Point-of-Sale FAQ's
Retail Point-of-Sale Frequently Asked Questions
- What point-of-sale solutions does Advertising Solutions offer?
- How much does a Advertising Solutions Point-of-Sale system cost and are there any hidden fees?
- How does a Advertising Solutions Web-Based Point-of-Sale system compare to a traditional terminal-based point-of-sale system?
- May I have a web-based point-of-sale system built while my current system stays live?
- May I use my own domain (name.com) with my Advertising Solutions Web-Based Point-of-Sale System?
- How will customers find my website?
- What makes Advertising Solutions website applications search engine optimized?
- How do I know if I have a new website order?
- How do I get paid for orders through my website?
- May I accept credit cards without having a merchant account or internet gateway?
- How will customers view their order status and track orders?
- Will switching to a Advertising Solutions Web-Based Point-of-Sale affect my current search engine listing and ranking?
- How do I calculate shipping using my point-of-sale system?
- What if I need to sell Retail or Wholesale or both?
- Will Advertising Solutions point-of-sale systems work with any existing accounting software packages?
- What kind of design and upgrade flexibility do I have with a Advertising Solutions Web-Based Point-of-Sale System?
- What if the products I need to sell are electronic media that needs to be downloaded?
- What if I want to have gift certificates and coupons?
- Is there a way to upload all my products at once into a web-based point-of-sale system?
- How can I print shipping labels and invoices?
- Do I need to buy any special equipment?
- Will my existing scanners and magnetic strip readers work with a Advertising Solutions Web-Based Point-of-Sale system?
What point-of-sale solutions does Advertising Solutions offer?
Currently Advertising Solutions offers one main base point-of-sale system that can be tailored to different industry needs whether retail, restaurant, service, or hospitality. Advertising Solutions point-of-sale systems include everything you need to not only sell in-store, but also sell online from the integrated website and built-in e-commerce. Because the point-of-sale systems are web-based, any computer connected to the internet can be used as a cash register without additional licensing requirements or fees.
Advertising Solutions point-of-sale systems are full of features to make running and managing your store both brick-and-mortor and online, quick and easy. With the tools included in Advertising Solutions point-of-sale systems, and our Point-Click-Save, technology, you'll save time and be able to focus on running your business. Advertising Solutions point-of-sale solutions are the complete solution for your in-store and online e-commerce needs integrated into one. Advertising Solutions point-of-sale systems are perfect for small to medium-sized businesses and can be tailored to fit any multi-store, enterprise-level company.
Because Advertising Solutions point-of-sale systems are based on open-source technology, your system can grow and change as your business needs dictate without costly licensing or renewal fees. Advertising Solutions offers a number of upgrades and add-ons for your needs. However, you're not limited to just our upgrades and add-ons. If your company requires special customization, your Advertising Solutions point-of-sale system can be modified as needed; there's really no limit to what can be done with a Advertising Solutions Web-Based Point-of-Sale system.
Once your site is up and live, Advertising Solutions offers services to help you get the most from your website by analyzing traffic, increasing conversion rates and more. Our professionals here at Advertising Solutions can help you with everything from custom web design, graphic or logo creation, search engine optimization, domain registration, paid search advertising, merchant accounts and more!
How much does a Advertising Solutions Point-of-Sale system cost and are there any hidden fees?
Advertising Solutions Web-Based Point-of-Sale systems start at $599.95 per month to Rent-to-Own for 12-months, or $5,995.00 to purchase with no further licensing or renewal fees. Whether purchased or rented, we never take a percentage of sales like many other e-commerce solutions. If you choose to Rent-to-Own, you will be required to utilize an approved Advertising Solutions hosting plan until your 12-month Rent-to-Own contract is complete. Upon completion of the 12 monthly payments, you are welcome to continue hositng with Advertising Solutions or move and host elsewhere.
Most customers choose to utilize Advertising Solutions web hosting for their new Advertising Solutions Web-Based Point-of-Sale system. Advertising Solutions web hosting is built for secure, reliable service and all servers are located in multi-million dollar data-centers in Dallas Texas monitored 24/7 by certified technicians. If purchased, Advertising Solutions Web-Based Point-of-Sale systems can be hosted with any web host using Linux, Unix or FreeBSD servers supporting PHP, MySQL, Javascript and Apache.
