Mobile point of sale systems increasingly popular
An increasing number of retailers are utilizing mobile point of sale systems in their stores, innovating checkout process by breaking it away from cash register and counter. Various companies have been doing this for years, including Apple and Home Depot with proven success.
But now, a newer crop of retailers, such as Urban Outfitters, Nordstrom, and Barney’s, have implemented mobile checkouts in sections throughout their stores as well, and research analysts predict the mobile POS market will surpass $2 billion in hardware and software sales in 2013.
Why are these systems becoming more mainstream?
The answer lies in consumers need for instant gratification and the shift to a more digital age. Innovation constantly creates improvements and new methods for things we do on a daily basis – for instance, we now have digital currency and online crowdfunding portals that directly compete with regulated national currencies and financial lenders. And because we ultimately have everything at our fingertips, we’ve evolved into a society that expects things in real time, or as close to it as possible.
In regards to mobile POS, this concept plays in perfectly. Rather than having customers migrate to the front of a store to finalize a purchase, staff can now interact with shoppers instantaneously and process payments in the moment. This could result in more sales as it decreases the amount of effort it takes for shoppers to make a purchase.
What the big boxes have figured out
Additionally, instead of having shoppers walk around the store with items in hand and decide to place things back before heading to the register, perhaps it makes sense to let them buy in a particular section when they initially make the decision to pick the item off of a rack with the intent to buy.
Mobile POS have mostly been implemented in clothing retail stores, as well as Apple and Home Depot, and are generally marketed to a tech savvy demographic. As tablet adoption rates continue to grow, expect more companies to implement similar strategies for card paying consumers.
