New POS terminals = growing web access in stores
The proportion of specialty retailers with access to the web from point-of-sale terminals has doubled in the past year, according to the latest POS Benchmarking Survey from Cleveland-based consultants LakeWest Group Ltd. Today, 55% of specialty chains have web access from the point of sale, up from 27% a year ago. Adoption of web-based POS terminals will continue its rapid spread, LakeWest projects, with 56% of chains without web access reporting they plan to web-enable their POS terminals within two years. Only 19% reported no plans to implement such technology, down from 35% a year ago.
The movement toward web-enabled POS is clearly the result of the upgrade of POS systems within the past few years. 55% of POS hardware is less than 4 years old.
The most popular use of web-enabled POS terminals is to communicate between the store and corporate offices, with 70% of specialty chains using web-enabled POS in that way. Next is access to the company network/intranet, at 65%. Almost 50% are entering merchandise transfers and accessing the company’s web site. 45% are using web access for centralized price lookups, then about 35% for placing customer orders. 15% are using web access for other, unspecified uses.
“Retailers are implementing the fundamental pieces, such as communications vehicles and network access first, and leaving the more complicated areas until later. Those retailers who already provide some of the more complicated functionality through web-enabled terminals like centralized lookup and customer orders, have a competitive advantage,” the LakeWest report says.
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