sales.

Email Marketing

Email marketing is one of the best marketing approaches to increase your customer retention strategy. LithosPOS smart POS allows you to create and send email campaigns to your customers. You can use this feature to promote sales, announce new products, or send personalized offers to your customers. This can help improve customer engagement and drive more sales. You can use the customer’s data that POS collects and directly send them personalized promotions and emails.

Sales Reporting

Sales reporting is one of the features that can help you analyze your sales data and take appropriate business decisions.

Real-Time Sales Data

The smart POS system allows you to access real-time sales data. This means that you can analyze your business performance at any time, and you can quickly identify trends or issues that may require your attention. Because the software is cloud-based you can access the data from anywhere with the help of the internet.

Custom Reports

The smart POS allows you to generate custom reports based on your specific business needs. You can generate reports that show sales by product, sales by employee, and performance reports of each of your businesses. This can help you gain deeper insights into your business and make appropriate decisions.

Sales Analytics

Sales and analytics features that can help you analyze your sales data and identify trends or opportunities. By analyzing the report you can identify your top-selling and worst products. It ensures that your business is running profitably. This allows you to take data-driven decisions to improve your business performance.

Employee Management

Managing employees can be really challenging. By automating using LithosPOS you can simplify those tasks.

Employee Time Clock

It allows you to track your employees’ time and attendance. You can identify their efficiency and inefficiency. This can help you ensure that your employees are arriving on time and working the hours they are scheduled to work.

You can also use this feature to calculate employee payroll and manage employee benefits.

Performance Tracking

Analyzing your employee’s performance is really important. You can set up performance metrics and goals for each employee, and analyze the performance of each of them. This can help you identify areas where your employees need additional training, and it can help you improve your overall business performance.

Multi-Store Management

Automating your business operations will help you to simply manage multi-location businesses. It allows you to access data and analyze the performance of each location and manage the business.

Centralized Management

LithosPOS allows you to manage all of your store locations from a central dashboard. This allows you to view sales data, inventory levels, and employee performance across all of your locations.

You can also make sure the store is running profitably and make updates on products or pricing, which will be reflected in all of your stores.

Stock transferring

LithosPOS allows you to share inventory between your store locations. This means that if one location runs out of stock, you can quickly transfer inventory from one location to another to meet customer demand. This is helpful prevent stockouts and enhance your service quality. It also protects you from overstocking.

Employee Access Control

LithosPOS smart POS offers an employee access controlling option, which allows you to restrict access to certain features or data based on employee roles. This can help you ensure that your employees only have access to the data and features that are necessary for their job functions. It helps you to protect business data by only giving access to specific employees.

The smart POS system is a modern solution for the restaurant and retail industry. To get succeed in this competitive market the POS is your friend. By automating all your business operations you will get more time to focus on other business functions. LithosPOS the leading smartest POS provides 14 day free trial. It allows you to experience the future of your business. SignUp Now.

Smart POS frequently asked questions (FAQs)

What is a Smart POS system?

A Smart POS system is a technology solution that combines traditional point of sale functionalities with advanced features like cloud-based system. It is designed to streamline and enhance various business operations, including sales, payments, reporting, and customer interactions.

How does a Smart POS system work?

A Smart POS system typically consists of hardware (such as a touchscreen terminal or tablet) and software that work together to facilitate sales transactions. The software manages inventory, payment processing, and report generation, and may offer additional features like loyalty programs, employee management, and integration with other business tools.

Can a Smart POS system work offline?

Some Smart POS systems offer offline capabilities, allowing businesses to continue processing transactions even when an internet connection is temporarily unavailable. Offline mode typically allows for storing sales data locally and synchronizing it with the cloud once the connection is restored.

What types of businesses can benefit from a Smart POS system?

Smart POS systems can be beneficial for all types of small and medium-sized retail stores, restaurants, and more.

Categories
blog Restaurant Restaurant POS

Kitchen management software – Everything to run and grow your business

Technology is simplifying businesses. Industries like restaurant businesses have so many options to simplify their business operations. You can invest in a system like a restaurant management software, that can be used to manage and be successful in your business. This system helps you to integrate your various business operations such as inventory, customer management, employee management, payments, online ordering, and more.

restaurant pos software for coffee shop, food businesses | LithosPOS
restaurant pos software for coffee shop, food businesses | LithosPOS

How restaurant management software work

Restaurant management software connects your various business functions together. The software works as a centralized platform. The restaurant management system can be connected with kitchen management systems such as kitchen order tickets (KOT), point of sale (POS), KDS (kitchen display system), and CDS (customer display), Kiosk.

For example, the restaurant management system works like this.

