VAR Updates Margaritaville's POS System

When Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville began to grow beyond its Key West, FL-based first gift shop, it needed to upgrade its out-of-date point of sale (POS) system. That's what led the retailer to contact VAR Absolute Logic, Inc., which recommended Synchronics' CounterPoint POS software.

"CounterPoint has allowed us to keep detailed records and has an intensive inventory package," says Robert Tomlinson III, regional manager for Margaritaville. "We depend heavily on historical data to forecast future sales trends on an item-by-item basis. With CounterPoint, we are able to extract history on a yearly, monthly, and daily basis for an individual product."

As CounterPoint has evolved, Margaritaville has taken advantage of the additional functionality. For example, the chain added credit card integration, bar code labeling, order entry processing, and CPOnline. The latter enables Margaritaville's Web site (www.margaritaville store.com) to seamlessly interface with the retailer's in-store CounterPoint system.

"Each year on CounterPoint, we have been able to automate or computerize many tasks, which before would have taken hours to complete manually," Tomlinson says. "For instance, before we had CPOnline, we were manually printing orders from our Web site and having employees type each order into our system. Needless to say, we've been able to eliminate a lot of wasted time by using CounterPoint."