Staying as efficient and profitable as possible can be difficult for any business in the retail industry. There are many different ways that productivity and efficiency can be compromised in the workplace, not to mention the numerous ways that businesses are vulnerable to financial loss in daily operations. One of the areas in which the retail industry is most vulnerable is in cash management, which takes up a considerable amount of time and money. One of the best things you can do for your business is to minimize your vulnerabilities by investing in tools that will help streamline the cash management process. If you are in the retail industry, these are the tools you can’t afford to do without!
1. Cash Counters and Sorters
Manually counting cash is a risky business, both in terms of what it can cost you in efficiency and energy, and what it can cost you financially. Cash is the most common form of payment in the retail industry. With a heavy cash flow, you need to allocate a significant amount of time at the end of each day to manually counting cash, which is both inefficient, and incurs increased labor costs. Manual cash counting is also more vulnerable to human error and to internal theft, which can cost you big time in the long run. Cash counters streamline the process, sorting and counting bills and coins for you, saving your business time, energy, and money. They also guarantee accuracy, meaning you won’t have to worry about potential miscalculations.
2. Cheque Scanners
If your business accepts cheques, you know that it can be more than just a hassle; handling cheques is a drain on company productivity. Cheques need to be processed, stored, and deposited, which takes up a considerable amount of time, resulting in unnecessary administrative costs. Increasingly, the retail industry is moving in the direction of cheque imaging, and for good reason. Cheque scanners simplify the process. Instead of processing, storing, and depositing a cheque, you just need to need to scan it, and a digital image of your cheque will be stored and deposited remotely.
3. Counterfeit Detectors
Counterfeit money is a real problem in the retail industry, with fraudulent currency in regular circulation. The consequences for your business are clear; accepting counterfeit cash means financial losses that affect your bottom line. Counterfeiters are becoming increasingly savvy, evolving to meet the challenges brought on by added security features. Counterfeit detectors are meticulous, and can tell you right away whether or not you’re dealing with counterfeit money, eliminating the risk involved with manual efforts at detection.
4. Cash Recyclers
One of the central tenets of the retail industry is good customer service; it’s what draws customers in, and keeps them coming back. Things like retrieving or depositing bills, or doing vault transactions, impair your ability to focus on the customer. Cash recyclers do the necessary work for you, without taking you away from your customers. Situated at the POP (point of purchase), they automatically and accurately accept cash, provide change, sort and authenticate currency, and store your money, allowing for increased customer attention and service.
5. Smart Safes
The smart safe is smart for a reason. It provides you with up-to-date information on everything from cash flow, history of event logs, to tracking of transactions. Most importantly, the smart safe is the best way to keep your money secure. The smart safe, with technology that requires everyone who opens the safe to use individualized IDs, allows you to keep track of who has been accessing the safe at all times. Employees can automatically receive their pre-determined amount of float and quickly and easily have their sales counted and stored at the end of shift. Additionally, smart safes can be connected to your alarm system, and they have advanced locking systems and anti-lock drilling protection, providing much more security than a traditional safe.
