White Paper: How To Ensure Mobile POS Success

The amount of recent press and research dedicated to the adoption of mobility in retail is dizzying, in part because there are so many multi-disciplinary applications for mobile technology, and in part because so many of those applications are putting up big returns for early adopters. Much of this attention is focused on back office applications, and recently even more of it is focused on retail-related consumer mobile device and application adoption. Meanwhile, a handful of retailers are quietly enjoying significant benefits from another form of mobile technology – mobile POS. Mobile POS solutions are a significant contributor to a healthy market for POS adoption. IHL says POS spending grew 6.9% to $15.4B last year, and mobile POS solutions are poised to reach 80% market penetration by 2014.

Why are mobile solutions fueling reinvestment in retail POS systems? The sources of return that retailers are realizing on the adoption of mobile POS include:

• Shelf Space Optimization
  Changing store formats and a challenging economy are forcing retailers to maximize merchandising space, and the front of the store is prime merchandising real estate. By migrating POS activity from large check stands and self-checkout units to fully-functioning mobile POS devices, retailers are opening up the best merchandising space in their stores for the display and promotion of high-margin products. Many have greatly reduced the overhead and expense of purchasing and maintaining extra registers that are only needed during high volume times of the year.
• Better / More Efficient Sales Turn
  Equipped with mobile POS technology, associates are complementing checkout lines and increasing customer throughput. Shorter lines mean shorter waits and no more lost customers.
• Line Busting
  Mobile POS allows you to scan items and collect card payments as customers wait on line, allowing you to reduce customer abandonment and handle peak selling times more effectively.
• ROI on POS Itself
  When you can achieve better functionality from an investment of $5,000 than you can from an investment of $10,000, you've cut the time to realizing ROI on that investment in more than half.