Like millions of others, last November I ventured out on Black Friday to take advantage of some great deals.  The lines upon lines of people shocked me.

Now, I know you’re thinking, “Garry, how can you be shocked at lines on Black Friday, the busiest shopping day of the year?” Well, it’s not that I was shocked at the number of people shopping; it was the actual lines themselves.

There are so many opportunities for retailers to improve their customers’ experience and one of the easiest is to make it so they don’t have to stand in a long line to make a purchase.

But, then, I got to wondering – and I had plenty of time to wonder while I waited –how it’s weird when you read and know so much about a technology you just assume it’s everywhere.  Then, you’re out shopping and realize that while everyone may be talking about it, not everyone is implementing it. Case in point: mobile point of sale, or, as it’s more commonly known, mPOS.

While a study by 451 Research shows the global mPOS market will exceed 54 million units by 2019, experiencing a 32% CAGR between 2015 and 2019, HP reports adoption has been slower than expected, with only 3% of enterprise merchants having deployed an mPOS solution.

This doesn’t surprise me. The shift from traditional point-of-sale (TPOS) to mPOS is relatively new and began in smaller shops out of a need to process credit cards without losing valuable counter space to large, stationary registers. 

However, while today there may be a low adoption rate, tomorrow is another story. More and more, customers are demanding an efficient and personalized shopping experience and mPOS delivers on several fronts. Not only does it allow for line busting, it also allows for a sales associate to directly interact with a customer where they’re at in the store, creating an opportunity to upsell and cross sell merchandise.

mPOS also makes accepting multiple forms of payment easier for a retailer, whether it’s a credit card, wireless transactions, digital payment, or mobile wallet (eMarketer predicts 210% growth in mobile payment value in 2016 alone).

So, if customers are asking for a better way to shop and more options to pay, why was I, along with millions of others, standing in line last Friday?

Up until recently, most of the mPOS solution options were consumer grade – meaning, someone would download an app on their smartphone or tablet and that served as their POS. While that made sense for small shops, owners quickly realized it only took one customer dropping the device or a failed software upgrade for their business to be impacted.  Larger retailers who adopted consumer-grade mPOS solutions learned the hard way how sheer number of transactions can diminish battery life – leaving associates with dead devices and stores with disappointed customers.

Today, though, there are better options. Enterprise-grade mPOS solutions take both small and large retailers into account, offering sleek consumer design on the outside and business sense on the inside.  Docking stations mean an associate will never have to leave a customer to plug-in, and with different operating systems and feature sets like advanced bar code reading and magnetic swipe capability, a customer will only remember you for quick, efficient, personalized service – a very positive experience.

At Zebra, we understand for a customer the experience is everything. We also understand for you, it’s building an experience that can evolve as your customers’ expectations do. From tablets to handhelds, we have an OEM mPOS solution that will serve your technology needs while improving customer satisfaction.

Our comprehensive family of OEM technology lets you offer mPOS solutions with features and functionality that enable your retail customers to better serve theirs. From component scan engine technology that easily integrates into your design to private labeled mobile computing solutions with your specifications and brand logo, our OEM portfolio lets you deliver solutions for retail your customers can count on, while reducing your costs and time-to-market.

By partnering with Zebra OEM, you, and in turn your customers, benefit from mPOS solutions comprised of industry-acclaimed technology built on a common framework for reduced operational expenses and faster go-to-market times all backed by a brand you can trust.