Frank Mitchell

How to Boost Sales With MPOS What is MPOS? Mobile Point of Sale​, or mPOS is a stand-alone device or an app on a smartphone or tablet which lets you “ring up the sale” from almost anywhere. This gives your sales staff flexibility to work with your customers wherever they are - inside or outside the store. How MPOS Gives You a Competitive Edge Improved Customer Experience Use MPOS Wherever Your Customers Are “If you walk into a retailer and pick up one or two things and there is a line at checkout, you put it down and walk out because don't have the 15 minutes it will take for that queue to open up.” Peter Olynick, retail banking senior practice lead for ​NTT DATA How frustrating is it for a shopper when he or she needs help but can’t find a store associate nearby? With ​mPOS​, your store staff can connect with the customer anywhere in the store. ● This gives your employees freedom to work with customers to ○ Answer questions ○ Offer suggestions ○ Explain options ○ Get customer feedback ● Then the sales associate can complete the sale at ○ Merchandise display ○ Fitting room ○ Restaurant table ○ Anywhere With the freedom you get from mPOS, you can deliver a first-class customer experience. ● Use mPOS to clear line backups at checkout without having to open another register. ● Speed up service when a line of customers waiting to place an order builds up - ideal for drive-through windows. ● Sell your product at remote locations ○ Trade exhibitions ○ Craft fairs ○ Mall kiosks ○ ○ ○ ○ Booths at community events Sporting events Mobile store More And since you can use mPOS anywhere you have a data connection, it’s perfect for businesses which offer services at customers’ homes or businesses. ● Lawn care services ● Housekeeping ● Plumbers ● Electricians ● Air Conditioning and Heating service ● Home delivery ● Many others Accept Any Payment Type You can accept cash and paper check payments through mPOS, but fewer and fewer people pay cash these days. A ​US Federal Reserve study​ shows that card payments increased 8.4%(by dollar value) between 2016 and 2017 compared to the- period. The study also shows that in-person chip-reader payments accounted for 51.5% by value of card sales in 2017. That’s serious growth above 26.4% in-. An increasing number of people pay by Near Field Communication (NFC). In an NFC sale, the customer sends an encrypted signal from a smart device (phone, tablet, watch, etc.) to your mPOS to complete the sale. A study from ​Grandview Research​ predicts that NFC payments worldwide will increase to $47.43 billion annually. Compared to $4.8 billion in 2015. That’s growth of nearly 10 times in only 9 years! Any first-rate mPOS, such as ​AprivaPay mobile​, lets you take swipe, chip-reader, and NFC payments. Go Paperless With mPOS, your staff can send the customer an email receipt. This saves you paper, and makes it easier for your customer to keep from losing his or her receipt. And you can position yourself as an environmentally friendly business. A 2017​ Nielsen survey​ shows that 69% of people in North America prefer that companies take action to preserve the environment. Strengthen Relationships With Customers Since mPOS lets you enter the customer’s email address, you can easily keep in touch after the sale. Let your customers know how much you appreciate their business. ● A ​stick​ (thank you or welcome) letter tells your customer that you value his or her business. You can have a form letter for some of your most valuable products or services which offer tips and advice on how customers can get the most from their purchase. Stick letters help overcome buyer’s remorse, reduce returns, and promote customer satisfaction. ● Your customers might appreciate an ​onboarding​ letter, giving them an easy quick-start guide to using the product, service, or membership. ● Send them special offers and tell them about your latest promotions. ● Keep them updated by sending a weekly or monthly email newsletter. You can learn more about your target market with the data your mPOS collects. ● Track your peak times and slow times ● See which items your customers like to buy most ● Learn which specials your drive customers to your store ● Find out which offers appeal to different demographics ● Create custom offers for individual clients ○ Send a special Birthday offer ○ Tell your customer about a new item that compliments something he or she bought in the past Real Time Record Updates When you complete a sale in mPOS, the system automatically updates your inventory. ● Keep track of how much of each product you have on hand ● Quickly find out if a product is available at another store location ● Get alerts when it’s time to reorder ● See how quickly each item moves so you can order the right amount It electronically records the moment you complete the sale. ● Complete bookkeeping tasks quickly and easily ● Record markdowns almost effortlessly - no need to go through receipts at the end of the day ● Check on your promotional offers and see what impact