How modern POS systems are changing the way we do business.
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From the lunch truck to the dog grooming van, to the artisan in the farmers market stand, the advent of mobile credit card readers has opened up new streams of revenue for small business. These portable sliders fit on a Smartphone or tablet, and can make your business a truly mobile one without tethering you to a machine or an expensive contract. Even better, modular POS (Point Of Sale) solutions make it possible for small businesses to control inventory and supercharge their bookkeeping with big league features—but not the big league price tag.
More Ways to Pay
The more ways that you have for people to give you their money, the happier they are. When UPS did a survey of what customers felt made for a satisfying shopping experience a hefty 65 percent said that having multiple ways to pay was at the top of their list. Online and bricks and mortar stores have been able to offer that kind of versatility, but the mobile business and smaller businesses were not able to easily accept debit or credit cards on the go without lugging about an imprint machine or a “portable” credit card terminal the size of a brick. The costs involved in obtaining and sometimes leasing such equipment made costs prohibitive on top of the hassle. It was another step in the accounting process, and made many small business owners simply adopt a cash only policy for their business.
While cash is good—everyone loves cash-–it’s also something of a problem. Cash has to be tracked, sorted, it needs a cash drawer for all those things. Cash also makes you a potential target for robberies. UPS and FedEx both stopped having their drivers take cash for COD deliveries for that very reason, so while you might not be taking UPS-sized wads of green, you still need a payment management system to help you gain all the advantages of a bricks and mortar or online store.
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Modern POS Systems Mean Business
Modern POS system available at premium service providers like Shopify come in different sizes and configurations for different business methods.
- Credit card sliders: The least expensive option attached to your tablet or Smartphone via the headphone jack, and allows you to accept debit and credit cards, email receipts, and even have your customer sign the authorization. Great for any business on the go such as a lunch truck or mobile groomers van. These can be combined with a tablet stand and a receipt printer, for businesses that handle little or no cash at all.
- Complete POS: Consists of a card slider, tablet stand, cash drawer, and receipt printer. Great for all businesses, and an easier way to keep track of cash, rather than just stuffing it in pockets and wallets to be mixed up, lost, or stolen.
Mobile POS is replacing a lot of the more expensive POS systems that not only have the high initial price tag for the equipment, but contracts for maintenance, and sometimes even monthly leasing fees. For such a new product, the growth is unprecedented as smaller retailers adopt the new technology in droves, taking advantage of the capability of pairing the POS with a barcode reader and UPS label printer to complete a fully integrated POS and inventory control system. You can pump up your bookkeeping with the way that your POS integrates with your Quickbooks and other accounting software and apps, too. It’s estimated that mobile POS systems will reach 47 percent market penetration by 2017, according to Payments Source that’s 38 million terminals.
Catching the Wave
When you want to ride a wave, you don’t go paddling after it, and 2017 is not that far away. Things are improving for small businesses across the board. The improving economy means that more jobs are adding more money, and spending habits are loosening just enough for business owners to catch up. Overall indebtedness and delinquency is down, according to Dun and Bradstreet, despite the lack of bank based small business loans and other forms of institutional financing. While small businesses are running on cash and credit cards, the overall decline in small business debt means that money is coming in to pay suppliers, credit card bills, and to cover other expenses. Optimism is up, along with the healthy indicators for small businesses, according to the Wall Street Journal’s Market Watch. 70 percent are expecting to meet or exceed last year’s profits, and 62 percent reported being profitable in the first half of 2014. A full 77 percent expected to pop the cork on the champagne at the end of the year and toast a profit for the second half of 2014. Updating your payment system and POS now can help you streamline your operation, and cut out expensive, time consuming extra steps.