mobile POS

The continued evolution of consumer technology along with the effects of the pandemic have dramatically altered shopper behavior, further emphasizing the need for enhanced digital transformation efforts across retail stores. Many consumer-centric retailers view the mobile-first strategy as their primary digital approach for revenue and business growth.

It’s time to consider adding a mobile point-of-sale system to your retail operations. This system will not only give you the agility to participate in retail mobilization but also several benefits that retailers can realize almost immediately after implementing a mobile POS (mPOS) solution. In addition to performing advanced retail management functions, the mobile-first strategy opens up new avenues for attracting and engaging customers by expanding your brand’s reach.

Here are the top 7 mobile Point of Sale features and how it makes your retail business more flexible.

1. Mobility

Retailers appreciate technologies that are affordable and simple to implement. It may seem obvious that mobile POS offers you POS mobility. But have you fully explored what it can mean to your business? Sales associates no longer need to stand behind the cash wrap desk. They can carry a mobile or tablet device to help customers in the aisles and complete sales at the right point of decision. It also frees you to save floor space by requiring fewer POS terminals and gives you the power to expand your strategy to manage business almost anywhere.

2. Queue Busting

Equipped with an mPOS, salespeople can serve customers faster and thereby reduce queue and turnaround time. Many consumers have left a store because of long lines. Therefore, time and availability are two factors that come into play when consumers evaluate the customer experience. With a mobile POS solution, store owners can provide their employees with the number of sales devices they need. In this way, they can ensure that customers are served quickly and efficiently without long waiting times, even during peak periods.

3. Inventory Management

Beyond checkout functionality, mobile POS also allows your employees to easily access information when assisting customers. A salesperson won’t need to leave the customer to check inventory in the stock room. The answer is readily available with just a few taps on a tablet’s touchscreen.

Furthermore, if the item is not in stock at the store, the sales associate can locate it and have it sent to the store or straight to the consumer, potentially saving the sale. A mobile point of sale equipped with a barcode scanner provides a quick and accurate count. Data is automatically entered into your inventory management system, providing an accurate count in real-time, with no waiting time for data entry or synchronization.

4. Real-time Access to Customer Data

Your customers appreciate (and expect) a Personalized shopping experience. With mobile POS, your staff can view a customer’s past purchases, browsing history, loyalty rewards totals, and other information that might help them to engage the customer and make relevant and effective upsell or cross-sell offers. Your staff can increase performance if they have insights into customers’ favorite brands. Mobile point of sale can connect them with the information they need to boost sales. This detailed, highly visual information facilitates conversational selling and helps your salespeople create shopping moments tailored to each customer.

5. Alternative Payments & promotions

Mobile POS makes transactions easier by accepting any type of payment. Mobile POS terminals can connect to mobile printers and cash drawers, include payment card readers, and accept contactless and mobile wallet payments. So, customers can use smartphones to pay for goods and services.

Mobile POS solutions can handle omnichannel scenarios such as Buy Online, Pick-up in Store (BOPIS), click and collect, order placement, and scheduling home deliveries or pickups at other stores. They can also be configured to handle on-site returns, giving staff another opportunity to enhance the customer experience and possibly make an additional sale. If your business uses gift cards, membership points, or discount coupons, these can also be used as payments on the mPOS.

6. Seamless integration

Mobile point of sale system integrates seamlessly with Online Order Processing. Integrating online and in-person shopping via mPOS systems enhances the value of data and the efficiency of the business’s record-keeping.

ChainDrive delivers Cross-Channel integration and offers enterprise-wide visibility, allowing retailers to improve profit margins while maximizing their inventory investment and meeting customer service requirements.

7. Marketing Campaigns

Retailers can create targeted marketing campaigns to promote special offers, in-store events, etc. “Direct messages” promoting in-store discounts and bar-coded coupon offers can be easily and instantly scanned and redeemed at the point of sale.

ChainDrive mobile marketing in the form of text messages (SMS) allows retailers to instantly engage “Consumers in Motion”. ChainDrive Mobile Marketing also features contests and consumer polls, allowing retailers to gain valuable insight into their customer preferences. Web-based and fully integrated with ChainDrive CRM, ChainDrive Mobile Marketing offers today’s retailers a new channel to drive sales.

Conclusion

The most advanced retail management solutions work on both fixed and mobile POS devices. This means you have the freedom to decide when you want to use tablets or mobile devices in your business without going through the complex journey of purchasing, installing, integrating, and maintaining any additional software components. Retailers’ mobile-first strategy needs to be fully integrated across the organization to fit into an entire retail ecosystem.

Moreover, when you use the same system on the mobile POS devices as in the rest of your store, all your key information, such as prices, customers, and inventory, are immediately accessible on all touchpoints in real-time.

Mobile POS is becoming a key component of an improved customer experience for many businesses. Consumers are now coming to stores for two reasons. They need the items now and a quick checkout or they need expertise. The mobile point of sale meets both of these needs. From selling on the go to queue busting to improving the quality of service anywhere in the store, it makes sense to set your retail business up for the future with mobile POS. Thus, It’s essential to have a mobile-first strategy. Otherwise, you risk losing business to your competitors.

Are you in the process of selecting a retail software solution to support your business in the present and the future? Please request a free demo with one of our software experts.