5 things a Smart PoS terminal can do for your retail business
Change is inevitable. With rapidly advancing technology, the leaders and laggards of tomorrow will be determined by how fast they adapt to the changing technology around them to deliver to the needs of today’s young and informed retail consumers.
There is no better example than BlackBerry. The smartphone that even had the then U.S. President Barack Obama hooked on it. A smartphone that was known for its robust enterprise security thanks to the Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES), pioneering push emails in real-time, and BlackBerry Messenger or BBM, a revolutionary instant messaging app that required no phone number to be shared. Right from launching the first product in BlackBerry 957 in 2000, up until Q1 2009, BlackBerry was a dominant force in global smartphone shipments. Then the inevitable happened and a mighty tumble followed thereafter leading to BlackBerry registering a 0% market share in smartphones by Q4 2016 BlackBerry. The touchscreen evolution that BlackBerry failed to see happening among peers like Apple spelt doomsday for the once popular smartphone manufacturer. Moral of the story: If it can happen to the once considered infallible BlackBerry, it can happen in any business scenario where technology is the X-factor.
One of the smartest fintech innovations in the retail sector has been the introduction of PoS machines. This digitisation of the cash register has meant that the merchants can now do more than just sell items in their stores. Even the PoS terminals have undergone constant innovation and one such smart introduction has been the sleek, stylish, and touchscreen Android PoS terminals. A vast majority of our merchant partners are using these smart Android PoS machines and witnessing many benefits from it.
Let us explore the following five benefits of a smart PoS terminal in retail:
#1. Efficient Inventory Management
Many retail outlets like pharmacies and grocery shops deal with several SKUs in their stores. Efficient inventory management is the need of the hour to make these retail businesses profitable. Pine Labs Plutus Smart, an Android PoS in popular use is one good example of how inventory management becomes easy with a PoS terminal. There are many third-party business apps available on the Pine Labs app ecosystem today that can seamlessly integrate with the terminal and offer inventory management advantage to merchants.
#2. The no salary top-selling Salesman
At Pine Labs, we have more than 500,000 merchant network points across 3,700 cities. Our extensive relationship with small, medium, and large retail enterprises is built on a trust factor where our products are a value-add in their business. Pine Labs’ Pay Later is a great example where merchants can convert casual store walk-ins into sales, by offering the Pay Later EMI checkout option to consumers. The Pay Later on PoS gets executed in a matter of seconds and is a win-win for both merchants and consumers. Who needs a salesman to boost sales when you have Pine Labs pay later?
#3. Contactless payments ready
Post the onset of the pandemic, the need for contactless payments has increased to a great degree. Shoppers and merchants are both looking for a safer and convenient transaction experience. The option of quick ‘scan and pay’ QR codes and ‘tap to pay’ contactless card payments are now being preferred.
#4. Helps improve Customer Experience
Giving the choice of payments back to your consumers instead of thrusting only one or a few modes of payments is one good way of elevating the customer experience. The faster checkouts courtesy digital payment modes translate to an improved in-store shopping experience. What is most important is the ability of the modern Android smart PoS terminals to capture customer feedback at the point of sale.
#5. Reduced Errors
Digitisation of the cash register helps save a lot of time as it expedites the reconciliation process and eliminates the possibility of human errors from end of day store data. Sales, inventory, and accounting reports can be pulled quite easily using third-party app integrations making smart PoS terminals a must-have in your stores.
If you haven’t already, now is the time to embrace an all-new and smarter way of accepting digital payments in your stores. Pine Labs smart Android PoS terminals will offer you the much-needed competitive advantage and make your business lean, mean, and efficient. For more details, write to us at getstarted@pinelabs.com
(The author of this article is Sunil Param, Head of Content and Communications at Pine Labs. Views expressed in this article are that of the author.)
