Ask HN: Do you think there's room for a Point of Sales webapp?

#1

Post by davidjairala » Mon, Aug 15, 2011, 12:40 AM UTC

I've been working the past couple of months on a Point of Sales webapp, and it's getting to the point where it's almost good to go, however, I'm beginning to wonder about the actual business potential for it.

I've been looking online for possible competing business or other webapps that do similar things, but so far I've been unable to find anything really up the same alley.

So what do you guys think? Could this be a good lifestyle business if executed correctly? Have you noticed a need for this on your field?

Thanks!

Re: Ask HN: Do you think there's room for a Point of Sales webapp?

#2

Post by rick888 » Mon, Aug 15, 2011, 1:34 AM UTC

You need to make sure you have near 100% uptime. If someone is using this as a PoS and it's down, they will lose money. You may also need to get some sort of insurance.

Re: Ask HN: Do you think there's room for a Point of Sales webapp?

#3

Post by pierreminik » Mon, Aug 15, 2011, 1:50 AM UTC

Having researched potential PoS systems for a local shop I can say there is a lot of room for improving the PoS products but I'm far from convinced it's actually lucrative to provide such solutions.

As rick888 is pointing out you will definitely need a solution that is forgiving towards system threats. The system needs to be functional in all sorts of conditions.

Re: Ask HN: Do you think there's room for a Point of Sales webapp?

#4

Post by gallerytungsten » Mon, Aug 15, 2011, 2:12 AM UTC

I think the two prior comments about having a robust system with 100% uptime are on the money. It definitely can't be laggy, either.

I'd suggest the following reality check. Set up a "head to head" test vs. a cash register. Give someone basic training, and have them run through a list of transactions. Is your app as snappy and responsive as the hardware of the cash register? How does it compare to the cost of a cash register? I'd suggest doing this competitive analysis of the cost and performance before going any further.

Re: Ask HN: Do you think there's room for a Point of Sales webapp?

#5

Post by ottoid » Mon, Aug 15, 2011, 2:16 AM UTC

I'd be happy to look into trying it out for a retail store of general merchandise, like a local grocery store.

The only issue is some kind of guaranteed connectivity on one hand or just good uptime and is it a real time database or is it using push changes from the client?

Would need 2.

Re: Ask HN: Do you think there's room for a Point of Sales webapp?

#6

Post by davidjairala » Mon, Aug 15, 2011, 3:06 AM UTC

rick888 wrote: post #2

You need to make sure you have near 100% uptime. If someone is using this as a PoS and it's down, they will lose money. You may also need to get some sort of insurance.

Thanks, will definitely be looking into various forms of reliability and maybe have some mirror servers just to provide 100% uptime.

Re: Ask HN: Do you think there's room for a Point of Sales webapp?

#7

Post by redguava » Mon, Aug 15, 2011, 3:06 AM UTC

I think multi-site stores would be a good target for this kind of app. Removing the need for networking/synchronisation across multiple sites can be handy. Especially if you show stock levels that let them easily look up accurate numbers at other stores.

I am not convinced 100% uptime is a showstopper, shops can revert to a paper receipt book temporarily if needed. Internet outages are inevitable, even if your server is still up.

Re: Ask HN: Do you think there's room for a Point of Sales webapp?

#8

Post by davidjairala » Mon, Aug 15, 2011, 3:07 AM UTC

pierreminik wrote: post #3

Having researched potential PoS systems for a local shop I can say there is a lot of room for improving the PoS products but I'm far from convinced it's actually lucrative to provide such solutions. As rick888 is pointing out you will definitely need a solution that is forgiving towards system threats. The system needs to be functional in all sorts of conditions.

I was looking at a suscription model, kind of like what the 37 signals guys do, but with more affordable pricing. I was thinking something like $20-$30 a month for the basic package.

Thank you for your pointer about functionality and system threats, I hadn't really thought about that and will be looking into it very thoroughly.

Re: Ask HN: Do you think there's room for a Point of Sales webapp?

#9

Post by davidjairala » Mon, Aug 15, 2011, 3:09 AM UTC

ottoid wrote: post #5

I'd be happy to look into trying it out for a retail store of general merchandise, like a local grocery store. The only issue is some kind of guaranteed connectivity on one hand or just good uptime and is it a real time database or is it using push changes from the client? Would need 2.

Thanks ottoid, I'll let you know via private message or email as soon as I have a beta setup online, which should be coming in a couple of weeks tops so you can give it a go. It would be tremendously helpful to have someone actually try it out with real data.

The database is real time, and I'm definitely beginning to look into some sort of setup that would allow me to offer near 100% uptime.

Re: Ask HN: Do you think there's room for a Point of Sales webapp?

#10

Post by davidjairala » Mon, Aug 15, 2011, 3:11 AM UTC

redguava wrote: post #7

I think multi-site stores would be a good target for this kind of app. Removing the need for networking/synchronisation across multiple sites can be handy. Especially if you show stock levels that let them easily look up accurate numbers at other stores. I am not convinced 100% uptime is a showstopper, shops can revert to a paper receipt book temporarily if needed. Internet outages are inevitable, even if your server…

Hi redguava, thank you for your input.

As you mention the app currently does allow you to run a multi-site setup, as well as a multi-company setup for those lucky people running more than one company.

Seeing the concern for 100% uptime I will be looking into offering as high uptime as possible, maybe adding some EC2 instances ontop of my Linode servers or something of the sort.

Thanks again!