The differences between a credit card terminal and a point of sale system explained.

Whether your store does business from a physical building, online, or both, you definitely need a way to process the credit and debit card payments of your customers. For decades, the so-called “dumb” terminal was the method of choice. Although it did its job well, it has been surpassed in efficiency and versatility by the now ubiquitous smart terminal point of sale system.

The bare bones terminal.

When the time comes for a customer to finalize their in-person purchase using a credit card, the old-school terminal does the job quite adequately. Using the attached reader, the customer gives the merchant access to their payment details, which are securely passed along to the other players in the payments process. In just a few seconds, the system ensures that there are sufficient funds in the customer’s account and verifies that the transaction is not fraudulent, quickly confirming or declining the payment so the buyer can go on their way with their merchandise in hand.

What the point of sale system can do.

In addition to accomplishing the task of accepting customers’ card payments, a point of sale system is capable of a great deal, excelling at numerous other business-related jobs. In order to understand how this is the case, it helps to know how a smart terminal works.

A modern point of sale system consists of several components.

• A tablet or terminal, often with a customer-facing screen to allow for viewing the transaction while it is in progress. It can also be used to feature advertising of the merchant’s choice.
• A card reader that makes it possible for the customer to swipe or contactlessly communicate their credit or debit card information for processing.
• Peripheral hardware such as barcode scanners, receipt printers, and cash drawers.
• Software that communicates with the payment processor and enables the system to perform other business-related functions.

All of these elements work together to optimize the customer’s shopping and payment experience while simultaneously streamlining the merchant’s day-to-day business tasks.

How integration makes the difference.

The smart POS system is equipped with software that allows for tracking of multiple subsets of information. For instance, it can be set to register each piece of merchandise when it arrives in your warehouse by means of the barcode scanner. As soon as the item is bought, the system will take note, simultaneously updating your inventory so that you always have a real-time idea of what you have in stock.

The database function that stores these details and makes them available for retrieval can also be harnessed to do other jobs. For example, some of the most effective marketing campaigns target existing customers with personalized notifications and emails that encourage them to visit again and purchase merchandise that complements things they have already bought. Your POS lets you record details about your loyal customers such as contact information, shopping histories, and preferences that you can later use to curate a highly individualized selling strategy that gives shoppers what they want while enhancing their relationship with your brand.

The constant interplay among the various parts of your POS also facilitates maximum use of your available cash. That’s because it is connected to your accounting software for instantaneous updates to your bookkeeping information. Once you have your POS properly configured with your other software, you can say goodbye to those drawers filled with paper receipts once and for all.

The bonuses of compelling reports.

As you navigate your store through these challenging economic times, it can be difficult to plan ahead, particularly if you are struggling to run your operation in the old-fashioned manual way. With your point of sale system as an efficient silent partner, you now have a means to create any number of reports that provide valuable insights into your past sales, employee performance, the success of previous marketing campaigns, and so much more. Again, the power lies in the customer, inventory and financial databases that you create and maintain in your system.

You can use reports to gain numerous insights in just a few clicks. Just some of these include the following.

• Details about what products were your highest sellers over a specific time period such as the holiday season.
• Your busiest selling times. This detail lets you know how many staff to schedule during any given shift.
• What merchandise is failing to gain customer attention. With this intelligence in hand, you can make plans about how to address this challenge such as altering your store’s layout, featuring lagging products in your next sale or demo video, or removing the items to make room for those that are more in line with customer interest.

Today’s smart terminals are more intelligent, affordable, and smaller than ever. If you still haven’t joined the POS revolution that will take your shop to the next level of competitiveness and streamlined functioning, the time to update is now. You and your customers will instantly begin to reap the benefits.