Your company is taking shape. Your business plan is airtight, you’ve got a great team in place, and you’re nearly ready to open your doors. But there’s one key thing left to do: Set up a modern point of sale (POS) system to handle transactions from the hundreds of customers who are eagerly awaiting the launch of your business.

How can you know which solution is right for your company? The following features are must-haves for any modern POS system that wants to earn your business.

Cloud Integration

Cloud-based technology is the engine that drives most commerce today, and there are two main reasons for this:

• Flexibility. The cloud allows most POS providers to make upgrades and enhancements as part of the service because implementing them is as simple as one click. This also means that even a small business’s system can evolve over time and stay relevant as technology improves.
• Security. Rather than wait for a technician to arrive and fix a malfunctioning device or install a software patch, the cloud lets your POS company install updates and troubleshoot issues remotely at a moment’s notice.

Dependable Hardware

Your payment solution begins and ends with hardware—the real-world, tactile experience customers encounter when they pay. You want hardware with both open-source and proprietary components to give your business a dependable foundation, but the hardware must also have the agility to be customized for your particular needs.

Ideally, you’ll have a smart terminal with a mobile companion that provides an impeccable payment experience for both staff and customers.

Simple, Powerful User Interface

A modern payment platform involves much more than just the transfer of money. It also handles such tasks as inventory management, team training, and data reporting—all of which are crucial for a small business. These features should be fast and user-friendly. It should take just a few minutes to set up a new employee, refill an order, or compare week-to-week sales, leaving you free to take care of your current patrons and drum up new business.

Rock-Solid Security

The transfer of funds always has some risk involved, so data security should be at the top of your list when choosing a POS vendor. Do your homework on the most current industry standards and make sure the vendor has, too. They should be fluent in terms such as “EMV” and “PCI DSS compliance” and be able to outline how their system handles them.

Also, be sure to inquire about a custom processing rate and get a breakdown of processing costs. Do they only provide integrated processing, or can you bring in your own processor?

Remote Access

It’s all well and good to have a stellar payment system, but if you can’t access it remotely, your business will be behind the curve. A POS solution that only lets you run reports from the in-store terminal makes it nearly impossible to react to trends in real time.

With the cloud, your system should allow you to manage everything whether you’re in your office, at home, or in a canoe on the other side of the world. Need to issue a refund, run a report, or move around inventory? All that and more should be easy to manage from your laptop or smartphone.

In-Depth Reports

In order to grow your business, you need real-time reports showing what’s selling and what’s not, what’s priced correctly and what’s straining your margins. Ideally, your POS system can filter these metrics by item, department, time of day, and sales rep, all of which are essential bits of knowledge that can make the difference between profit and loss.

Affordable Pricing

As a general rule, a small business spends 2-3 percent of its annual revenue on its POS, which can shake out to between $1,000 and $8,000 annually. But payment systems today are far more affordable than in years past, and there are a wide variety of options and price points to fit your budget.

Round-the-Clock Support

A POS system is only as good as its support team. No matter how intuitive or leading-edge your solution may be, when something goes wrong, you need that helping hand to be just a call or click away. The longer your POS is down, the more sales you stand to lose. Your vendor should understand that and provide 24/7 support.

Beyond the Point of Sale

Inventory, reporting, and employee management only scratch the surface of what’s possible with a connected payment platform. Add to that integrated e-commerce, email marketing, loyalty programs, and accounting, and you start to see the numerous ways your POS can help build lifelong customers.

Poynt is a pioneer in the field, having invented the world’s first smart terminal. Today, our revolutionary, open commerce platform empowers merchants to succeed, no matter how large or small their operation.

The payment industry is in the midst of change at a breakneck pace that shows no sign of slowing. With a new disruptor around every corner, regulations running to keep up, and users clamoring for a faster and simpler solution, legacy payment providers face a new and uncertain world.

So what trends are reshaping the business?

Customer Experience Is the New Black

As payments get faster and more competitors enter the scene, the X factor that’s going to separate the leaders from the followers is customer experience. You have their attention, you’re taking their money—now you need to listen to what they want: a simple, fast, human interaction.

How important is this? Eighty-six percent of customers will pay more for the same product or service if they have a better experience while doing so. Give them a good time, and they’ll be far more likely to come back and recommend you to friends.

Wave, Tap, Speak

There are far more answers to the question, “How will you be paying for that?” than ever before.

When it comes to speed, contactless is the Porsche Spyder to every other payment method’s Honda Civic. Simply wave your smartphone near a payment terminal or tap it quickly and walk out the door.

Although this tech has been slow to roll out in the U.S. (only 3 percent of cards are contactless) versus internationally (64 percent in the U.K. and 96 percent in South Korea), the market is ready for major growth—70 percent of terminals in stores already accept contactless.

Another growing trend is paying by smart speaker. Thirty-five percent of Americans and Western Europeans have shopped and paid on their speaker, and 32 percent have ordered takeout or transferred money.

Mobile Finds Its Footing

The fiercest battle for customers is happening in mobile. 2019 is on track to break records for mobile payments, and the sector as a whole is expected to hit $503 billion by 2020, a massive surge from $75 billion in 2016, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 80 percent.

And mobile is poised to move full steam ahead into digital wallets. These are nothing new, but consumers by and large have yet to adopt them. Just 28 percent of shoppers use them, compared to 38 percent who use Apple/Google/Samsung Pay and 39 percent who use merchant wallets.

Gen Z Has Arrived

America’s youngest generation is the future of payments—by 2020, they will be a full 40 percent of U.S. consumers. The Googles and Apples of the world have always been a part of these consumers’ lives, and they trust these corporations with their money.

For Gen Z, mobile is king—69 percent use banking apps every week or every day, compared to 17 percent of boomers. When mobile wallets gain a foothold, it will start with Gen Z.

Rewards, Rewards, Rewards

People want perks for their purchases, and they will play the field to get them. Modern payment solutions allow companies to give them these rewards in an instant. And that’s good because a full 76 percent of consumers want you to know who they are and what they’ve bought in the past, and to give them a deal when they swipe or tap at the counter.

A modern smart terminal solution includes apps that let you easily incorporate a robust rewards program into your daily operations and provide remarkable customer service.

