E-commerce and point of sale has recently been working together.

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A RESEARCH PAPER ON POINT OF SALE AND

E-COMMERCE
[Document subtitle]

Beryl komol

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ABSTRACT
The relationship between e-commerce and point of sale (POS) is a topic of interest
in the retail industry. The seamless integration of POS software and e-commerce
solutions has become the linchpin of success in the rapidly evolving world of
retail, where convenience and customer satisfaction reign suprem. A unified POS
and e-commerce system eliminates the need for manual data entry and
reconciliation, ensuring that inventory, pricing, and customer information are
always up-to-date and consistent across all sales channels. This minimizes errors
and enhances operational efficiency. A customer who can seamlessly transition
from a physical store to an online shop, with a consistent shopping experience, is
more likely to return. Unified systems enable a holistic view of customer data,
allowing businesses to offer personalized recommendations and promotions . By
analyzing sales and inventory data, businesses can make informed decisions about
restocking, discontinuing products, and planning for seasonal fluctuations.

It’s important to note that e-commerce solutions are not the same as POS software.
With e-commerce solutions, customers are not face-to-face with the company, and
information is passed electronically.

INTRODUCTION
The relationship between e-commerce and point of sale (POS) is a topic of interest
in the retail industry. The seamless integration of POS software and e-commerce
solutions has become the linchpin of success in the rapidly evolving world of
retail, where convenience and customer satisfaction reign supreme.

A point of sale system or POS system is a combination of software and hardware

installed at the cash wrap counter (or digitally through an eCommerce checkout
page) that allows businesses to accept payments from customers for goods and
services. On the other hand, e-commerce solutions provide customers the option to
place orders and submit payment online and through mobile devices.

The integration of POS software and e-commerce solutions can significantly boost
profitability and foster customer loyalty. A unified POS and e-commerce system
eliminates the need for manual data entry and reconciliation, ensuring that
inventory, pricing, and customer information are always up-to-date and consistent
across all sales channels. This minimizes errors and enhances operational
efficiency. A customer who can seamlessly transition from a physical store to an
online shop, with a consistent shopping experience, is more likely to return.
Unified systems enable a holistic view of customer data, allowing businesses to
offer personalized recommendations and promotions.
Real-time inventory management is another advantage of integrating POS software
and e-commerce solutions. When these systems are integrated, businesses have
real-time visibility into their inventory. This prevents overselling and stockouts,
which can harm a business’s reputation and bottom line.

By analyzing sales and inventory data, businesses can make informed decisions
about restocking, discontinuing products, and planning for seasonal fluctuations.
Integrated data also allows businesses to accurately evaluate their marketing
campaigns’ success, fine-tune their strategies, allocate resources where they are
most effective, and improve their ROI.

In conclusion, the symbiosis between POS software and e-commerce solutions is

crucial for retail success in today’s world. The integration of these two powerful
tools can significantly boost profitability, foster customer loyalty, enhance
operational efficiency, prevent overselling and stockouts, provide real-time
visibility into inventory, offer personalized recommendations and promotions to
customers, allow businesses to make informed decisions about
restocking/discontinuing products/planning for seasonal fluctuations/marketing
campaigns’ success/ROI optimization.

UNDERSTANDING POINT OF SALE AND E-COMMERCE

POINT OF SALE
Points of sale (POSs) are an important focus for marketers because
consumers tend to make purchasing decisions on high-margin products or
services at these strategic locations. Traditionally, businesses set up
POSs near store exits to increase the rate of impulse purchases as
customers leave. However, varying POS locations can give retailers more
opportunities to micro-market specific product categories and influence
consumers at earlier points in the sales funnel.

For example, department stores often have POSs for individual product
groups, such as appliances, electronics, and apparel. The designated staff
can actively promote products and guide consumers through purchase
decisions rather than simply processing transactions. Similarly, the format
of a POS can affect profit or buying behavior, as this gives consumers
flexible options for making a purchase.

Amazon’s concept convenience store, Amazon Go, which deploys

technologies that let shoppers come in, grab items, and walk out without
going through a register, could revolutionize POS systems. Besides
increasing convenience, this could enable POSs, loyalty, and payments to
be rolled into a single customer-centric experience.
E-COMMERCE
As noted above, e-commerce is the process of buying and selling tangible
products and services online. It involves more than one party along with
the exchange of data or currency to process a transaction. It is part of the
greater industry that is known as electronic business (e-business), which
involves all of the processes required to run a company online.

