More point-of-sale technologies are going mobile as they move to such platforms as smartphones and tablets, posing a “significant” threat to the traditional POS market, according to technology researcher Greg Buzek.
The migration is particularly evident at independent restaurants and start-ups, where less-expensive options are more readily embraced, said Buzek, president of research and services firm IHL Group.
He recently spoke with Nation’s Restaurant News about these trends, which appear in IHL’s "Mobility — A Gutenberg Moment for Retail, A Threat to POS" study.
How are mobile devices affecting POS purchasing and deployment decisions among U.S. foodservice operators?
There is a very significant impact so far on the smallest of restaurants and food trucks. The Square POS solution on an iPad or iPhone provides a POS solution and a payment solution for about $500. The benefit of not having to pay $2,000 or more for a POS unit or get into a four-year lease for EFT [payment card terminals], plus the ability to go mobile [represents] a big challenge to traditional POS at that level.
At the larger chain level, it will not be as significant, although we expect to see more and more tablet/hand-held devices at the restaurant level for wait staff, and that will ultimately mean less POS terminals will need to be replaced. So in the near term, the tablets and mobile devices are additive in terms of technology in the store. However, at the point of replacement of traditional POS, some users will plan to install fewer traditional POS [terminals].