How does a Advertising Solutions Web-Based Point-of-Sale system compare to a traditional terminal-based point-of-sale system?
Advertising Solutions has many advantages when compared to traditional terminal-based point-of-sale systems:
- Cost
When it comes to cost, web-based point-of-sale systems differ from the traditional systems in a couple ways:- Web-based point-of-sale systems do not have per terminal license requirements. Most traditional systems require a software licnese for each computer terminal running the point-of-sale software. With a web-based point-of-sale system, any computer with an internet connection can be a point-of-sale terminal.
- With a web-based point-of-sale system, your central hub with all your important sales data and records is stored on a secure server in a mulit-million dollar datacenter behind top-of-the-line security and hardware. To get that kind of reliability and security out of a point-of-sale system centered in your office or building would cost a foturne!
- Assistance
With Advertising Solutions Technical Support, you've always got a helping hand. We offer 24/7 support by phone or email. Our team is knowledgeable, friendly and courteous. We're used to working with clients new to the internet and are happy to answer questions and explain things in non-technical terms to better help you understand and learn. - Flexibility
Advertising Solutions Web-Based Point-of-Sale systems are extremely flexible in several aspects including design, function, upgradeability, and hosting:- An Advertising Solutions point-of-sale system can have any custom design or layout integrated to match your company's image. Any designer familiar with PHP and HTML can make changes or edits to your website application's overall design. Because PHP is open source and a main-stream preferred language, finding a developer to work with you is easy. With traditional point-of-sale systems you are fairly limited to the templates provided unless you utilize expensive custom development.
- Advertising Solutions point-of-sale systems are more secure and functional than most traditional web-enhanced point-of-sale systems. Advertising Solutions is built using well documented, minimal code for quick and compatible browser rendering and function; in turn this makes for an optimized site at the programming level. The security behind Advertising Solutions Web-Based Point-of-Sale systems is second to none as our programming team builds using only the best tested and secure technologies. Traditional point-of-sale systems with "add-on" website Web-Based Point-of-Sale systems are littered with code and functions rarely cross-browser compatible and often clutter the system. In addition, these traditional point-of-sale website add-ons are normally filled with so many extraneous files that upgrading or adding features can be cumbersome and costly.
- With a Advertising Solutions Web-Based Point-of-Sale system, your website and in-store point-of-sale can be altered and modified to fit any of your company's unique and custom needs. Since these website applications are open-source, you have an unlimited source of upgrade options and are not limited to the upgrades and add-ons Advertising Solutions has listed here on the site. Most traditional point-of-sale systems are built with only a couple business models in mind, thus making you the customer adapt to their system; you don't have unlimited potential.
- While most customers choose to host their website here with Advertising Solutions, your web-based point-of-sale system can be hosted with any company you choose that runs Linux, Unix or FreeBSD servers that supports PHP, MySQL, Javascript and Apache.
May I have a web-based point-of-sale system built while my current system stays live?
Yes. Your new system will be setup completely separate from your current system and will not interfere. Once the new system is ready to go and tested, then you can disengage any legacy systems or websites.
May I use my own domain (name.com) with my Advertising Solutions Web-Based Point-of-Sale System?
Certainly! With Advertising Solutions, you can point your domain to our servers and are not required to use a sub-domain of Advertising Solutions.
How will customers find my website?
Customers will find your site numerous ways, but most importantly through the search engines. All customers of Advertising Solutions are linked to through our site. This allows search engines such as Google to pickup your new site when they visit Advertising Solutions. Thus your site gets into the search engines faster than if it were hand submitted.
In addition, Advertising Solutions can help you sign up for Google AdWords and begin getting sales the first day you go live! Google AdWord campaigns are easy to manage and can bring in business immediately when you say 'go'. As well, Google AdWords let you set a budget to spend and don't require any commitments.
What makes Advertising Solutions website applications search engine optimized?