In frontend:

1. Customer access to the digital menus and placing an order through the kiosk.

2. Customers can use contactless payment to pay. Because the system can be integrated with leading payment partners

3. Server serving the food or customer collecting the food from the counter.

In backend:

1. Customer orders passing to the POS and kitchen display

2. POS collects the customer data such as names, purchase history, and more

3. Chef preparing the food and serving

Later on:

Restaurant owners can simplify their complex business operations such as inventory management, customer management, payment transactions, and online delivery, and use data and analytics for better business planning and decision-making.

Cloud-based kitchen management software

The cloud-based kitchen management software works with the help of an internet connection. The data is stored in the cloud. It allows access to data at any time from anywhere. When compared to legacy systems the cloud-based kitchen management software has so many benefits.

Let’s discuss its benefits.

Accessible from anywhere

As long as you have an internet connection, cloud-based software allows you to access your restaurant’s data from any location. This means that even when you’re not on-site, you can check inventory levels, manage sales, and keep an eye on employee performance. And you only need an internet connection and a web browser. You can also manage your business without the need for an internet connection and can be synced when the internet connection is restored. 

Scale the software as the business grows

As your restaurant expands, you might need to open new locations or increase the size of your business. Without needing to make a costly hardware or software upgrade investment, cloud-based software makes it simple to scale up your system to adapt to these changes. When you expand your business you also get more responsible and have more things to manage. Cloud-based software helps you to manage your business as it grows.

Less upfront investment

Because you don’t need to buy and maintain your own servers or hardware, cloud-based software often requires less upfront cost when compared to traditional software. 

Automatic updates

Managing your company can be difficult, especially when it comes to implementing new technology. But that’s not a problem anymore thanks to cloud-based technologies. The software provider will handle all the updates, allowing you to concentrate on operating your business without interruption. It automatically updates the software. Therefore, you can be confident that your company is in good hands while concentrating on what is really important.

Collaboration among staff members

Building a good team is very important in business. Good teamwork can be fostered by accurately assigning tasks and giving only essential employees access to data. It also helps to eliminate possible confusion among employees.

How to Train Your Staff

There are many things to consider when implementing new technology into a business. When you introduce a system like kitchen management software to your restaurant, it takes time for your employees to get used to it. Such challenges can be eased by providing proper training. Some solutions are given below.

Start with the basics

Before exploring more features, confirm that your team is familiar with the basic functionality of the software. Give a brief description of the software, its application in the kitchen, and its purpose. This will help them to understand and work with the software easily.

Give your workers hands-on training so they can use the software

Create a training where you can practice using the software, or schedule training sessions with the software supplier. Encourage them to clarify by asking any questions that confuse them. Online training using software such as TeamViewer and AnyDesk is a better way to get training. This allows both your software provider and you to access the system.

Ongoing support

It is important to ensure that support is always available. Ensure that employees have access to materials and ongoing support so they can use the software effectively. specialized support staff, instructional videos, or training manuals so they can use them to find solutions. Also, make sure the software provider offers 24/7 support.

Provide incentives

Consider offering rewards or incentives to staff members who specialize in the software. Often software bugs need to be encouraged to call customer support to clear them quickly. This will encourage them to learn and master the software quickly while offering rewards or incentives. By giving incentives employee retention can also increase.

Develop standard operating procedures (SOPs)

Create SOPs that describe how to use the software in various situations. This will enable the employees to use the software themselves without contacting the software provider even for small things.

The Top Features to Look for in Kitchen Management Software

Choosing kitchen management software for your restaurant is one of the most critical things for your restaurant. Because it helps you to manage your business activities as a whole. The goal of transparent business can be achieved by using the software. When selecting kitchen management software, there are several key features to consider:

Inventory management

One of the key features of any kitchen management software is an inventory management system. You should be able to manage vendor relationships, create purchase orders and track inventory levels and returns. It automates your inventory operations and makes efficient management. It alerts you via notifications when supply levels are low and provides real-time updates on inventory levels. And stocks will automatically regenerate when they go below your priest level.

Menu management

The software should be capable of simple menu management and updating, including price and ingredient settings. It will help you monitor inventory levels and sales information to help you optimize your menu selections. And keeping your menu at its most profitable.

Order management

The software should have an easy user interface to manage the orders. It will enable your employees to manage orders quickly. This will help you to give a premium customer experience.

Employee scheduling

Another advantage of the software is employee management. You can manage shifts, schedule employees and track attendance with the software. kitchen management software helps to understand the performance of each employee and provides rewards and training for them. Also, it has features like task creation, job assignment, and feedback to employees which helps you to effectively promote employees and build a good team.

Reporting and analytics

kitchen management software provides comprehensive reporting and analytics, including information on sales, inventory levels, worker productivity, and customers. It is very helpful in making result-oriented decisions in business as you get real-time data from day to day.

