Can your iPad become a cash register?

(Very good read for those of your considering moving in this direction -P2)

When I was running an IT support business, cash registers were one of the banes of our life.

Retail point of sale (POS) systems are almost always arcane, clunky and difficult to maintain. At PC Rescue we always dreaded a call from a shop, pub or hairdresser having problems with their registers.
Frequently this was by design; the POS system supplier would try to lock their business customers into expensive support contracts.

By making it difficult for anybody without intimate knowledge of the product to actually do anything with it, the retailer was stuck having to hire overpriced customer support.

To make things worse, many of the POS systems ran on outdated hardware that offered the suppliers another opportunity to hit customers (victims?) with high support costs.

Since the iPad was released, I've been waiting for an application using cloud services for a back-end that challenges the existing point of sale systems. Today, US online payment system Square has announced their Square Register app.

While only available in the US, Square has been setting the pace for physical payment systems like taxi fares and coffee shops using online technologies, so it's hardly surprising they are leading this push.
The iPad as a cash register is a logical step for the device and, tied in with a robust point of sales platform behind a simple to use app, it will probably make a huge dent in the point of sale market.

It may be the Square service won't be the point of sale leader – Square is more a payments service than retail platform – which means this field is way open for some savvy operators.

One of the concerns with the Square service, and any iPad based application, is the spectre of vendor lock-in. Being fixed on the iOS platform means there is a risk of being held hostage to Apple's business plans; also being locked into Square's payment systems may not be the best choice for many merchants.
The payments and point of sale industry is another that's being radically changed by mobile devices coupled with cloud computing. It's not a time for incumbents to rest on their laurels.

For businesses in retail, this will be an opportunity to demand a better deal from POS suppliers and banks.
Paul travelled to the Kickstart forum courtesy of Media Connect.

Source: SmartCompany.com.au

Square launches 'Register'

Square has made a bold play targeting small merchants by offering an all-in-one payment, POS and rewards system via its newly announced Register app for iPad.

A bold new approach largely aimed to empower small businesses to track and manage their sales more effectively and simultaneously take credit cards. All this for free (save the price of credit card processing).

But it isn’t without limitations, tech support from Square, for example, isn’t likely to be as responsive as the 24-hour live support that often comes included with or as an optional add-on for more sophisticated and expensive POS systems.

Source: BetaKit

iPad Solutions for Busy Restaurants

Entrepreneurial inspiration can strike you in the unlikeliest of places – as Torontonian Alex Barrotti knows all too well. He hit on the idea for an iPad app for wait staff while dining on sushi at a friend’s restaurant in the Caribbean.

His friend “was looking for ways to take care of his customers on the patio,” Mr. Barrotti explains. “In the Caribbean, they have issues that we take for granted – for instance, their power goes out three times a day, and they have no steady, reliable Internet connection.

TouchBistro is one of a growing number of iPad-based restaurant software programs – a list which includes apps for drinks menus, such as Uncorked, or purely customer-facing apps, such as MenuPad.

What separates TouchBistro from others is the depth of the program, and how it works in a three-fold manner – for customers, for wait staff, and for the business back-end that keeps things running.

This last point is key to the program’s success – the app can divide sales by section, waiter, food and drink, allowing restaurant managers to quickly figure out what's working and what isn't.

Busy restaurants can opt for an iPad for every waiter, while small cafés and bars can just use one for the point of sale. The TouchBistro website offers packages for purchasing everything from single iPads ($519+) to adding a cash drawer, printer and AirPort ($1,499).

Source: Globe and Mail

Point of sale goes interactive on iPad with Show & Tell from LightSpeed

MONTREAL, QC, Dec. 13, 2011 /PRNewswire/ - LightSpeed, makers of award-winning retail technology for the iGeneration, today launched LightSpeed for iPad, retail's first truly interactive customer-experience platform. LightSpeed for iPad allows retailers to offer a next-level personalized selling experience combined with inventory scanning, wireless payments and the powerful retail workflows of LightSpeed, all on the world's most popular tablet.

More than just POS, LightSpeed for iPad is an interactive sales tool that elevates the shopping experience. A novel and captivating Show & Tell feature allows sales reps to use the iPad to share expanded product details and up to five zoomed images on a stylish curtained backdrop. The iPad's vivid high-resolution display lets customers and salespeople alike view detailed images of store inventory that is not close at hand, whether it's apparel, hard goods or large items where the increased size of the image provides important detail. Transactions can be completed with a few taps and a credit card swipe, all right on the iPad.

"Show & Tell really changes the game for brick-and-mortar retailers because they can use this interactive sales tool to involve the customer in product selection and purchase, all within a sleek user interface on iPad," said Dax Dasilva, founder and CEO of LightSpeed. "In this highly competitive age, customer experience is paramount. Show & Tell elevates the sales experience for both the retailer and the consumer."

Source: PR Newswire