In some past years, the digital revolution has been the most important factor to disrupt the retail industry. It was when credit cards made their debut in the 1950s by Frank McNamara, the industry had faced a disruption. But the new emerging technologies are shaping the retail industry for a better customer experience both in-store and online.
The digital revolution continues to change the retail landscape which a few years ago was unthinkable. It also brings change in Point of sale systems and it became an essential tool for any today’s brick and mortar stores. A recent analysis report reveals that the Point of sale (POS) terminals industry will reach USD 116.06 billion by 2025, with a CAGR growth of 9.9%, which is not too bad.
Nowadays, as business owners depend on data to make better decisions for their business and customer demanding safe and unique shopping experience for them, which makes POS systems a bridge between businesses and consumers. So, it is important for retailers to understand the significance of big data, in-store analytics, and cloud technology.
POS industry has been changed a lot in a few years and still, new technologies are emerging fast. Business owners and retailers should always be updated with the latest trends coming in the industry. Here are a few Point of sale trends which should be on your watch –
Increase in Mobile Payments
The digital push also brings change in payments for the retail industry. As the numbers of mobile user grow, users tend to pay from their smartphones. It took us away from the two industries – cash and cash registers. This encouraged the technology to move further and create a portable Point of sale solution for the retailers.
In India, where cash used as a preferred mode of payment, digital payments paved their way slowly and now it’s tasting success as consumers in cities prefers to pay from their card and wallets than cash. Lots of startups with new technology brings digital wallets which enable users to pay from their phone & some other payments startups brought mobile point of sale(MPOS) technology for retailers so they can accept card payments easily and create an engaging & personalized shopping experience for their consumers.
Now in, future we can expect to see more and more retailer adopting mobile point of sale solution to accept payments from cards, mobile and cash also.
Usage of Big Data& Analytics
Technology isn’t the only thing that pushed us for a change, demand also did the same. this is the reason retailers turning to the big data and in-store analytics to understand what going on in the store, so they can make better & data-driven decisions for their stores.
The emerging technologies have helped to end the problems for the small retailers with the type of data which was only accessible for the large enterprises and big retailers.
Perhaps we will see the use of big data and analytics in future applied in every stage of the retail store process to determine trends, predicting the demand for fast-selling products and spot the customers who are more likely to purchase those products.
The best use of big data maybe depends on the location in the store where customers are to make better decision to track, stock and refill product on a daily basis.
Analytics helped the retail industry every time by providing tools to track how their business is performing and consumer shopping behaviors and pattern.
Adoptions of Cloud Technology
Retailers these days want their store transaction or sales data to be accessible quickly from their smartphone, tablet or desktop wherever they are. And that’s where cloud technology comes to the rescue for retailers.
We saw the growing number of POS systems come up with the integrated cloud solutions in the systems. And in the future, we can see the increase in the adoption of cloud-based solutions by a large number of small-medium sized retailers. Meanwhile, these small-medium businesses (SMB) or retailers are often agile and aren’t connected to a large, complicated system which makes it easier for them to switch to a unified commerce technology.
The biggest advantage of using a cloud-based POS solution is that a retailer can easily access their data, upgrade their software across all the stores at the same time. Today POS systems come with integrated cloud technology not only on hardware devices but also on software and card payments solutions also.
This integration of cloud-based solution into POS systems will reshape the entire POS industry to makes doing business easier for the retailers. Multiple stores can be upgraded and updated in just a matter of minutes, isn’t it wonderful.
Personalized In-store customer experience
As we mentioned in previous points, how this emerging technology in the retail sector is helping retailers to make better decisions for their stores and creating a better customer shopping experience. But to personalize their customer experience, a business needs to know them first. According to a survey of 2,200 consumers, 78.6 percent of consumers said that they will only likely to engage with a brand if their promotional offers are customized to how they have interacted with that brand before.
If you want your customers to keep coming back to your store for shopping and want to acquire new customers in your store then you need to create a hyper-personalized marketing approach. You need to create a buyer persona to approach new customers and repeated customers, you can achieve this with artificial intelligence tools. And with the emerging new mobile POS technology, it is easier for retailers to offer their customers a number of choices to accommodate them with their shopping.
What a customer experience from a retailer is, consistent experience across the store and every channel. As the demand for more personalized experience from customers on the rise, we can expect to see that new features will come to the rescue of retailers. With that, they can track their customers’ shopping behaviors, engage with them with great loyalty programs to create a better shopping experience.
Having a smart retail POS system becomes important for businesses to offer their customer a seamless experience. As the technology continues to evolve, the POS systems are becoming more smart, efficient, secure and affordable for the retailers to improve their business operations. Retailers should be updated with new trends and features when choosing a POS system for your business.