Payments Accepted Everywhere

It has become easy and affordable enough for the smallest businesses and solo entrepreneurs to accept payments that now any connected device can turn into a business growth tool. Where customers used to have to line up in one place at one store, now any employee with a phone or tablet can become a cash register, be it at the counter, in the aisle, or outside in the parking lot.

Customers and merchants alike are well down the path toward universal acceptance of this new payment ecosystem, and innovations such as contactless are expected to be more widely adopted, closing the current gap between the number of cards and the establishments that will take them.

Embrace Change

Credit card companies and banks both stand to benefit greatly from these developments. Institutions that welcome these innovations will open themselves up to new customers and markets that can only grow over time.

And it all starts with a payment solution that’s built to evolve and embrace change. Poynt’s state-of-the-art open commerce platform gives your business a powerful blend of hardware, software, and apps for unlimited growth.

Welcome to the age of disruption. From retail to groceries to transportation, it seems every industry is ready to be turned upside down by technology that has ushered in new ways of serving customers and predicting trends.

The financial sector has seen its share of these heightened expectations. Enter fintech—companies that have brought predictive analytics, AI, and mobile applications to the world of banking.

This disruption will inform how the next generation of payment systems develops, and partnerships are a useful tool when billion-dollar traditional banks want the innovation provided by cutting-edge startups.

Banks Have Noticed, and They’re Buying

U.S. banks that want fintech of their own are willing to pay top dollar for it. As of September of this year, there have been two dozen equity deals, a similar rate to 2018, which marked a 180 percent jump over the year before.

And where are they putting their money? Payments and settlements. J.P. Morgan has been on a shopping spree, acquiring several related companies, including medical payments technology firm InstaMed for more than $500 million. It also created its own brokerage app, YouInvest.

Both Have Something to Offer

Large, legacy financial institutions and their more limber startup counterparts are finding many reasons why it makes sense to work together:

• Speed. Startups are smaller and faster than big banks. They can see disruption coming and help their larger partners to stay ahead of it.
• Scale. Traditional banks and investment firms have much larger coffers from which to make potentially innovative moves in the industry, including idea incubators, investment funds, and mergers and acquisitions.
• Expertise. Fintech firms are the idea generators, but they’re newer and learning the ropes as they go. Legacy institutions may be slower to change, but they have decades of regulatory experience at the ready to help clear a path for innovation.

Fannie Mae and Plaid: A Match Made in Mortgages

Applying for a mortgage can be a long, painful process. After nearly 80 years in the business, Fannie Mae decided to try and change that by striking up a partnership with Plaid, a Bay Area fintech startup. In 2017, they teamed up to bring some much-needed automation to asset verification in the mortgage process.

Historically, mortgages involve a lot of paper, all to prove a potential homeowner has the funds to pay over time. With Plaid’s code, Fannie Mae connects directly with bank accounts to see in real time what resources a borrower may have available. Plaid puts borrowers in the driver’s seat—they can give permission to anyone who wants access, approve any data request, and see a complete history of who has seen what.

This collaboration has cut as much as 10 days off of average closing timelines.

Security and Risk Management

Although they’re in the same industry, fintech startups and banks often don’t speak the same language. This is particularly true when it comes to such thorny issues as risk, regulation, and security. But in this communication gap lies an opportunity for further collaboration.

If there’s one thing legacy banks do very well, it’s understanding and managing risk. This is one of the reasons they’ve historically been so slow to adopt new technology that hasn’t undergone exhaustive testing, by which point it’s often outdated.

Small fintech firms operate on the other end of the scale—they thrive on moving fast and getting there first, even if the end result hasn’t been thoroughly tested or proven. When combined with the steady hand (and vast resources) of a legacy bank, this frenetic creative energy can be harnessed and directed in a more productive direction.

This partnership can be particularly effective around issues of regulation and security. Large firms have the relationships and decades of experience to be able to navigate the complex financial regulatory system. Startups, on the other hand, are accustomed to a more fluid philosophy of security, with updates being made to software on a daily or hourly basis, rather than the old system of quarterly or even annually.

Disruption Gets Results

When banks bring their brand recognition, industry knowledge, and massive customer base to fintech’s disruptive technologies and agility, the results can be astounding. And the payment space is ripe for a revolution.

There are many pieces to a great hotel experience: a clean room, great amenities, and excellent service, to name a few. Just as important is a smooth, secure payment process, from booking to checkout.

Gone are the days when a hotel could get by simply accepting cash, Visa, or Mastercard. The modern hospitality operation must accept all manner of contactless and digital payment options or risk being downgraded from four-star to roach-motel status.

So how can today’s hotel thrive in this ever-evolving payment ecosystem?

Give them a seamless transaction ...

More than ever before, guests expect the exchange of money for accommodations to take place in the background, perhaps without any in-person interaction at all. This removes a major point of stress during any hotel stay: rushing to get out on time. Rather than stand in line to check out while the minutes tick away until a flight or shuttle departure, guests simply pack up and walk out the door.

A connected payment solution allows for a seamless transaction by securely keeping a customer’s credit card on file, sending an email or text alerting them that their payment is due, and automatically processing it on their checkout date. The ideal system will also break down any fees, taxes, and add-ons they may have purchased during their stay.

One tool that makes this possible is the pre-authorization of funds, which allows for money to be kept on hold to cover additional charges or last-minute cancellations.

... but don’t neglect the in-person experience.

Some guests may love having the whole payment experience running smoothly in the background, but others will have to change plans in the middle of their trip, need the assistance of a concierge in a new city, or want to talk through booking options with a real-life person.

It’s all well and good to be a digital pioneer, but if the brick-and-mortar experience is less than stellar, that leaves customer satisfaction—and potential revenue—on the table.

Integrate payments and property management.

A modern payment solution allows your property to run on a single, digital set of terminals and supported operating system that connect transactions across the organization through the property management system. This also lets you customize payment options with apps specifically designed for the hospitality industry.

Such a solution also provides flexibility in your physical layout. Once a fixed point in all hotel lobbies, check-in desks are fast becoming moveable. Some establishments, such as New York’s Andaz 5th Avenue, have replaced their traditional front desk entirely in favor of a more personal and mobile check-in and payment experience. Now, all an associate needs is a mobile payment device, and the check-in desk can greet the guest as he or she arrives—another way to reduce or entirely cut out the need to wait in line.

