5 Things to Consider When Choosing a Mobile POS

There is no doubt: the new star of retail technology is mobile Point of Sale (mPOS). Advantages of a mPOS such as mobility, strong capability, and beautiful design make it the top choice for many retailers with physical stores. To meet the demand, various mPOS solutions are born and it becomes challenging for retailers to find the right mobile POS for their businesses, which is a big decision that will have impacts on the whole business in many years to come.

It’s necessary to do a research before purchase, but if you’re feeling a little overwhelmed with all the strengths and weaknesses of mPOS on the market, here are 5 things that should be included in your criteria. They will help you narrow down the selection range to the really good ones and you should never compromise on them.

Security: Safety first – payment security is the most important factor to consider when you are looking for a mPOS solution, especially when smartphones and tablets have some security vulnerabilities inherent in themselves. They are portable and don’t reside in a hardened data center so it is critical that your mPOS should not allow any sensitive card data to reach the phone’s memory. Also, you should ensure that your mPOS will never store, process, or transmit sensitive payment card data so as to protect your brand from the damaging effects of a data breach. No matter how many ‘awesome’ features a mPOS has, if it’s not secure, don’t consider it.

Simplicity: One of the advantages of mobile Point of Sale is that you accept payments from a stationary position, on the counter, around the store or at a trade show or fair. The payment process in your mPOS should be simple so even the rookie cashier can check out quickly for your customers, not looking at the screen confusingly what to do next while a long queue of customers is waiting to pay. In addition, make sure that your mPOS has Offline Mode and can automatically switch to it when the Internet’s down, so you can continue selling without any interruption. The orders created in Offline Mode should be automatically synchronized to the central database when you’ve got Internet back.

Payment Integration: mPOS should offer a wide range of integrated payments and should be open to integrating new ones. You should have the freedom to continue using your existing payment devices or choose the payment terminal that works best for your business, or even each of your stores when you grow your business. Limiting to one specific bank, processor or both means that you may not be able to negotiate for the best rates and services if any change comes up in your business.

Report: Besides enabling to create orders and accept payments at the stores, a good mPOS solution should assist you in management by providing reports that you can access anytime, anywhere to know your business performance and make timely decisions to drive sales forward (that’s probably the reason you’ve decided to invest in a POS system, right?). When looking for a mPOS, you should not only look for X Report and Z Report but also ask about other types of reports, including sales summary, store and register, inventory, top selling items, and customer activity.

Scalability: Some mPOS solutions are great for businesses with one or a few stores, but if you have the ambition to scale up your business, you should find a mPOS that is ready to grow with it. It can help you save a lot of time, money and effort so you can focus on expanding your stores and making more money without worrying about the limitations of the in-store system.

Mobile POS is ideal for modern retailers who want to enhance their in-store customer experience and add mobility to payment process. We hope that you can choose the right mPOS that will help release the full potential of your business.