The first thing you might ask is, "what exactly is the definition of a Retail Management System?" A retail management system (RMS), is essentially an integrated set of digital applications that the retailer uses to operate their business. Retail management software typically includes: Point of Sale (POS), Accounts, Sales Order Management, Inventory Management, Purchasing & Receiving, Reporting and data driven Dashboard applications.

There are countless options for POS software and many software companies advertise as “retail management systems,” but while researching it can be hard to determine what retail POS features are actually included in the software. We thought it might be helpful (as software providers ourselves) to explain what our definition of an RMS is and why we think it’s important.

At the very least, most retailers use simple cash register-like systems to transact sales in the store. These systems actually grew from cash registers and function mainly as accounting packages. Many have limited or non-existent Accounts and offer limited sets of “canned reports”. Some are entirely without purchasing/receiving, transfer, count, or flexible reporting and dashboard functionality. They are useful as a means to accept payments in the store and for simple reporting and accounting, but not for much else. Depending upon your need, this might be adequate, so it's important to really think through how you want to run your business. If you're focused on growth and need your retail platform to respond, you're going to need more flexibility and features.

Some retailers choose to operate an RMS by assembling the various pieces from different software vendors: a POS system from Vendor A, an inventory management system from Vendor B, purchasing management from Vendor C, a business intelligence tool from Vendor D and so on. The costs of implementing multiple disparate systems and getting them to work together in ELBS is prohibitive for all but the largest retail businesses. Each link in the chain has its own integration that needs to be built and managed, which is costly upfront and over the long term. An integrated retail management system will help you avoid the pain of integrating a variety of separate applications