Point of Sale & Retail

A POS system in Cameroon has to work on a busy Saturday with a queue at the till, a weak network and customers paying in cash, MTN MoMo and Orange Money within the same hour. Opesware supplies and configures point of sale for supermarkets, mini-markets, pharmacies, hardware stores, boutiques, bars and restaurants. Our product CEMAC POS covers retail and restaurant point of sale, and when a business needs something specific, we extend it or build a custom system around its processes.

It suits a single counter in a neighbourhood boutique as much as a supermarket with several tills, or a chain of pharmacies or hardware stores spread across Douala, Yaoundé and other towns. The aim is simple: every item that leaves the shop is either sold and paid for, or explained. Sales, stock and cash are recorded together, so the owner can compare what the till says with what is in the drawer and on the shelves.

• Checkout. Products are scanned or searched, discounts follow your rules, and the receipt shows prices and VAT in FCFA.
• Payments. Cash, MTN MoMo and Orange Money are recorded separately, so the end-of-day cash-up shows what is in the drawer and what is in each wallet.
• Stock. Deliveries are received against supplier orders, transfers between branches are tracked, and pharmacies and food shops can follow batches and expiry dates.
• Restaurants and bars. Orders can be taken by table or at the counter, with tickets sent to the kitchen or bar.
• Owners. Daily sales, margins, best sellers and cashier performance per branch, visible without being in the shop.

Network outages and power cuts are part of trading in Cameroon, so the till must keep selling. Sales continue offline and synchronise with head office when the connection returns, which is also how branches in different towns share one product catalogue and one view of stock. We advise on the hardware that makes this reliable: a suitable terminal or PC, a receipt printer, a barcode scanner, a cash drawer and a UPS or inverter to ride through short cuts.

For businesses that keep SYSCOHADA accounts, sales and purchases can flow into accounting through our ERP and accounting work, so the accountant does not re-type a month of receipts.

Owners who run a shop through managers or family members often ask the same question: how do I know nothing is going missing? A well-configured POS answers it with controls rather than suspicion. Each cashier has a personal login, so every sale, refund and discount carries a name. Cancelling a sale or giving a large discount can require a supervisor’s approval. Opening and closing cash is counted at every shift change, and the difference between expected and counted cash is recorded. Regular stock counts compare what the system expects on the shelf with what is really there, and the variance report shows which products disappear most often. Loyalty points and promotions, where you use them, follow rules you set once instead of being granted at the till by habit.

1. We visit the shop or restaurant, count tills and branches, and review your product list and price structure.
2. We load products, prices, barcodes and opening stock, often from your existing spreadsheets.
3. Hardware is installed and tested, with Mobile Money set up by our fintech team where needed.
4. Cashiers, supervisors and managers are trained separately, in English or French, on sales, cash-up and stock procedures.
5. After go-live, support continues by phone, WhatsApp and remote access, with visits from our Douala office.

Read our guide to POS and retail systems in Cameroon, or request a demo.