Task: Build a kiosk point of sales system on ERPNext

Client: Balsam Pharmacy, a foremost retail and B2B pharmacy

Use Case:

Balsam Pharmacy is one of our oldest client. They have been using ERPNext version 11 for past 4 years for retail and B2B sales. Due to high footfall at one of their prime retail pharmacy outlet located in Riffa, Bahrain they wanted to have self-service kiosk to reduce traffic at the point of sales till. They also wanted to give a new self service experience to walk-in customers.

Primary objective of kiosk point of sales system on ERPNext

1. Reduce traffic at single point of sale till.
2. Give loyal customers a new experience of self_service and ease of billing.

The Solution, a kiosk point of sales on ERPNext

Balsam Pharmacy chose a vertical display touch enabled LED screen with builtin 2D barcode scanner and 80 mm thermal receipt printer. The existing point of sales (POS) UI could not be used as it has many features that are not needed by self service customers. It is excellent for the employees as they need all the features.

To make the self service kiosk user friendly we developed a new point of sales web application within ERPNext. We tested out various methods and chose the one that would had least steps and be easy for any new customer to use.

Under the hood the new kiosk point of sales application is connected to CRM, Stock and Accounting modules. New registration of customer is easy and data is stored in the CRM module. The sales transaction is in real time. Customer has option of registering as new customer, if not registered earlier. Or can choose Guest option for continuing without registration. At the time of payment if Benefit_Pay is chosen as mode of payment then the system displays Balsam Pharmacy QR_code. Customer can use scan to pay QR code function on their Benefit Pay mobile application.

Once sale is completed ERPNext passes the sales, mode of payment and stock entries. It deducts the inventory as per batch number/expiry date of the product sold. After tax receipt is issued to the customer the system automatically reverts back to main page awaiting next customer.

And yes, the kiosk is also used for product advertisement when not in use. We used the Microsoft Windows 10 screen saver to display products in slide show after x minutes of no activity. The kiosk LED has not just reduced traffic at the point of sales till but has given opportunity to Balsam pharmacy to increase sales through free in-store free advertisement.

The Result

A smooth sales flow for the loyal customers who pick up items, scan, pay and are out of the branch in no time. The pharmacy gets free advertisements when the kiosk is not in use.