What is POS (Point of Sale)?
Definition of Point of Sale. Technically speaking, a Point of Sale Grocery Store POS System in a retail store through which you can make sales of physical goods. In a store, the POS is the place where checkout occurs, orders are processed and bills are paid.
Understanding Point of Sale (POS) Terminology
People often use the following terms incorrectly: a) POS; b) point-of-sale system; c) point-of-sale software; d) point-of-sale terminal. We will first try to explain these three concepts clearly so that you can better understand the rest of this article.
Point of sale systems
A POS system is the entire hardware and software system used for billing in a Grocery Store POS System. It usually consists of the following units for displaying order totals, product weights, etc., as well as other hardware units for scanning product barcodes, printers for receipts and cash registers.
Nowadays, card readers have also become an integral part of a POS system.
Here’s what’s typically included in a point-of-sale system.
A display unit to show the bill
A keyboard/touch screen device for product selection and data entry
A barcode scanner to scan billing items
A printer to print receipts
A cash register – to store money obtained during the sales process
A software interface to complete the process
POS software
The software that runs on the POS system is what is commonly referred to as the Grocery Store POS System. Just as your laptop runs Windows or Mac, or your cell phone runs Android or iOS, the POS software acts as the operating system for the terminal.
The POS software interface allows you to enter data about the products you’re going to sell, count the cost of orders, and perform financial transactions. With the help of available hardware, POS software can help you process orders in your retail store.
Many large retailers use custom Grocery Store POS System for their specific needs. As you can imagine, POS software solutions are as diverse as the needs of the retail industry. Even hotels use variations of the basic POS software algorithm to take reservations, assign rooms and bill guests.
POS Terminals
A point-of-sale (POS) terminal is a card reader or other device that accepts payment for orders placed on a POS system. These machines may or may not be integrated with the POS software.
You may have noticed that in some stores, tickets are printed and swiped on a single hardware device. These terminals are usually integrated with the overall system and POS software for seamless order management and faster checkout.
Payment terminals typically detect all payment methods, in addition to swipe and chip cards – after all, that’s what they were designed for! Modern payment terminals can also detect NFC/contactless cards and other payment methods such as Apple Pay, Google Wallet, Samsung Pay and many others.
When you use our iOS app to process your orders, Primaseller’s POS software integrates with Square for payments.
Point of Sale Payments Explained
A point-of-sale purchase or payment is a specific time when a financial transaction is made through the point-of-sale system.
For example, if you decide to purchase two products and take them to the cashier, the cashier will scan the products and create a receipt.
The point-of-sale purchase occurs when you pay for these items with cash, card or digital wallet.
Generally, customers paying by card at an overseas store are charged a transaction fee. This fee appears on the card statement under the heading “POS”. This means that you have incurred this fee by using your card in a location other than the one supported by your bank.
It’s like paying international roaming fees. Your bank will have to pay the other bank to process your request.
How do I set up a point-of-sale system?
Setting up a point-of-sale Best Invoicing Software for Small Business involves setting up hardware, software and terminals. Let’s go over the basics.