And with major chains such as Hilton now letting you open your door with your phone, the whole concept of check-in and payment is in an exciting transition.

Embrace paperless payments.

In an age when sustainability is considered an essential business practice, paperless payments is an easy way for the hospitality industry to show its green commitment. Whereas a hotel clerk would once print a multi-page document on hefty company stationery for a guest to sign, now the same transaction can take place with just a swipe of the finger on a terminal, followed by an automatic email receipt.

Mobile POS also has perks for guests during their stays. Want another rum punch from the poolside bar? Order and pay from the hotel app. Need to arrange laundry service or call a shuttle for tomorrow morning? Done and done. All while their actual credit cards rest safely and comfortably in their rooms or the hotel safe.

This can also make employees more efficient and increase sales because waitstaff will easily serve multiple tables with payment and ordering taken off their to-do list.

Connected payments lead to satisfied guests.

Today’s travelers expect that the technology they enjoy in their daily lives will also thrive in the places they stay. From contactless payments to mobile check-in, the world is changing fast and hotels will find success by adopting a connected payment solution.

From direct hospitality businesses to industry resellers, Poynt’s customers know they can expect security and efficiency in a reliable, user-friendly system that will keep your guests happy and loyal.

The holiday season will soon be upon us, so it’s the perfect time to deck the halls in preparation for record numbers of customers and transactions. Your POS platform needs to be ready for the onslaught of sales, returns, gift cards, and loyalty rewards that accompany the holiday season.

And there’s reason to expect a mad rush: 2018 saw one of the best retail holiday seasons in years, both at brick-and-mortar outlets and online. Spending ticked up 5.4 percent to $998.32 billion, with brick-and-mortar inching up 3.9 percent to $874.42 billion and online zooming up 16.7 percent to $123.90 billion. That trend is predicted to continue in 2019, with overall growth of 3.7 percent to $1.035 trillion.

You’ll roll out your best products, give your storefront a shine, and hire extra staff to handle the traffic. But without a connected POS solution to handle it all, you may feel as if your profit margins were sabotaged by the Grinch.

So here are six reasons why the best time to upgrade your payment systems is before the holidays.

You’ll be fully stocked (with stuff people want)

You need to have what people want when they want it. A system that can analyze sales patterns from past seasons and predict inventory levels is essential to capitalize on the window of Black Friday through Christmas.

Past sales patterns are useful, but don’t ignore what’s selling now and what’s being released in the coming weeks. And keep a close eye on when people buy, because that information will allow your inventory management to be that much more responsive. An integrated POS platform will be able to overlay current sales over past trends to create a powerful, predictive tool.

You’ll be fully staffed (with the right people)

From Dollar Tree to Macy’s to Target, retailers are hiring for the holiday rush. And it’s not just the big brands—businesses of all shapes and sizes will scale up, from salons to coffee shops to restaurants.

For these new hires to most efficiently serve your customers, you’ll need to accurately track their hours and cross-reference that with sales numbers. Some may thrive on a certain shift, some in a certain department. Your POS platform can be a useful tool to monitor hours and generate reports on employee performance.

You can meet customers where they are

When your POS goes wireless, it opens up a world of possibilities. If your checkout line on a snowy December Sunday afternoon is three deep, send staff into the crowd with mobile checkout terminals. You’ll keep everything moving and customers smiling.

Your customers want to hear from you (no, really!)

Effective e-commerce integration means you can customize email or text messages based on purchase history. A connected POS platform tracks click-throughs and online browsing to see what items are more likely to be needed once customers hit the store to close the deal.

And they are showing up to close the deal—online holiday spending in the U.S. hit $123.73 billion last season, a year-over-year increase of 16.6 percent.

“But won’t customers get annoyed if we contact them more?” Make no mistake, they are looking for holiday gifts, and they’re hungry for ideas. They expect to hear from you. They want to know what you have to offer and why they should buy it.

Gift cards are your new best friend

When a shopper enters your store, they might be looking for the hot new thing that’s flying off the shelves. But it’s just as likely that they’re looking for something much simpler: a gift card. This is a no-brainer for your business—when customers return to your store with that card, most will spend more than its value.

And gift cards represent big business, to the tune of an estimated $160 billion in 2018, up from $91 billion in 2010. Another no-brainer: integrating gift cards into your POS platform.

Cash in on loyalty

Even your most loyal customers may have their fidelity tested during the holidays. Every brand will target them with marketing messages and special offers. You can counter this by stepping up your loyalty emails, which get click-through rates of up to 35 percent.

But don’t forget all the non-members out there. The holidays are a great time to bring them on board. Once they join, they’ll make a second purchase up to 47 percent more often.

An integrated POS platform gives your audience incentive to use those loyalty points (or stars or ponies or whatever) and earn even more. Kick their rewards into high gear and award them double or triple value for their purchases.

Don’t wait—upgrade now

An omnichannel sales and retention strategy needs to touch the customer as they move from interest to consideration to purchase to loyalty. Poynt’s connected payment solution can simplify this process and keep patrons and employees happy during an otherwise hectic season.

No matter how well your business did in 2019, you can always do better in 2020. One of the easiest ways to increase the effectiveness of your business is by making smart investments in technology. In many cases, those investments might not even involve spending a penny.

To make your job easier, we’ve put together a list of seven tools you can use to take your retail business to the next level.

1. Smart POS system

Is your business still relying on an old-fashioned payment system? More than half of US retailers find themselves in this exact predicament.

By moving to a smart POS solution, your business will enjoy a number of benefits, including cost savings, better customer experiences, and robust reporting and analytics functionality.

Plus, leading POS systems are extensible by design. You can connect them to a number of apps and other tools to get an even bigger return on investment.

2. Project management tool

If you’re like most retail business owners, you most likely rely on email to coordinate projects and keep the team organized and in sync. When you’re collaborating on a document or spreadsheet, figuring out which version is the most recent can be difficult; it’s not uncommon to end up working off outdated drafts, duplicating work, or trying to reconcile two different sources of truth.

There’s an easy fix: Using a project management tool such as Trello enables you to bring a kanban-like experience to project management. Create columns to organize work, create cards for every task, and move the cards from column to column as you make progress. It’s a super easy way to manage projects that several employees are working on—even across time zones.