E-commerce has helped businesses (especially those with a narrow reach

like small businesses) gain access to and establish a wider market
presence by providing cheaper and more efficient distribution channels for
their products or services. Target (TGT) supplemented its brick-and-
mortar presence with an online store that allows customers to purchase
everything from clothes and coffeemakers to toothpaste and action figures
right from their homes.

Providing goods and services isn't as easy as it may seem. It requires a lot
of research about the products and services you wish to sell, the market,
audience, competition, as well as expected business costs.

FEATURES OF POINT OF SALE FOUND IN E-COMMERCE

Point of Sale (POS) is a system that allows businesses to manage sales, inventory,
and customer data. Here are some features of Point of Sale in e-commerce with
examples:

1. Inventory Management: POS systems can help businesses keep track of

their inventory levels, set reorder points, and generate purchase orders. For
example, Shopify’s POS system allows you to manage your inventory
across multiple store locations and online channels.
2. Sales Management: POS systems can help businesses manage their sales
data, including transaction history, sales reports, and customer data. For
example, Square’s POS system provides detailed sales reports that can be
filtered by date range, payment type, and more.
3. Payment Processing: POS systems can process payments from various
sources, including credit cards, debit cards, and mobile wallets. For
example, PayPal’s POS system accepts payments from PayPal accounts,
credit cards, and debit cards.
4. Customer Relationship Management: POS systems can help businesses
manage their customer data, including contact information and purchase
history. For example, Vend’s POS system allows you to create customer
profiles that include contact information, purchase history, and loyalty
program status.
5. Employee Management: POS systems can help businesses manage their
employees’ schedules and track their time worked. For example,
 Lightspeed’s POS system allows you to create employee schedules and
track employee hours worked.

FEATURES OF E-COMMERCE FOUND IN POINT OF SALE

#1 Mobile-Friendly Interface
Having an ecommerce website that looks great on a desktop browser isn’t
good enough. Instead, your store also needs to have a user-friendly
interface that is optimized for browsing from a mobile device. This
includes having large, attention-grabbing product images and wide product
variation buttons for easy tapping, like what headphone retailer Skullcandy
has done:

Investing in a mobile-optimized interface becomes all the more important

when you consider how many people are shopping from their phones these
days. According to behavioral marketing firm Salecycle, for example, 65%
of all ecommerce traffic in 2019 took place on mobile!

Google has also been prioritizing mobile traffic since July 2019. The more
mobile-friendly your ecommerce website is, the higher it may rank for
relevant Google searches - which can mean more traffic and sales.

#2 User Accounts
Amp up the convenience factor for customers - especially repeat ones - by
allowing them to create user accounts with your store. User accounts help
you save your customers’ shipping information and payment
methods, so they avoid the hassle of keying in these details every time
they make a purchase.

Apart from that, you’ll also be able to store information on your customers’
previously viewed products. With this information, you can then use a
product recommendation ecommerce feature to suggest related products to
customers. (More on this later!)

You can also offer perks to incentivize customers to register accounts with
you. For example, users who sign up for a membership with athletics
retailer Nike enjoy benefits such as free delivery and exclusive deals.
#3 Product Filtering and Sorting
If you offer a wide variety of products for sale, it’s important to help your
customers find what they are looking for. To do so, implement a product
filtering and sorting ecommerce feature that organizes your products
in a logical manner.

For example, ecommerce giant Amazon first categorizes its products into
“departments” such as:

 Electronics
 Arts & Crafts
 Health and Household
 Pet Supplies

After clicking into any of these categories, you’ll use sub-categories to

narrow down your search. For example, products in the “Electronics”
category are grouped into “Camera & Photo”, “GPS & Navigation”, “Video
Projectors” and other sub-categories.

You’ll also be able to further filter the search results by retailer, product
specifications, delivery options and so on.

#4 Search Bar
While adding product categories to your website navigation is helpful, a
strong search feature takes things one step further. With it, you
can effortlessly lead customers to their desired product without making
them dig through a ton of menus and submenus.

A basic search bar feature will allow a customer to fill out some keywords
and then click a “Search” button to start the search. However, more
advanced search ecommerce features can autosuggest relevant products
while the customer is still typing what they’re looking for. Check out the
search bar that online bookstore Book Depository has on its website, for
instance:

The customer simply has to start typing the name of a book into the search
bar, which then provides a list of possible titles. Talk about convenience!
#5 Product Recommendations
Would you rather shop at an online store that generically addresses you as
“Dear Customer”, or a store that addresses you by name, remembers what
you like and even recommends products that you might be interested in?
It’s the latter, we’re guessing.

