Large and mid sized UK retailers who have invested in mobile point of sale technology in-store saw positive results during the recent busy Christmas trading period.
These retailers installed Mobile POS technology for a variety of use cases including:
- Assisted in-store selling to guide customers through the sales process and to provide upselling opportunities
- Queue busting lanes which could be opened to keep customers happy and avoid walkouts from store
- Extra till points to cope with the higher customer numbers in-store at peak trading periods like Christmas
- Pop-up stores which could be opened in busy footfall locations to create new customer sales channels and capture much needed additional revenues
In all scenarios the mobile POS technology has allowed product sales details to be captured and payment to be accepted from the customer. This is because the mobile devices run both a POS and Payment application.
This new mobile POS technology led to the provision of higher customer service levels. Some retailers have opted to use tablet computers for their mobile POS solution whilst others have favoured the use of smart phones, with a few using both types of device. The choice tended to be made based on complexity of sale, size of product range and physical space restrictions. The jury remains out on the question of which operating system (iOS, Android or Windows) should be selected for these new Tablet and Smartphone devices. Arguments exist for each.
With consumers increasingly favouring electronic payment methods over cash, a comprehensive range of payment options needs to be supported including:
- Chip & PIN credit and debit cards
- Contactless bank cards
- ApplePay and other new mobile payment options
- Union Pay acceptance
Christmas 2015 has proved to be the turning point for contactless card spending in the UK thanks to the higher £30 transaction limit, the 460,000 contactless readers available in retail stores and the 78 million contactless cards now issued by the UK banks. Visa has reported that in the UK, contactless transactions now make up 1 in 7 face-to-face Visa transactions (Oct 2015), compared to 1 in 25 just one year ago.
An integrated mobile POS payment solution has proved essential in order to deliver a great consumer and employee user experience. It must be remembered that the sale is not complete until the payment process has been concluded.
The most popular mobile POS systems need to be:
- Highly intuitive and easy to use
- Extremely fast, including the ability to print customer receipts
- Secure, following all of the PCI DSS requirements
- Robust, so that they can survive accidental dropping from a height to a hard floor
- Reliable and have long battery lives to last a whole trading day
- Easy to integrate with other store systems and applications
Our mobile POS strategy
As a leading payments acceptance application specialist we have been at the forefront of payments innovation, including for mobile POS. We are big supporters of enterprise retailers introducing in-store mobile systems and feel that far too much attention has been paid by our industry to the needs of micro-merchants. Our mobile payment references include a European airline and international passenger train operator.
The STS G8 payments application delivers maximum choice and flexibility. This includes support for a range of mobile PIN pads, choice of payment gateway and acquirer. The payment application can be run on the portable device, a back office server or as a cloud payments service. We recognise the importance of high levels of data security, follow secure development processes and comply with all PCI DSS requirements. Naturally the STS G8 payments solution supports contactless cards and ApplePay transactions.
We would be pleased to discuss your mobile POS needs and answer any questions you may have.