Advertising Solutions Web-Based Point-of-Sale systems are optimized for search engines due to the extremely clean, tight, cross-browser compatible code used to build the system. Advertising Solutions doesn't use any code or functions that could potentially cause a browser malfunction and is made to work on practically any browser. Search engines such as Google factor into account whether or not the code used in a site is cross-browser compatible and how clean the code is when determining ranking in search engine results. Therefore, a site that is more compatible than another is going to get a better ranking in the search results than a site that has browser errors.
In addition, Advertising Solutions Web-Based Point-of-Sale systems are built with content optimization in mind when it comes to your dynamic navigation system and utilizing proper META TAGS for header, link, and content optimization. Many clients utilizing a Advertising Solutions website application enjoy first page listings for their associated industry and search.
How do I know if I have a new website order?
The Advertising Solutions Point-of-Sale notifies via email both you and your customer of the order and the corresponding details.
How do I get paid for orders through my website?
Advertising Solutions allows you to utilize several built-in payment options including PayPal IPN, Authorize.net Internet Gateway, In-Store Credit Card Processing and a Default Order option. Your shopping cart can be set to use just one of these options or all at the same time. As well, new payment methods and gateways can be added at literally anytime as needed.
- PayPal IPN
With the PayPal IPN service, you simply enter your PayPal Business Account information into your Advertising Solutions Point-of-Sale's Payment Preferences area and your cart is automatically linked to your PayPal Business account to allow you to accept Visa, Mastercard, AMEX, Discover and e-Checks, or PayPal Account. Your customer is not required to signup with PayPal to pay via credit card. If a customer doesn't want to signup, they simply click the button process the transaction like any other credit card transaction on any other site. Upon successful payment, PayPal would deposit the monies into your PayPal account at which point you can decide if you want it transferred to another bank account, or keep it there to earn interest. If you don't already have a free Business PayPal Merchant Account, you should signup now; there's no monthly fees or commitments and is a more cost effective option than your traditional bank's merchant account for online processing. - Authorize.net Internet Gateway
If you already have a merchant account and want to use your bank's online credit card processing services, simply tell your merchant that you want to use the Authorize.net Internet Gateway with your merchant account. Your merchant bank will sign you up with Authorize.net and provide you with the Transaction Key and Username to input into the Payment Preferences area of your Advertising Solutions Point-of-Sale. Authorize.net will direct the funds to your merchant account whom in turn will pay you as per your agreed upon terms. When using this option, your website host should have an SSL Certificate installed to securely encrypt your customer data. - In-Store Credit Card Processing
If you already have a merchant account with your bank, and would prefer to manually process credit card transactions through your in-store terminal, you can use this option to secure and validate a customers credit card number at the time of order. You will be emailed with the password to retrieve the customer's credit card number and can then manually process the transaction using your in-store terminal. As per your other in-store transactions, your funds will be available as per your agreement with your merchant bank. When using this option, your website host should have an SSL Certificate installed to securely encrypt your customer data. - Default Order
The Default Order option gives you additional payment options as determined by you. Some such options could be to allow 'Payment on Account' should you have clients that you allow to order and pay later. Another option could be to allow a customer to place an order and then mail in a check. The uses are varied and completely up to you.
May I accept credit cards without having a merchant account or internet gateway?
Yes! By utilizing the In-Store Credit Card Processing option, you can capture a customer's credit card information and process the credit card using a separate manual, in-store terminal.
How will customers view their order status and track orders?
Registered customers will be able to login to their My Account Center and view Order History as well as any notes or tracking information you've given the order.
Will switching to a Advertising Solutions Web-Based Point-of-Sale affect my current search engine listing and ranking?
Most clients see a dramatic improvement in their search engine ranking once into a website with full product cataloging. Because Advertising Solutions Web-Based Point-of-Sale systems are optimized for search engines, and because your website will be increasing in size and content due to new product pages and more, your website should see a dramatic increase in search engine ranking and popularity. The more products and information you have on your website related to your industry, the better your ranking with search engines will be. Remember, a search engine gives preference to those sites that appear to be an 'encylcopedia' of information on a particular topic.
How do I calculate shipping using my point-of-sale system?
Advertising Solutions point-of-sale systems give you the following built-in shipping options:
- Flat Rate - Every order is charged the same shipping rate.
