Merchants check out the cash cloud

Article first published as Merchants Check Out the Cash Cloud on Technorati.

Congratulations! You decided you wanted to go into business for yourself, you through and thought, had a brainstorm to decide what you wanted to do, you carefully rented a storefront location, stocked it with your chosen specialty, advertised, and after significant expense and cash outlay, you are open and ready for business... but ARE you really prepared?

One of THE most important things a merchant needs, and should invest their time setting up, is usually the one most often overlooked, or at best, not optimized for maximum efficiency. What could this possibly be? Three little letters.

P. O. S. - Point Of Sale. The buck quite literally stops here.


Elaborate Point Of Sale systems are usually quite expensive, you need an I.T. technical person to set it up for you, and maintenance and understanding how to use it is a massive problem for most merchants. Most times it backfires, and you will actually still see some merchants using nothing more than a cash drawer.


Well all that that has changed. Vend has come up with a revolutionary way to take the complicated electronic cash register systems and make them as simple to use as a cash drawer.

There is no software to install, no intricate set up, no contracts, and the price is manageable for even the smallest Mom & Pop storefronts.

Vend has moved everything off your computer, and into the Cloud. If you can use a web browser (Internet Explorer, Safari, Chrome, etc.) you can use the Vend system.

It automatically lets you keep track of your customers, accounts, record a sale directly against a customer account, and process payments against that account at another location or on another date. You can organize your customers into groups, and also view a full sales history for each account.

This is IMPORTANT, because the only business worth having, is REPEAT BUSINESS.
If you are only using a cash drawer, or a regular cash register, when your customer walks out your door, what are the chances you will see them back again? By keeping tabs on them, you can interact, invite them back with coupons, promotions, and much more.


Vend is scalable from one register, to multiple registers at multiple locations. They have done an amazing job of keeping the user interface clean and uncluttered, so when it comes time for the all important check out, it's quick, easy, and fun to use.


I have seen many different POS systems, and in my experience, Vend is by far the best economically, technically, and for ease of use, freeing a merchants frazzled mind to focus on the important things, like running their business.

The good news: Everything above, plus you can use Vend free to start with.

Caveats: The free trial is limited to 200 products and any sales data you enter is erased after a week.