Technology and Equipment
Buying a Computer For Your Retail Business
By Steven Pollack
Mar 12, 2006, 19:52

Assess Your Needs First

It is easy to fall into the trap of spending too much on technology that you do not really need.  A careful evaluation of your needs is warranted before you spend any money because it may not be important to have fully loaded computers or cash registers at your store.

While you will need to keep track of your inventory, sales, payroll, and expenses, these tasks were all done by hand before computers.   A really small business will find that inputting every item of inventory, every sale, and every expense into a computer program actually takes more time than doing it by hand.  While using the computer will give you the ability to manage inventory and finances more effectively, the downside is that any failure to maintain the data 100% will quickly render the reports useless.  In my case I keep inventory  using a paper system because my warehouse is only a few thousand square feet and I can visually ascertain my inventory levels.   The bigger your operation, however, the greater will be your need to invest in a computer system because organizational control can quickly get away as you grow. Even if you have a small operation will need a computer in order to do basic letter writing, email vendors and customers, and maybe even create appraisals.

Apple Computers

A few things to remember when buying a computer system. First, you have a choice between Apple computers and a Windows PC.   Apple computers will run Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, and Powerpoint) and there is an Apple version of Quickbooks as well.  For most small retail businesses this is all the software you will probably run. You should be aware that if you buy an expensive piece of software, it may be illegal to install it on more than one computer. Most software vendors will sell additional licenses at a reduced rate. You may be tempted to hire an outside consultant to design a database system to keep track of your inventory and sales. Keep in mind that your custom software may be much buggier then commercial software, more expensive, and require continual custom support . 

Most other business software packages, especially industry specific software, will not run on an Apple computer.   Even if you find some alternative software for Apple it may be quite pricy and come with little community support.   Because the market for Apple computers is less than 5% of the total PC market, and because fewer people use the system in business, there are fewer programs for Apple than Windows PCs.  Finding  help from colleagues will be another problem.  If you do decide to buy an Apple, one huge advantage is the lack of viruses and spyware that affects them. In fact, Apple computers have no need for virus software at all… Why? Because currently there are no Apple viruses in the wild! Because of this, you can count on your information staying secure, which is very important. Apple also sells servers if you need to run multiple computers that are networked together.

Windows PC

Most medium and large retailers use Windows PCs and Windows servers. Windows systems are the general standard across both home and small business. The current Windows operating system that available is called Windows XP.   Most businesses would purchase direct from Dell, Gateway, HP, or Compaq in order to get the professional version of the latest operating system.  These professional versions are generally not available at consumer retail stores such as Best Buy and Circuit City, but can be found at stores such as CDW, Office Max, Office Depot, CompUSA, and Staples.

There are literally thousands of pieces of software available for Windows PCs, almost anything that a small retail business would ever need. There are a few negatives of using a windows system though. The first is that because PC’s are made piecemeal with no unified standard (parts can be made by any manufacturer and even in a branded system such as a Dell, dozens of parts come from other manufacturers) there are issues of instability and incompatibility. These issues can cause crashes and loss of data in extreme cases. The second and bigger issue security. If you plug a windows system into the internet without using firewall or virus software your PC will be infected with Trojans and viruses in just a few minutes. These programs can take over your system and allow your data to be stolen. In the past when client data has been stolen, it has led to liability on the part of the holder of such data for violation of the duty to keep the data secure. There are security solutions out there, but none of them are 100%. If you are going to use a Windows system, you should never connect it directly to the internet.  Instead make sure your network is connected to the internet through a firewall, preferably a hardware firewall.

Making the Decision

Whichever type of system you choose, you should not skimp on memory (make sure to have at least 1 gig of ram) or hard drive size (get as large as you can afford). It may be less important to spring for the type of extras that consumer systems have such as a CD/DVD burner or high-end video card. The most important advice I can give is to not give in to buyer paralysis. This is where you worry about your computer being good enough to last a long time so you keep waiting for the next operating system to come out or wait for the expected price drop so you can get an even better machine.  There is no perfect computer and I generally spend between $1,000 and $1,600 for a middle range system.  The worst computer today is twice as good as the computer I was using in 2000 for heavy duty applications such as Computer Aided Design.  So don’t unduly fret about which processor is better because they are all fine at this point for anything you are likely to use it for.  You can only type so fast when word processing and it has nothing to do with the speed of your computer.

Cash Registers

Cash registers come in all types, from high tech to low tech. If you already have a computer system, there is software available to turn a computer system into a cash register. This would allow for sophisticated inventory tracking, automatic accounting, and other fantastic benefits. While this may seem appealing, you have to consider if you really want to spend the large amounts of money to set up and maintain such a system. If may be more practical to use old fashioned registers that cost only a few hundred dollars. Do you really need to pay someone to update your computer system with new UPC codes on a regular basis? Leave the sophisticated point of sale systems to the businesses that are large enough to maintain a dedicated staff to maintain and update them. Remember, old fashioned registers don’t crash, computerized cash register systems do.