Late Night Convenience Store Requirements at 17:45

Late Night Convenience Store Requirements

The Late Night Convenience Store is a successful business that has many loyal customers. In the past, it sold only a limited variety of products, and that made managing inventory very simple. However, business has been growing and customers are starting to demand a larger selection of goods, making inventory control signficantly more difficult. Also, the current method of handling all cash in a shoebox is starting to become a concern because although the store has only one checkout counter now, the owner wants to have additional checkout counters to handle the increased customer volume. A traditional cash register may help in the short term, but the owner has a greater vision.

The owner wants to have a point-of-sale system that not only processes transactions but also has the following operational capabilities:

• Is able to support more than one checkout counter—potentially dozens or more as the store expands.
• Allows products to be picked up or returned.
• Has an awareness of the store's current inventory. It should know how much of each product remains in the store so that the owner knows which products need to be reordered.
• Always knows the most up-to-date prices to reduce transaction mistakes.
• Allows loyal customers to open accounts and handle payments using both cash and accounts. So that customers do not have to remember their account numbers or carry membership cards, account numbers should be searchable.
• Can extend the store's offerings to be sold on the Internet.

In addition to the operational capabilities, the owner wants to gather insight on the overall business based on any period of business operations. For example, the following business insights would be very valuable for maintaining a healthy and growing business:

• Which are the best- and worst-selling products
• How much money has been made for any given period of time
• Which are the best customers so that they can be rewarded for their loyalty in the future
• Which customers have not revisited recently so that marketing programs can be more targeted and efficient

Other insights might be useful, and the system should be flexible enough to allow creation of new reports when needed.