Integration with other systems

To streamline operations and reduce data entry errors, the software should be able to integrate with other systems. This makes your kitchen management software more powerful. Integrating software used for various business functions like CRM, accounting, loyalty programs, payment partners, and aggregator integration allows you to manage the entire business by using the software.

Software should be mobile-friendly

The software should be mobile-friendly. So it helps employees to access data and perform tasks from anywhere in the kitchen or restaurant. Mobile devices include smartphones, tablets, and iPad devices.

Smart kitchen management software is able to handle every business operation in your restaurant. However, it is really important that invest in the right software that can help you to simplify and achieve your business goals. Smart systems like LithosPOS have the complete solution to meet your restaurant business goals.

19 Benefits of restaurant management software

Here are some benefits of restaurant management software

1. Reduce food waste

The software allows you to track inventory levels. So you will measure the available ingredients to make a specific item. You can also identify your best-selling days and which item sells most. So you prepare food according to that. This allows you to reduce food waste and costs.

2. Optimize menu planning

To make your menu profitable you need to plan your menu by relying on data. The software gives you a detailed sales report. So you can identify your top-selling and worst-selling items. It helps you to plan your menu and make sure it is profitable.

3. Streamline ordering

Automating the business operation helps you to streamline all your business operations. It reduces errors and keeps your business efficient.

4. Improve staff productivity

By automating various operations in business your employees have more time to work on their tasks. This helps them to improve productivity.

5. Enhance communication

The restaurant management software facilitates efficient communication between our staff. Your front-of-house staff and kitchen staff will have clear communication. The orders are transferred directly to KDS(kitchen display system) and eliminate the possibility of errors and misunderstanding.

6. Monitor food costs

The software allows you to track the cost of each ingredient and the overall cost of the item that you need to make. So it helps you to identify the trend and control the cost according to that.

7. Avoid over-ordering

By automating your inventory operations you can set a stock level and even if the stock goes below the preset level, then the orders will be generated automatically.

8. Reduce errors

Automation helps you to reduce errors. Every business transaction is recorded in POS. So it eliminates common human mistakes in order taking, food preparation, payment transaction, and more.

9. Manage staff schedules

Manage your staff and assign roles and schedule their work. You will get a detailed report that contains their shift report. It helps you to identify the efficiency and inefficiency of each employee. However, it allows you to get detailed insight into employee performance and recognize loyal employees and can be used to encourage your employees.

10. Streamline accounting

Automating your various accounting operations can help you to keep efficient and simplify those operations. It allows you to streamline your accounts-related operations. Automatically generate reports such as sales, purchases,s, and other tax-related reports. 

11. Reduce equipment downtime

Kitchen management software helps you to reduce equipment downtime by tracking equipment usage and maintenance needs. You can reduce equipment downtime by tracking equipment usage, scheduling maintenance, monitoring performance, get alerts when equipment is due for maintenance or is experiencing issues.

12. Analyze sales data

The software provides a detailed report of your performance. You can identify your top-selling and worst-selling products and which date makes more sales and which is not. It helps you to keep your business profitable all the time. Also, it is helpful to satisfy your customers by offering the most trending products on your menu.

13. Increase efficiency

By accessing the real-time data you will get full control over your business. It gives you insight into sales, inventory, employees, and other business functions. Because the software is cloud-based, the data can be accessed from anywhere and it facilitates streamlining your business operations.

14. Improve food quality

This enables you to maintain the right amount of ingredients to make a specific item. So you can consistently keep the same taste and it will lead to better employee and customer satisfaction.

15. Manage multiple locations

It helps you to handle multi-location business with ease. You can keep your both inventories efficient by automatic them. It allows you to transfer stocks from one restaurant to another. Overall, the software is really helpful to scale and manage multiple businesses. 

16. Improve vendor management

Managing vendors is one of the challenges faced by restaurant owners. With the software, they can streamline vendor communication, reduce errors, and get real-time tracking and reporting.

17. Automate food cost calculations

By tracking the inventory the software allows you to calculate the cost of every meal to prepare. This will allow you to keep your food cost fixed and protect you from losses. 

18. Reduce training costs

The software is so simple. Your employees will simply adapt to the software. So you don’t need to give special training and spent money.

19. Increase customer satisfaction

Customer satisfaction is one of the most important of restaurant businesses. Kitchen management software helps to give a premium customer experience. Automating your various business operations leads to quality service. Quality of service really matters to customer satisfaction.

Automating order-taking helps to improve your order-taking processes and payment operations. Automating other operations such as inventory also helps to provide a premium customer experience. It makes sure of the availability of ingredients to prepare dishes. This helps to make your menu profitable and always have the customer’s favorite dishes available.

