How your POS payment solution can close the omnichannel data gap

All sales channels add value in their own way. Ecommerce extends your geographic reach and (vitally these days) enables you to capture sales via social media. Stores, on the other hand, are a physical manifestation of your brand. From their design and layout to the feel of the products, the interaction with sales staff, and the even choice of scent and music - they can entice, excite, and delight shoppers. 

Better than that, a great in-store experience will have a direct effect on your bottom line. Our recent survey found that 46% of Singaporean shoppers will spend more money if the store experience is more interesting (for example it offers virtual reality or augmented reality experiences, in-store cafes, or special events and activities.

But, with consumer expectations changing constantly, knowing where to focus your efforts to deliver these needle-shifting experiences can be difficult. When choosing a new POS payment provider, you might be asking yourself the following: 

• Which is the best POS software and hardware to invest in to achieve these amazing experiences? 

• How do you close the omnichannel data gap by capturing in-store shopper data?

• How do you use that data to create more meaningful loyalty programs?

Over the years, we’ve worked with retailers, including Prada, On Running, Love, Bonito, and True Alliance, to ensure their POS payment solution allows them to close the omnichannel data gap to ensure consistent experiences and a single view of their customers.

To give you an idea of what that all looks like in practice, this article will explore: 

• How POS payment technology can drive better experiences across every channel

• The power of connected payment data for driving loyalty

• How Adyen’s POS payment solution will help you know your shoppers better

• How we helped Prada close the omnichannel data gap

Would you like to learn more about our POS payment solution? Get in touch.

Your POS payment solution plays a pivotal role in the success of your store. According to our research, almost half of Singaporean shoppers prefer to shop in store. But over half will walk out if they can’t pay how they want. Your in store payment solution could be making or breaking your sales. Here are some considerations to ensure you make the right choice:

Can it offer the right payment methods?

The payments space is undergoing a huge transformation. For years, cash was king. Then we saw the rise of credit cards and the digital wallet. And now we’re seeing the rapid growth of other alternative payment methods like buy now pay later (BNPL) in store as well as online. With the landscape evolving so fast, it’s important that your POS payment solution can keep pace to ensure you deliver the in store payment experiences your customers expect.

Does it support cross-channel journeys?

Whether your store will capture the final sale or just play one step along the buyer journey, it’s important you keep the process moving. You want to make it easy for shoppers to collect their online purchases, drop off online returns, or order out-of-stock items to be delivered to their homes. A good POS payment solution will connect seamlessly to your ecommerce channels so shoppers can buy whenever, wherever, and however they choose.

For example, Singapore fashion retailer Love, Bonito uses Adyen’s POS payment solution to support payment methods like Apple Pay and Google Pay. And, when an item is unavailable in store, shoppers can order it on the spot and have it delivered to their home. 

Related: Love Bonito case study >

Does it support the latest POS hardware?

Of course, the POS hardware you need will depend on your business model and the kind of experiences you want to create. For example, if you’re a fashion brand in a high foot traffic area, you might want self-service kiosks to reduce queues. But, if you’re a luxury retailer, you might want a sleek solution like Tap to Pay, so sales staff can take payment on a smartphone during a private consultation.

To help retailers make informed choices about POS hardware, we asked 1,004 consumers in Singapore what POS payment experiences they preferred. Here’s what they said:

• Over half (52%) said they like to pay by tapping their card, smartphone or smartwatch on a payment device. 

• As many as 51% like to use self-checkouts. This high number is likely due to the vast improvement in self-checkouts in recent years. Uniqlo was one of the first retailers to pioneer the ‘bulk scan’ self-checkout (alongside Adyen), which is becoming increasingly common. 

• Consumer adoption of automated checkouts (like AmazonGo) is comparatively low (14%). But are gradually growing in popularity. Sports stadiums are the latest to embrace the technology for merchandise like t-shirts and foam fingers. And it still feels magical when done well.

Does it support the latest mPOS solutions?

mPOS or mobile point of sale, lets you accept payments anywhere you have an internet connection. It’s a popular solution for reducing queues. Plus, it can help to close more sales by arming more sales assistants with payment devices so they can sell more proactively.  

Despite its benefits, mPOS adoption among retailers is still quite low, with just 21% equipping their sales teams with mPOS devices. But, with the rise of Tap to Pay, which essentially turns any compatible device into a payment terminal, the number of retailers using mPOS will probably increase. You can read more about mPOS here >

Does the POS software talk to your other sales channels? 

