Could the Right EPOS System Transform Your Bookstore into a Global Marketplace?

According to experts at Neilsen, reading is on the rise. After the COVID-19 pandemic, 41% of people reported that they now read more books than ever before— a trend the Right EPOS System can help bookstores capitalize on.

However, while we’re starting to pick up books more frequently, book retailer revenue continues to fall in 2024. As consumers swap high street bookstores for online retailers and Amazon’s Audible library, more bookstores than ever before are drying up and closing down as a result. 

For hopeful high-street booksellers, all is not lost. The key to winning back customers is to streamline transactions, personalise the shopping experience, and give your target audience a reason to keep coming back.

This all starts with your point-of-sale system. This is the moment when a customer completes a purchase, making it the most important part of the customer journey from start to finish. 

Investing in an electronic point-of-sale system, otherwise known as an EPOS, aims to transform your checkout experience. With the ability to facilitate multiple payment methods, collect purchase data, and connect directly to your online store, you can quickly take a local bookshop and turn it into a global marketplace.

Let’s examine the benefits of adding an EPOS system to your brick-and-mortar bookstore in 2024. 

Streamlined Transactions

One of the most obvious benefits of an electronic POS system is the ability to facilitate speedy transactions and enhance customer satisfaction.

If you want to compete with online retail giants like Amazon, the key is to make the checkout process effortless for consumers. 

EPOS systems accept multiple payment options, such as credit/debit cards, contactless, and wallet wearables like the Apple Watch. This means that a customer can check out in just one tap for a speedy conversion.

Improved Customer Experience

An electronic POS system is much more than a checkout. With the ability to store all consumer purchase data, you can learn about your customers in real time with in-depth sale reports that reveal the most popular genres and titles bought in the last week/month.

This could aid your store design strategy and ensure that in-demand titles sit proudly in the shop window to attract higher footfall. 

Better still, EPOS systems are able to directly integrate with CRM software, allowing you to create profiles on each customer’s personal preferences. 

If you set up a loyalty program for your bookstore business, this data can be accessed via the POS system itself. This allows you to offer loyal members customized discounts and offers on titles you think they’ll love. 

Take the Waterstones Plus membership, for example. Customers can use their membership in-store and via the app to receive discounts on books and regular updates from their favourite authors. 

Using an electronic POS, you can instantly share data between channels so their account rewards are usable in and out of the store. 

If you’re unsure what to add to your EPOS loyalty program, why not start with a ‘Birthday Treat’? When a customer signs up for a loyalty card in-store, your EPOS system can store their date of birth and automatically grant them a discount voucher during their birthday month. 

This can be applied automatically at your checkout and carried over to your online store/app.

Efficient Inventory Management

EPOS systems can also aid inventory management. By pulling up your real-time stock data, you can tell customers immediately if a title is in stock or needs to be ordered. 

If you opt for a specialized bookstore POS system, you can take your stock management one step further by ordering stock categories based on titles by author, genre, and cover type.

This makes it easier to keep track of specific genres, especially if they are popular for a period of time. 

Entering an Online Marketplace

If you want to expand your high-street bookstore into the global marketplace, EPOS systems are essential for syncing your in-store and online sales data.

In fact, some EPOS software allows you to connect your website directly to your in-store point-of-sale system. This means that you can manage both your in-store customers and online customers seamlessly from one central device.

Creating an online store doesn’t mean that your brick-and-mortar store is about to disappear. One great way to link them using an EPOS system is to introduce a buy online, pick up in-store option during an online checkout.

This data is instantly sent to the in-store POS system and alerts an employee to personally pick a title out of the stock room and have it ready for a customer’s arrival. This is a brilliant strategy for encouraging more footfall to your high-street store. Once customers are inside, they are more likely to browse and buy.

As we enter the era of the ‘online marketplace,’ adapting your in-store strategy for omnichannel engagement is essential. EPOS systems help facilitate seamless online and in-store overlaps and ensure that every customer has a positive experience with your brand.