Training Volunteers on POS Systems: 5-Step Thrift Store Guide

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Nonprofit thrift stores often recruit volunteers to support their daily operations.

These volunteers give up their time to serve the community and help fulfill a thrift store’s mission. Still, since they aren’t employees, there’s limited time to teach them.

As a thrift store owner, you need a clear strategy to train volunteers quickly — especially if you need their help with more complex tasks.

Ringing up sales is one of the more complicated duties they can face. But when you’re busy with other responsibilities or have limited employees, you may need your volunteers at the register. While modern point of sale (POS) systems have simplified this process, first-time users still need proper training to handle them confidently and efficiently.

In this blog, we’ll provide a step-by-step guide on how to quickly train volunteers to use POS systems. With an intentional training strategy, you can bring volunteers up to speed and maximize their contribution to your thrift store.

Let’s get started.

5 Easy Steps To Train Thrift Store Volunteers on POS Systems

Here are five simple and effective steps to train volunteers on POS systems at your thrift store. With the right tips and tools, you can boost their confidence, improve accuracy at checkout, and create a smoother customer experience.

Step 1: Demonstrate Basic Transactions

Start by giving the volunteer a brief overview of the POS system, including any additional hardware like card readers or barcode scanners. Demonstrate how to turn the system on, log in, and use the main screen. Then, walk them through a basic sales transaction.

Be sure to cover these tasks:

Scan an item.
Check the price.
Take payment.
Print a receipt.

Some POS systems have integrated payment processing, and others use standalone processing. If the system is nonintegrated, you need to show the volunteer how to type the price into the card reader. Allow them to practice ringing up a transaction, so they can become more confident before doing it on their own.

Step 2: Train for Special Situations

Once the volunteer understands how to process a basic transaction, you can show them how to handle other situations, like returns and discounts. Explain which types of returns are acceptable and which are not, then guide them through the steps to complete a return and issue a refund.

You also need to teach them how to apply discounts. Many thrift stores use color-based discounting, where items in different sections have distinct colored tags. This method lets you customize discounts based on the section.

POS systems make it easy to apply color-based discounts when ringing up a transaction. Maybe your store is set up with blue tags for clothes, red for home goods, and yellow for furniture. If your POS system offers this feature, it recognizes the bar code and applies this discount automatically, reducing the chance of error and speeding up the checkout process.

Make sure to explain these situations to the volunteer, so they’re prepared to check whether the discount was applied and respond to any questions from customers. While it’s impossible to cover every situation that might come up during a purchase, it’s important to review the most common types of thrift store sales.

Step 3: Address Common Concerns

The next step in training volunteers on POS systems is to address their concerns. It’s normal for new volunteers to be apprehensive about taking over the register on their own.

They may worry about making mistakes or running into situations they aren’t sure how to handle. Prepare them for less common situations like damaged returns or items with missing tags. Let them know these concerns are normal and that they’re not expected to know the system perfectly.

Show confidence in your volunteers, answer questions, and offer feedback. When people feel supported, they’re more likely to succeed.

Step 4: Give Volunteers Clear Written Instructions

Help volunteers work more independently by writing out instructions for them to look at if they get stuck. Make a small “cheat sheet” with steps to process a transaction, accept a return, and apply a discount. You can even tape the training notes to the counter on the inside of the register so volunteers can quickly glance at them.

Remember: Update written instructions if you upgrade your POS system or change your processes. Otherwise, you might confuse your volunteers even more.

Step 5: Offer Ongoing Support

When working with volunteers at your thrift store, they should always be supervised by you or an employee. Prepare them for a variety of situations so they can work independently — just know that even with extensive training, they’re going to have questions on the job.

Maybe a barcode just won’t scan for some reason. Perhaps a customer wants to know how frequently you put baseball caps on the shelves, or has a coupon the volunteer isn’t sure how to accept. When situations like these arise, make sure they know who they can go to for help.

Some POS systems have built-in help prompts, which may be useful in answering volunteer questions. Point these out to volunteers and show them how they work. By using this as a resource, they can work out certain issues on their own.

Training Volunteers on POS Systems Like ThriftCart

Volunteers are a major support to nonprofit thrift stores. When they’re given sufficient guidance and the resources they need, they can make an even greater impact.

Design a strategy to train volunteers on POS systems, so you can maximize their time and keep your store running efficiently. Follow these steps and listen to your volunteers to help them feel confident. Soon, they’re off to the races, helping serve your community.

The first step is choosing the right POS system. ThriftCart is an all-in-one solution built specifically for thrift stores. Designed with volunteer operations in mind, the system has an intuitive interface, seamless payment processing, and built-in help prompts for quick onboarding.

In addition to general retail capabilities, our cloud-based software is equipped with a variety of thrift-specific features, like consignment tracking, roundup donations, and color-based discounting.

To see what ThriftCart can do for your thrift store, schedule a demo today!

Training Volunteers on POS Systems: 5-Step Thrift Store Guide