Billing software for retailers provides quick and easy access to invoicing, billing, inventory & payments for their daily business activities.
The Covid-19 pandemic, in particular, has been the most significant reason for the massive increase in e-shopping and digital billing. According to a report by Deloitte, 85% of retail sales up till 2019 were through physical stores. The arrival of COVID-19 caused traditional retailers to establish their businesses online, causing digital retail to become the new normal.
As a retail business owner, it becomes very difficult to maintain complete соntrоl оver its орerаtiоns. Billing sоftwаre fоr retаil shop аids in maintaining records of sales and purchase frоm the stаrt. Mаny retаil business оwners overlook the сараbilities оf retail billing software, resulting in significant lоss оf potential business growth.
Billing software not only provides billing solutions but business owners can also mаnаge inventоry аnd use the dаtа соlleсted tо decide hоw tо imрrоve stосk by using billing software. Even when yоu аre nоt in the stоre, а sаles billing software system саn рrоvide owners a better analysis of best selling products, daily sales & profits till date.
Despite the ongoing digital revolution, the present-day retailers in local Indian markets still work offline. Calculations are done by hand or using manual calculators. Invoices, often ‘kaccha bills,’ are made using pen and paper. Inventory is kept track of manually in-stock books. These books contain all details - name and description of each stock item, the amount of the item, supplier details, etc. It is a long and tedious process with a high chance of errors. In short, no method of the business is digitized. It is all managed traditionally, handwritten in registers.
Even though the concept of digital billing is not new, many retailers still do not prefer to use apps or websites to accelerate the billing process. They may not recognize the many advantages of digitized billing and are intimidated by the prospect of shifting this work online.
The first and the most significant benefit of digital billing is no doubt the amount of time it saves. Handwriting multiple bills is a tedious process, and writing everything from the customer's name to the number of items purchased and calculating the final sum takes time. On the other hand, digital billing simplifies the process quite a lot. Apps like PayO offer simple interfaces to merchants and provide the feature to add their customer details straight from their phone’s contact list. Also, quick and convenient inventory management can be done on the app, i.e., keeping track of items and their quantities. So it only takes a few clicks to create the perfect digital invoice for any customer!
Since the Covid-19 pandemic began and imposed lockdowns, people were forced to order even the smallest things online or on the phone. Many local shop owners and vendors started taking orders on WhatsApp and delivering them to doorsteps. Simple, handwritten bills were and still are sent via WhatsApp. A better alternative to these informal bills is proper digital bills. Since the customers are usually constant, it makes sense for vendors to create digital invoices on apps such as PayO and then send them across to customers via WhatsApp/SMS. This streamlines the merchants' process and makes it easier for the customer to make correct and timely payments without any confusion.
Frequently, local vendors have to employ an additional 1 or 2 staff members to handle the billing. Since sales are usually in plenty and invoicing is done manually, the process demands more time and effort. However, switching to digital billing can save shop owners time and the cost of keeping those 1-2 additional employees. Also, the invoice registers and pens, too, add to costs. Digital billing only requires one smartphone and a simple internet connection to send these invoices to customers.
POS Billing software enables retail business owners to avoid maintaining invoice registers, stock books and payment receipts separately. Billing software helps owners in managing everything like invoices, bills, inventory, payments, reports and many other business transactions in one app, at one place. Invoices can be created in 15 secs, quick inventory management is possible and collections can be improved by sharing payment links on WhatsApp. The app provides a permanent record of all the transactional statements. An added advantage is that this data can be accessed from anywhere in the world.
Choosing a good billing software ensures that the data remains secure and accessible only to the merchant. No one can access bank details, transactions, bills, etc., except the merchant. While invoice registers may fall into the wrong hands or get misplaced, digital billing means that there is no loss of invoicing & billing data; the information of all transactions is 100% safe and secure.
Since digital billing ensures that merchants have access to all business data, i.e., sales, purchases, returns, and payments, it allows them to analyze from sales reports, purchase reports, payment reports, stock reports & profit-loss reports. Information like top-selling products, customers details like GST no, number of sales, bill wise profits can form the basis for intelligent tracking. These reports can give retailers insights into the sales, customer balances & stock values easily in 1-click.
It’s not just about the invoices! Digital billing apps like PayO have many valuable features to help businesses save time and grow. GST Billing, for instance, offers merchants the ability to calculate GST tax digitally and reduce dependency on manual work for the same. As a result, the results are faster and more accurate. Along with GST Billing, retail business owners can create quotations, sales order, purchase order, delivery challan. They can share payment links to collect online payments from customers. Print bills using thermal printer & use barcode billing to initiate faster billing process
In short, merchants don’t need to jump straight to personal websites and online stores. Instead, an effortless way to start digitizing a business is to create digital billing on a mobile phone. This offers a truckload of benefits, the biggest being the time saving and contribution towards more effective decision making for the business.
Improvement in technology and meticulous planning by the creators ensures that digital billing apps like PayO are accessible and have straightforward interfaces, perfect even for beginners. And needless to say, using digital billing features increases both speed and accuracy in business operations and overall simply increases efficiency.
