Speed up your trade counter with wholesale scan and shop

When customers have to wait in line just for a staff member to manually key in a list of product codes, everyone loses valuable time.

With the Scan & Shop feature in the Profit4 WMS Android app, you can turn that bottleneck into a fast, self-service workflow. Whether you run a bustling plant nursery, an electrical wholesaler, or a builders' merchant yard, customers can now walk the floor, scan the items they need, and generate a ready-to-pay Profit4 sales order in seconds.

What is Profit4 WMS Scan & Shop?

Unlike consumer supermarket apps designed for personal mobile phones and self-checkout payments, Profit4 Scan & Shop is built specifically for commercial trade environments.

It runs directly on the handheld Android scanning devices your team already uses for warehouse management. Locked down in a secure kiosk mode, these devices can be safely handed directly to trade account holders or cash-sale customers or used by your counter staff on a customer's behalf, minimising trade counter queues and increasing customer satisfaction.

How self-service trade ordering works

The workflow is designed to be intuitive for visiting buyers while keeping your back-office data completely secure:

Quick staff setup:
A member of your team selects the customer account for the session—such as a specific trade account or your default cash-sale account—and enters a staff PIN.

Customer reference:
The buyer enters a mandatory reference for their order, such as their name or job number, and taps Start Shopping.

Walk and scan:
As the buyer walks your showroom, nursery, or yard, they scan product barcodes or enter product codes. Scanning an item twice automatically increases the quantity, while a handy Remove Mode makes it easy to scan items back out if they change their mind.

Live totals and VAT toggles:
The screen displays the last scanned item alongside a live running total of item counts, total weight, and order value. Buyers can even toggle totals to view prices including or excluding VAT at a single tap.

Instant sales order creation:
Once the buyer reviews their items and confirms the total, the app instantly creates a Profit4 sales order and displays the unique order number on screen.

Fast counter payment:
No payment is taken on the handheld device. Instead, the buyer simply takes their order number to the trade counter, where your staff pull up the pre-built order and take payment immediately, with zero manual re-keying.

Built-in control and kiosk security

Handing a warehouse scanner to a customer requires strict safeguards. Profit4 Scan & Shop includes enterprise controls to protect your pricing and system settings:

• Locked kiosk mode: The Android handheld stays locked inside the shopping workflow with the main WMS menu hidden. Exiting the mode or switching customer accounts requires a staff password or PIN.

• Protected Profit4 pricing: All unit prices, weights, and VAT calculations are pulled directly from Profit4 in real time. Prices are strictly read-only on the device, preventing unauthorised discounts or manual price edits.

• Accidental exit protection: If a customer taps the back button, the device warns them that their current list will be lost rather than quietly closing the app.

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Ideal for high-footfall trade environments

Because Scan & Shop uses rugged warehouse hardware and connects straight to your core ERP, it excels in busy, hands-on wholesale sectors:

• Horticulture & plant nurseries: Landscapers and garden centre buyers can walk the beds, scan plant labels, keep an eye on total load weights, and head straight to the desk to pay.

• Builders' merchants & timber yards: Contractors can scan heavy or bulky materials directly in the yard without carrying sample items up to the trade counter.

• Electrical & plumbing wholesalers: Busy tradespeople can quickly scan multiple small components and cable reels, eliminating picking errors and manual data entry at the counter.

Ready to transform your trade counter and warehouse?

Scan & Shop is available now and runs on your existing WMS Android handhelds.

Book a Profit4 Demo or speak to your Customer Success Manager today to see how self-service trade scanning can cut counter queues and free up your team.

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