How retailers can transform in store purchasing experience?

In an era of strong competition, retailers are continuallyseeking ways to attract more customers with loyalty programs and other methods. With this in mind, mobility solutions for the retail industry have designed in-store experiencesthat contain interactive information of their items, including inventories and pricesand promotions available at their customer’s fingertips.

Mobile devices that contain a retailers mobile solutions empowers theircustomers with real time information. Real time pricing, availability and promotions on any product are instantly available without asking the sales associate.

Introduction TO Mobile Point of Sale (mPOS)

Mobile point of sale (POS) is an in-store solution for the stores to increase operational efficiency and reduce the cost of an additional sales counter.

Basically, mobile POS allows for   customer transactions to be carried by a portable mobile device instead of a traditional checkout register.

Most retail stores and restaurants havea fixed point of sale, during the transactional stage when money is received in exchange of goods.

Today, mostof the transactions are transpiring via credit or debit cards over the POS, which consists of a computer linked with machine, allowing the merchantto swipe/insert the chip and pin the cards. Whereas the mobile point of sale is handheld portable device that performs the same operation, with the advantage of working  remotely for the same system.

Increasing the in-Store retail experience with mPOS

Typical brick and mortar stores are still needed, because theircustomer’s desire the touch, feel, look and smell of merchandise. They must also compete with online brands and stores on price.  To retain their business, the merchant should offer a compelling in-store and online experience that provides value and convenience, so that the customers do not go elsewhere.

You do not know whata customer satisfaction failslooks like. If you want your customer to be excited about your brand, then you need to execute a strategy that enhancestheir in-store experience.

Mobile POS (mPOS) adds tremendous value andenhancesthe in-store customer experiences. Mobile POS  is not limited to the retail industry. It is applicable to many other industries like Travel, Hospitality etc.

mPOS Solution Key Benefits

Ease of Searching Inventory and Pricing

Sales associates can easily check the inventory and priceswith the help of mobile point of sale, when asked by a customer. With the portable POS device, the sales associates can easily walk around in the store and can help the customer on demand.

Consultative Selling                                                                                                                                                    

Sales associates have the capabilities for consultative selling with the help of Mobile POS (mPOS). They can discuss options with the customers in store and steer them toward a better product or items.

Sell Anywhere Anytime

Mobile point of sale is the key to facilitating the payment process and reduced transaction times. With mPOS, sales associates can complete the transaction when the customer is ready to make a purchase.

Queue Busting

With the help of mobile point of sale solutions, long waits at the checkout queue are a thing of the past. Customer satisfaction is increased due to the efficient transaction and payment process of mPOS.

Email Receipts

Since mPOS provides the digital records of the customer purchase, they can easily keep track of their purchase records.

mPOS is Versatile

mPOS solutions can be used as a cashier, return station or help desk.

Selling via Pop-Up Stores

Point of Sale solutions are not portable because of the connection to register and payment devices. In this case,it is difficult to increase sales via pop up stores. At pop up stores only the mobile point of the sell is the right option for selling the product. Sales associates can carry the portable devices which are connected with the server remotely with easy installation.

Secured Payment Process

The fully encrypted transaction is processedwithout storing the card data via mPOS. By usingP2PE (point-to-point encryption), credit card information is encrypted upon the initial swipe and then securely transferred to the payment process before being decrypted and processed.

Rewarding a Loyal Customers is Easy

It is easy to integrate the merchant CRM system such as loyalty with Mobile POS (mPOS). Loyalty benefits are given to the customer during purchases by analyzing the customer’s profile and prior purchase history.

Locate the items in store

Mobile POS (mPOS) can provide to customers, real time information about the store layout and location of the Items with the help of BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) and location based services.

Replacing Cash Register with Wireless Cash Drawers and Printing Receipts

Mobile point of sale can replace the cash register and work with wireless cash drawers and printers. The customer does not have the card, yet can make the payment once purchasing is complete. The customer can make the payment via cash with the help of sales associates over the wireless cash drawers.

Easy Payments

Mobile point of sale integration with Apple Pay, or Android Pay makes life easier for the customer during payment. Sales associates can simply tap their card fromthe customer or theirsmartphones. Easier payment is achieved with Near Feld Communication (NFC)that containscard details.NFC technology increases the customer’s  in-store experience.

mPOS creates more opportunities to sell and promotescustomer centricity

Mobile point of sales solutions can handle omni channel touchpoints including“By Online”, “Pick-up in store,”and “Placing orders” in addition to scheduling home delivery or delivery to any nearby store.

mPOScan be configured to process the return on the spot, giving additional opportunities for sales associates to enhance the customer experiences or make an additional sale.

Mobile point of sale allows retailers and merchants to placeconsumers at the center of their interactions, no matter where they are at in theirshopping journey.

mPOS beyond Retail

mPOS is not limited to the retail sector. Mobile point of sale includes more than payment processing and extendsbeyond retail stores.Several examples includerestaurants, health care applications, hotels and resorts.

MPOS is perfect for sporting and other events in fixed venues to avoid the queues and allows forpayment at other locations,  mPOS may be used in similar fashion at conference and conventions in addition to outdoor concerts and festivals that take place at temporary locations.

mPOS solutions continue to experience strong growth with micro merchants. Many micro merchants operate with cash and check only because they cannot afford the high costs associated with traditional card processing equipment, processing and maintenance fee.

Adopting MPOS gives micro merchantsa low cost solution and flexible pricing models that makes accepting credit cards feasible. At the same time, mPOS allows forlarger retailers to gainefficiencies, while enhancing the in-store shopping experience for their customers.

mPOS transforms the in-store purchasing experience, leading to greater operating efficiency and reduced costs. Contact Infogain’s mobility team today to learn how you can implement mobility in your organization.

The article is co-authored by Niranter Kumar Dubey, Delivery Head - Retail, Infogain and Ashish Tripathi, Tech Lead-Mobility, Infogain.