Point-of-sales offices are better known as the cash registers and cashiers which customers wait in line for to finish a transaction and pay for a good. This original idea is obviously wide spread in brick-and-mortar business. As these businesses try to keep up and compete with newer online businesses, they don't only try to move more products via internet, they are trying to use technology to help inside their physical store. It is possible to have even more than 10 customers in a line at a time and this can cause on out of ten of them to just leave. This can result in a decrease of sales. Also, even if a customer may not actually just leave the store, the experience of a long line might result in less of a desire to revisit the store, decreasing demand.
Mobile POS can be used to help improve in this area of a business. Mobile POS can help by having sales reps and mobile cashiers around the stores with POS machines (like the one in the picture shown above) and have customers checkout while in store, without having to reach the front of the store cashiers. It will print out a receipt, just as a regular register transaction. Also, these mobile POS cashiers can walk along the long lines at the register and help condense lines by checking out the customers on the spot, before even getting to the register. Information technology is helping the enterprise market by using wireless LAN technology to help businesses avoid problems dealing with customer satisfaction.
Sources:
http://www.arubanetworks.com/pdf/technology/whitepapers/wp_Retail_advances.pdf
http://www.mobileedgetech.com/site/images/device_mobilePOS2.JPG
I support the Mobile POS because it would reduce the time spent in the stores waiting to checkout. Even though they have implemented self-checkouts, I have experienced only a few of them being available to use. I never understood why there are up to 10 cash registers in a store that can be utilized, but only 2 or 3 lanes open (mainly in Wal-Mart). Like most people, I like to "get in and get out" of the stores, so I would be eager to use the Mobile POS.
ReplyDeleteI avoid Wal-mart as much as I can because I do not want to stand in a 30 minute line to buy one or two items. I think the mobile POS would be a great benefit to take advantage of.
ReplyDeleteThis is interesting. I can see how it will help with shorter lines but as I was reading this I can just imagine someone getting aggravated because they were "next in line" and the people that just walked up are getting checked out before them. Working in retail, I have witnessed people acting that way when an extra register opens up and they don't get in line before the people who were behind them.
ReplyDeleteI've been in a few stores where they use the mobile POS and it is such a time saver! I love it because they can just walk up to you while you're in line and you get checked out and you're done. I worked in a store that started using them right around black friday a few years ago and that was extremely helpful for everyone as well!
ReplyDeleteThis is one technology feature I love! It saves so much time. I was in a store once and was looking for a size for an item. The sales associate was able to use this device to locate it in another store, order it and have it shipped to my house. I got to skip the lines and I didn't have to wait for her to call several stores.
ReplyDeleteThank you all for your comments and sharing your thoughts. I know Sam's for a fact uses the mobile POS to checkout customers when the store gets busy. I went one day and a manager actually approached me since I didn't have many items and offered to assist me using the mobile POS.
ReplyDeleteWith the advance of new technology some of the more manual duties in the business world are starting to disappear. However, it is also creating new opportunities and ways to better serve customers. Mobile payment technology like POS and Square which allows you to turn your smart phone into a credit card scanning device have streamlined the sales and payment processes. As we have discussed in class, if one of the processes for which we are responsible is going to become automated we should embrace the change and become an expert in its new operation.
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