3. Workplace messaging platform

Whether your retail business has a few locations or just one, you can keep team members on the same page using a workplace messaging app such as Slack, Mattermost, or Microsoft Teams.

Your company’s chat room can be kept private, only accessible to your team and authorized users. Instead of having to track someone down to ask them a question, coordinate shift coverage, or round up everyone to share updates and announcements, the entire team can stay connected and up to speed from any connected device.

4. Video conferencing solution

Rather than driving to your other locations to meet with managers, partners, or potential clients, you can use a video conferencing tool such as Zoom to have “face-to-face” meetings remotely. This can save a lot of time and reduce travel expenses while communicating in a much more personal way than email, text, or a phone call.

5. Accounting software

If you are still managing finances by spreadsheet or by hand, you’re losing hours that could be spent on more productive tasks. Not only are you more likely to make errors, but you also miss out on the efficiency, data visualization, and reporting capabilities that software can provide.

Upgrade to a modern accounting solution like QuickBooks to streamline financial management. Keep in mind that leading POS solutions can integrate with popular accounting tools, thus enabling you to get an even bigger bang for your buck.

6. Social media management

Social media can be a relatively inexpensive way to drive brand awareness, engage your audience, and attract new prospects. Without the right tools in place, however, social media management can be time-consuming and inefficient.

Instead of logging into each of your platforms separately to post content and engage with users, take advantage of a social media management platform like Hootsuite to monitor and engage with followers and other accounts. You can also automate your social publishing and schedule the majority of your content ahead of time. That way, you can ensure social channels are active without spending time manually managing each account.

7. Marketing automation

Does your retail company have a blog? Do you run email marketing campaigns? If your answer to either of these questions is yes, consider moving to a marketing automation platform such as HubSpot. These platforms enable you to easily manage content and automate email marketing with advanced tools such as segmentation and A/B testing to increase the effectiveness of your outreach. The more you can automate your marketing, the more time you’ll have for other activities—knowing that your customers and website visitors are being nurtured and engaged with in the background.

Ready to overhaul your retail business’s technology stack?

When we think of who can benefit from business productivity tools, retail might not be the first industry that pops into mind. However, retail businesses can benefit tremendously from investing in modern technology.

There’s no sense in running your business any harder than it needs to be. Instead of relying on outdated systems and manual processes, leading retailers are increasingly investing in modern tools designed for the business world.

Simply put, adding the right tools to your small business’s toolbelt will make your company more effective and more competitive. Your team will be able to get more done in less time and stay on the same page—translating into a better customer experience, happier employees, and a healthier bottom line.

Commerce is taking the latest step on its digital journey. From credit cards to online to mobile, we have now arrived at payments via the Internet of Things (IoT) and voice-based transactions. You can now order nearly any product or service simply by asking for it.

This seemingly endless stream of connected devices has begun to fundamentally alter how we shop and pay. Here’s a brief sketch of the connected payment landscape.

Nearly Everyone Is Connected

Connected devices are now so common across the U.S. that nearly 80 percent of Americans owned more than just a smartphone in 2018 (up from 75 percent in 2017), whether it’s a smart speaker in the kitchen, a car that can order dinner, or a watch that pings you when your meter is about to expire.

Teenagers and senior citizens alike use smart speakers to order pizza or groceries, or use an app on their phone to pay for gas, or Siri to find the closest parking spot and hit up the meter for them (or pay for more time).

Nearly Everything Is Connected

The internet brought with it new ways to pay. Now, with the number of connected devices expected to approach 20 billion by 2020, your customers will demand even faster and more convenient payment methods that use data to provide a seamless, safe experience.

So how exactly do they want to pay?

From their cars

Connected cars are becoming the norm, so much so that nearly all new cars will be internet-ready by 2020. Cars in the very-near future will be able to self-diagnose when repairs are needed, talk to other cars to avoid accidents, and ping the driver with alerts to save on insurance.

The commute, arguably the most frustrating part of any worker’s day, is fast becoming an opportunity for commerce, with 38.5 percent of drivers using apps to pay in advance for coffee, gas, and parking. And car companies have taken notice, as seen in Honda’s partnerships with Visa, MasterCard, and PayPal.

From their homes

Smart speakers like Google Home and Alexa have automated many common household chores. This has grown to include grocery shopping and delivery, scheduling and payment for plumbing and heating services, and, not surprisingly, ordering everything your home might need from Amazon.

From their wrists

Payment from smart watches is nothing new, whether it’s hailing an Uber, transferring money from your bank, or contactless payment with Google Pay. But the possibilities for growth are exciting, including a complete digital wallet that also stores loyalty cards.

Voice Is the New Black

Voice-activated payment is one of the newest and most highly-anticipated developments in the industry. Just a few years ago, this idea seemed to still be the domain of science fiction.

Times have quickly changed—ownership of voice-activated devices nearly doubled from 2017 (14 percent) to 2018 (27 percent). And people use them to seriously shop; 28 percent buy clothing and accessories, 22 percent purchase electronics and other digital goods, 20 percent buy groceries, and 15 percent order takeout.

Brick-and-Mortar Should Worry

Connected devices are only speeding up what was already a growing shift from traditional brick-and-mortar stores to the online marketplace. Groceries are still an outlier, but 78 percent of consumers say the appeal of avoiding the hassles of visiting a physical store drives them to buy online, and fewer than 50 percent of them regularly shop at a brick-and-mortar outlet.

Connected devices have sped up this trend. Rates of auto-pay are growing, particularly in instances in which customers see the checkout process as particularly stressful or time-consuming, such as buying gas (49 percent), buying clothing (41 percent), paying for parking (40 percent), and going to restaurants (39 percent).

Be Part of the Solution

Consumers have long wanted to get rid of—or at least minimize—the process of paying for things that simply take up a lot of their day: bills, healthcare, clothing, groceries. Connected devices have finally brought that dream much closer to becoming a reality.

Will your business be on the forefront of this revolution? A fully connected payment platform is a great way to get there.

Whether you’re building a small mom-and-pop shop or a global business, every entrepreneur will agree that you need the right tool for the right job. Put another way, if your only tool at hand is a hammer, everything around you starts to look like a nail.

This is especially true for your payment system. In the modern era, an old-school terminal that was designed for a 20th-century customer won’t help you provide remarkable customer service. You need a solution that’s connected, secure, and able to grow with your business.

