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Stratus Enterprise

Stratus Retail by Celerant Technology provides tools for point of sale (POS), inventory and order management, enterprise resource management (ERP), e-commerce, business intelligence, marketplace integrations (Amazon, eBay, Walmart...Read more about Stratus Enterprise

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NCR Counterpoint

The NCR Counterpoint solution includes an e-mail marketing tool, integrated e-commerce, mobile alerting, built-in gift card and customer loyalty programs and hardware specifically designed for the retail environment. The NCR ...Read more about NCR Counterpoint

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S2K Enterprise for Retail

Combining an intuitive, user-friendly retail application with powerful enterprise functionality, VAI’s S2K Retail Point-of-Sale (POS) software is the ideal solution for taking both walk-in and on-account sales. For quick cash tran...Read more about S2K Enterprise for Retail

4.2 (3 reviews)

RetailEdge

RetailEdge is an on-premise, retail POS solution designed for small and midsize businesses. It offers mobile POS, multi-location support, website integration, credit card processing and gift card management functionalities within ...Read more about RetailEdge

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Aptos Retail Merchandising

Over 40 years’ experience delivering retail management systems to the retail industry with thousands of successful retail implementations around the world. Cloud-based omnichannel merchandising, inventory customer, POS, sales audi...Read more about Aptos Retail Merchandising

3.4 (8 reviews)

RB Control Systems

RB Pool and Spa Software completely manages retail and service with PCs, tablets, smartphones and laptops. With the consolidation of retail and service into a single system, regardless of your business size, you'll see an immediat...Read more about RB Control Systems

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AmberPOS

Pacific Amber’s AmberPOS offers a point of sale software solutions to a variety of retail specialties, ranging from small to midsized, in the United States and Canada. In addition to point of sale functionality, AmberPOS incl...Read more about AmberPOS

4.1 (53 reviews)

35 recommendations

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NetSuite

With an integrated system that includes ERP, financials, commerce, inventory management, HR, PSA, supply chain management, CRM and more – NetSuite enables fast-growing businesses across all industries to work more effectively by a...Read more about NetSuite

4.1 (1454 reviews)

27 recommendations

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iVend Retail

iVend Retail by CitiXsys is an integrated POS software application delivered on cloud. Our SaaS platform empowers retailers to provide exceptional customer experiences throughout the entire shopper journey. iVend Retail includes c...Read more about iVend Retail

3.9 (15 reviews)

1 recommendations

POS-J

POS-J is a Point of Sale solution designed for retail industries, including apparel and accessories, gift shops, electronics and appliances, general merchandise retailers and more. It provides a unified view of the orders across d...Read more about POS-J

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AIM

AIM is a secure end-to-end point of sale (POS) business solution that can be used in any retail environment. This retail management solution features customizable menus and screens, inventory management, complete POS activity and ...Read more about AIM

4.1 (200 reviews)

7 recommendations

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CORESense

CORESense is a cloud-based point of sale and retail management solution that is designed for merchants. The solution helps retailers to keep track of their in-house inventories and manage orders received from customers. The r...Read more about CORESense

ReadySTORE POS

ReadyStore by UTC RETAIL is a cloud-based retail point-of-sale (POS) solution that offers a suite of applications to manage store operations. The solution caters to various industries such as pharmaceutical, manufacturing and food...Read more about ReadySTORE POS

5.0 (3 reviews)

Heartland Retail

Heartland Retail, formerly Springboard Retail, is a web-based retail solution designed for multi-channel and multi-store retailers. Heartland's point of sale system is fully accessible through any modern web browser on any de...Read more about Heartland Retail

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Aralco

Aralco is a provider of cloud-based POS and inventory management solutions with integrated eCommerce, CRM and payment processing capabilities. Designed primarily to cater the needs of small and midsize retailers across apparel, au...Read more about Aralco

Unified Commerce Platform

enVista offers cloud-based retail management solutions that help users manage the daily operations of a single store or multiple locations in real-time. enVista's unified commerce software solutions are delivered as an integrated ...Read more about Unified Commerce Platform

Pronto Xi

Pronto Xi is an integrated enterprise resource planning (ERP) suite that provides core applications, such as financial accounting and business intelligence, alongside sales and marketing modules, supply chain management and distri...Read more about Pronto Xi

3.7 (7 reviews)

Lead Commerce

Lead Commerce is an integrated order management suite that offers applications like inventory management, merchandise planning, and customer relationship management. The solution helps small and midsize businesses streamline and a...Read more about Lead Commerce

LS Retail

LS Central is a unified POS and ERP software solution built on Microsoft Dynamics technology. It brings together several functionalities in one application such as financials (the Microsoft Dynamics ERP), point of sale (POS), stor...Read more about LS Retail

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Agiliron

Agiliron cloud-based point-of-sale (POS) solution is designed to serve both in-store and mobile businesses as well as online sales channels. The system offers a host of features that work in tandem with the point-of-sale solution,...Read more about Agiliron

4.5 (41 reviews)

15 recommendations

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Buyers Guide

Last Updated: March 16, 2023

No specialty retailers have been affected more by the emergence of online superstores than book and music shops. In addition, book and music store owners face the challenge of having to compete against the e-book and downloadable music market. Many are forced to rethink their business strategy to meet growing consumer needs for books and music files that can be accessed from a laptop or mobile device.