Categories
blog Restaurant

Restaurant Automation

Technology getting more advanced day by day. in the case of the restaurant industry technology plays an important role. So many tasks that are more complex to do manually become more simple by automating. Technology revolutionized the restaurant industry. It causes the advent of restaurant automation.

Automation helps restaurants to reduce labor costs and enable an efficient workflow. In this blog, we are going to cover everything that you need to know about restaurant automation.

In this blog, we are going to discuss

What is restaurant automation?

Benefits of restaurant automation

Restaurant automation tools

Let’s discuss one by one

What is restaurant automation?

Restaurant automation is the process of automating manual business tasks with the help of technology. Enabling automation in your business will help you to save time and reduce labor costs. To survive in this highly competitive market and with labor costs, you have to rely on automation.

It is hard to run your business without the help of technology. Technology helps you to facilitate a smooth workflow in your restaurant. Let’s learn more about the benefits of implementing automation in business.

21 Benefits of restaurant automation

Automation makes your jobs easier. It is challenging to keep your business 100% efficient. Especially if you are the only person to manage the business. Automation can help you to manage your entire business.

1. Increased Efficiency

Automation helps you to speed up your service. It increases your restaurant’s efficiency. For example, by providing a self-ordering option in your restaurant, the order processing time can be reduced and the automated kitchen equipment helps you to speed up your food preparation processes.

2. Improved Accuracy

It helps you to reduce human errors. Especially if you are taking orders manually. Automation eliminates possible misunderstandings between customers and employees. and it keeps your order processing accurate.

3. Cost Savings

It helps you to reduce your cost. labor cost is one of the highest expenses in every business. by automating various business operations you can reduce labor costs. it also helps to reduce other expenses such as energy consumption, food waste, and more.

4. Enhanced Customer Experience

You can enhance customer experience by enabling automation in your business. By reducing customer wait time you can deliver food on time before customers expect.

Automation keeps order accuracy and gives more freedom to choose. Technology such as self-ordering kiosks is helpful to customers to order food themselves. It gives more freedom to choose their dishes and gives the option to prescribe if any special ingredients are needed.

5. Increased Data Collection

Data plays an important role in businesses. Automation helps restaurants to collect valuable customer data that can be used to take crucial business decisions. The software such as point of sale software track every customer by creating a profile. It stores customer purchase history data such as their spending, top buying items, and more.

The data can be used to plan a winning marketing strategy. It also stores customer contact details such as email, and mobile number, so you can use them for various promotional activities.

6. Reduced Labor Costs 

Automating various business operations such as order-taking, food preparing, and serving can reduce manpower and labor cost. Now customers can order and pay for themselves. So you can run a business with a limited amount of employees.

It is helping businesses that are struggling to get and retain labor in the market.

7. Improved Food Safety 

Automation helps you to eliminate the possibility of unhealthy food preparations. For example, an automated food preparation system helps you to always cook at the safest temperature, while automated dispensing systems can help to reduce the risk of cross-contamination.

8. Increased Productivity

To increase productivity you can invest in automation. Automation helps you to get more productivity when compared to labor. humans need more time to do a task. By automating those tasks your employees can focus on various business operations such as customer experience, and menu management.

9. Better Inventory Management

Keeping inventory efficient is a crucial part of a restaurant business. By enabling restaurant automation you can streamline all your inventory operations.

Investing in an inventory management system can be beneficial for you. It keeps your inventory efficient. It notifies you when you run out of stock on a specific item and automatically generates stocks.

Simplify your inventory operations such as purchase order receiving, product variants and composites, transfer orders across your stores, stock adjustments, label printing, and purchase returns.

10. Competitive Advantage

Using automation and technologies in your restaurant gives your business a competitive edge. Customer is always looking for something to experience. Even if you are facing a high competition business then this will be the best way to win. Customers will more likely to choose your restaurant because you can provide a premium customer experience.

11. Remote Monitoring

You cannot always be in the restaurant to manage it. While even if you are outside of the restaurant you can manage by using cloud-based software. You can track the performance of your business and take appropriate business decisions. So you can manage your business without being available in a restaurant.

12. Reduced Physical Contact

Reduce physical contact with customers and employees. By offering contactless ordering and payment you can reduce the interaction between them. During the pandemic situations, it was really helpful to keep social distance in your restaurant.

13. Integration with Third-Party Apps 

It is really helpful to scale your business. POS system allows you to integrate with third-party app software such as accounting, CRM, loyalty software, inventory software, and other payment partners and online food aggregators.

It will help you to simplify all your business operations by automating them.

14. Real-Time Inventory Management 

Managing inventory and keeping them efficient and profitable can challenging. Restaurant automation can simplify this task for you. An inventory management system always keeps and makes sure your inventory is profitable.