The Poynt App Ecosystem

Small business owners have big dreams, but not always the resources to build the tools they need from scratch. A POS platform with a comprehensive assortment of apps gives them access to inventory management, accounting, productivity enhancement, and loyalty programs.

The following is a small taste of how Poynt’s App Center can increase efficiencies and enhance customer retention.

• Homebase manages your team’s hours more effectively by keeping tabs on schedules and time cards.
• eThor connects your Poynt devices to Micros POS in hospitality, lodging, and retail environments.
• Apptizer allows restaurant customers to place orders ahead of time in just a few clicks. This app plugs right into your checkout flow, increasing sales without creating any extra work.
• Paya Services issues gift cards and manages rewards programs directly from your terminal.
• Lightning Register generates comprehensive sales reports and syncs seamlessly with QuickBooks, all while managing your inventory.
• eHopper is your one-stop POS shop that reads credit cards, scans barcodes, and prints receipts, all from an elegant touch screen.
• Mangomint provides a modern booking system and marketing platform for your salon and spa.
• Kitchen Display improves restaurant staff communication by instantly displaying all open orders inside the kitchen.
• Cash n Tips tracks all cash and tips, from the register to the tip jar.
• ListBuilder jumpstarts your email campaigns by connecting your POS to your marketing platform.

Unlock Merchant Superpowers

When a customer has a fast and easy experience paying for your product or service, you’ve made a connection that will encourage them to come back and become loyal patrons.

A connected POS solution makes that far more likely to happen. It provides an open operating system that can power any smart payment terminal worldwide, processes all current (and future) payment methods, and allows you to customize the platform to support your unique business needs.

There will always be new markets to serve, new products and services to provide, and new opportunities for growth. A majority of small business owners use an average of four apps to meet these goals. Poynt’s App Center can mark the difference between a payment solution that maintains the status quo and one that gives you a competitive advantage.

The modern retail landscape is vast and customers have far more choices, both in-person and online, than at any point in history. As a result, experience, not price, is now the crucial tipping point that will make or break a sale. Some even expect it to become more important than price in the not-so-distant future. In fact, 86 percent of your customers are willing to pay more if it means an improved experience.

If a patron has a bad experience with you, they likely have multiple competitors from which to choose, or they can forego the brick-and-mortar experience entirely and find what they need online. But the damage doesn’t stop there; they can also broadcast their unflattering opinion of your company across social media. If, on the other hand, you provide stellar service, they’re far more likely to return.

A smart terminal can make all the difference when providing remarkable customer service. Here’s what it gives your business:

Faster Service

With a smart terminal, checkout is faster. This makes your customers happy (less wait time) and your employees happy (more customers served, more revenue). No matter how smooth and simple a payment experience might be, no one wants to wait longer in line for it. A quick in-and-out means they’re far more likely to return and recommend you to friends.

In fact, the world’s largest retailer, Amazon, has taken fast checkout to its logical extreme: the cashier-less store, Amazon Go. You’re probably not ready to go that far, but your investment in a smart terminal will likely speed up operations and increase revenue.

Easy Payment

With a smart terminal, your business sends a message of welcome—you accept every form of payment, be it cash, card, mag stripe, contactless mobile (Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay), gift cards, and many more. This sets you apart from establishments that rely on outdated registers that don’t connect to their inventory or send automated email confirmations. In an age in which mobile connectivity is a must-have for most consumers, they expect the same functionality in retail payments.

The importance of contactless payments in particular cannot be overstated. EMV chip cards came to the American marketplace in 2015, bringing with them a welcome rise in transaction security and a frustrating rise in customer wait times.

Although these delays have become the new normal, contactless mobile payments were able to leapfrog over them and process sales much faster. Add to this the growing acceptance of paperless receipts, and wait times go down even further.

Simple User Interface

All the processing power in the world doesn’t mean much if your payment solution’s interface is difficult to use and time-consuming to learn. Smart terminals are designed with users in mind, and they provide simple, intuitive instructions for both customers and sales staff.

Add a second screen, and you eliminate one of the hallmarks of the smart terminal era: turning the unit around for a customer’s signature. It also lets the patron choose their preferred payment method, rate their experience, and even browse additional items that they might pick up later online or in-person at their next visit. The unit can even literally be in dialogue with the customer (“Enjoy your new jacket, Sam!”).

Efficient Back-End Tools

Smart terminals are ideal for businesses in multiple locations or those that need multiple terminals in the same facility. Rather than having to interrupt a transaction to pick up the phone and confer with a colleague, a sales rep can simply message them within the terminal or have a manager jump in from across the store to approve a refund or discount. This ensures that your patrons will have a consistent experience no matter where they encounter your brand or who they speak to when they’re there.

It also helps coordinate your front-line and back-of-house teams so that inventory management knows what products need immediate replenishment and where they should be placed on the sales floor. No more panicked calls to the storeroom or delays while someone runs back to check if an item is out of stock.

Rewards for Loyalty

Every time a customer purchases a product or service, they generate data—precious information that allows you to customize their experience and reward them for their loyalty. A smart POS platform captures their search and purchase history and presents them with everything from birthday freebies to discounts on new arrivals.

There are great examples across all business sectors, from Starbucks stars to Amazon Prime to North Face VIPeak to Sephora’s Beauty Insider.

Experience = a Great Investment

In short, a remarkable customer experience makes a happier customer—one who will buy more, come back often, and (hopefully) bring friends. And a smooth payment interaction is a necessary step in making that happen.

The Poynt Smart Terminal is a complete wireless payment solution that provides an affordable way to transform your customers’ experience.

At the heart of any reseller/merchant relationship is a trust that the former will be there to support the latter. One of the best ways to do that is with a comprehensive POS solution that offers an intuitive design, excellent service, and measurable insights. That last piece—providing measurable insights—is what ultimately enables your merchants to expand their customer base and grow their business. Here’s how resellers can build long-term merchant relationships by providing data-driven insights:

1. Use Mission Control to manage merchants and provide support

A smooth payment experience is a great foundation on which you can build long-term relationships. From the introductory phone call to signing the contract to deploying the system, the merchants you work with will have the confidence that their new POS solution will serve them well.

But the relationship doesn’t end there. Merchants want a partner, not just a vendor. They want someone who they can ping with a quick question or who will hop on the phone to troubleshoot a larger problem. A reseller that vanishes after the check has cleared won’t win any friends, and certainly no new customers.