With a product recommendation engine, you can personalize the online

shopping experience by recommending:

 Products similar to those that they’ve bought in the past, or

 Complementary products.

You could also feature products that other shoppers have been buying to
trigger a bit of FOMO (fear of missing out), and nudge the customer into
getting these items as well.

Featuring product recommendations can be as simple as adding “You

Might Also Like” or “Buy The Look” sections on your product pages, as can
be seen on the website of fashion retailer ASOS:

#6 Wishlists
Sometimes, a product may pique a customer’s interest, only that customer
isn’t ready to buy it yet. For instance, the customer may want to first
compare similar products to decide what to get.

A wishlist feature works great in helping these customers save these

products for later. This way, customers can easily buy the wishlisted
product(s) when they’ve made up their minds.

To use the wishlist feature on catalog retailer Argos’ online store, for
example, a customer has to sign up for a user account (see point #2 above
for the benefits of user accounts). Then, if a certain product catches the
customer’s eye, the customer can click an “Add to Your Wishlist” option to
wishlist it.
#7 User Reviews
Before parting with their hard-earned money, customers want to know that
they are making the right purchase decision. Providing social proof in the
form of reviews of others’ (positive) experiences with your product can
convince customers that this is the case.

Based on a 2021 study by market research company Bizrate Insights, for

example, consumers regard a high review score or rating as the most
significant factor when making a purchase decision. 91% of them also read
at least one review before deciding whether to buy!

User reviews can come in the form of star ratings and quantitative
feedback, similar to those that online furniture retailer Wayfair displays on
its website.

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN POINT OS SALE AND E-

COMMERCE
The relationship between point of sale (POS) and e-commerce is a topic of interest
in the retail industry. POS refers to the moment when a customer pays for goods or
services, while e-commerce is the buying and selling of goods and services over
the internet The integration of POS software and e-commerce solutions has
become a key factor in retail success. A unified POS and e-commerce system
eliminates the need for manual data entry and reconciliation, ensuring that
inventory, pricing, and customer information are always up-to-date and consistent
across all sales channels. This minimizes errors and enhances operational
efficiency A customer who can seamlessly transition from a physical store to an
online shop with a consistent shopping experience is more likely to return. Unified
systems enable a holistic view of customer data, allowing businesses to offer
personalized recommendations and promotions. By analyzing sales and inventory
data, businesses can make informed decisions about restocking, discontinuing
products, and planning for seasonal fluctuations. POS software can integrate with
an online store to provide a smooth and secure payment experience, enhancing
customer satisfaction and reducing cart abandonment rates.

E-commerce sites have multiple competitive advantages over physical points of

sale. They are open 24 hours a day, process sales 365 days a year, and can meet
demand from local and international consumers. However, e-commerce still lags
behind physical points of sale in terms of the customer experience it provides.

Bridging the gap between offline and online shopping has emerged as one of the
first steps to omnichannel success. As e-commerce grows rapidly, so do customer
expectations. In a short time, the e-commerce website has gone from being an
optional add-on to the central element of any retail system.

HOW E-COMMERCE AND POINT OF SALE CAN BE PUT

TOGETHER
Integrating e-commerce and point of sale (POS) systems can be beneficial for
businesses as it allows them to connect their online and offline sales channels. This
integration can help businesses streamline their inventory management, avoid
overselling, and eliminate manual data entry.

According to a study by Harvard Business Review, customers tend to spend more

in physical stores if they have conducted prior online research via the brand’s
websites. Therefore, it is critical to provide customers with a seamless buying
journey from offline to online to meet their growing expectations.

There are several ways to integrate e-commerce and POS systems. One way is to
use an e-commerce POS integration solution that builds a streamlined connection
between your e-commerce platform and POS system. This solution allows you to
pull detailed data in real-time directly between the two systems and process
transactions and orders across online and offline channels.

Another way is to use a POS system with an e-commerce integration feature. Some
of the popular POS systems with strong e-commerce platforms include Lightspeed,
Square, Shopify, Shift4Shop, and Revel.

In conclusion, integrating e-commerce and POS systems can help businesses

improve their sales channels and provide customers with a seamless buying
experience.