By: Ingram Micro

There are plenty of reasons restaurants, merchants and other small business owners have been adopting mobile point of sale (mPOS) systems at a fast rate, which is expected to continue. According to Statista, the transaction value of mobile payment systems is projected to grow at 22.6% through 2024, when the number of mPOS users is projected to reach 77.8 million.

Part of mPOS technology’s growing popularity is its ability to make businesses smarter—providing data that can help them differentiate themselves, outpace competitors and sharpen their edge in the market.

9 Smart Benefits of Mobile Payment Systems 

1. Enhanced customer experience – Perhaps the biggest benefit of a mobile POS is customer service. Customer profiles can be linked in the software, letting retailers set up reward programs for repeat visitors. They can also collect and store valuable customer data, so businesses or waitstaff can treat them like family when they’re in the store or restaurant.
2. Faster checkout – Today’s customers are accustomed to making purchases with the click of a button. That’s why it’s vital for brick-and-mortar businesses to mirror the ease of online shopping by reducing long lines and wait times at the register. Mobile POS solutions turn tablets and smartphones into cash registers, enabling sales associates to ring up customer purchases quickly from anywhere in the restaurant or store.
3. Better visibility and reporting for better data-driven decisions – Just like regular point of sale systems, mobile POS solutions help businesses keep a close eye on sales, profits, cash flow and expenses like cost of goods sold. They can also provide insights into key performance indicators (KPIs), such as average customer sales, stock turnover and sell-through rate. With this visibility, retailers and restaurants can quickly identify the most prosperous areas of the business and others that may need improvement.
4. Ability to adapt product offers – From advanced reports, businesses can easily identify which product categories are the most and least profitable. Knowledge about which items are not performing well can give you the opportunity to develop a smarter sales strategy—adapting the items in store or on the menu, based not on intuition—but hard data.
5. Clues into customer buying behavior – Not only does an mPOS system automatically build a database of reliable customer and sales information, it also collects in-depth analyses about customer buying behavior. Years ago, gathering this data required hours of costly research work; but now, businesses have this valuable info at their fingertips. This data enables retailers to create the right loyalty programs and fine-tune their marketing efforts.
6. Smarter, faster inventory management – Mobile point of sale systems do much more than ring up sales. They can track and manage inventory, send alerts when stock is low and even automate reordering. For retailers using mPOS, sales staff can check if a specific product is in stock, and if not, order it to be shipped to the customer, all within seconds. That helps the retailer capture the sale while keeping the customer happy.
7. Reduced overhead – By offering electronic checkout, mobile point of sale technology helps any business move away from paper invoices, receipts and statements. Less paper usage means less expense than the competition—and also higher profit margins.
8. Capability to sell anywhere, anytime – With mobile POS solutions, merchants can extend their geographic reach to anywhere a smartphone or tablet can go. That can be a game changer for retailers or restaurants traveling to conferences, festivals and other special events. The added mobility not only increases sales, it helps build long-term relationships with customers who might never have found the business’s physical store.
9. Power to meet evolving market demands – By improving the customer experience, improving efficiency, and collecting valuable data, businesses that use mobile POS solutions are better positioned to attract and keep new customers, while rapidly adjusting to ever-changing customer preferences.