6 Features of An Ideal Bakery POS System

“Quick Summary” What do bakery businesses want from a POS system? - speed and efficiency. People want mouth-watering goodies at lightning-fast speed, especially during early morning and evening.

Analytics, reporting, and marketing come later. When you provide exceptional customer service, customers will undoubtedly return. Whether you are an old-fashioned baker or one that likes to experiment with your creations, a bakery POS system can transform your business completely.

It is the key to unlocking increased sales, improved marketing and operations, incredible customer satisfaction, and much more. Along with the digitalization of various management tasks, a bakery POS software automates ordering and delivery processes. 

Additionally, a bakery POS system allows customers to place digital orders without waiting for someone to take their orders. Next, the order details will be passed on to the kitchen staff as soon as the customer chooses what he wants, ensuring minimal delay in preparation and serving.

Which is the best POS system for bakeries? What features should you look for while investing in a bakery POS system? We know you have many questions. Keep reading; you will find out.

6 Essential Features Of a Good Bakery POS System

1. Ability to clear long queues

Newly opened bakeries will experience plenty of visitors. The same goes for established bakeries that have made a name for themselves. Nonetheless, both established and new bakeries need to be on their toes to improve their service levels and attract new customers.

Easier said than done, right? An integral part of flawless customer service is attending to customers fast and giving them what they want. Investing in a tailor-made bakery POS system allows bakery owners to clear long queues fast and dish out appetizing goodies.

Customers don’t like waiting long for their orders. The margin for error in bakeries is very small. Things can get extremely busy during mornings, evenings, weekends, and festive occasions.

Along with a modern bakery POS system, your establishment also needs mobile POS units that make order taking easier for employees and less troublesome for customers. Secondly, handheld POS units also allow the employees to interact with customers and gather feedback.

2. Inventory and Stock Management Notifications

A bakery’s strength lies in serving customers by providing the best quality products without delays. Imagine if a customer walks into your establishment and asks for his favorite muffins, but you don’t have them in stock, or you ran out of ingredients to prepare muffins.

Either way, you would be embarrassed, and your client would leave unhappily. To avoid such instances, you need a customized POS system for bakeries that monitors the availability of ingredients and items at your business.

Before your bakery runs out of an ingredient/food item, the POS will notify you, plus it also prevents the chances of wastage. Food items like cakes, muffins, cookies, etc., don’t have a long shelf life. 

Hence, the inventory tracking feature will give bakery owners and chefs a clear idea of how many cakes, muffins, and other items should be prepared. Not only that, as a bakery owner, you will know how much it costs to prepare individual delicacies. Accordingly, you can choose the ingredients and decide each item’s selling price.

3. Quick Menu Updates

Trends change, seasons change, and so do people’s preferences, and bakeries are greatly affected by these changes. Menus change with the arrival of festive seasons as well.

For instance, Christmas time is when there will be a huge demand for custom cakes. On St. Patrick’s Day, people like to eat shepherd’s pie/apple pie. On the other hand, there are informal days like World Chocolate Day, National Donuts Day, etc. the demand for those food items goes up.

Making changes to different aspects of your bakery is tedious on such days, but with a bakery POS system, you won’t have much to worry about. Any changes you make to the menu will reflect on the system instantly.

You can also add, remove and update your bakery POS system as per the requirements. Since all the data is stored in the cloud, you can access your bakery’s POS system whenever you want, make changes, etc.

4. Easier to Customize Orders

Many people think running a bakery is an easy job. All you need to do is follow the recipe, mix the ingredients well, and thrust it in the oven - the job is done. Wrong! Preparing various bakery items requires specialized skills, plus handling customers with peculiar needs.

Some people may be allergic to various ingredients like eggs, nuts, flour, seafood, dairy products, soy, etc. Such people would like their bakery items without these ingredients.

Next, some people would like extra chocolate, icing, cream of fruits on their favorite items. Surprisingly, you would even find people who like their cake plain and simple. A bakery POS system serves as a knight in shining armor for such orders.

Feed all the little details into the POS system to make life easier for the chefs. The same information can be stored as a reference for future orders. In the absence of a bakery POS, your employees would have to rely on loose bits of paper and memory power to remember such details, which is a recipe for disaster.

5. Robust Marketing Strategies

Your bakery is doing fairly well, but most customers are from the neighborhood or surrounding areas. How do you expand your business and encourage people from other locations to visit your bakery?

If you intend to open new branches and increase the number of loyal customers, it is crucial to have a foolproof marketing plan. Advertise your hot-selling products, highlight new arrivals, and most importantly, keep your regular customers happy. 

Entice the regulars with discount coupons or give them a reason to smile with offers. Buy a large chocolate cake and get 5 donuts free - offers like these will grab major attention.

 Don’t think marketing and advertising have to be lavish or on a large scale. With smart and perfectly implemented marketing strategies, you can make substantial profits.

6. Payment Flexibility and Managing Pre-orders

In many cases, special occasions require planning well in advance, especially birthdays, anniversaries, Xmas, etc. People will place prior orders for custom cakes and other baked goods. You need to have a POS system for your bakery that allows customers to make advance or partial payments.

When customers find it easy to do business with you, they will keep returning. Secondly, an ideal bakery POS system will also notify you about special events in the lives of your loyal customers like birthdays, anniversaries, etc.

Apart from sending them greetings, you can also surprise them with discounts and offers on their favorite items. One notable feature of a bakery POS is that it should provide chefs with accurate information about every order, providing them ample time to prepare and serve them.

With the ideal bakery POS system, your bakery can provide customers with multiple payment options. In this day and age, you can’t insist your customers pay in cash. 

They will walk away disappointed, never to return, and this will result in negative word of mouth for your business. Embrace cashless forms of payment and experience the numerous benefits.

Related Blog: www.ovvihq.com/blogs/customized-bakery-pos-system

Final Thoughts

Finding the right & best POS system for your bakery is challenging and requires a lot of thought and effort. With that being said, it is not rocket science either. All you need to do is understand your bakery’s special requirements, challenges, and budget. Also, make sure the POS is easy for your employees to use.

Use the six points mentioned above as guidelines to help you make the right decision. However, if you are still confused or find it hard to decide, contact OVVI. You can contact us at (346) 767-6884 or [email protected].