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As the POS technology evolves, retailers will have every opportunity to create an environment that offers products to the customers but also enables an ideal customer experience.
FREMONT, CA: Digital evolution is notably one of the most important retail trendsetters since credit cards made their debut in the 1950s. Similar to how credit card machines became popular in the past, now, an efficient POS system is an indispensable tool for any of the modern-day brick-and-mortar retail locations. According to a recent study, the POS terminal market value is expected to grow to reach $98.27 billion by the year 2022, which is 13.5 percent CAGR. POS systems, the center of smart decisions, is where the business logic and real-time business transactions meet, and a place where all the retail action happens. The retailers need to know the emerging trends in POS technology to stay ahead in the competition. Here are five POS trends to watch for in the coming years.
1.Increase in mobile payments and tablet POS
With the emergence of the digital age and its new technologies, cash and cash registers are rapidly becoming a thing of the past. Shoppers have plenty of options now, starting from credit and debit cards to prepaid cards and contactless payments. Consumers are, now, also making purchases using electronic apps that offer a variety of advantages without the involvement of cash. Cashless payments offer speed, convenience, guaranteed payments for the merchants and security, and provide transparency for both the consumers and merchants. Around 73 percent of the shoppers are of the opinion that they use less cash than in the past, and eight of 10 customers globally use tablets, smartphones, or different kinds of digital technology within the store as they shop. About 82 percent of consumers say that they refer first to their mobile screens to find out more about any purchases they are about to make in the store. Tech brains like Apple, Google, and Samsung permit mobile payments from smartphones, enabling the users with a more convenient way to pay. Implementing a tablet-based POS system, which can accept mobile payments, traditional credit card transactions, and cash, can prove to be helpful. Despite its diminishing popularity, it is not going away forever.
2. Cloud Technology
At present, the digital environment is very critical. The retailers can make their store transactions or sales data accessible quickly from their smartphones, tablets, or desktops, no matter where they are. This is where the efficiency of cloud-based solutions comes into the picture. POS software, services, and data are offered to the user, on-demand, from the service provider's servers. One of the most significant advantages of using cloud-based POS solutions is that the retailers can do everything and anything that ranges from easily accessing their data to upgrading the software across all the stores at the same time. The number of stores can be updated and upgraded at the same time within minutes, which helps retailers handle the business better. Cloud POS is offered as a service, and the new features can be developed and released by the provider quicker than with the help of client-server POS.
3. Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence (AI) plays a major role in providing benefits to the retail sector. 15 percent of the businesses are presently leveraging AI in their respective POS systems, and 31 percent of the businesses are planning to implement AI within a year, according to a survey from CMO by Adobe. POS systems that use AI can remind the companies to fulfill an order to refill stock, notify the businesses about the evolving customer behavior, alert them on product trends, give recommendations on which engages the customers, suggest promotions to carry-out, and evaluate the sales trends. AI with POS systems can integrate all the payment methods—mobile apps, chat payments, social payments, and payments done in-store. This helps in offering a seamless omnichannel shopping experience.
4. Personalized Customer Experience
A major factor for the success of today's highly competitive market environment is the proper and timely use of technology to improve customer relationships while streamlining the activities of the retail establishment. Personalization is the key element. 79 percent of the consumers mentioned that they would only engage with a brand if their promotional offers are customized to how they have interacted with that brand before. In another survey, it was noticed that about 91 percent of the consumers said that they are likely to shop with businesses that are aware, can recall, and give the right offers to the customers. The POS capabilities are not limited in offering a better understanding of the financial workings of the business. It becomes critical when it comes to utilizing the data more efficiently and effectively across all areas of the business, especially comprising customer relationship management (CRM). The retailers who use CRM dashboards can effectively segregate marketing and coordinate sales and promotions that are based on their interests and shopping habits.
5. Data and Analytics
Last but not least, the POS systems are gaining interest in the retail market. They can provide a plethora of data and analytics that help retailers to make smarter and data-driven decisions. To personalize, improve, and enhance customer experience, retailers have to know who their customer is, which can be done through analyzing and monitoring data and analyze them through POS.
The future of the POS system will help retailers in giving instant access to consumer data and robust analytics to help the enterprises carry out intelligent, data-based business decisions. Since the availability of the data, the retail enterprises can spot the comparisons and undertake the required tasks.
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