Point-of-sale, also known as a point of purchase or POS, relates to an area, where customers can pay for products. For physical stores, it is a cash desk, which is often located near the store’s exit. There are also points of purchase for hospitality businesses, such as restaurants and hotels, which are often a reception desk for hotels and self-checkout terminals for restaurants.
In general, there are two major kinds of business, which require POS systems that are retail stores and hospitality businesses.
Retail stores usually require a computerized network with several checkout terminals and barcode scanners, depending on the size of the store and its average number of visitors. Apart from that POS systems in the case of grocery stores in particular also require scales with a digital terminal in order for customers to obtain a barcode for fruits, vegetables, and products sold by weight.
In the hospitality business, you require a more interactive POS system. For example, restaurants often change their season menus or customers require an order without a specific ingredient or want their orders to be delivered to them, therefore the POS system should be customizable for dynamic changes and allow customers to place orders and pay for their bills electronically. If we’re speaking about hotels, POS systems can be connected not only to terminals, which receive confirmations of visitor’s reservation but are also connected to electrical appliances, such as fridges, TVs, etc.
When we’re talking about POS systems for business we need to outline its advantages and disadvantages.
Advantages:
Disadvantages:
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