- Base Rate + Set Price Per Item - Every order is charged a fixed rate, plus an additional charge for each item purchased.
- Variable Price Per Item - Shipping is calculated from the shipping price entered for each product. Enter the shipping price for each product in the product details area.
- Price Per Pound - Enter your Rate Per Pound, then enter the weight for each product in the product details area.
- By Total Cost of Items - Corresponds to the total price of the items in the shopping cart.
- By Total Number of Items - Corresponds to the total number of the items in the shopping cart.
- By Total Weight of Items - Corresponds to the total weight of the items in the shopping cart, measured in pounds. To use this option, you must enter the weight for each product in the product area.
- UPS Real-Time Calculated Shipping - With this upgraded shipping option, your customers will have the option of choosing from the UPS Shipping options that you specify. Your users will need to be logged in or enter their zip code in the appropriate form in order to have shipping charges calculated, as the charges are based on the destination zip code, as well as the total weight of all items in your shopping cart. You must enter weights for all items in your catalog to use UPS Shipping.
- Additional Shipping Charges - You can enter up to three additional charges that can be added to the shipping total, as well as the text describing each. Your customers will be able to check one of the three options and the additional shipping charges will be added to the overall shipping cost.
As with all Advertising Solutions website applications and functions, new shipping features can be added as your company grows and changes.
What if I need to sell Retail or Wholesale or both?
With Advertising Solutions Web-Based Point-of-Sale systems, your pricing structure can change as your business changes. To sell wholesale or any other special pricing group, you would simply request to look at the "Price Group" Add-On Module. This module will allow you to add numerous pricing groups for any number of customers or custom pricing groups.
Will Advertising Solutions point-of-sale systems work with any existing accounting software packages?
As a standard, all Advertising Solutions Web-Based Point-of-Sale systems come with standard order search reports to allow you to quickly and easily see the days sales as well as products sold. Any business owner can then input their daily sales totals into any accounting program presently in use. If you would like to have your point-of-sale system automatically integrate with your accounting software such as Quickbooks or PeachTree, the simple addition of a database connection module can be integrated to create bi-directional feeds between your shopping cart and accounting software.
What kind of design and upgrade flexibility do I have with a Advertising Solutions Web-Based Point-of-Sale System?
Because Advertising Solutions Web-Based Point-of-Sale systems are developed using open-source technology, your upgrade and design flexibility is literally unlimited. This flexibility is unheard of with most boxed solutions. With an Advertising Solutions website application, literally all aspects of the site can be modified to fit your business needs. With Advertising Solutions and our Point-Click-Save technology, even a novice can manage day-to-day content. And for those expert coders, the expandibility of the Advertising Solutions Point-of-Sale gives you unlimited capabilities for additional functions and features.
What if the products I need to sell are electronic media that needs to be downloaded?
For those selling electronic media, Advertising Solutions has an e-Media Add-On that allows you to sell electronic media for download, while keeping the download site secure from hackers attempting to steal the electronic media.
What if I want to have gift certificates and coupons?
Advertising Solutions Web-Based Point-of-Sale systems come with the ability to issue gift certificates and coupons.
Is there a way to upload all my products at once into a web-based point-of-sale system?
Products can be uploaded to a site using our XLSBridge via the site's database back-end all at once. To complete a back-end product upload your products will need to be listed in Excel format. We can provide an Excel template using the XLSBridge via the Admin Area.
How can I print shipping labels and invoices?
As a standard, all Advertising Solutions Web-Based Point-of-Sale systems print a standard printer-friendly invoice for inclusion with an order or shipment. As with all other Advertising Solutions website applications, any special printing formats can be customized as needed.
Do I need to buy any special equipment?
Because all Advertising Solutions Retail Point-of-Sale systems are web-based, there is no special equipment to buy or software required to download. Any computer with a connection to the internet can be used as a cash register station for the point-of-sale system.
Will my existing scanners and magnetic strip readers work with a Advertising Solutions Web-Based Point-of-Sale system?
Bar code scanners, magnetic strip readers, and most other peripheral devices used in conjunction with traditional point-of-sale systems are nothing more than "input" devices similar to a mouse or a keyboard when it comes to inputing data and will work fine.
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