5 MPOS Solutions Bringing Innovation To The Retail Space

Anytime and anywhere retail transactions are a necessity for retailers with limited floor space. Add to this, the shoppers growing desire for a smooth customer experience, easy check-out process and convenient payment options, Mobile Point of Sale (mPOS) is the answer for all the above preconditions existing in the current retail scene.

The inclusivity, personalization and an omnichannel experience that the mPOS system provides encourages cross & upselling. It serves the sales funnel with an interactive and enterprise visibility into the inventory, product availability, customer data in real-time, payment history and various payment options. Customers have a real-time update on the promotions, loyalty points, Buy Online Pickup in Store (BOPIS) & Buy Online Return in Store (BORIS) functionalities along with a convenient wireless payment option.

mPOS is expanding retail opportunities

For the Gen Z, online shopping is a way of life, with nearly a three quarter of them using mobile phones to either pay for purchases or using mobile apps to shop. This is as per the collaborative study between IBM and National Retail Federation (NRF) on the Gen Z consumer. Driving this market is the retailers’ need for improving the customer experience, pushing the sales and reducing operational costs.

By freeing up the floor space needed for a tethered physical POS, retailers can use it for more merchandise displays for catching the shoppers attention. Plus, the cashiers can now be trained to be a more hands-on sales executive.

Inventory management and order fulfillment is vital if a retailer hopes to gain customer loyalty and trust. Having an uninterrupted access to information, enhanced real-time responsiveness, and smooth flow of data across the organization, offers a consistent CX and gratification. Thereby it encourages repetitive shopping by customers.

Technological innovations for the future of mPOS

Technology driven innovations and power of digitization have enabled the retail sector to improve their overall performance, revenue and efficiency. mPOS has opened up new channels for improvisation by making their products more accessible. Blockchain, AI, AR/VR, IoT and many of the new age technologies have made the traditional POS systems to align with the today’s retail business needs and customers.

Here are some of the trends in mobile Point-of-sale system for the retail market.

1. Cloud-based retail solutions

The influx of big data sourced from various channels are making it cumbersome for retailers to analyze and process it to gain any significant insights. Cloud based retail solutions provide the computing power needed to identify customer behavioral patterns, offer secure and reliable payment gateways and various services needed for a smooth customer experience.

2. Beacons for proximity marketing

Using beacon technology, retailers like Macy’s and Kohl’s can push contextual promotional content as shoppers enter their stores. They receive push notifications on their smartphones to open their store apps to receive promotions, deals, and discounts. Based on their location, these notifications also have check-out features that has changed the traditional POS with its mobile checkouts.

3. Chatbot enabled in-app purchases

Store associates and shoppers can have an interactive conversation with the chatbots on the mobile platform using Natural Language Processing powered by ML algorithms. These interactions promote continuous learning and allow them to handle complex tasks like product recommendations or payments.

For example, the H&M bot in their Kik messaging app allows customers to create personalized themes based on which it offers recommendations to the customer. It also sends abandoned cart notifications to facilitate in-app purchasing.

4. Voice ordering

Customers are accustomed to voice assistants like Alexa, Siri, Cortana and Google Assistant to comply with all their queries, requests and interactions. By placing their order online, customers can now avail various checkout options like BOPIS and pay at any of the mPOS locations. Executives can confirm the purchase order and thus eliminate the long queues at the payment counters.

5. Automatic payments at checkouts

The rise of biometrics in the mPOS system is used to authenticate a purchase using the person’s unique traits such as fingerprints. The existing methods like PINs and password are weak authentication mechanisms in light of the growing hacking and online frauds.

For example, the mPOS systems used as part of Amazon Go utilizes image recognition, cameras and sensors to scan the purchased items by the customers and automatically charge it to their Amazon account.

Additional technologies like Bitcoin and QR code, AR/VR are giving new direction to the retail POS systems.

Retailers can leverage Kloud9’s retail mPOS technology to focus on customer engagement and personalization. Get in touch with our experts for a comprehensive consultation based on your retail needs and requirements.