Poynt’s Mission Control makes this relationship much simpler. Its automated onboarding capabilities let you quickly bring on any number of new merchants, easily manage them from your personalized command center, and adjust settings with one stroke of the keyboard.

2. Help merchants solve problems with advanced analytics

For modern resellers, data is the glue that binds the elements of business together. Data is just as important as the transactions themselves—it lets you see patterns and create predictive models that improve productivity and streamline the payment process.

In fact, 81 percent of retailers and brand manufacturers actively gather data on the customer shopping experience, and 76 percent believe it provides insights that are essential to the success of their business.

And they’re slicing and dicing that data to squeeze the most out of it—retailers are looking closely at monthly, daily, even hourly sales, cross-referenced by brand and supplier. This allows them to more effectively manage inventory and schedule employees according to demand.

These data insights can improve merchant relationships by allowing you to identify their pain points and offer solutions. Whether their POS terminal needs an upgrade or they want help breathing life into their loyalty program, you’ll have hard numbers pulled from real-time diagnostics to help walk them through potential solutions.

3. Use data to help merchants deliver a better customer experience

It’s a common industry problem: how to create a safe and secure payment process while minimizing customer inconvenience. One way that a modern payment solution can help move things along is by remembering your merchant’s customers—who they are, what they want, and when they last bought it.

Poynt HQ provides real-time access to this crucial data and integrates it into your merchants’ daily business process. It also allows them to roll out custom-built loyalty programs that give customers incentives to return based on their own purchase history and gives merchants an opportunity to design a customized sales experience.

4. Equip merchants with business-building apps

Your merchants no doubt have ambitious goals for their companies, but they may not always have the technical skills or budget to build from scratch the tools they need. A POS platform with a robust variety of apps provides such services as accounting, inventory management, loyalty programs, and enhanced productivity. The data-driven system only presents merchants with apps relevant to their specific industry, be it hospitality or healthcare.

Your merchants will be well-equipped with the tools they need, and you’ll earn a new monthly revenue stream.

5. Work with a merchant-first provider

The value of data is only as good as the insights it provides. Poynt’s Mission Control platform provides advanced analytics that give your merchants the confidence to pursue their biggest dreams. Customers like the speed and convenience, merchants appreciate the functionality, and resellers value what makes it unique: unparalleled design, superpowered apps, and top-notch support.

A modern business requires a comprehensive understanding of what your customers need right now. You need to crunch numbers and understand data as it comes in, not weeks or months after the fact. This has gone from a nice-to-have to a must-have in today’s connected world. And a smart POS platform provides you with essential payment data that helps make this a reality.

Luckily, you’re not alone in trying to meet these evolving needs. There are many systems that combine real-time information with historic patterns to generate data that populates directly into a dashboard or smart terminal. This allows you to make quick decisions informed by solid user trends. When do you need more staff? What times of day do you sell out of certain products? What’s the best day of the week to message your loyalty club?

Read on to learn what you can do with this real-time data.

Have Better Conversations with Your Customers

Today’s consumers are savvy. They know what they want from your business, and they expect to get it smoothly and quickly. Odds are, they’ve shopped around a bit before coming to you. You may have even chatted already on social media. And once they’ve bought, they want you to acknowledge them.

Real-time data can help make these interactions seamless. Observe their buying patterns to learn what they like and when they need it. Notice when they abandon their shopping cart and reach out to see if there’s something you can do to sweeten their experience. Soon enough, you’ll be proactively messaging them when a new item hits the shelves or sending them special birthday discounts.

Have the Right Stuff in Stock

Inventory management once required a Magic 8-Ball. You only know what customers had bought in the past, not what they’re buying right now. Overlay current data with past buying trends, and you now have a predictive model that can improve customer experience and save you money in the process.

This method also allows you to automate regular orders and to turn on a dime when market demand shifts or manufacturers run short on materials. Shipping gets simpler with real-time delivery data informed by weather, traffic, and construction updates.

Make More Money

Over time, these newly found efficiencies can boost your bottom line through savings in materials, shipping, and staff time. They also allow you to broaden your focus to actually growing your business. Some ways you can make more money with real-time data include:

• Using market research to discover new potential target audiences
• Finding other industries where your products might play a role
• Diving deep into your internal policies and see how you might make them more customer-friendly

You need only look to modern tech giants to see these practices in action. Love that streaming series on Netflix? They’ve got three more to recommend. Does your kid dig her new winter boots from Amazon? Soon, you’ll see recommendations for matching snow pants, leg warmers, and mittens.

Troubleshoot Your Products

Not only is real-time data useful in making customers happy, but it’s also essential in helping them when they’re unhappy. Every abandoned shopping cart or scathing social post presents an opportunity to reach out and reconnect. Start a conversation about what might have gone wrong, armed with their transaction history and any past communication they may have had with your company.

Data can help facilitate teaching moments like these and allow you to restructure your sales process, or even make changes to a product line, customized by demographic and geography.

Keep Your Data Safe

This wealth of transaction information not only allows you to manage external customer activity, but it also allows you to see how data is used internally and where any potential gaps in security may be. You can protect sensitive information with real-time software updates and state-of-the-art encryption that meets current regulatory standards.

Real-Time Data = Pain-Free Payments

A smart POS system provides real-time payments data that allows you to meet your customers where they are, boost their loyalty, and engage with them personally on- and offline. You’ll know what they want and how they like to pay for it. Renew their order automatically, or let them customize it in seconds with just a tap on their phone. When something goes wrong (and, at some point, it will), you’ll have built up enough trust to make your brand impenetrable.

The future of business is being shaped by data; a connected payment solution gives you the tools to build relationships that will help sustain and grow your company.

For generations, if you wanted to sell a product, you had one place to do it: a brick-and-mortar store. That has all changed in the last several decades, with the rise of online retail giants like Amazon and technology like smartphones, tablets, and cloud-based digital assistants. Customers now expect companies to provide a connected commerce experience.

What Is Connected Commerce?

Connected commerce is an integrated shopping experience that allows transactions to occur anytime, anywhere, and on any device. You buy a shirt in-store, a receipt pops up on your phone, and a coupon for 25 percent off matching pants waits in your inbox. Three-quarters of consumers are likely to support a business that knows who they are and what they want.

