How to choose a POS system for your shop

Start with how your shop sells

Before you compare features, write down how a normal day works. Do customers queue at one counter, or does staff walk the floor with a tablet? How many people use the register? Do you have one branch or several? Do you also sell online, on Instagram or through a website?

Your answers decide what matters most. A single counter needs fast checkout and a reliable printer. A shop with several staff needs separate logins and a clear cash count for each shift. A shop that also sells online needs one stock count for both, or you will sell the same item twice.

What a good POS system should do

Most retail shops need the same core features. Use this list to compare any two systems side by side.

1. Ring up a sale in a few taps, by search, product tile or barcode scan.
2. Use the same product list and stock count as your online store.
3. Give each staff member their own PIN, with limits on what they can do.
4. Open and close the cash drawer with a starting float, an expected amount and a counted amount.
5. Handle refunds and returns, and put returned items back in stock.
6. Attach a customer to a sale so you can see what they bought before.
7. Show reports by day, product and staff member.
8. Print receipts, and work in Arabic and English.
9. Handle your currency correctly. Kuwaiti dinar prices use three decimal places.

Hardware: what you actually need

You need less hardware than many sellers suggest. The core is a screen to sell on: an iPad, an iPhone or a computer with a browser. Add a barcode scanner if you sell many products with barcodes, a receipt printer if customers expect paper receipts, and a cash drawer if you take cash.

Check compatibility before you buy anything. Ask which printer models and connection types the POS supports, and whether it can print Arabic text. Mawg3 POS prints to Epson ePOS and ESC/POS network printers, through AirPrint, or through the browser's print dialog. If your products don't have barcodes yet, you can print barcode labels from the Barcodes page under Inventory.

Card payments and your card machine

Ask every POS provider one direct question: is the card machine connected to the POS, or do I enter card payments by hand? Both setups are common.

When the machine is not connected, the cashier charges the card on the machine from your bank or payment provider, then records the payment as card in the POS. This is how Mawg3 POS works today. Card payments are recorded, not sent to a terminal. It works well, but someone should compare the POS card total with the card machine's report at the end of each day.

What happens when the internet drops

Every shop loses its connection sometimes. Ask whether the POS keeps selling offline and how sales sync when the connection returns.

With Mawg3, the web POS at /pos needs an internet connection. The iPhone and iPad app keeps selling offline and sends the queued sales when you are back online. If you rely on the web POS, keep a mobile hotspot as a backup.

Staff, permissions and cash control

Shared logins make it impossible to know who did what. Give every staff member their own PIN. Limit sensitive actions, such as refunds and discounts, to the people you trust with them.

Cash control is where a POS pays for itself. Each session should start with a float and end with a count. The system should show the difference so you can spot a short drawer the same day, not at the end of the month. In Mawg3, Register sessions under Point of Sale shows the float, expected and counted cash for every session. Staff can also clock in and out from the POS.

Reports and tax records

Look at the reports before you choose. You should see sales by day, your best sellers, and sales by staff member without exporting anything.

If you sell in a country with VAT or e-invoicing rules, check them before you choose any system. Saudi Arabia's Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority (ZATCA), for example, runs an e-invoicing program called Fatoora. Confirm with the tax authority what your invoices must include, and ask the provider how its system handles it.

Questions to ask before you choose a POS system

Write the answers down for each provider so you can compare them fairly.

1. What does it cost per month, per device and per transaction?
2. Is there a contract, and how do I leave?
3. Can I export my products, customers and sales if I move?
4. Does it work on hardware I already own?
5. Who answers support, in which language, and at what hours?
6. Does it share stock with my online store?
7. Is it built for my type of business?

Where Mawg3 fits

Mawg3 POS is built for retail shops that also sell online. It runs on the web and in the Mawg3 app for iPhone and iPad. Your POS and your online store share one product list and one stock count, so a sale in the shop updates what is available online.

It is not built for restaurants. There are no kitchen screens or table plans, so a restaurant or café that needs them should look at a system made for food service.

Test it in your own shop

A demo shows you the best case. A test in your shop shows you the real one. Give any POS a short trial before you commit.

1. Add your 20 best selling products with prices and stock.
2. Print barcode labels for a few of them and scan them at the counter.
3. Create PINs for two staff members and let them sell without your help.
4. Run a refund and check that the item returns to stock.
5. Close the session and compare the cash count with the drawer.
6. Turn off the internet for a minute and see what happens.