Cloud-Based Point of Sale (Cloud-Based POS)

Definition - What does Cloud-Based Point of Sale (Cloud-Based POS) mean?

Cloud-based point of sale (cloud-based POS) is a type of point-of-sale system where information for transaction processing comes from a remote cloud service. In general, POS refers to the place where purchases happen, for instance, at a cashier’s kiosk or at a hostess desk (or side table) at a restaurant.

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Techopedia explains Cloud-Based Point of Sale (Cloud-Based POS)

One reason that cloud-based point of sale (POS) is making such an impact in retail environments is that many companies are realizing the convenience and benefits of using mobile devices as modern cash registers. This is leading to a tremendous change in retail and, in many cases, to the obsolescence of legacy systems that involve specialized cash register machines at the POS. In an increasing number of business situations, these are being replaced by the use of a smartphone or a mobile device running sophisticated POS software.

The POS software on mobile devices is often composed of cloud-based POS solutions. Cloud computing providers offer Web-delivered retail finance services for POS systems, where the data is sufficiently backed up in remote vendor servers. For many companies, the overall benefits of cloud-based POS are evident — security, data storage and many other aspects of the software operation can be outsourced to vendors. However, it is important to examine the service level agreement to clarify uptime and other service provisions.

Many analysts expect cloud-based POS to continue to proliferate in many different industries. Replacing old cash registers with mobile devices running cloud-based POS can make a lot of sense because it streamlines the asset requirements for retail business — in other words, instead of buying registers, the business can use personally owned or otherwise pooled mobile devices in the store during business hours as necessary.