These purchases are possible not just on a smartphone, but on watches, TVs, and other connected gadgets. Sometimes you don’t even need a gadget. Amazon’s Go store in Seattle uses sensors and cameras to track what you take off the shelves, then charges your card after you leave.

But these gadgets are only part of the story. Now, more than ever, a delightful experience is an integral part of successful connected commerce—78 percent of consumers expect personal service when they shop. They’re getting it at outlets like Nordstrom, which offers wine and manicures alongside personalized sales assistance.

And it’s not just for retailers. Financial institutions are slowly making their way onto the field. International software and services company Diebold Nixdorf imagines a world where an instantly approved bank loan accompanies an email discount on a big-ticket item, making the path to purchase that much clearer.

So what can your company do with connected commerce?

Meet (and Exceed) Expectations

When your commerce is connected, you can grow your business by offering your audience and employees the ultimate omnichannel experience. Not only can customers buy anytime and anywhere, but your sales and inventory teams have similar flexibility to sell and fulfill whenever needed. Small businesses can accept any form of payment, be it in-person or on the go.

Get Real-Time Data

When your sales, inventory, and accounting systems all talk to each other, you have a powerful tool at your disposal: actionable data. Not only can you provide remarkable customer service in the moment that it’s needed, but you also now have numbers that let you anticipate when and how to offer it in the future.

Future-Proof Your Business

Connected commerce gives your company the ability to react in real time to changes in consumer behavior and wider trends in the marketplace. Every real-world customer interaction, online review, or clickthrough stat tells a piece of a larger story that can indicate the direction in which your customers want you to go.

At some point, the way you do business will likely need to change, as technology and consumer preferences evolve. Rather than fear it, embrace and even plan for it. Assume that your product or service will be outdated in a decade and set about creating a strategy to meet the future with open arms. Ask your audience what they like about you and what they don’t like. Take that feedback to heart and incorporate it into your daily operations and your five-, 10-, or 20-year plans.

Modernize in Minutes

All the data in the world won’t do a thing without the right tools to collect, analyze, and act on it. The Poynt HQ app gives merchants the latest transaction log, buyer information, insights, and trends that allow you to find and reward your most loyal patrons, make sure you have what they need in stock, and craft promotions to bring in new customers.

Poynt can help delight your loyal customers (and inspire new ones), provide insights that allow you to grow your business, and fulfill the promise of connected commerce. Let us help modernize your company in a matter of minutes.

A payment is more than just a simple transaction over a terminal or other POS device—it’s an experience. Your customers, staff, and business as a whole participate in and benefit from a simple and efficient transfer of funds. It should delight and impress your customers, just as your product or service does.

This is difficult to do with aging hardware and outdated software. But thanks to innovative technology, this is changing. POS terminals that sat stagnant have now begun to evolve into more powerful solutions that go well beyond a simple piece of plastic that sits on the counter.

Your mindset around payments also needs to expand to encompass the big picture—the 30,ooo-foot view. Here are two simple reasons why.

Your Customers Will Love You

At the end of the day, your customers want to be able to complete their transactions simply and quickly. A key part of this is personalization:

• You know and remember them (and what they want).
• You take any form of payment, from cash to card to tap.
• Your loyalty program shows them love with rewards that are uniquely tailored to their purchase history.

They also want the ability to buy immediately, whether it’s fair-trade shoes, gluten-free pizza, or vegan donuts. A smooth, intuitive interface makes the experience painless, and even fun.

Your Team Will Love You

No matter how satisfied your customers may be, it does little good if your staff feels uninspired by the payment service they help provide. A modern POS platform built on the latest tech is simply more fun to develop, use, and improve.

This engagement carries throughout your team, from inventory management in the store room to POS transactions on the sales floor. Gone are the days when a cashier needed to say, “I’m sorry, we don’t accept that form of payment,” or “I don’t know if we still have that item in stock.” Your team will have up-to-the-minute information to pass on to customers, and can settle accounts and issue refunds in seconds.

These innovations lead to smarter, more informed decisions. A modern POS system provides real-time, user-friendly data available day or night. With a simple click of the mouse or tap on the phone, you can:

• See which products fly off the shelves (and which collect dust) and adjust your inventory accordingly.
• Learn which team members move the most coffee and bump them up to the morning rush.
• Grow your email list and customize your marketing to fit individual purchase history. Track which members are most loyal and shower them with rewards.

An all-in-one payment solution can also increase operational efficiency by as much as 24 percent. It also boosts team productivity by allowing employees to clock in and out wherever and whenever they need to work. Managers can view timecards and track hours to place staff where they are most needed.

A Revolutionary Platform That Works for You

Stepping back and taking the long view of your company and its place in the world can be a daunting task. It will uncover challenges as well as opportunities. Embrace those challenges, revel in the possibility of change, and you will be ready for what comes next.

The payment platform you choose can be one of your most powerful tools to make your big-picture vision a reality. It can inspire loyalty from your customers and innovation from your employees. It can future-proof your business, providing a flexible system that grows as you grow.

Poynt was the first smart terminal in the marketplace and is now an open, elegant platform that seamlessly integrates front- and back-end operations with third-party apps.

In the age of instant gratification, unlimited substitutes, and modern technology, the customer experience is quickly becoming a key differentiator for merchants. In fact, a recent Salesforce study found that 80 percent of customers believe that the experience a company provides is just as important as the products it sells. What’s more, nearly half of customers will stop supporting a business following a bad experience. This is a big deal—particularly because it’s easier than ever for customers to find substitutes thanks to mobile devices and ubiquitous connectivity.

Suffice it to say that continuously improving the customer experience should be a top priority for merchants in all industries. Not only can superior customer experiences help engage and retain customers, they can also have a tremendous impact on your bottom line. One study, for example, found that 67 percent of consumers are willing to pay more for a great experience. Add it all up, and it comes as no surprise that research from Bain found that a 5 percent increase in customer retention can translate into a 25 percent increase in profit.

Need some more convincing on just how important the customer experience is? Let’s explore the top six reasons merchants need to reimagine the customer experience if they want to take their businesses to the next level.

