Investing in a POS system is an important step for any jeweler. The right POS software can improve customer satisfaction, increase your bottom line and enhance staff productivity. The wrong POS system can be disastrous, leading to lose of sales, customers and event staff.

When purchasing a POS system, you must choose the best system for your jewelry business. There are many POS systems on the market, so before you choose a system you will need to do some homework.

When comparing POS systems you need to ask a few questions:

• What industry is the POS system originally designed for?
• Does the system cover all your core business operations? Including sales, repairs, custom makes, manufacturing, appraisals, memo stock, job tracking and costing, buying group statements, sales and catalogues and customer special orders.
• What are the extra 'nice to have' featuresthat may make a difference to your store?
• Does the system have an extensive customer database including birthdays, anniversaries, buying preferences, age group, finger size and spousal information.
• Does the software company provide support by friendly, professional staff, and ongoing training that is easily accessed by your staff now and in the future.
• What is the company background? Do they understand the needs of the jewelry industry and have first hand knowledge of jewelry store workings. Are they dedicated to the future growth of the jewelry industry.

As you know the jewelry store is not like other retail stores, therefore the POS system you use should be made for your specific needs.

POS systems can be grouped into two types: high volume, minimum value systems, and low volume, high value systems. We will explain the difference between these systems. Firstly, high volume systems are designed for many sales per day of low value items with no customer information attached. They also expect quick stock turnover and purchasing of the same products regularly. For example a fashion accessories or gift store would need a high volume system as it makes many sales per day of nominal value and no customer information is generally gathered. In addition the stock in a fashion store moves quickly, with the owner purchasing the same stock on a weekly basis.

In comparison, a jewelry store needs a low volume system as it makes fewer sales per day and needs to record customer data. In addition, stock turnover is slower, with many items only stocked once or twice.

Jewelers need a system where they can gather, analyze and makes sense of all forms of customer data. Having the ability to know who your customers are, their buying habits and how to target the right customers is essential for all jewelry stores. In addition, jewelry stores need comprehensive stock details, with the ability to record, report on and search fields such as metal type, weight, length, stones, stone setting, bandwidth, bandstyle, pearl type etc. Without jewelry specific details the POS system is only performing half its task.

In other words, a jewelry store needs a POS system that was designed, from the ground up, for jewelry stores