It allows you to access the inventory data and manage it in real time. This can be a great advantage to identify business opportunities and make quick decisions in business.

15. Efficient Staff Management 

For efficient staff management, you can invest in automation. Restaurant automation helps you to identify the efficiency and inefficiencies of your employees.

Determine any cash shortages that occurred at the end of the shift and monitor for any inaccuracies or manipulations by employees. It protects your business from internal theft and enables efficient management, which can enhance your restaurant’s efficiency.

16. Improved Cash Flow 

Automated systems can help improve cash flow by reducing the time it takes for customers to pay and for the restaurant to process payments. This can help to improve liquidity and reduce the risk of cash flow issues

17. Scalability

Restaurant automation helps you to expand your business and manage it. When you expand your business you will have more things to manage. For example, If you are expanding the business online then you need to make sure your inventory, payment, customer management, loyalty, and more.

Restaurant automation helps you to automate most of your business operations. For example, when a purchase is done through your online business you need to deduct it from your inventory. You cannot change it manually if you receive too many orders.

So this process can be automated. an effective inventory management system can automate those operations. The system also helps to automate other business operations such as payments by integrated payments, loyalty, and other marketing, reports, and analytics for better business decisions.

Overall, restaurant automation gives you everything to grow and expand your business.

18. Consistency 

Automation helps you to keep your menu consistent. For example, you can keep a consistent flavor or temperature for a specific dish. It helps you to offer dishes same taste and flavors every time to customers.

19. Personalization 

When it comes to self-ordering kiosks the customer has more freedom to choose their food and its ingredients. So it makes them a more personalized experience.

You can also check the customer data and identify their favorite items and their ingredients. It will help you to give a premium customer experience

20. Enhanced Marketing 

As we mentioned above the POS system collects customer data. It can be used to market your restaurant. You can identify your most loyal customers and categorize them for promotional campaigns.

21. Improved Employee Satisfaction

Restaurant automation helps your employees to reduce workload and stress. This will give them more time to focus on other business functions such as customer experience.

It is also helpful in getting employees from the market. Because their work makes technology simple and you use it.

The best restaurant automation tool

Several restaurant automation tools can be categorized into two.

Front-of-house 

These tools help you to manage your restaurant’s front-of-house business operations.

1. Customer-facing displays 

Customer facing display is the display that can see the orders and payment detail that can be displayed to customers. Customers can scan the QR code and pay.

2. Self-ordering kiosk

The self-ordering kiosk is a stand-alone device that can be placed in your restaurant location. Customers can see the menu and place orders and make payments through it.

This restaurant automation tool helps you to manage your restaurant with a limited amount of employees. Self-ordering kiosks allow customers to order and pay themselves. So it will keep your orders accurate and enhance customer experience.

3. Qr code ordering

Customers can access the menu and place orders by scanning a QR code placed on the table. This is similar to the self-ordering kiosk and it allows the customer to place orders and pay without the help of your employees.

4. Cloud-based point of sale 

The point of sale system is a powerful tool to automate your restaurant business operations. It allows you to integrate various business operation and manage it.

Most point of sale systems provides the option to manage business operations such as inventory, accounting, CRM, payment, loyalty, and online ordering. The LithosPOS restaurant POS allows you to integrate your existing software such as Inventory management software, accounting software, CRMs, payments, loyalty software, and online ordering such as aggregator integration.

Overall, the POS system has a vital role in restaurant automation tools. It allows you to manage your entire business operations together.

Back of house

1. Kitchen displays 

The kitchen display is the screen that is placed in your kitchen. So the kitchen staff can see the order details such as order time, order special ingredients, delivery time, and more. So the kitchen staff can prepare food according to the order details.

It also eliminates the chances of inefficiencies in orders. It’s because the orders are directly transferred to the POS and kitchen.

2. Automated inventory management 

Inventory management is one of the necessary restaurant automation tools. Automating inventory makes sure your inventory is profitable and provides premium customer service.

You can identify your top selling items on your inventory and keep it available those stocks on your inventory. It will notify you when your stock goes down and you can also automatically generate stocks from your preset level.

3. Robotic kitchens

With the help of robotics, you can simplify so many kitchen operations such as cooking, food delivery, and dishwashing. It allows you to run a smooth business even if you are struggling to get enough labor.

As we discussed the benefits we mentioned consistency. So you can preset ingredients for specific dishes and you can make food with the same amount of ingredients and temperature consistently.

However, to survive in the modern business world, you need to invest in technologies like automation. Efficient facilitation of business operations, even in the absence of the owner, is essential.

Categories
blog POS Retail Retail POS

Best gift shop point of sale (POS) system with easy inventory, billing, and more!

