What Is Electronic Cash Register (ECR)?

If you've ever wondered how an electronic cash register works, well, believe it or not, there was a time when people didn't know that either. Once upon a time, people would walk into stores and expect to get what they wanted—without knowing exactly how much it costs or whether the store had it in stock. And then some guy came up with an electronic cash register (ECR), a fancy computer system designed to keep track of all the stuff sold at retail outlets. ECRs have come a long way since then—they can now tell you exactly how much each product costs and where it's stored in the back room. They also help retailers track sales, minimize register errors and collect inventory data. Electronic cash registers are the heart and soul of retail. Without them, stores wouldn't have much more than shelves and a few employees to make customers' purchases. These handy machines are responsible for reading product information from labels and matching it with prices in their internal price database. They then add up all the products you're buying and send that total to sales software after completing your purchase. If you're running a retail operation, it's important to remember that your cash register is only one tiny part of the overall process. Yes, the register is where all the money gets tallied up and stored. But it takes more than just a few numbers to make an effective business strategy. It also takes software that can communicate with your cash register and make decisions based on data collected there. It's not just about whether you should ship more of a product—it's also about how much of that product you should send, where you should ship it from, and even what kind of label will go on the box.