2017 Trends In Retail POS Tech
This year has seen some exciting changes in the retail payments technology, as the industry continually builds momentum toward an platform that has slowly become more digital thanks to consumer and business preferences for online and mobile payments.
Retail payment tech has helped slowly change payment options, and it will be this same tech that will continue to grow retail payments.
Below are some of the best trends in retail payments tech that started in 2016 and continue into 2017:
Mobile Options: Digital Wallets, Wearables, and Mobile Ordering and Pick-up
The ever-evolving amount of payment technology options for mobile payment methods is assisting retailers comply with demand to shop directly from their mobile devices whether they are in a store or looking online. In large part thanks to Near Field Communication (NFC), in-store mobile payments are becoming easier and more enjoyable for both the retailer and consumer as long as there is an enabled NFC chip on both the POS and mobile devices being used, including Poynt hardware that enables mobile payments.
The technology is also expanding to include options for wearables to meet this
new demand. From table point-of-sale (POS) technology to acceptance of emerging digital wallet payment methods, there are more options that address the mobile and wearable device environment, enhancing the customer shopping experience.
Additionally, mobile ordering and same-day pickup is now increasingly used and available thanks to retail payment technology.
Restaurants, including quick-serve outlets, and retailers are able to offer a mobile ordering service that enables payment to be included in the ordering process with pickup at the restaurant and store at a designated time.
More consumers are catching on and loving this in-demand option that caters to their whims. Retailers like Starbucks and Taco Bell have reported increases in their sales volume and mobile app downloads thanks to this retail technology, which uses digital wallet features and other tools that also provide additional integration with other areas of the retail operation.
Cloud-Based POS Systems
The up-and-coming trend toward cloud-based software has been around for a while, but it is only now becoming noticeable. The new POS systems increase the number of payment methods that a retailer can accept plus they provide some of the aforementioned integration.
All the data collected from these POS systems is now available in the cloud, which means a retailer can access the information from anywhere with just an Internet connection.
Even better is the fact that data is updated frequently and does not cost the retailer extra money to access. The cloud-based technology also adds further security by not having the data stored on any hard drive.
Tighter Security
The best trend of all is greater payment security with a range of technology being used to make this happen. Besides two-step authentication and tokenization, biometrics is becoming increasingly used to handle payment security by providing the factors that determine if a person is really who they say they are in order to confirm that it is a legitimate and authorized transaction.
Biometrics are becoming an effective way to combat credit card fraud and stop data breaches since criminals have yet to find a way around the powerful science of biometrics that relies on information that is unique to each person individually and cannot be duplicated.
More to Come
With the growing interest in cryptocurrency and the multiple applications associated with blockchain, machine learning and artificial intelligence, and other advancing technologies, more great trends in retail payment technology await in the near future.
This is an exciting time to be part of the retail and payment industries because we are witnessing changes that completely transformed other business segments during the Industrial Revolution and the Digital Age that has forever altered how we shop, communicate, socialize and conduct business.
If you're interested in a Smart Terminal, free credit card processing, mobile payment options, or just new new and updated POS equipment, contact us below for a completely free quote!