To differentiate themselves from Internet retailers, book businesses are becoming shopping destinations instead of just stores. For example, many have started to offer an expanded selection of non-core items, such as coffee and food.

Here's what we'll cover:

What Is Bookstore Software?

Common Features of Bookstore POS and Inventory Software

Benefits of Bookstore POS and Inventory Software

Deployment Options

What Is Bookstore Software?

There are thousands of retail point of sale (POS) software vendors on the market to help book and music retailers with the most critical aspects of their business, such as inventory and pricing. Systems exist for large organizations with several locations, small “mom and pop” stores, and everything in between. The goal of this buyer’s guide is to help book and music retailers find the right POS software to meet their needs in this evolving market.

Book inventory software and POS are the key modules for book stores and music shop software. Book and music store inventories typically contain just a few duplicates of a large number of items, and special orders are common. Books and magazines are usually identified with a number in the form of a bar code, called the International Standard Book Number (ISBN) and the International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) respectively. CDs (and albums, cassettes and 45s produced after the 1970s) have Universal Product Codes (UPCs).

Many shops also have customer service and loyalty programs built into their business strategy, so customer relationship management (CRM) is another important aspect of software solutions as music and book stores are embracing social media to attract and maintain customers.

Ideally, systems should support both traditional stores and online sales, “bricks and clicks” operations. And, if stores buy product from customers to resell, the POS and accounts payable features need to integrate for the payments to be processed properly.

Common Features of Bookstore POS and Inventory Software

Book and music retailers should consider the following functions to meet their unique requirements:

Online inventory

A book or music store should have access to an online inventory system for the latest books and special orders.

ISBN and ISSN lookup

The system should be able to look up the ISBN or ISSN for any book or magazine. The information, such as title, publisher and publication date, can be imported into the bookstore inventory software.

Non-book/non-music items

The system should support the sale of non-book/non-music items such as beverages, snacks and toys.

UPC lookup

Access to a UPC library for CDs and other inventory is critical. The system should be able to populate the inventory system with stock numbers and descriptions from the UPC library.

Online store

The system should support online sales of items through a Web storefront. If there are both an online store and a physical store, there should be an option to share the inventory between them or to keep the inventories separate.

Promotional pricing

The system should allow sale and promotional pricing. The pricing should change in the POS and inventory automatically at a specified time and date, if desired.

Customer loyalty program

As part of CRM and to further solidify customer relations, many music and book stores have customer loyalty programs. The store system should track sales history and monitor loyalty program points awarded and redeemed.

Spoilage reporting

If the store sell perishable goods; the “sell by” dates must be tracked, expired inventory must be collected and disposed of and the process properly documented.

Gift set packaging

One of the key promotions for book and music stores are gift sets. The POS system must support gift set sales for a single price but correctly decrease inventory levels for the individual items when a gift set is sold.

Book/music buying

If the store buys used books or music for resale, the system should have access to an online database to help determine the price. The POS should support the buying process and handle the transaction correctly through accounts payable and general ledger.

Online music and e-book sales

If there is an online store, it should be able to sell music downloads and e-books in popular formats. Online bookstore software should handle the digital rights management (DRM) and royalties.

Online storefront integration

Many bookstore owners will sell through other online mediums, such as Amazon, Biblio, AbeBooks and others. The system should be able to integrate with these online storefronts.

Query-based lists

Users should be able to create lists and sublists of inventory based on keywords. A very helpful feature for both store owners and customers.

Customizable fields

The system should allow users to create new fields, customize the length of these fields and vary the type of information included.

Benefits of Bookstore POS and Inventory Software

One should be able to see the operational and experiential benefits provided by the adoption of bookstore POS software. The three top benefits of the software include:

  • Accurate, automated inventory control. Any retailer would like to excel at managing inventory levels, but it’s especially the case for bookstores. Inventory features enable users to determine and never to run out of popular titles on a weekly, monthly, and annual basis.

  • More efficient shopping experiences. The organizational benefits of bookstore inventory management enables any and all employees to quickly find items for customers, rather than having to sort through the section they’re “pretty sure it should be in.” This will lead to a greater overall customer experience and hopefully encourage repeat business.

Deployment Options

Most book stores use on-premise systems. In fact, paper-based systems are still used by some. However, software as a service (SaaS) systems are available and provide an attractive alternative for book stores and music shops that are upgrading or replacing current systems.

Most SaaS, or Web-based, applications are hosted on the vendor’s servers and paid for by monthly subscription. This deployment option is ideal for buyers who prefer lower monthly payments over a costly upfront investment.

A final benefit of SaaS software is increased accessibility. Users can access these systems from any device with an Internet connection and from Mac or PC operating systems.