they have on your business ● Keep track of coupons Keeps Your Customer’s Data Safe MPOS uses point-to-point encryption to help prevent data theft. When your customer pays by card or NFC, your mPOS immediately encrypts the data before sending the payment for processing. Because new security threats emerge frequently, mPOS vendors release security updates often so you’ll always outpace data thieves. Let your customers know that your mPOS uses state-of-the-art encryption. You’ll strengthen the bond of trust, making them more likely to do more business with you in the future. [Video] Reduce In-Store Theft Forbes​ recently reported a survey from the National Retail Federation (NRF). Inventory shrink (loss due to theft, error, and fraud) cost US retailers $46.8 billion in 2018. Decrease Shoplifting Increased mobility with mPOS means your employees can walk the sales floor instead of waiting at the cash register. Shoplifters try to keep store employees from noticing them. You’ll have staff interacting with customers. This keeps would-be shoplifters on their toes about being noticed. Inventory tracking in mPOS lets you find out which items get stolen most. With this knowledge, you can plan to display those items in high-visibility areas. Deter Employee Theft Each employee has to log on with his or her unique PIN or password, making it simple to track employee transactions and find discrepancies. You can set mPOS access levels for each employee. This lets you set permissions for managers, cashiers, trainees, and others. If someone on your staff doesn’t need access to certain data or functions, don’t allow it. Ease of Doing Business Since mPOS uses very little space, you don’t need to take up a lot of room with traditional cash registers. ● Gives more space to display your goods. ● Customers feel more in touch with store employees because they aren’t separated by a bulky register station. ● Makes the store more pleasing to the eye. With the right provider, it’s easy to set up an mPOS for your business. Simply download the app to your device and follow the installation steps. Premiere mPOS vendors offer an intuitive app that’s easy to learn. This saves you labor costs by cutting down the time you need to train your staff. But if you need extra help, the best mPOS systems, like AprivaPay Mobile, have online support available any time, day or night. [Screenshot of AprivaPay Plus app - alt caption “The Best MPOS Apps Are Easy to Learn] Here’s an example of how AprivaPay Plus makes it easy to make the sale: ● Add items to the sale ○ Tap 3 vertical dots in the upper right corner, and you’ll get a prompt to activate the barcode scanner. The app uses the device’s built-in camera, so it’s not necessary to connect a separate scanner. ○ If you’re selling items that don’t have a barcode, like food items at a concession stand, tap the icon in the lower left of the screen to open the inventory list. Tap on items your customer wants to purchase. For example, someone orders 2 slices of pizza and 1 soda - tap pizza twice and soda once. ○ To see all items your customer ordered, tap on the shopping cart icon in the lower right corner. ● When ready for checkout, tap the right-pointing arrow to the right of the subtotal at the top of the screen. ● At the checkout screen you’ll see payment options. ○ You can complete card transactions with the Miura 010 card/ NFC reader and PIN pad or other card reader ○ If you’re making a card-not-present sale, such as a phone order, tap on the Manual Card option. ○ You can also choose cash or check payment options ○ If the customer will pay later, the Invoice option lets you send a bill by email or text. To get more details, you can download the User Guide from the Help menu. [Video] Grows With Your Business As your business expands, you need your tech systems that you won't outgrow. The best mPOS systems scale easily to keep up as you increase your customer base. ● You can continue to use the same mPOS platform - no need to move records over to a new program, which makes expansion simpler. ● You don’t have to spend a lot on new equipment. ○ You can get devices which run the mPOS app at low cost ○ Top mPOS apps such as AprivaPay Plus, let you use the device’s built-in camera to scan barcodes, so there’s no need to buy a separate scanner. ○ Accessories like the Miura 010 card/ NFC reader and PIN pad are inexpensive ○ Devices can share a blue-tooth enabled printer If you are growing your business, you need technology that helps you thrive. As you bring in new customers, you will need to serve them more efficiently than before. This can get expensive - hiring and training the best staff and equipping them to create a five-star customer experience. Fortunately, you can keep the costs down without settling for cheap. With superb mPOS platform you won’t have to spend a fortune to get outstanding results. See for yourself how AprivaPay is the ideal solution for business growth. Download the app and try it out in Demo Mode. [Apple Apps Store] [Google Play] [Amazon]