WooCommerce is without a doubt an amazing tool for selling products online, however, it is not designed to sell products in-person at your physical store, home or on the go. This is where a WooCommerce POS such as FooSales comes in. In this post, we’ll take a closer look at what a WooCommerce POS is and how it can benefit your business.
What is a WooCommerce POS?
A WooCommerce POS is a point of sale (POS) system that integrates directly with WooCommerce and makes it possible for store owners to sell their WooCommerce products both online and in-person. It’s designed to help businesses improve the customer experience and increase sales by providing a fast and efficient in-person checkout process. A WooCommerce POS will typically also integrate with hardware used to streamline the process such as card readers, printers, Bluetooth scanners and cash draws.
How does a WooCommerce POS work?
A WooCommerce POS typically connects directly to the WooCommerce database and uses the existing products, variations, stock, customers, and tax settings in real time. It is either installed as a standalone WordPress plugin, or your store is connected to the POS interface via an API. When a transaction is processed in the POS interface, the order, product, and customer information is updated in real-time in WooCommerce. Any changes made via the online store are also immediately reflected in the WooCommerce POS interface.
How does a WooCommerce POS compare to a traditional POS?
Some traditional POS systems such as Vend or Square, offer integrations with WooCommerce, however, these integrations can be challenging. A WooCommerce POS is designed from the ground up to work with WooCommerce, as such, you simply connect it to your store and start selling. Traditional POS systems are not natively designed to work with WooCommerce and use integration plugins to sync data between the two systems. Since they were not originally designed to work in this way, integration often requires a fair amount of setup and can lead to syncing issues.Â
Benefits of using WooCommerce POS
Real-time sales and inventory management
Unlike traditional POS systems, a WooCommerce POS typically stores all sales and inventory data within WooCommerce. The POS essentially acts as an enhanced interface for managing WooCommerce orders and products in a physical environment. Thanks to this close integration with WooCommerce, your WooCommerce POS is able to provide real-time sales data and allows you to make informed business decisions. This information is critical and helps you avoid out-of-stock situations, allowing you to meet the demand of both your online and in-person customers.
Card Payments
Using a WooCommerce POS will allow you to accept payments in-store, over the phone or on the go using your favorite payment solutions. For example, FooSales integrates with both Stripe Payments and Square Payments which are also popular online payment gateways. This makes it possible to connect to the Stripe and Square card reader devices and process card payments from within the FooSales WooCommerce POS. The details of the payments are Stored within FooSales and WooCommerce and the transaction data can also be viewed within the Stripe and Square dashboards along with other online payments.
Combined Analytics
Most WooCommerce POS systems make it possible to view both online and in-person order reports in one place. This makes it easy to compare sales channels and make informed business decisions. FooSales archives this by adding sales channels to the existing WooCommerce order report which means you can also use built-in WooCommerce filters to further segment results and export all data as a CSV file.
Improved customer experience
A fast and efficient checkout process is critical to the customer experience. Processing a sale through the traditional WooCommerce admin area can be extremely challenging in a real-world sales environment and can easily lead to mistakes. The checkout process in a WooCommerce POS is designed to be quick and simple and reduce wait times. This provides your customers with an overall faster and more professional experience. A WooCommerce POS such as FooSales also allows you to offer on-the-fly and coupon discounts which can enhance their shopping experience and improve customer retention.
Hardware Integration
By using a WooCommerce POS rather than the web interface, you can take full advantage of hardware integrations with receipt printers, barcode scanners, and cash draw. Integrations such as these will speed up the checkout process and create an overall more streamlined and professional experience for your customers.
Conclusion
In conclusion, a WooCommerce POS is an essential tool for any business that uses the WooCommerce eCommerce platform. It’s optimized for in-person sales and allows businesses to manage their online store and physical store in one place, streamline inventory management, and gain real-time sales data. With improved customer experience, mobile capabilities, payment integrations, and hardware integrations, it’s a great choice for businesses looking to streamline their sales process and improve overall efficiency.
