5 Practical Use Cases for Mobile Point of Sale

Business Insider reported, in 2016, that there would be 27.7 million mobile point-of-sale (POS) devices in the U.S. by 2021. Of course, that doesn’t mean that all of them will be retail-centric. Mobile POS systems are becoming quite popular in the restaurant business. But they’re also catching on in retail, and for some very good reasons. Below are five practical use cases for retail-based mobile point-of-sale. Perhaps your retail chain could employ the technology in one of these ways.
- In-store roaming POS – This may be the most obvious use case, but retailers who empower their employees with tablets that they can carry with them around the store as they set up merchandise displays and stock shelves will likely see a rise in sales. Roaming in-store POS allows your employees to ring up sales on the spot from anywhere in the store. When a customer has a question, the employee can look up product information and take the customer’s order right there, on Aisle 9.
- In-store kiosks – Kiosks have become popular in the restaurant business, but they’re also useful in retail. Placing kiosks around the store allows your customers to check themselves out without having to stand in line. That means more sales for you while spending less time with customers. It’s a win-win. The customer gets in and out of your store faster and you close more sales.
- Built-in loyalty – With mobile POS, you can establish a built-in loyalty program complete with coupons and discounts for customers who use the mobile checkout system. Customers can scan coupons with their own mobile devices or your retail staff can scan customer coupons with their tablets. Another iteration of this is the digital coupon where you can Bluetooth the discount from your customer’s phone to your POS–anywhere in the store. Award loyalty points to customer who use your mobile POS system frequently. It will pay for itself in time.
- Real-time product lookup – You or your customers can look up any product in real time and see if you have it in stock. Not only can you look it up in your store, but you can look up products in sister stores and reserve the product at that location. Powerful!
- Customer relationship management – Managing customer relationships is so much easier. You can update each customer’s information on the spot from anywhere in the store. If you are using kiosks, customers can update their own information.
Mobile POS is here, and it’s not going anywhere. Retailers who employ it will have an advantage over those who don’t.