LithosPOS gift shop POS system provides improved efficiency and speed in transactions, it minimizes errors and speeds up the checkout process. Additionally, improved inventory management will help you easily track the items based on their category and combinations. Furthermore, the system can track customer data, which can be used to retarget your customers by sending personalized discounts and offers.

Why you need a POS system for your gift shop

You need a POS system that helps you to keep your business efficient and growing. by using an efficient POS system you can simplify and keep your business operations such as sales, inventory, reporting, and customer relationship management, and you can save time and cost.

A Perfect POS system for Gift Shop

Lithos Gift Shop POS is a fast easy and reliable POS solution that enables a whole new level of customer experience and helps gain customer and product insights collecting actionable insights from POS business intelligence to help you meet customers’ demands based on market trends.

Benefits of Gift Shop POS system of LithosPOS.

LithosPOS smartest Gift Shop POS is built intelligently to streamline various business operations in your gift shop.

Simplifying Gift delivery

We offer a convenient and hassle-free way to send gifts to loved ones, friends, or colleagues. With the help of LithoPOS gift shop POS solutions, customers can now purchase gifts in-store and have them shipped directly to the recipient.

Item tags and product categorization.

LithosPOS offers product tags that categorize products to organize it by vendor, season, price, and margin. It simplifies the tracking and selling of an item to your customer by minimizing errors and reducing the checkout time.

Discounts and Loyalty

There are multiple ways to personalize the rewards to keep your best customers coming back with integrated loyalty. Apply discounts to receipts or to a specific item. New customers can automatically be added to the loyalty program.

Fast and flexible billing

Lithos Gift Shop Point-of-sale comes with comprehensive solutions such as product categories, item classification, flexible barcode generation, easy payment integrations, and smart inventory, to help you work faster and smarter.

Product categories

POS helps you group similar products together. So you can identify and manage your products from inventory. This allows you to increase your service speed and service quality.

Item classification (unit, size, and price)

As we discussed above the categorizing of products can be more helpful in identifying your products from inventory. The POS system allows you to organize your products based on unit, size, and price.

Tracking each of your products using POS, will give you better insight and control over the items. By analyzing the detailed report of products you can identify your top-selling and worst-selling items.

Flexible barcode generation

The POS system’s ability to generate different types of barcodes, such as UPC or EAN, and encode various product information, such as SKU number and price, to fit your unique needs. This allows for more efficient inventory management and sales processing.

The easy point of sale for a faster checkout

The point of sale system allows you to speed up your checkout process. By enabling advanced payment options and digital receipts the customer can easily pay and leave without any delay. It helps you to enhance the customer experience.

POS provides a wide range of payment partners and patent methods. So the customers can choose any payment options based on their preferences.

Smart inventory and purchase

It is hard to keep your inventory efficient. By tracking your inventory you can simply manage it. The POS system has everything to manage and keep your inventory profitable.

It helps you to automate your various inventory operations such as real-time inventory tracking, automatic inventory updates, low stock alerts, purchase order creation, sales forecasting, and more.

UI

The user interface is one of the features of LithosPOS. With fast and easy-to-use UI your business operations can speed up and run an easy business. The system is so simple that your customers don’t need any special training.

The interface of the system is visually appealing. It helps you to provide a premium customer experience.

Payment Integration

LithosPOS is an integrated point of sale system. That means you can integrate your business operations with a POS system. LithosPOS offers different payment partners to simplify payment operations and provide a premium customer experience.

You can choose the payment partners based on your country. LithosPOS is integrated with a wide range of payment providers such as Square, PayPal, SumUp, Stripe, PhonePe, Mosambee, UPI Payments, Pine Labs, mSwipe, MTN Momo, Fatoora (Saudi e-Invoice Integration), SAT (Guatemala e-Invoice Integration), etc.

The system keeps your payment operations simple and secure. It records every payment transaction in POS, so you can make sure the transactions are accurate and secure.

Accounting integration

If you are currently using accounting software for your business you can integrate it with LithosPOS or you can perform various accounting functions using the accounting options in LithosPOS.

LithosPOS is a partner with many accounting software such as SAP, Oracle cloud, QuickBooks, Emaar, ZohoBooks, and Tally. It can help you to deal with complex accounting operations.

Inventory management

Manage your gift store inventory without any obstacles. LithosPOS gives you control over your inventory. It notifies you if any item goes out of stock from your inventory. You can automate so many business operations.

Transferring across your locations, generating sales and purchase reports, stock adjustments, label printing, product organization, and more.

Employee management

Managing your employees and identifying their efficiency and inefficiency will be easier. LithosPOS gives you a detailed report of every employee like their shift report that will be helpful for you to identify if happens any threat.

LithosPOS creates employee profiles, their time tracking, payroll management, sales commission tracking, access control to do a specific task, and reporting. It gives you everything to manage your employees and make them more productive.

