A POS terminal is one of those pieces of digital-age technology no shop owner should overlook. Its great virtue is that it works like an indispensable assistant in the shop, looking after customers at the counter — taking payment, taking orders and handling sales data beautifully. These days some POS models have been developed in portable form: small and compact, but every bit as capable. In this article we take a closer look at the portable POS and at which parts of a modern business it answers.
The portable POS: an essential tool for the modern business owner
A POS (point of sale) terminal, the software you sell from at the counter, works rather like an assistant manager for your shop, and it is a genuinely important tool for the modern owner who wants to offer the right products, serve people quickly and make an impression good enough to bring them back. But shops have diversified how they sell — taking a stand at events, say, or simply wanting to be nimbler about taking orders — and businesses have had to adapt to match. Hence the portable POS: a small, light POS device that can easily be carried and used away from the shop, which makes it excellent for delivery sales or for selling at events.
A portable POS is a good choice for any shop that wants convenience and efficiency in running the business, both on the premises and away from them. Even so, an owner should weigh up the advantages of a portable POS and its limitations carefully, so as to choose the format that suits their shop best.
The advantages of a portable POS
- Easy to carry, thanks to its small, compact size
- Faster, more efficient checkout
- Customers can be served quickly
- Lower cost to buy and install than a full POS
- Sales and customer data captured in real time
Four modern businesses that should have a portable POS
Food and beverage
One of the fastest-growing sectors is food and drink — restaurants, cafés, food trucks and the like. A portable POS answers the front-of-house management side of these businesses very well, because they move about a great deal: taking a stand at events, or running deliveries. A portable unit travels easily and needs no installation to worry about, and customers can scan a barcode and pay on the spot.
Retail
Retail may have expanded a long way into online channels, but most owners still put just as much weight on having a physical shop, because it remains the base that makes buying and selling feel trustworthy — whether that is a corner shop, a grocer, a bookshop or a clothing shop. A portable POS is usually inexpensive and easy to set up compared with a countertop terminal, so it helps keep running costs down.
Food delivery
Food delivery keeps growing in popularity, because consumer habits have shifted towards convenience and because the technology has come such a long way, making ordering food for delivery genuinely easy. Putting a portable POS to work here means connecting directly to the delivery platforms, so orders from each of them come straight into the POS. It also handles stock and takes payment, which widens the number of customers you can reach.
Services
A service business is one built on serving customers rather than selling a tangible product — it delivers an experience or a sense of satisfaction directly. Massage and spa businesses are good examples, and many have expanded into providing the service off-site, at a customer's home or office. A portable POS makes that service work better, because as well as being easy to use it makes charging quick and convenient: a tap of a finger or a scan of a barcode and the bill is done, which cuts the time customers spend waiting and leaves them with a better impression of the visit.
Make your shop run better by choosing the QashierX1 portable POS from Qashier. It suits small shops and a wide variety of retail formats, and supports every feature you need to run a shop well. The terminal is touchscreen, with a design meant to make your shop look good.
If you are interested in putting one to work in your shop, our team is on hand to help quickly, seven days a week. For more information, reach us on LINE Official: @qashier.th or call 02-544-0267