POS Technology Leading Market Innovation
retailciooutlook

POS Technology Leading Market Innovation

By: Retail CIO Outlook | Tuesday, August 25, 2020

In today's market, the consumer is king, and any organization that believes otherwise is already lost out to its competition. Sellers, software developers, and hardware makers are developing and deploying innovative POS solutions designed to enhance customer experience and streamline retail backend operations continually

Fremont, CA: The American consumer market has grown multifold over the years, and the consumers have taken it to the storefronts, both physical and online. In 2019, the general retail revenue increased by 3 percent, and statewide shoppers collectively managed to markup an average sale of USD 312 billion every month. Without a doubt, consumer spending in the market has increased rapidly. The increased spending has been channeled in new and different ways due to the continued evolution of point-of-sale (POS) technology.

In today's market, the consumer is king, and any organization that believes otherwise is already lost out to its competition. Sellers, software developers, and hardware makers are developing and deploying innovative POS solutions designed to enhance customer experience and streamline retail backend operations continually. POS has been widely accepted across different areas of business and has made significant advancements in the marketplace.

Traditional checkout systems that involve cashiers and billing will soon be antiquated, thanks to the advancement of autonomous brick and mortar payment technology. This mode of payment leverages sophisticated sensors, cameras, and machine-learning software to support genuinely frictionless purchasing experiences. Amazon's Go Store is a prime example of this solution that is quickly becoming popular in the U.S. The technology is simple and involves little or no intricate procedures to be followed by the consumer.

Using an Amazon account, one can gain access to the Go Store and simply needs to pick what he or she wants to purchase. Cameras connected to machine learning activate the customer's Amazon account, while shelf sensors identify what has been added to the cart and charge it to the respective account. Once the items are selected, the customer need not wait in long, time-consuming queues to bill the items. The advanced payment gateway will already have charged the total cart value to your linked Amazon account, and you can be on your way.

Currently, Amazon operates over a dozen such stores in the U.S. in prime retail locations without checkouts, cashiers, or queues where shoppers can freely select their items and go about their business. This model is has been tagged by many as the future of the POS model. Forward-thinking organizations like Amazon in the U.S. and innovative sellers in Southeast Asia have accelerated the adoption timeline and are making automated checkout a part of the current retail ecosystem.

At the same time, contactless debit and credit cards are emerging as the new trendsetter in POS technology. Approximately 50 percent of consumers in the European Union use these methods for payment. The adoption rates in Asia are much higher, with 96 percent of shoppers in South Korea using contactless credit and debit cards to make payments. The adoption rates for this technology is relatively meager in America, 3 percent, which experts believe is likely to change soon.

 

Weekly Brief

Read Also