Customer Management

Customer management is one of the crucial jobs in businesses. When it comes to the gift shop business it plays an important role. LithosPOS tracks and record every transaction a customer makes. All the customer transactions record customer profiles.

It allows you to analyze and identify which customer is making more purchases, their purchase time, favorite items, and more. It allows you to run loyalty programs, Other marketing, and promotions.

LithosPOS has its own CRM to manage your customers, or you can integrate your existing CRM software with LithosPOS.

E-Commerce integration

LithosPOS gift shop POS helps you to scale your gift shop business online. It allows you to expand your business to e-commerce. LithosPOS can be integrated with an E-Commerce platform like WooCommerce.

However, the POS system is essential for any gift shop that wants to streamline its operations, improve customer service, and increase profitability. LithosPOS provides everything to manage and grow your gift shop business.

Categories
blog Customer experience Restaurant Retail Small businesses

What is Stock Keeping Unit (SKU)

What Is a Stock Keeping Unit (SKU)? 

SKU stands for a stock-keeping unit. It is a unique identifier business assigned to a specific product for managing and tracking each product on the inventory. SKU is an identification code made up of letters, numbers, or a combination of both. It contains information such as the product’s brand, manufacturer, design, color, size, and other unique characteristics that distinguish it from other products.

It is used not only in retail, wear houses, and logistics but also in e-commerce platforms to enable customers to easily search for and purchase products.

SKU number examples 

SKU number formats can differ based on the inventory management system of a company and the type of products they sell. Here are some SKU number examples:

  • XYZ5678-BLK-32: This SKU represents a pair of black pants in size 32, made by a brand with the code XYZ5678
  • PQR9876-BLU-8.5: This SKU represents a pair of blue shoes in size 8.5, made by a brand with the code PQR9876
  • LMN2345-YLW-12: This SKU represents a yellow notebook with 12 pages, made by a brand with the code LMN2345.

However, the format of SKU numbers may vary depending on the company’s inventory management system and the type of products being sold.

Why is SKUs important? 

SKUs are really important when it comes to managing and tracking products in your inventory. It makes easier for your product categorization. Let’s dive deep and understand why you need to use SKU.

Inventory Management: SKU numbers help businesses to differentiate based on brand, manufacturer, design, color, size, and other unique characteristics. So it is easier to identify each item in your inventory and manage it.

This makes it easy to monitor stock levels, reorder products when necessary, and identify which products are selling well.

Sales Analysis: SKU gives you sales data for each product. that can be used to identify top-selling and worst-selling items in your inventory. It allows you to take pricing, promotions, and marketing strategies.

Operational Efficiency: The SKU allows you to manage and identify where each product is located in your warehouse. It makes operations more efficient and reduces the risk of errors and confusion.

Data Tracking: The SKU allows you to track the data related to each product such as sales volume, profit margin, and customer behavior. This data helps you to take data-driven decisions and improve overall business performance.

How to get an SKU for a product? and how to create

Creating SKU for a product means assigning an identifier code to a product. You can simply manage your inventory and sales by assigning this unique code to each product.

You can add there your product SKU number.

So, let’s see how you can create SKU numbers for your products

Determine what information you want to include in your SKU: SKU numbers include a variety of information such as product type, color, size, style, and season. Determine what information you are going to give on SKU. Give information that can easily identify the product.

Choose a format for your SKU: SKUs are a combination of letters, numbers, and both. It would help if you considered the combination of the first three letters of the product name, followed by the product size and color.

SKUs can be a combination of letters, numbers, or both. For example, you might use a combination of the first three letters of the product name, followed by the product size and color. Another common format is to use a combination of numbers that correspond to different product attributes

Ensure your SKUs are unique: Make sure you assign a unique SKU to each product. Otherwise, there will be confusion.

Implement your SKU system: after creating SKU then you can implement it on products manually or with the help of software.

Test your system: Ensure that your inventory management system is compatible with your new SKU system. Verify the system by doing inventory audits, monitoring sales, and modifying stock levels based on sales information.

Why you should want an SKU code on a product?

Here is the reason why you need to use the SKU code on a product.

Tracking inventory: By categorizing products with SKU, codes will be easier to find them from your warehouse. Monitor stock levels and identify when a product needs to be reordered.

However, it eliminates the errors that may occur in inventory and keep your inventory efficient and profitable.

Identifying products: By giving SKU codes to each product will help you to easily identify products from your inventory. Especially if you have the same product in different sizes or colors. So you don’t want to spend your valuable time finding products in your inventory.

Organizing inventory: Organizing your inventory is challenging. but giving SKU codes to your products it is easier to organize products. It helps your inventory efficient and organized.

