Based in Nottingham, United Kingdom, Open Retail Solutions is an award-winning electronic point of sale (EPoS) systems provider, which includes both hardware and software. Their user-friendly systems with various innovative integrations are designed for retail stores, garden centres, delicatessen stores, pet shops, local farm shops, and other businesses.
In this article, we’ll learn more about their EPoS systems’ essential features, hardware selection, and additional features and tools, so let’s get started.
Sections
Features
Before continuing our review, the most important thing to point out about Open Retail Solutions’ EPoS system is that it’s not cloud-based and cannot be accessed online. The reason behind this is that the company has a large number of customers located in rural areas where there’s no stable broadband internet. In the future, they might develop an online-based EPoS system, but right now, they’re going with old-school software that doesn’t require an online connection.
Let’s continue with the features of their hardware and software EPoS solutions.
Hardware
Here’s a list of several hardware tools and devices that you can include in your customised EPoS system by Open Retail Solutions.
EPoS Tills: Open Retail Solutions offers an innovative alternative device to traditional and outdated cash registers. Their EPoS Tills are created with the help of the latest EPoS technology, and their interface is user-friendly, so your staff won’t have any trouble mastering how to use them.
Their tills come with a warranty that lasts five years and offer onsite training for businesses that have senior employees who need more time to adjust to the technology. Open Retail Solutions can also install their software on EPoS tills in your business’ back office, which is an excellent solution for any business that wants to have tills available for their office-based staff, too. You can scan products on your till and have your customers pay by card through it.
Scales: If your business needs scales, you can ask for Open Retail Solutions to integrate scales such as Bizerba or Avery Berkel to get the most out of scale retailing. These scale integrations can be the perfect addition for businesses such as delis, zero waste or farm stores. By using them, you’ll be able to stay away from unwanted human errors since they will calculate the exact amount precisely. The scales are only available to use in the back office.
Integrated payment through debit or credit card: Open Retail Solutions can provide devices for integrated payment with a debit or credit card. These devices can be helpful for all kinds of businesses since they remove any probability of unwanted human error. By paying through these devices, all the transactions will be processed quickly, and your customers will always be charged the correct amount. By using these devices, you’ll also get data reports of all your transactions in the last 90 days.
Open Retail Solutions complies with PCI DSS (Security Standards Council’s rules) since it can integrate Verifone and Paymentsense into the devices for payment processing. You can select from the following device range:
- Dojo A920: This terminal is an excellent solution for offering mobile table service. It can be used via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth.
- Verifone V240m: Launched in 2019, Verifone V240m is a terminal that connects through Wi-Fi with an integrated printer for receipts.
- Verifone P400: Also launched in 2019, Verifone P400 is another alternative terminal that’s compliant with PCI DSS with a guarantee for ten years.
Devices for table and counter service: If you own a bar or a restaurant and you’d like to have an EPoS system for table and counter service, you can benefit from Open Retail Solutions’ integration. You can take orders by using an iPad tablet, print out checks, or let your customers split their bills with the terminals mentioned above.
Printers for drinks and kitchen staff: You can also get a printer that’s especially useful for coffee shops, restaurants, and bars. The printers used by the kitchen staff can help you decrease your costs and, at the same time, improve the communication flow between your staff that works with the customers and the team that works in the kitchen. With these printers, your employees will no longer need to write down orders with pen and paper, as all the information will be automatically included in the printers, including any notes about the orders that the kitchen staff should be aware of.
Label printing: Label printers are essential for supermarkets and shops if you’d like to save time and get thousands of labels printed out instead of writing the product names and prices by hand. If you need a label printing machine, you can let Open Retail Solutions know that you’d like them to include one in your EPoS system.
Printers for plastic cards: Besides label printing devices, Open Retail Solutions offers printers for plastic cards. These cards are an excellent asset for deli, farm, and butcher stores since you can print out specific information about your ingredients, such as allergens or product origin. You can ask for double-sided cards if you’d like to include the PLU codes on the plastic cards.
Software
In addition to the EPoS hardware, you’ll get back-end software in your EPoS system, too. Here’s a brief selection of the features included.
Mobile dashboard: The mobile dashboard is an essential software feature if you want to stay in touch with everything that’s going on in your company at any given time, 24/7. You can use the dashboard from any device, such as a laptop, tablet, desktop computer, or smartphone. The dashboard’s browser-based, so you’ll need a stable connection to the internet to open it. Since it’s a multi-user dashboard, your staff can also enter the dashboard if you give them access to it.
