Ask people to name a sound synonymous with retail. Chances are they’ll say the ringing of tills. But the point of sale (POS) has moved far beyond its traditional role as a fixed terminal for taking payments. Today, tills are one of retailers’ most important customer experience technologies.
Why? For starters, shopper journeys no longer start and end in the store. Customers now can buy in-store, online, or online to be picked up in-store. Now, by the time they reach the aisles, consumers will likely have interacted with the retailer online, potentially through more than one device, and will come armed with knowledge – and expectations.
According to Big Commerce, a technology company that develops e-commerce software for businesses, 51% of consumers prefer to shop online as opposed to in-store. As more and more customers are shifting their shopping habits, it becomes increasingly important that companies have a seamless and consistent experience across all aspects of the buyer journey.
Thoroughly modern multi-tasking
The point of sale has the power to merge customer expectations with the in-store experience by integrating shoppers’ digital and physical activities. Cloud-based solutions have the power to draw customer data through the till to add value to the overall shopper experience. For example, enabling them to redeem loyalty points earned from purchases either online or in-store.
More than that, next-generation customer-facing devices can access operational information to extend the store’s capabilities beyond the shelf edge. Inventory information is a good example of this. If a product is not available, retailers can look up alternative locations from their POS device, and then order it for delivery or pickup at the customer’s convenience.
The transformation of transactions
Even the till’s traditional role of taking payments has changed significantly and will continue to evolve at a rapid rate. Where once shoppers had the choice of cash or card, now they expect to have contactless as an option.
In the UK alone, contactless payment rose to £3 billion ($3.8 billion) in 2017, up from £117 million in 2014, according to the UK Cards Association. That’s over a 2000% increase in just three years. And that trend is not localized to only the UK. Contactless payments (ApplePay and Android Pay, for example) are continuing to increase in ease and locations of acceptance.
With great power comes great responsibility
The good news is that retail has the technology to fulfill all these demands. However, the growing number of tasks these devices are capable of fulfilling places a great deal of pressure on the POS. If the modern till is the heartland of customer experience, how devastating will the impact be if that device isn’t working at optimum capability – or worse, fails?
This is where cloud-based solutions come into their own. Moki has been privileged to partner with PayPoint, managing the deployment of its next-generation POS terminals. With thousands of next-gen POS systems and devices deployed around the globe, PayPoint needs to be able to manage them from anywhere.
Implementing such projects through the cloud enables us to not only connect new devices to the store network quickly and seamlessly but also manage those devices remotely throughout their lifecycle – including technical diagnostics and over-the-air updates to security and software.
With this long-term management structure in place, retailers can rest assured that their tills not only have the multi-functional capabilities to meet customer expectations today but the technical set-up to keep delivering well into the future.
If you are interested in learning more about how Moki can help you with your ePOS and mPOS devices, please call us at (844) 665-4669 or request a demo at moki.com/demo.