A modern POS payment solution should be API-based so you can easily connect it with your other systems and channels. For example, a terminal API can enable endless aisles via an app that connects your POS payment device to your online inventory. Once the item is selected your ecommerce platform can send the payment request to the terminal to complete the sale. You can learn more about our terminal API here >

Related: How to optimize in-store operations with financial technology >

The right POS payment tech will help you deliver better in-store experiences and drive sales. But, if you want to close that omnichannel data gap, it can’t be viewed in isolation. 

Why unified commerce matters (and how it’s different form omnichannel)

While they may look the same from the outside, unified commerce and omnichannel are very different behind the scenes. Where omnichannel uses different systems to connect various business components, unified commerce uses a single system to connect everything in one backend. 

This is something that most POS payment providers struggle to achieve. Their systems are made up of separate components that don’t talk to each other. So, you might be able to accept orders across different channels, but reporting is fragmented and reconciliation is a mess. 

Unified commerce is becoming increasingly important as our VP of Retail, Holly Worst explained: “The future success of retail will be driven by those who use data the best. A unified commerce offering can help accomplish that with a streamlined and connected system.”

Your POS payment solution holds the key to closing the data gap. But only if it’s connected to your other channels behind the scenes.

How connected payment data can improve shopper loyalty

Loyalty programs can be a problem child. They carry a lot of potential but they are hard to get right and investment often doesn’t pay off. Unsurprisingly, faith in them seems to be wavering with 22% of Singaporean retailers halting investment in loyalty over the past 12 months. 

On the other hand, our research also found that the 78% of retailers that use loyalty programs also reported strong revenue growth. And consumer demand for good loyalty programs remains strong with 69% of Singaporeans wanting personalized discounts from their favorite retailers. 

This is where connected payment data comes in. As our Unified Commerce Strategy Manager Philip Ladiges explained: “Payments are a source of high-quality first-party data, which can be used to fill the gaps within loyalty programs and better understand marketing attribution.”

So, as well as connecting systems in the back end, your POS payment solution can also work hard for you as a means of capturing customer data in store. For example, 21% of retailers use payment terminals as a tool to engage with customers via surveys and loyalty sign-up initiatives.

Unify your systems and scale faster with one integration for all sales channels

Unified commerce is only possible if everything is connected via a single integration. Our solution was built to process online and in-person payments in the same platform. Once you’ve integrated with us, you have a payment solution you can use across any channel, anywhere in the world. This makes it easy to expand while maintaining a single view of your performance. And you can see all your shopper data in one place and export it into your CRM to create more targeted marketing campaigns.

Save time and improve efficiencies with one partner for retail and ecommerce

It’s difficult to retain a single view of your customers if your retail and ecommerce teams manage their own payment integrations and contracts. Adyen lets you save time and resources by managing all channels and regions with a single partner for end-to-end payment processing. This frees up your teams to focus on serving your customers and improving your conversions.

Be the first to offer the latest payment experiences with our agile technology

If a payments solution is built on top of several interconnecting pieces of technology, it can take time to roll out new payment experiences. Plugins might need to be updated and non-compatible software weeded out. This means your shoppers could be waiting months for you to catch up with their latest payment preferences. 

At Adyen, because everything is built on the same technology platform, with plugins built and managed in-house, we’re always fast to market with the latest payment innovations. For example, we were the first to support Apple Pay back in 2015 and, more recently, the first to support Tap to Pay for iPhone.

Prada Group needed to rethink its use of POS payment technology to help clients enjoy seamless experiences. It also wanted to close the omnichannel data gap so it could roll out the red carpet to loyal customers in store.

Adyen provided Prada with technology to support the POS payment experience including: 

• Pay by link, which lets customers complete payments wherever they happen to be. This is especially useful for VIPs who want to make payment over the phone or pre-order items to collect in store.

• Minimalist mobile payments with Tap to Pay on iPhone, which lets sales representatives accept in-person payments with an iPhone wherever they are in the store. 

• Unified commerce, which allows Prada to break through silos and collect reliable data about every customer. This contributes to better insights, less guesswork, and more informed decisions, resulting in consistent experiences across every sales channel.

For retailers today, efficiency and agility are crucial. You want a POS payment solution that can match your ambitions, not just now, but in five or 10 years time. 

With Adyen’s financial technology platform, you can modernize legacy systems, launch new innovations, and gain insights across your entire business cross-channel data.