The consumer electronics industry continues to grow – in 2025 it is expected to reach over $977 billion. If you’re in retail electronics you’ll know that this growth isn’t without its challenges, and that managing a successful business in this sector requires intelligence, insight and the support of specialised technology solutions. Here we take a look at the specific challenges of electronics retail, and how iVend’s specialist electronics retail software can help.

Competition – electronics retail, where goods can become commoditized, is highly competitive. Retailers need to offer outstanding customer service to differentiate themselves and need to run their businesses with hyper-efficiency to maintain market share and profitability.

Customer disposable income – whilst some consumers can still splash out on high end brands and products, others have to work within a tighter budget. For retailers, this means offering alternative, lower cost products, and therefore managing a wider inventory.

How specialized electronics retail software can help

As we can see, electronics retail has its own specific challenges, so it makes sense that to address them you need a specialist IT solution, not just a ‘vanilla’, or generalized retail system. Here’s some of the things to look for in a point of sale platform for your electronics retail business.

1. Omnichannel – in electronics retail, you need to have a relationship with a customer online and in-store. If a customer starts browsing online, you can seamlessly continue the sales journey with them in-store. The customer must have the same experience and see the same information no matter how they transact, and you must have a single view of the customer wherever they choose to interact with you.
2. Inventory management – with ever wider ranges of products and a fast obsolescence rate, you need to be able to manage your inventory flawlessly. That means having a single view of every item, whether in the warehouse or stores, or even within an individual bin in a store. This allows you to move goods to where they are needed, never miss out on a sale because stock is not in that store, and to minimize price discounting due to having excess stock.
3. Define alternative products – if a product is not in store, or if the client needs an alternative to fit their budget, you need to be able to offer an alternative based on the specification. Check whether your proposed system allows you to categorize products by spec, enabling you to offer this service to your customers, reducing lost sales and increasing revenue.
4. Barcode masking – in electronics retail, to efficiently manage your inventory, you may need more information than is held on a regular product barcode. It is invaluable to have a system that allows you to create custom barcodes that include more information, such as serial number, manufacturing date and price.
5. Upsell capability – in electronics retail, upsell is the key to increased revenue and improved productivity. Whether it is selling an extended warranty, insurance, or add-ons and accessories, the upsell process is more consistent and efficient if it is managed from within your point of sale system.
6. After sales service – offering a strong returns and/or repairs service will set you apart, increase customer satisfaction and drive referrals. To offer this efficiently, you need a system that helps you to identify, separate and track return and repair items, so that they are processed correctly, and so that they are not mixed with for sale stock.
7. Mobile point of sale – being able to engage with customers wherever they are in the store, as they browse the goods, enhances their experience and drives up sales. Mobile point of sale gives your staff all your product and stock information, at their fingertips for increased customer engagement.
8. Notifications – when customers place orders (online or instore) for later collection, you need an efficient process for letting them know their items are ready to collect. You can save time and improve efficiency by managing notifications automatically from your retail store system.

Electronics is a highly specialized form of retail. It has its own challenges and needs specialist solutions to address them. When it comes to the point of sale system that runs your electronics retail business, ensure you choose one that is designed specifically to help you succeed and win in the challenging world of electronics retail.

FAQs

How do I stay on top of price changes?

It’s essential to stay up to date with current pricing, and to ensure that the correct price is always displayed. Managing this through your point of sale system is the most time and cost effective approach, so look for a system that has a price label printing function that is set up to provide automatic notification of price changes and a prompt to print new labels.

When paying for large purchases, customers want payment method flexibility. How do I manage this?

Once the customer has chosen their goods and finally got to the (physical or online) checkout, it is still possible to lose the sale if they cannot pay in the way that they want to. For large purchases in particular, it may even be that they want to use two or more forms of payment within the same transaction – such as a part payment in cash with the rest on a card. Make sure you choose a point of sale system that gives you this flexibility, so that you can keep your customers happy, streamline your checkout process and close every sale.

Content Sources:

Statista

Channel Engine

Mordor Intelligence

Euro Monitor