Over the holiday season, I did significantly more shopping than I had during the previous 10 months. Something I noticed more and more often was mobile point of sale systems used by stores as large as Best Buy and as small as the little stands in the mall. The iPad as a mobile point of sale system has become an attractive option for retailers.
One of the main reasons why an iPad is an attractive option for retailers is that the device often costs considerably less than a traditional cash register. Touch Screen cash registeres often cost as much as $2499 dollars while the iPad mini can be had for just $349. The difference in cost is significant and makes the barrier to entry for small retail operations even lower. With more businesses being able to accept credit card payments, more individuals are taking the plunge into running their own business and selling their own goods.
Point of Sale Software
In addition to the previous point of sale software we mentioned from Square and Paypal, there are a number of other options for point of sale software for the iPad. They include:
- Shoekeep.com
- isispos.com
- iConnect
- revelsystems.com
I expect that a number of additional point of sale systems will also be made available shortly as Apple has made it easy to develop for iOS devices.
Why The iPad is a Perfect POS device
The iPad makes a great Point of Sale device because it includes a powerful processor, touchscreen, internet connectivity, and with a third party accessory it can easily read credit cards. These features and the low price for the tablet computer make it an ideal point of sale device for retailers. As more credit card processing companies develop their own software for the device I expect to see more and more small businesses opt to use an iPad based Point of Sale system instead of the traditional cash register. Add on top of this the fact that people are paying less and less with cash and the iPad is even more attractive.
This is a guest post by Katie Hasseley. Katie works with eCreditCardProcessing.com, a credit card processing company.
