POS terminal replacement: An opportunity to transform your business

NRF this year was a-buzz with the topic ofmobile point of sale terminals(mPOS). Everyone’s excited about the opportunity to take customer journeys to the next level. There was also talk of card terminal vulnerability and end-of-life support for some models. All in all, it seems that many of you will be facing a terminal update in the not-too-distant future.

Having worked in retail for 30 years, I remember only too well the fun and games involved in updating and implementing new POS terminals in stores.

It would start so well.

I’d sit down with IT and explain our aspirations for modern, sleek terminals and they’d duly go off and investigate our options. They’d assess the compatibility of our wish-list with our current security protocols and acquirer agreements. High hopes were quickly dashed with “too difficult right now,” and my balloon would start to deflate.

After a lot of hard work, we’d usually end up with new terminals that looked pretty much like the old ones, fulfilling pretty much the same functions. And even then, we accepted some of the challenges that were just par for the course when rolling out new terminals. I still remember having to include a line on Store Opening Plans to order terminals and request merchant ID and terminal IDs.

Overall, refreshing terminals felt like a lot of effort and a bit of an anticlimax. Sound familiar? You’re not alone. Lots of brands come to us with the same story. Especially now when the promised land of new mPOS terminals and the risk of security breaches are driving so many to update their terminals.

For IT managers, renewing POS terminals becomes ever-more challenging. Replacing old terminals with newer models increasingly feels like a sticking plaster. It ticks the data vulnerability box, which keeps security happy. But what about innovation? What about delighting the customer? What about mobile? This isn’t just about refreshing a payment terminal. It’s an opportunity to differentiate and delight while ensuring you’re prepared for the future.

Payment terminals have the ability to impact every part of the organization from finance, to security, to store management, and even marketing. Imagine if I told you that there’s a way to clear out all those legacy systems holding you back, so you can finally deliver a terminal people can get excited about.

These days, unification is the name of the game. This applies to the process of connecting your terminal to your acquirer via your gateway and enabling modern payment methods on any device. It’s going to impact several departments, all of whom will have something to gain. So it’s important to have them all in the room (or the Zoom) from the start.

Let’s break it down by department.

When was the last time you made your security manager smile? You’re about to. When your terminals and your acquiring are managed by the same partner, encryption, back-end technologies, and boarding procedures are much more straightforward. And, if your acquirer is also your terminal provider, demonstrating compliance becomes a lot easier.

Your legal team will be happy since they’ve only got one contract and one service level agreement, which encompasses all your territories, your ecommerce, physical stores, and payment methods.

Who doesn’t love economies of scale? And that’s what you’ll be getting by giving all your volume to one supplier since you'll be able to negotiate better rates. Better rates for terminals, for processing, acquiring, and even risk management. Plus, they’ll be relieved of the painful task of managing Merchant and Terminal IDs every time you deploy new terminals. And finally, settlement into your bank accounts follows one process anywhere and everywhere you trade, making reconciliation much easier.

All of this clears the way for elegant, compliant terminals that allow for great customer engagement. This might include on-terminal customer satisfaction surveys. Or the ability to push targeted notifications through the terminal based on previous purchases. Or a loyalty program that’s linked to a customer’s payment method.

Learn more about payment linked loyalty in our docs >

The standard of service your customers can now expect in store just sky-rocketed. The days of running to the storeroom to check stock, or the barcode scanner refusing to talk to the register, are over. Your sales staff can serve the customer on the spot without having to carry six devices around. Modern terminals will also support new payment experiences like QR codes that link to ecommerce payment methods like AmazonPay and PayPal.

Your IT department is being tasked with delivering agility into the business, rolling-out new contactless payment methods, and embracing mPOS. Introducing one partner that owns, controls, and develops for the entire value chain makes this much easier. Challenges around certification, geography, channel, or development roadmaps are replaced with choice. Choice of payment terminal, choice of payment methods, choice of customer experiences.

All this started with an objective to renew a fleet of terminals. But you could leave this delivering much more: beautiful, efficient, PCI compliant terminals that manage your store apps, and payment methods in one place, anywhere in the world.

Adyen is unique in that it manages the whole payment process end-to-end, both online and in store, in one platform. We’ll take care of your payment terminals, your processing, acquiring, ecommerce gateway, and risk management. This makes it super easy to manage payments across any channel and territory. And it helps to keep you agile, which is critical these days. Roll-out new terminals like theAndroid mPOS, add new payment methods at the touch of a button. And streamline your compliance and fleet management processes while you’re at it.

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