Once you log in to your EPoS account, you can monitor your sales figures and learn all about sold products, average revenue, transactions, etc. Plus, you’ll get to find out which products are most popular among your customers every day and find out which products sell the best. If you have a medium or large-sized business with multiple branches, you can see the data reports about each of your shops.
EPoS designed for multi-branch purposes: If you have a medium or large-sized business with multiple branches, i.e. a chain business, you can choose the option to see the data reports about each of your shops. You’ll see all the retail prices and how your products perform through the dashboard. You can also set all your prices for multiple branches from your primary office and manage orders and promotions. Once you set them up, they’ll automatically appear in the rest of your shops.
This EPoS can also be accessed through a multi-user dashboard, and you can select which employees will get access to it.
EPoS for stock monitoring and control: Since Open Retail Solutions is a specialised company that sells EPoS systems for businesses such as farm shops, delis, or garden centres, they consider the importance of monitoring seasonal stock, i.e. stock that can quickly go to waste if not managed properly.
That’s why Open Retail Solutions included stock control for shops, which is undoubtedly an essential feature of its EPoS system. In the EPoS system, you’ll see your stock levels at any given time. This will help you determine how your business performs –you can compare your sales records from different periods and discover if you need to change your company’s working methods.
Additional Features
Here are several additional features that can be included in the EPoS system designed by Open Retail Solutions.
Accounts Designed for Your Customers
When the technical team installs the EPoS system, they’ll help you learn how to create and manage your customers’ accounts. Customer accounts are an excellent solution for businesses that have a large number of customers and often put specific products on sale.
You can create unique credit accounts when a customer wants an invoice or a statement. On top of that, you’ll also be able to control and monitor discounts for your employees.
Loyalty Schemes
In addition to customer accounts, this EPoS system comes with a unique loyalty scheme system along the lines of Nectar Card or Boots Advantage Card. Your customers can collect points anytime they buy selected products. The points will be added automatically to their personal account once they buy the product. Customers can see their points’ balances through their accounts and redeem them for discounts or gifts.
HTA Integrations
Open Retail Solutions is a member of the Horticultural Trades Association (HTA), so if you’re an owner of a garden centre, you’ll certainly benefit from their unique HTA integrations. Here’s what they can add to your uniquely tailored EPoS system:
Gift cards: The gift cards designed explicitly for garden centres or nurseries are pretty popular among Open Retail Solutions’ clients. Your customers can buy these gift cards directly in your garden centre, and they can preload a maximum of £500 to one card.
Electronic vouchers: eVouchers for garden centres are a brand-new gifting feature that you can also include in your EPoS system. Since they’re electronic, you can use them as an alternative method to gift cards and send vouchers to anyone you like via email. If you’d rather stay old school, you can buy paper vouchers, another gifting alternative to gift cards.
Garden Retail Monitor: In addition to the gifting features, Open Retail Solutions offers to integrate their data scheme that’s uniquely designed for the purposes of garden centres. The Garden Retail Monitor scheme will pull out all the relevant sales statistics from all HTA members and include them in in-depth reports. By having access to them, you can monitor and assess the latest trends amongst HTA businesses.
AFD Software
The AFD software has one primary purpose – to help you look up addresses throughout the United Kingdom. By having access to the address data, you can help your staff deliver your products to the correct address or create a database for customers who purchased loyalty cards. It can also help you fill in the information automatically only by entering one detail, such as the delivery address or ZIP code – it will automatically add the village/city, country, and all the other information.
Pricing
If you’d like to get information on the price of Open Retail Solutions’ EPoS system, you’ll have to contact their technical support team through their website or send them an email at the following address: sales@openretailsolutions.co.uk
Alternatively, you can contact them by visiting their offices Monday to Friday from 9 am to 5 am or call them on 0115 9677 439.
Company Background
Founded in 2003, Open Retail Solutions is a UK-based company specialising in EPoS systems uniquely designed to meet the needs of businesses in the retail industry, delicatessen shops, farm shops, and garden centres. Their EPoS system is an excellent solution for businesses with a yearly turnover of at least £350,000. The current shareholders of the company are Russel Wilkins and Richard Ball.
Reviews
Open Retail Solutions only have three reviews on Google and an average score of 5.0, and as the score suggests, all the reviewers point out their positive experiences with the company. They also have several testimonials by their clients available on their official website.
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