Mobility, NFC, Boost POS Market
Last week’s National Retail Federation’s Big Show showcased many advances in point-of-sale terminals. Transaction speed, efficiency and accuracy are offered in different shapes and sizes destined to meet the needs of every retailer. Propelling that market’s growth is the desire of retailers to upgrade equipment to enable adoption of near-field communication technology for payments, according to a new study by Grand View Research. The dramatic popularity and subsequent growth of the NFC-based smartphone category, in addition to increasingly affordable wireless communication technologies, will continue to influence the mobile POS terminal market. According to the report’s authors:
Mobile POS (mPOS) systems give customers convenient options for checking out in the store and can provide employees with additional information to assist shoppers.
“mPOS terminals are expected to replace the current transaction and payment techniques owing to their improved features such as mobility and better user experience. They allow sales and service industries to conduct financial transactions remotely for improving customer experience. Mobile POS terminals have low initial cost as compared to their traditional counterparts leading to increasing demand from SMBs. Retail and hospitality sector have experienced significant growth in demand for mPOS solutions, driven by increased need for customer analytics features and high ROI.”
The researchers also found that the ease of use and improved return on investment offered by those newer systems has favorably impacted the market. Increased demand for mobile POS terminals such as smart card EFT (Electronic Funds Transfer) is also estimated to stimulate the market. Advanced POS systems are more durable and reliable than their ancestors (aka, cash registers), resulting in significant reduction in total cost of ownership (TCO), making them a hot ticket for small and midsize businesses, which are always trying to maximize cost efficiencies.) Further, the introduction of chip-embedded payment cards and personal identification numbers have minimized security concerns pertaining to sensitive data theft, which is also expected to augment POS terminals market growth. The global POS terminals market was valued at more than $30 billion US in 2012; the POS software segment is expected to surge in the near future due to increased demand from retail businesses, in large part. In fact, the study found that retail is expected to remain the major market segment during the next six years.
