In today’s competitive environment, technology is the biggest enabler. One of the trends gaining momentum is the adoption of a Mobile Point of Sale system (mPOS, for short).
Benefits offered by mPOS
- They are ideal for situations where the billing facility is needed on ground– Whether it is restaurants, trade shows, flea markets or even traditional showrooms where mobility of the point of sales is required, mPOS are coming to great use.
- Improve operational efficiency– They lead to faster order processing, improved accuracy of orders as also greater efficiency in customer checkout, all adding to a business’ operational efficiencies.
- Improved ability of the sales staff to spend more time with customers– With greater contact time, it adds to the ability of the sales staff to up sell as well as cross sell product ranges. In short it offers a greater opportunity for consultative selling
- Improve shopping conversions– A mobile POS is known to encourage spur of the moment buys and thereby improve sales.
- Satisfactorily answer customer queries-With a consolidated mPOS that links with the inventory system, it is easy for sales staff to effectively answer customer queries on availability of products.
- Digital receipts-With the ability to offer email receipts to consumers it enhances convenience.
- Enhanced consumer experience-With customers no longer required to make their way through serpentine queues, the mobility of point of sales system goes a long way in positively impacting the overall consumer experience.
From the merchant’s perspective, an mPOS solution offers many benefits:
- Easy to Implement– With low infrastructure cost and hence low entry barriers, it is an option that works well even for merchants with low transaction volumes. Typically a merchant only needs a mobile phone while the other requirements are given by the vendor in a turnkey manner
- High on Security-With card data not being stored on the reader, the chances of data theft are eliminated. Also, as it takes away the scope of physical theft as it significantly reduces cash transactions.
- Streamlines bookkeeping-With added applications that aid building contracts and keeping customer records, the mPOS goes a long way in efficient bookkeeping. It also improves the email marketing capability of the company with its ability to build consumer database.
- Scalability– With a mPOS solution offering scalability to meet the merchant’s growing transactions, it is a boon especially for emerging markets.
Summary
Clearly more than just being a technology solution, the mPOS offers a range of benefits that help the retailer connect with the customer. While they aren’t set to replace POS systems at least in the short run, their adoption is bound to increase exponentially.
