Mobile POS and Other Alternative Checkout Solutions
The future of shopping is here, and it doesn’t include long lines at checkout!
Your customers dread waiting in line when all they want to do is pay and leave. Don’t lose out on business by scaring prospects away with your long lines! What if we told you we could solve this issue once and for all? A mobile POS (or MPOS) may just be what you need. Curious to know more? Keep reading.
It isn’t unheard of shoppers abandoning their carts and exiting a business if the checkout lines are too long. Yes, having a store brimming with customers means you’re doing great. But customer experience doesn’t end with prospects finding the products they need. Checkout is an integral part of shopping experience. It impacts returns and referrals.
As a business owner, you want people have a positive experience at your store because you want them to come back. Long waiting lines don’t exactly scream good customer experience.
Fascinated by the designs and patterns on waiting lines in stores? Check this out!
It’s 2022 and things are different from the last two years. The pandemic saw a surge in online shopping and contactless delivery. Covid-19 has had an impact on waiting lines. Lately as life is slowly getting back to normal, many shoppers are visiting physical stores. This is great news for businesses that prefer to have a physical location for in-person shopping.
In this piece we’ve asked our sales expert, Account Manager Sean, to help us explore several mobile POS (Point of Sale) solutions. “In simple terms, mobile POS or MPOS is a point-of-sale system that doesn’t need to be limited to one location,” Sean explains. Unlike a countertop terminal that is mounted at a checkout counter, an “MPOS can be moved around inside a store or across geographical locations. This means, by using MPOS you can offer customers the [option to] checkout from anywhere in your store,” Sean says. You can also collect payment from a customer’s residence if necessary.
Every business is unique and so, checkout should be too. Sean shares his personal motto when working with a new customer, “If they want to do something – if they want a unique payment system – we’ll help them set it up! If they want a MPOS, we’ll do that too. In our opinion, the sky’s the limit for our business partners.” Let’s explore a few real-world scenarios where checkout line alternatives can offer convenient checkout:
Restaurant pay-at-the-table features with MPOS
If you’re in the restaurant business, you know things can often get chaotic. Your servers are constantly on their toes taking orders, carrying out food, getting the tickets ready etc. Make checkout simple for them and for your customers by using mobile POS.
When your customers are able to pay at the table, it improves their dining experience. It eliminates the awkwardness of waiting for a customer to calculate and write a tip. Plus, it saves your team time and energy when your servers don’t have to walk back and forth to the table three separate times for the check. Customers are sure to love the convenience of paying at the table. In fact, 61% of diners say that tablets brought to them by servers improve their dining experience. Also, 3 out of 4 customers think that tech improves their dining experience while 5 out of 5 believe that it increases a restaurant’s efficiency.
Are you a restaurant looking to provide pay-at-table options? Sean recommends our Wifi Ingenico devices or the Dejavoo Z11 for a mobile POS experience.
Tip prompts
Your machine should prompt customers for a tip. It is seen that fixed tip options increase tips by around 37%! This is often because most customers feel compelled to tip better when asked for tip. It’s hard to forget to tip if you’re being reminded. Each terminal has a setting option for a tip prompt. This will ask the customer to add a tip during their transaction.
MPOS to opening a flexible checkout line in-store
Most stores have very few checkout counters and on busy days the lines get overwhelming. If you’re dealing with a particularly busy day and the checkout lines seem to be getting longer by the minutes, a mobile POS can save the day.
Just picture your customers waiting in line and every second adds to their inconvenience. The sighing, the foot-tapping, the constant checking of phones – all scream in unison that they want to pay and leave. Some customers might even walk out of the store leaving their items still in the cart. You don’t want this to happen.
If you have a portable credit card reader, like the Tetra 500 Wi-Fi, you can open up another checkout line from anywhere in your store. This will take some traffic off the checkout lines. The best part is that you don’t need a cash register or countertop to collect payments. Just announce that you’re accepting card transactions and start checking out your customers using the Tetra 500 Wi-Fi. This device gives you a mobile POS experience.
Taking card payments on the side of the road
Collecting payments on the side of the road is possible with mobile POS. Let us assume you run a fireworks stand on the side of the highway. There’s no Wi-Fi next to a field. You need a mobile POS system that works by using mobile data and Bluetooth. Plug it into your phone and this mobile credit card reader will work like a charm! “We’ve helped set up remote firework stands with our Miura M010 MPOS device”, says Sean. No Wi-Fi needed!
We’ve been able to help firework stands with a variety of needs. For firework sellers without Ethernet, Sean recommends our PAX A920 device.
“We’ve even been able to help firework stand with ethernet by providing an Ingenico Desk 3500 card reader,” Sean explains.
Firework stands and seasonal businesses often choose Acumen Connections because of our flexible options for seasonal businesses. Mobile POS options is one piece of that, but there are other solutions too. Sean adds, “We provide payment processing services for all types of businesses. You want to rent a card reader or MPOS instead of buying one? We can help you do that.”
Learn more about our in-person checkout solutions.
MPOS to help close a sale without an office
You don’t need to be in at office or store to be able to close a sale. Yes, it is possible when you use mobile POS. Let us consider a plant nursery. They usually have a lot of land area. If a customer finds the items they want, it would be much more convenient to ring them up next to their truck, rather than make them walk all the way to the main office.
Our mobile BBPOS Chipper 2X BT connects to Bluetooth to allow you to checkout the customer in the middle of a field. This portable mobile card reader has a stick-and-remove pad to make carrying it easy. We want to make collecting payments a breeze for you. This mobile POS does that just for you.
Accepting on-site payments is easy with MPOS
If a business is in the service industry, there are chances that they might be called in to work at a customer’s home or office. Think plumbers, electricians, cleaning crew, repairmen, caregivers etc. Instead of using means like cash or check, they can simply use a handheld mobile POS machine to collect payments. “You’ll never chase down an invoice again,” Sean says. With Swipe Simple your team will be able to collect payment on-site after completing a job.
When mobile payments are concerned, we suggest Swipe Simple (Link coming soon!)
It comes with an app for your phone. Equip your trained team with Swipe Simple as your mobile POS. It’s easy to transport. Best of all, SwipeSimple provides user restrictions. Your team can accept payments from anywhere, without having full account access. Swipe Simple is a great mobile POS for those of us that have to travel to a business or home to provide a service.
If you’d rather keep an invoicing system, we’ve got you covered. Bring it to the 21st century with electronic invoices instead though. With our online payment gateway, you’ll be able to send a payment link to your customers to pay an e-invoice. The electronic system helps you save on paper, printing, and mailing. Instead, you can keep track of all your sales in one place and easily send a friendly email reminder closer to when the bill is due.
MPOS: Final thoughts…
“Sometimes a business will call and say they want their payment system to have certain functions and I always tell them that we’ll get them to where they want.” shares Sean. He elaborates, “I’m all about finding solutions. We partner with our businesses. If they want to do something, like an MPOS, we’ll help them set it up!”
As a business owner, it is important to put yourself in your customers’ shoes. Do you enjoy waiting in checkout lines? Nobody does! Wouldn’t you rather just pay for what you need and leave? Make it easier for your customers to pay what they owe and to leave your store. Small things often have significant impact, and this is definitely one of them. Begin your mobile POS journey with Acumen Connections. Let us help you.
Have you heard of eRetail? It is another untraditional checkout trend we’ve seen on the rise. Learn more about unique eRetail solutions here.
