The push for less human contact due to the raging pandemic has translated to the exponential growth of mobile point of sale transactions. Online retailers are cashing in heavily on escalating cashless transactions, expanding offerings to further boost their earnings. POS systems have gone from merely being a tool to record sales transactions to a robust platform in just a few years, one that can integrate your marketing, inventory, accounting, and data analytics. In the age of the pandemic, it has become an indispensable tool. Its evolution isn’t slowing down, hence the need to keep up with POS trends.
For that, you only need to browse below the key takeaways. In this article, you’ll learn how POS is critically relevant to customer experience like bread is to butter. Likewise, you’ll see how mobile is disrupting the game in payments and—where on earth is this disruption taking place the fastest? We have compiled more key insights on POS market trends, information that may prove useful to your presentation, report, or anyhow you use it.
If your business is still using the traditional cash register with a card reader and no other payment option, then you’re already behind the times. Not accommodating your mobile paying customers is losing your customer base.
One of the biggest POS industry trends right now is mobile payment transactions, which saw a 40.2% year-on-year growth. However, over 46% of retailers can’t accommodate these mobile paying customers because they don’t have the right system to help complete the transaction.
Although retailers are incorporating these new methods of payment into their POS systems, 23% of them still can’t accept payment with the tool. Businesses that have not transitioned to this technology met the full force of the COVID-19 pandemic, many going down in bankruptcy. As the chart shows below, businesses that have invested early in mobile POS systems are better able to ward off getting in the red. This is especially true for businesses dealing with nondiscretionary goods/services. Those who are more in the market for discretionary products and services are hit hard by the pandemic, showing negative revenue rates.
So, the solution is clear: it is not enough to upgrade your system. Retail POS trends point to the fact that it’s also important to learn how to use it effectively. Doing so allows you to sell more products and bring in younger and more tech-savvy customers through your door. You’ll be making your life and theirs a lot easier by joining the mobile POS trends. And in grave situations like the ongoing pandemic, you are giving your business the best chance to survive, even thrive.
1. Mobility is now a priority
By 2025, mobile POS payments are predicted to reach $4,650,556 million and will have about 1,890.33 million users. These figures are already adjusted in line with changes due to COVID-19 (Statista, 2021). The change in predictions is understandable, as people are going to remain wary of close physical interaction with people they do not know for a while.
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2. Integrated customer loyalty program
When businesses show loyal customers that their loyalty is appreciated, they are more likely to come back for more transactions. This is beneficial to enterprises, as increasing customer retention by even 5% can drive profits up from 25% to 95%. Moreover, 75% of consumers prefer businesses that have rewards programs (SmallBizGenius, 2021) and 52% will join the program of a brand they patronize often (Yotpo, 2018).
3. New ways to improve customer experience
One way to improve customer experience is by making it easier to conduct transactions. That is why it’s also important to have a reliable billing and invoicing program together with your POS sale.
A study indicates that the US is next only to Canada and South Korea in using debit and credit cards for contact transactions. However, it lags behind in contactless card transactions, with just 0.32% of transactions carried out through contactless cards. In comparison, Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada, and South Korea lead by 27.64%, 23.27%, 22.85%, and 20.82%, respectively.
4. More businesses are transitioning to cloud-based POS
61% of quick-service restaurants in the US have embraced cloud-based POS (Pymnts, 2018). In fact, 60% of new merchants are asking for cloud POS rather than legacy POS (Reforming Retail, 2018).
Cloud-based POS is currently one of the leading POS technology trends today. Forbes reported that 61% of merchants are looking into getting cloud-based POS for their business (Forbes, 2018).
5. Asia Pacific Countries lead the world in using mobile payments.
Asia Pacific countries have fully embraced the use of mobile payment methods. eMarketer found that more than 45.2% of China’s population uses mobile payment every day (eMarketer, 2018).
The trend is slow to come to the US. Even with the world’s highest smartphone adoption rates with 77% of the population using one (Merchant Savvy, 2020), its mobile adoption rate is only at 29%, well behind China’s 81.1%.
The 2019 mobile POS transaction value is estimated to be around $745, 796 million. However, debit and credit cards are still the most popular methods of payment in the US. That could soon change as there is a 16.2% year-on-year growth of mobile POS payment users (Statista, 2018).
6. AI Integration
Because of the added benefits of having AI integration, 15% of businesses in the US are already using AI-enabled POS in their stores (Adobe, 2018).
What’s more, 30% are already planning to make the jump to AI-powered POS within the next twelve months (Adobe, 2018). If you’re worried about customers after the upgrade, don’t fret.
A study found that 40% of 18- to 24-year-old consumers would let artificial intelligence shop for them; granted that it understood their preferences. With that said, there should be no problem with customers adjusting to AI in stores considering its benefits:
- In-store fraud detection and prevention. Prevents fraud and ensures customer information is secure through AI. They can detect and prevent fraud and ensures that the information entered is safe at any time. It sends alerts for any suspicious activities. The system can even keep track of employee behavior to make sure they are doing their job.
- Better shopping experience. Online shopping has set the bar for the shopping experience. The convenience and intuitive suggestions it provides prove to be useful to shoppers. Through the use of an AI, you can attain the same experience in-store. The AI can personalize a customer’s behavior and offer relevant product displays based on their past purchases.
- Keeps track of inventory. AI lets you know your customer’s buying habits. That way, you can order more of what’s being bought, increasing profits. It also helps to reduce inventory loss, as it detects checkout errors or when a cashier forgets to scan an item.
7. Better ways to collect data from your customers
Customers want to make their shopping experience as flawless as possible. That’s why according to a survey, 83% of shoppers are willing to provide their information in exchange for a personalized experience (Accenture, 2018).
This trend makes it easier to collect the necessary data from customers. POS systems have a feature similar to some of the best business intelligence tools in the market. It can help you process the data from your customers to create the best experience.
According to a study, 50% of retailers are still using spreadsheets to analyze their sales data (TotalRetail, n.d.). Change may soon be coming as 81% of businesses are looking to get a unified commerce approach to their business by the end of 2020 (Windstream Enterprise, 2018).
8. Faster payment processing
Aside from a personalized shopping experience, customers want transactions to be faster. One way of making sure that transactions are faster is by upgrading older POS units and adding features. In 2019, the leading POS purchasing plans for merchants are new POS solutions, with 51% looking into the change (Hospitality Tech, 2019).
Bigger businesses have more people coming in and making purchases, which is why 46% of store owners are looking to add new modules to keep up with the current demand (Hospitality Tech, 2019).
Lastly, with the rise of mobile payment options, retailers and restaurants alike are looking to accommodate the trend. This is why 39% of business owners want to get a POS for mobile devices.
Source: Finances Online
