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How to choose an EPOS system
Twenty questions, asked before the demo. Most of them show you the same twenty minutes; these are the ones that actually separate one supplier from another, and nearly all are answerable by email.
Work out your own shape first
Before you speak to anyone, write down four things: how many distinct products you sell, how much you take on card in a normal month, how many cash-ups happen in a day, and which of your lines are age restricted or weighed. Those four answers decide which suppliers are plausible, and they take ten minutes to establish. Walking into a demo without them is how people end up buying a table-service system for a shop.
The twenty questions
About the product file
- Will you import my existing product file, barcodes and costs included, before the till arrives?
- Can I export the full product file myself, at any time, without asking you?
- Do you take a supplier price file? Which suppliers, and how often does it land?
- How are weighed lines handled, and does it work with the scale I already have?
About the counter
- Does the till keep selling when the broadband drops, and what stops working when it does?
- Can I hold a basket, serve someone else, and come back to it?
- How does a refund work, and can a member of staff do one without me?
- What happens on an age-restricted line — does it prompt, or does it stop the sale?
- Can two people use the same till under their own logins in one shift?
About stock and reporting
- Can I raise a purchase order from what has actually sold?
- Can I spot check forty lines without closing the shop?
- Does margin recalculate when a supplier cost changes?
- Can I move stock between branches and see it at both ends?
- Which reports can I open on my phone at home?
About money and terms
- What is the card rate in writing, and does it cover business, commercial and international cards?
- Is the card terminal rented, and is that a separate contract with a separate end date?
- What is the term, the notice period, and the total to exit in month thirteen?
- Is support included, and what does it cost when I take on new staff and need training again?
- What is the price in year two?
- If I leave, what do I get, in what format, and at what cost?
What to actually do in the demo
Do not watch a scripted sale. Ask to do these four things yourself, on their machine, with your hands on it.
- Sell one of your own awkward lines. A weighed item, a multibuy, a restricted line. Whatever is fiddly in your shop is fiddly on their system too.
- Do a refund and then find it in a report. This is where thin systems come apart, because the sale is easy and the exception is not.
- Run a shift end and see whether the numbers reconcile in a way you could explain to a member of staff.
- Ask them to break something. Pull the network cable. What the till does next tells you more than the rest of the demo.
Red flags worth walking away from
- A card rate that will not be given in writing before a demo.
- A price that only exists after a call, when every competitor publishes one.
- “Free” hardware with a term attached to it.
- A vague answer about exporting your own product file.
- A term longer than three years for a single shop.
- A roadmap answer to a question about something that exists today. Ask what works now.
Ask every supplier what they are not good at. The useful ones will tell you, and the answer is more informative than any feature list. Ours is on the comparison page, under “where we lose”.
Then narrow it down
Two or three suppliers is enough. Get each to price your actual shop rather than a generic setup, apply each card rate to your own last three months of takings, and compare twelve-month totals. If you are replacing an existing system, read how a changeover works before you commit to a date, because install timing matters more than most people expect.
Questions
The ones people ask next.
How long should choosing an EPOS system take?
Two to four weeks is realistic for a single shop: a week to work out what you need and get quotes, a week or two of demos and questions, and a decision. Rushing it usually costs more than the delay, because the contract runs for years.
Should I choose the EPOS system or the card provider first?
Together, and this is why. If the two are separate you can negotiate the card rate independently, which is often better. If they are integrated you avoid keying the amount into a card machine twice, which removes a real and constant source of error. Both are defensible; pick knowingly rather than by accident.
Do I need to see the system in my own shop before deciding?
Not necessarily, but you should see it running with your own product file and your own awkward lines, wherever that happens. A generic demo file hides everything that will actually annoy you.
Is a longer contract worth it for a lower price?
Rarely for a single shop. The discount is usually a few pounds a month and the cost of being wrong is years. If you do take a term, get the exit figure in writing first.
What if my trade is unusual?
Ask what happens to the parts of your day that do not fit a standard shop. Most systems handle the common case well and diverge on the exceptions, which is exactly where your trade lives. Our trade directory lists the twenty-eight we build for.
Want this applied to your own shop?
Tell us the trade, the number of tills and who takes your card payments. You get a written quote back on one page.