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Nex Media • POINT OF SALE TRENDS. WHAT WILL HAPPEN IN 2018?
Point of sale trends
What will happen in
2018?
A
s with any sector of business, the best predictor of what the future
holds is looking in detail at what has happened previously. This
results in the creation of a set of trends of what can be expected.
Obviously the trends will usually vary according to who is doing the
looking and how they interpret the data
That said, the trends which have been identified in the point of sale
market seem to be fairly consistent across the various reports which have
been generated for 2018.
The Point of Sale market is expected to more than double by 2022 which is
going to have a knock-on effect into other sectors. A major part of this will be
the connection to e-commerce. Point of sale is becoming more prevalent due
to the increase in cashless transactions and the use of mobile and wireless
payment devices including smartphones. This is being seen in a growing
range of sectors including retail, hospitality, healthcare, warehousing and
entertainment among others. The volume of payments being made via mobile
methods is expected to grow significantly as more people achieve connectivity
and as newer devices make mobile payment easier.
E-commerce is another growth area which is moving beyond the large
organisations such as Amazon and becoming more accessible to smaller
companies. Both of these factors are key elements in the growth being
experienced and, which will continue, in point of sale.
Retail Convergence
This is where e-commerce and mobile payments meet the conventional retail
sector. More and more consumers are choosing to ‘buy’ their merchandise via
electronic portals taking the transaction through to completion with payments
done via the portal. Once this is complete, and at the consumer’s convenience,
they are able to visit the store to collect their items without the need to
stand in lengthy queues at the check out. This has had the surprising result of
inviting e-commerce giants like Amazon to venture into the brick and mortar
space.
Cash vs Electronic
At the lower end of the spectrum are the smaller retailers who are wary of
electronic payments whether for security reasons or the fear of the higher
outlay required to set up and manage an electronic payment portal. The
same reasons are espoused by consumers who are not certain of the security
of e-commerce or who fear unnecessary charges for making use of these
facilities.
Data Security
Data security will continue to be a disrupter in this sector especially where
companies are required to handle credit cardholder information including
While we may not all be involved in retail as part of our day-to-day business, we are impacted by the
retail market in our personal lives and what happens in this market can have a direct impact on our
businesses.