Analyzing sales data: The SKU allows you to identify your top-selling and worst-selling items with the help of sales data. It allows you to plan marketing strategies and save you from financial losses.

Improving customer service: You can provide a premium customer experience by giving SKU codes for your products. As discussed above, SKU codes allow you to quickly find your product and its details from your inventory.

If you got an inquiry from a customer about specific product details such as its price availability then you can quickly find your product and give answers.

SKUs vs. UPC codes

UPC Codes (Universal product code): UPC is a code that is a standardized barcode system used to identify products at the point of sale. it is a 12-digit number code that is encoded into a barcode and scanned by the point of sale system. It can be used to track sales and inventory. it ensures the correct product is selling at the right price.

UPC codes are issued by the Uniform Code Council (UCC) and are unique to each product

SKU vs. barcode 

Barcodes are used in retail operations to speed up the checkout process, reduce errors, and improve overall efficiency. SKUs are unique identifiers used internally by retailers to manage their inventory, while barcodes are machine-readable codes that contain product information and are used for efficient retail operations

Manual SKU management and Automated SKU management

Manual SKU management and automated SKU management are two different methods of managing inventory using Stock Keeping Units (SKUs).

managing SKUs manually is the process of assigning and tracking SKUs manually. This manual operation is done by employees who physically handle the product. They are using electronic records to keep track of inventory levels and sales. This method is mostly used by small businesses, which have small inventory to manage.

The automated SKUs are different from manual SKUs. Automated SKUs are using software and technology to assign and track. This can include barcode scanners, inventory management software, and point-of-sale (POS) systems.

Manual SKU management involves assigning and tracking SKUs manually, However, automated SKUs help you to keep your business efficient, improve accuracy and improve inventory operations.

SKU Number Tips

Here are some tips for creating and using SKU numbers effectively:

  • Keep them simple
  • Be consistent
  • Use a mix of letters and numbers
  • Make them unique
  • Consider variations
  • Use software to manage your SKUs
  • Regularly review and update your SKUs

What is SKU in e-commerce

You can assign a unique code identifier, known as SKU, to each of your products, as we discussed above. It helps you to track stocks, sales, and inventory. By using SKU e-commerce business management will be simple and efficient and helps to provide a premium customer experience.

How to use SKUs to grow your retail business

  • Track inventory accurately: Use SKUs for each product to keep your inventory efficient. It allows you to gain better insight into each product. By checking your inventory you can simply identify which product is selling higher and which is not.
  •  Forecast sales: The SKUs are allows retailers to track their sales and offer a detailed report of your sales. It is useful to identify your sales performance and forecast future sales as well.
  •  Amplify your biggest profit generators: By identifying your biggest profit-generating product you can increase the stock of those items and generate more profit.
  •  Boost customer loyalty and satisfaction: The SKUs help to organize your product and quickly identify where it is located. It allows you to easily identify products and their details when customers ask. This will help you to enhance customer loyalty and satisfaction
  •  Offer customers new suggestions—and increase sales: By using SKUs you can suggest similar products to your customers. by categorizing the similar types of products it will be easier to introduce your similar products.

How to automate SKU process using POS

Automating SKU processes using a Point of Sale (POS) system can help your retail business streamline its inventory management and improve the overall efficiency of the business. Here are some steps to follow to automate the SKU process using a POS system:

Choosing a POS system that supports SKU management: Choosing the right POS system is really important. You have to make sure the system has the capability to manage inventory and opinions to use SKU. Also, make sure the system can automate the operations such as generating SKUs and assigning them to the products.

Assigning: After choosing the POS system you can assign SKUs to your products. You can choose to assign SKUs manually or use the system’s automation features to generate SKUs automatically.

Develop a unified product database: To ensure that all your sales channels are using the same SKUs, create a centralized product database that is linked to your POS system. This will ensure that your inventory and sales data are accurate and up-to-date across all your channels.

Set up automatic stock tracking: After assigning all your SKUs to your products you can track products through the Point of sale system. This will allow the system to automatically update your inventory levels as products are sold or restocked, helping you avoid stockouts or overstocking.

Analyze sales data: You will get a detailed report from POS. This will help you to prepare a better pricing and sales strategy.

However, The SKUs are really important and beneficial to retail business owners to manage and keep their inventory as well as business.

FAQ

Can multiple products have the same SKU?

No, each product should have a unique SKU. It ensures proper tracking and differentiation of products.

How do SKUs differ across different industries?

SKUs can differ based on business industries. They may have changes in format, length, or the information included in the code.

How can SKUs assist in tracking sales and identifying popular products?

By associating sales data with SKUs, businesses can analyze and track the products and identify which item is selling(performing) best, and it helps to take exact decisions about inventory and promotions.