5 Reasons Why You Need A Salon POS System

If you are running a salon or nail studio, you might need a specific POS system to work with your business goals. Discover how to choose the best option.

WRITTEN & RESEARCHED BY
Kymberlin Bush
Expert Contributor

Last updated onUpdated August 15, 2024

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Key Takeaways

Some point of sale systems have specific functionality than can help with complex scheduling and appointment needs
Salon-specific POS software can also help manage independent contractors and allow employees to monitor their own calendars and billing

While it’s true, that the best POS systems for small businesses will work just fine for your spa, salon, or other service-based business, there are some features you’ll be lacking if you choose a more generic system.

The best salon-specific POS software will offer robust scheduling features, automatically updating salon-wide calendars, inventory management for backstock and retail, and customer relationship tools.

Table of Contents

What Is A Salon-Specific POS System?
Why Do You Need A Salon POS System?
How To Choose A Salon POS System
The Bottom Line On Why You Need A Salon Point Of Sale

What Is A Salon-Specific POS System?

When paired with a credit card reader or register, a salon-specific POS system allows business owners to manage the administrative portions of their business. These systems can help you book clients, help people make multiple bookings, manage specific inventory in your stock, and take multiple forms of payment. Each is tailored to the specific needs of this business niche.

Why Do You Need A Salon POS System?

So, why do you need a salon-specific POS system? Well, this is the million-dollar question!

But really, why you need a niche-specific POS is going to come down to 5 major factors:

Scheduling Features

As a service-based business owner, we don’t need to emphasize the importance of easy-to-use but comprehensive scheduling features to your industry.

You need a POS system that can handle appointments scheduled from multiple sources for employees all working different schedules.

Your salon-specific POS should also include a client portal with customer loyalty features, the ability to schedule appointments online, and an account to keep track of your client’s purchases and past appointments.

Scalability

Do you own multiple locations or plan on doing so in the future?

Your POS system will need to keep up with multiple inventory, purchasing, and scheduling locations. You don’t want to get a POS system that isn’t flexible enough to grow your business when the time comes.

Recommended: 6 Best Franchise POS Systems In 2024

Employee Schedule Management

As we mentioned above, there’s a good chance your employees don’t work the same schedule.

Employee management tools allow you to monitor clock-ins/outs, regular schedules, days off, retail sales made, commissions, booth rentals, and more!

Robust Inventory Management

You most likely have two forms of inventory: retail and backstock.

Retail inventory is a fairly straightforward concept to manage. You could even do it with a spreadsheet if desired, but we wouldn’t recommend it.

Salon-specific POS systems can give you live data about the products available for purchase on your shelves and the number of products you have in your back room. With data captured at appointments and the time of sale, inventory management software can send you live alerts about low volume, automatically re-order certain items, and help you stop product waste.

In-Depth Reporting

Hand-in-hand with inventory and employee management, POS reporting is another invaluable feature for all business owners.

With even the most basic reports, you can determine your best-selling products, services, and dates. You can track what employees are selling, how busy they are, and where they may need more training.

Reports are pretty straightforward, but they have a lot of additional uses for business owners if you know where to look.

Recommended: Small Business Guide To POS Reporting

How To Choose A Salon POS System

Here are some things to consider and questions to ask yourself as you start to think about the type of POS system best for your business.

Pricing: What are you willing to pay each month for your POS system? Are you able to afford paid add-ons and integrations?
Salon POS integrations: Are salon features built-in to the POS system you’re considering? Or are they third-party apps that require specific salon POS integrations (which could cost extra)? Do you need booking integrations or inventory integrations? Is it more important that people book online?
Ease of use: Do you need a dedicated support representative from your POS provider to install the system? How easy will it be to train new employees to use it?
Hardware options: Do you want an iPad POS system? Or are you interested in a mPOS (mobile point of sale) approach? (Think: Do you want to be able to move around or is your POS located in one spot?)
Payment processing fees: Are the fees per transaction standard for your industry? Do you get lower processing fees with a more expensive monthly plan or more than one register?
Contract terms/commitments: Are there long contract commitments with steep early termination fees? Can you opt for a free trial or demo?

Read our article on choosing a salon POS system to learn more.

The Bottom Line On Why You Need A Salon Point Of Sale

You need a salon-specific POS because that’s what your business is. You aren’t just a retail store, you aren’t just a personal service provider.

You (and your employees) need specific tools to be successful and help your customers leave feeling satisfied. Save yourself time, money, and energy by improving your customer retention and reducing your employee turnover with a salon-specific POS system.

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Kymberlin Bush

Expert Contributor

Kymberlin earned her Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing from Pacific University in 2020 and resides in Portland, Oregon.

View Kymberlin Bush's professional experience on LinkedIn.

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