Thrift stores are different from other retail stores.
For one, thrift stores receive much of their inventory from donations. This requires distinct processes to sort through donations, determine their value, and prepare them for sale. And many thrift stores are nonprofit organizations, offering low prices as an affordable option to help their communities.
Managing all of these unique processes quickly adds up to a lot of work. Luckily, modern digital platforms ease the burden of running a thrift store. Point of sale (POS) systems offer tools to manage inventory, offer discounts, and ring up sales — but to maximize your store’s potential, you need a POS system designed with features specific to the thrift industry.
In this blog, we’ll go over the most important thrift-specific POS features to look for. We’ll also list our picks for the top five thrift POS providers, so you can find the best option for your store.
Let’s get started.
POS Systems: General vs. Industry Specific
There are many POS providers on the market. Some are designed with general retail features to suit a wide range of retail businesses, while others are designed with a specific industry in mind. General retail systems offer features for processing sales transactions, basic inventory management, and other essential tasks.
Industry-specific POS systems, on the other hand, include additional features to help business owners with tasks unique to their industry. A thrift retail POS system may include features for donations, color-based discounting, or customer loyalty programs.
While both types of POS systems have their place, your thrift store is better equipped to handle day-to-day demands with a system that includes these additional features.
Must-Have Thrift-Specific POS Features
Here are the essential industry-specific features you need in a thrift retail POS system. These features speed up your store’s processes to serve your customers more effectively.
Thrift-Specific Inventory Management
Because of the high volume of donations and wide range of items at a thrift store, you need inventory management tools that accommodate quick item categorization and show accurate inventory levels.
Cloud-based thrift retail POS systems offer real-time tracking — this means you can add an item to your inventory from your phone or computer, and it updates across your entire system. When you make a sale, your numbers automatically adjust, keeping them accurate across all your devices. This also allows you to easily adjust inventory levels if you find a discrepancy, or if an item can’t be sold.
Make sure the thrift retail POS system you choose is integrated with a barcode system, including a label printer. As new donations come in, you need to be able to print labels for each one to stay organized.
Related Read: How To Keep Track of Charitable Donations: 7 Tips for Thrift Stores
Color-Based Discounting
Many thrift stores use color-coded tags to discount certain sections of their stores at different rates. A blue tag might mean 30% off, while a red tag may indicate 50% off. This helps move stubborn inventory, as customers are more likely to make a purchase when they feel they’re getting a good deal.
A thrift retail POS system that supports this feature automatically calculates color-based discounts at checkout — saving time and creating a better customer experience. You may also want to implement other discounts — like mix and match promotions, buy one, get one (BOGO) deals, or seasonal sales. Find a POS system that lets you easily manage these discounts to help you draw more customers to your thrift store and increase sales.
Roundup Donations
Roundup donations are a simple way to boost fundraising efforts. Some POS systems allow a customer to round their purchase up to the nearest dollar, with the extra cents going to charity. While this represents a small contribution by each individual customer, these funds add up over time and can generate significant amounts to help your business serve the community.
Related Read: Thrift Store Community Partnerships: 5 Tips To Strengthen Local Connections
Multilocation Support
If you’re managing multiple locations, make sure the POS system you choose can accommodate this. POS systems with multilocation support allow you to check important data for individual stores and for your entire organization. This helps you see the larger picture of how the organization is doing — as well as identify trends in individual locations.
If a certain type of item, like shoes, are selling out at one location but overstocked at another, you can transfer some of your inventory to the other location. If you’re receiving abundant donations at one store but have less inventory at another location, you can send some over to balance the supply. Multilocation POS support lets you easily make these changes in your system, so all your inventory is accounted for.
Related Read: Digital Transformation for Thrift Stores: 6 Steps To Modernize Your Business
Customer Loyalty and Membership Programs
Your nonprofit can be more successful if you create a community of customers who come back again and again for new finds. Loyalty programs develop this community. These programs encourage repeat purchases by offering occasional rewards.
Loyalty programs are set up in a variety of ways, including:
- Point-based systems
- Spend-based discounts
- Tiered-member systems
Regardless of how you set up your loyalty program, make sure the rewards are valuable enough that customers want to use it. You can offer free, exclusive, or store-branded products, or discounts on purchases. The system needs to be easy to understand and use, so customers know how close they are to their next reward.
Find a POS system that accommodates customer loyalty programs, so you can easily keep track of how close each customer is to their reward. Having this information built into your system makes managing loyalty programs a breeze.
Related Read: Are You Regularly Thanking Your Customers?
Top 5 Thrift Retail POS Systems
Now that you have an idea of which features you need, let’s look at our top five picks for thrift retail POS systems.
5. KORONA POS
KORONA POS is a general POS software that can be used for thrift stores.
Standout features: KORONA POS is known for its employee management capabilities, including time tracking and payroll. Users can set specific access controls for each employee, and access unlimited customer support.
Price: The Core plan is $59 per month. The Retail plan is $69 per month and includes inventory management and automation.
4. Rain POS
Rain POS is a general POS solution that can work for thrift stores.
Standout features: Rain POS offers an intuitive interface and advanced inventory management, as well as hardware to use with your system.
Price: Contact for custom pricing.
3. AccuPOS
AccuPOS is a general POS solution that can be a good fit for restaurants, retail stores, thrift stores, and other business types.
Standout features: AccuPOS can be customized to your business. It integrates with QuickBooks and Sage to help you manage financial data.
Price: AccuPOS starts at $84 per month, with $45 for each additional station.
2. Thrift Works
Thrift Works is a thrift-specific POS system that offers color-based discounting and a customer loyalty system.
Standout features: Thrift Works offers inventory management, sales tracking, and integrates with accounting software.
Price: Contact for custom pricing.
1. ThriftCart
ThriftCart is a cloud-based POS solution designed specifically for the thrift industry.
Standout features: ThriftCart is an all-in-one solution for thrift stores. It offers an intuitive interface, thrift-specific inventory management, color-based discounting, and donation roundup.
Price: Contact for custom pricing.
ThriftCart: The Ultimate Thrift Retail POS System
A POS system makes running a nonprofit easier. It simplifies your processes and automates tasks you used to do manually — but to get the most out of your POS system, you need a solution designed specifically for thrift stores.
ThriftCart is the ultimate POS solution for thrift stores. With both general and thrift-specific features, you have everything you need to run your nonprofit — including advanced inventory management features, multilocation support, and customer loyalty tools.
To see ThriftCart for yourself, schedule a demo today!
