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Two times every year thousands of parents and parents-to-be attend the Kid's
Exchange consignment sale in Raleigh, NC to buy and sell clothing, toys, and
other products. To handle this volume of sales, a speedy point-of-sale system
combined with a powerful back-end system was designed, developed and installed.
System Highlights:
- Barcode scanning point-of-sale
- Instant, real-time reporting
- Interface with QuickBooks
- Web-based tag printing
- Very easy to use
With an average daily sales volume of 9000 items, keeping people moving
through the sales floor was a primary concern for Kid's Exchange. Each
consignor is assigned a number and their name and number are posted on the
web site with a link to print their barcoded tags. This eliminates the need
to mail out thousands of tags, as the web site provides self-service for all
of the consignors. The consignors print out the tags that they need, write
the price of the item on the tag, and attach it to the item. The back-end
software automatically creates the web pages needed to make this all
function seamlessly.
At the sale, handheld scanners are connected to PCs and custom software
was written to allow the process to be as streamlined as possible. Each tag
has a barcode for the consignor number. The tag is scanned then the price is
scanned from a price sheet. This process allows a single checkout person to
process more than 40 items per minute.
All of the transactions are maintained in a single database, allowing the
data to be analyzed at the end of each day, or as often as desired. Daily
reports can be printed to show the totals for each day. An integrated backup
and restore feature allows the data to be safely stored on a floppy disk or
CD-R/RW and kept in a secure location.
The back-end software is fully integrated with QuickBooks accounting
software, allowing consignor information to be pulled into the system and
sales transactions to be pushed back to QuickBooks. This allows fees and the
proper percentage due to each consignor to be automatically added to
QuickBooks. Checks can be printed as soon as the sale is finished. What
would take days with a manual system is now condensed to a few minutes.
For hardware, Kid's Exchange opted for the ultra-reliable, yet cost-effective
Symbol LS-1900 (Cobra) scanner to allow the tags and prices to be quickly and
reliably scanned.
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