1. The customer experience is a key differentiator

Imagine you drive across town to buy something at a brick-and-mortar shop only to be greeted by poor customer service, long lines, and prices that seem inflated. You finish your purchase, head home, and find out that you could have bought the same thing on Amazon—which would have saved you a lot of time, a lot of hassle, and a decent amount of money. Would you go to that store in the future?

If you’re like most people, probably not. In the digital age, the customer experience is becoming more and more important. To this end, it is critical that merchants do everything within their power to delight their customers during each interaction. An easy way to do that is by investing in the latest POS system and smart terminal that enables customers to pay however they’d like (e.g., NFC, EMV, mag stripe, cash, credit cards, pin on glass, and more). These systems also make your employees’ jobs easier by giving them more time to focus on serving customers to the best of their abilities.

2. Customers will pay more for a good experience

Any investment you make in improving the customer experience will pay dividends because two-thirds of customers are willing to pay more for great experiences. This makes perfect sense: Would you continue going to the same restaurant that constantly gets your order wrong? Instead, wouldn’t you be willing to spend a little bit more to have an exemplary dining experience?

3. Customers leave following a bad experience

Thanks to the internet, a competitor is always just a quick Google search away. This is why 80 percent of customers are willing to switch brands following a negative experience; doing so is easy. Because the last thing you want is for your customers to support your competitors, you need to reimagine the customer experience so they don’t have any reason to look elsewhere.

4. Loyal customers are very profitable for your business

Though loyal customers may only account for up to 15 percent of your customer base, that small group of shoppers can be responsible for as much as 70 percent of your sales. Since the bulk of customers leave following a bad experience, it’s in your best interest to ensure superior customer experiences every time. How else can you nurture loyal customers?

5. We all trust customer reviews

Believe it or not, 84 percent of consumers trust online reviews just as much as they trust a recommendation from a friend. Because customers are more likely to leave bad reviews than good ones—and because reviews impact the majority of our buying decisions—merchants need to do everything they can to increase the chances that customers will leave glowing reviews of their businesses.

6. Customers demand personalization and instant gratification

Today’s customers demand personalization and instant gratification. For merchants, this means that they expect transactions to be quick, and they expect to be able to pay for things however they want to pay for them. What’s more, customers are so accustomed to today's tech-driven experiences that old-fashioned experiences no longer cut it. By investing in the latest payment solutions, you can deliver on both of these expectations.

For Merchants, Payments Are at the Center of the Customer Experience

For any merchant, payments play a central role in shaping the customer experience. We all know how annoying it can be when a line takes forever to move—or when we find out that our preferred payment medium isn’t accepted somewhere.

If you’re a merchant who has relied on the same POS system for some time, you’re hurting the customer experience. It’s that simple. Old-fashioned POS systems slow lines down and slow employees down.

The good news is that by moving to the latest payment acceptance solution, you can improve CX by offering a seamless payment experience. That’s the ticket to happier customers, happier employees, better customer reviews, and a healthier bottom line.

In the age of smartphones and modern technology, payments are changing rapidly. From a customer’s point of view, the rise of technologies such as NFC payments (e.g., Apple Pay) and services such as Venmo has made it easier than ever to pay for things and send money to friends. From a merchant’s point of view, mobile hardware readers have emerged in recent years that enable them to collect payments out in the field—not just at the counter.

Along with this evolution comes lots of new terminology—including mobile payments and digital wallets. The two terms might seem interchangeable to some people, but they are actually very different. Keep reading to learn about what mobile payments and digital wallets are, how they’re different, and what the increased adoption of both of them means for merchants.

What Are Mobile Payments?

In the past, when you wanted to pay for something, you had limited options: cash, check, or credit card. In the age of smartphones, there’s now a new way to pay: using your mobile device.

Mobile payments are transactions completed using your mobile device. You can use mobile payments to settle up with your friends (e.g., splitting the bill at a restaurant) or you can use them when checking out at a brick-and-mortar or mobile retailer.

Collecting mobile payments requires specific technology. For example, an apparel retailer won’t be able to accept mobile payments if they’re still using an old-school cash register. Rather, they need a modern POS system that accepts payments from services such as Apple Pay and Google Pay.

More and more mobile payments are made each year; in 2018, 55 million Americans used mobile payments to buy something. Platforms such as Paypal and Venmo can be used to make mobile payments in certain circumstances (e.g., buying something at a tag sale). But in order to make mobile payments at most retail stores, customers will have to set up a digital wallet on their device.

What Are Digital Wallets?

A digital wallet is a device, app, or online service that enables customers to send and receive money and make financial transactions without having to carry a physical wallet, physical credit cards, or physical cash. Instead, their encrypted credit card information is stored on their mobile device. Customers simply place their digital wallet-enabled devices near an NFC reader and the transaction is finalized.

If you’ve ever paid with an EMV credit card (i.e., a “chip card”), you may have noticed that these kinds of transactions don’t always happen as lightning-fast as you would hope. Because digital wallets don’t require customers to hand over any credit cards or place them into a chip reader, they help speed up transactions considerably. Of course, merchants can only accept payments from digital wallets if they have smart payment terminals and modern POS systems.

Although digital wallet adoption perhaps hasn’t grown as fast as some industry watchers expected—only 13 percent of smartphone owners have a digital wallet app today—analysts predict that it will pick up considerably in coming years. To prepare for this shift in consumer behavior, merchants should move to a modern payment solution today.

What Mobile Payments and Digital Wallets Mean for Merchants

Even if their customers aren’t asking to pay with digital wallets just yet, merchants would be wise to move to systems that can accommodate these payment mediums. Although some customers might not ever use a digital wallet to make mobile payments, many tech-savvy customers have grown comfortable using them and prefer them over traditional payment methods. Simply put, if you want to allow customers to pay with their method of choice, you’ll need to invest in technology that enables you to accept digital wallet payments.

Beyond that, consider what mobile payments could mean for your business and how mobile payments and digital wallets will grow in the future. For example, a restaurant owner who wants to improve the customer experience can streamline the payment process by taking mobile payments right at the guest’s table. And during the holiday season, a retailer might decide to hire additional employees, equip them with mobile payment readers, and send them into the aisles to allow customers to check out without having to wait in long lines.

The good news is that solutions like Poynt can help merchants collect mobile payments and process payments from digital wallets, helping them prepare for the future. To learn more about how businesses like yours stand to benefit from a mobile payment solution, check this out.