3 Mobile POS Life Hacks That Will Change How You Use Software

Mobile point of sale (mPOS) is more than just a trend — it’s here to stay now. When it first appeared on the scene a few years ago, experts were running around exclaiming about how much mPOS was going to change the retail world. And in some ways, they were right. mPOS brought about the advent of fashion trucks, for instance.

But in many ways, all the foreseen changes still have yet to make an appearance. Most retailers that have implemented mPOS use it very much as just an aesthetically pleasing, downsized register. Why is this incredible technology seemingly going to waste in the hands of those who could most use its innovations? The truth of the matter is most retailers simply don’t have the time to get creative with technology in between the sales, the floor sets, the folding, the interviews … the list goes on. Essentially: if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

The good news for retailers everywhere, though, is that there are some really quick wins you can get out of your mPOS. Here are three things you can start doing today with your new registers:

1. Ring customers up on the floor. The absolute quickest win you can gain from your mPOS is simply allowing your sales associates to walk around with them and ring customers up on the floor or in fitting rooms. Using a mPOS like this allows sales associates to ring up customers while the customer is still focused on the benefits of the product. This cuts back on the number of customers who change their mind somewhere during the walk from the fitting room to the dressing room.

2. Use mPOS to track inventory from the floor. In the same vein, having your sales associates carry around mPOS devices makes it easy for them to quickly check what inventory is in stock at that particular store as well as other locations you might have. This is great because it means that sales associates no longer have to run to the back to search for items that aren’t there. A sales associate can easily and quickly tell a shopper whether a product is in stock or not, and if it is, then they can go to the back to search for a product they’re certain to find. Additionally, if the product is only in stock at another location, it’s simple to order the product right there from the mPOS.

3. Use mPOS to guide floor sets. The third, speedy benefit a mPOS can bring to the table is the ability to run other kinds of apps besides the POS app. That means you can use that tablet to run something like a merchandising app to guide your floor sets. Instead of printing off sheets of paper with the floor map on them, you could have everything consolidated into an app, which could run on any and all mobile registers in-store. It’s a much cleaner approach to floor sets.

These three mobile POS life hacks are small, but they can add up to quite a big difference, creating a more efficient environment for both your employees and your customers.

Cara Wood is a retail technology specialist at Capterra, a web service company that connects buyers and sellers of business software.