An article by POS Paper & Ribbons (ReceiptPaper.com.au)

Point of sale is an essential part of all business, what is surprising however is most business does not actively take a lot of time searching for the best ways to save money on these regular consumable and essential items. Relying on the big brand companies to service these needs results in excessive costs that may add up to thousands of dollars in the long term, it does pay to shop around, but what types of products are available through smaller point of sale suppliers?

The typical small point of sale supplier will stock all the essentials required to maintain operation of point of sale accessories, this includes receipt paper rolls, dot matrix printer ribbons / cassettes and hardware such as receipt printers, bar-code scanners, electronic cash register drawers and terminal pole displays, some companies may also sell larger items such as touch screen replacements.

The typical savings vary on the supplier, but are usually anywhere between 5 and 40% of major supply chain businesses. The market is not greatly saturated in this industry, hence why large suppliers still have the ability to charge large fees on their stock, this however can change if more people understand the benefits of sourcing items from smaller suppliers.

Most thermal paper these days is produced in China, especially single ply, twin ply and triplicate bond receipt paper rolls. The import of these products has significantly lowered the cost of production in recent years, however prices charged by large chains often reflect the old price of locally made production. Working out the type of paper you are using and comparing costs is a simple way to reduce overall spend by up to $10 each purchase of 50 paper rolls.

From our quick research online, items such as bar-code scanners are offered at prices between $100 and $270, with the $100 versions offered by larger companies being for the most part lower quality than those on offer from smaller companies, the same goes when looking into receipt printers, cash register drawers and pole displays.

It also helps to speak direct with the business to find out what features the point of sale hardware on offer has, this can be more difficult to figure out on your own, as most point of sale brands are not easily recognisable. Features such as impact protection, water proofing and warranty are good sale points, most people overlook these features and this again can add to your long term operating costs by requiring replacements on a more frequent basis.

There are after-market replacements for all major POS printers now, such as Epson and HP. The money to be saved in this area is around 40 to 50%. Significant when the cost of the main brands is around $600 retail, and most business will require multiple units. After-market replacements which are still CE&FCC quality certified sell for around $375. One of the leading after-market brands of printer suppliers is known as Nexus, and their printers can be directly interchanged with both Epsom and HP equivalents in terms of quality, but at around half the price or less.

We hope from this article you can get some understanding as to the advantages of smaller point of sale supply companies, making the switch from large suppliers can save your business a small fortune in operational recovery costs, as all good business constantly look to lower their expenditure to increase profit margins, this is one area that should not be overlooked, as the savings can be immense as soon as you make the switch.