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Ecommerce Merchandising
Article | March 18, 2024
Discover cutting-edge innovations, learn about operational efficiencies, and explore ways to enhance customer experiences through modern POS solutions with the most awaited POS events in 2023.
As the significance of customer satisfaction, efficient inventory management, and omnichannel experience grew, the adoption of Point-of-Sale (POS) systems has gained significant momentum in the last few years. These advanced systems offer businesses numerous benefits, including enhanced efficiency, real-time data analytics, and seamless integration with other essential operations.
With the addition of features, such as time data accessibility, seamless integration with other business operations, enhanced mobility, and automatic software updates, these cloud POS solutions empower businesses to make informed decisions, improve operational efficiency, provide personalized customer experiences, and adapt quickly to changing market demands. To stay at the forefront of this technological revolution and garner the latest insights in the sector, industry professionals and enthusiasts are flocking to various events and conferences dedicated to cloud POS. Here are some of the top payment-related POS conferences for businesses to attend:
The Payment & Innovation Forum 2023
November 16-17, 2023 | Budapest (Hungary)
The Payment & Innovation Forum 2023 is a premier event that brings together industry leaders, experts, and innovators in the banking and fintech sectors. With a focus on the European Union regulatory landscape, the forum explores the safe and responsible adoption of the latest innovation trends in banking. Speakers, including Javier Santamaría, The Chair of the European Payments Council; Daniela Bobocea, Chief Digital Officer at Digital Banker; and others, will share valuable insights and exchange ideas on the evolving payments landscape. Attendees can expect insightful discussions on topics such as the new era of customer experience, the relationship between fintech and banks, disruptions and digital banking trends, regulation and innovation, instant payment solutions, and the future of EU cybersecurity.
Driving the Future of Ecommerce in Asia Pacific
October 11-12, 2023 | Marina Bay (Singapore)
Driving the Future of Ecommerce in Asia Pacific, eCommerce Expo Asia is back in 2023 for its highly anticipated fourth edition. With an impressive lineup of industry experts, including David Jou, CEO & Co-Founder of Pomelo Fashion; Jay Teo, Head of Point of Sales Business at Shopline; Alexandra Morris, APAC Head of Marketing at BigCommerce; and Jay Jenkins, Global Tech Evangelist at BytePlus, the event will shed light on the latest innovation and highlight game-changing solutions that will propel their ecommerce endeavors forward. Attendees can expect insightful keynote speeches, informative panel discussions, and thought-provoking sessions on the emerging trends and strategies driving the future of ecommerce in the Asia-Pacific region.
Advanced E-Commerce & Retail Expo
October 25-27, 2023 | Makuhari Messe (Japan)
Advanced E-Commerce & Retail Expo is a comprehensive event showcasing a wide range of products and solutions tailored for the retail and ecommerce industries. It focuses on store operations, customer attraction, customer service, and online-offline store connectivity. The POS event presents professionals from various sectors, such as retail, ecommerce, food and service, manufacturing, and management of industries like hotel and leisure, making it a valuable platform to explore cutting-edge solutions that drive business growth. Attendees can expect to connect with industry experts, discover innovative technologies, and gain insights into the latest trends in retail, ecommerce, marketing, logistics, and systems.
Los Angeles eCommerce Summit 2024
May 16, 2024 | Los Angeles (California)
Los Angeles eCommerce Summit 2024 is a highly anticipated one-day event that brings together a curated group of local eCommerce experts, decision-makers, and industry professionals from the vibrant LA area. The conference is thoughtfully designed to deliver high-impact impressions through panel discussions, presentations, and one-on-one meetings covering a wide range of topics such as eCommerce strategy, marketing, operations, customer experience, payment solutions, shipping logistics, and loyalty programs. With industry leaders and innovators from established retailers and brands as participating speakers, attendees can expect to gain valuable insights, forge meaningful connections, and stay ahead in the ever-evolving eCommerce landscape.
Payments Summit
February 26-28, 2024 | California (USA)
Hosted by Secure Technology Alliance, the 16th annual Payments Summit will be held in conjunction with an Identity Summit, as well as the Winter Member Meeting of the U.S. Payments Forum and Identity Access Forum. Under the theme of ’Smarter Faster Payments,’ the summit showcases renowned keynote speakers Ben Nemtin, no. 1 New York Times bestselling author and Shola Richards, Founder of The Positivity Solution, who will share their invaluable insights on the future of payments. With a focus on enhancing the user experience, improving decision-making, and reinforcing security measures, Smarter Faster Payments is an important industry event for those seeking to stay ahead of the curve and make a meaningful impact in the world of payments.
Payments Forum
May 6-8, 2024 | Florida (USA)
Payments Forum is a premier event where industry experts, leaders, and decision-makers from financial institutions, card issuers, payments processors, merchants, and retailers gather for strategic discussions on revenue growth and product development. This POS event serves as a vital platform for attendees to gain valuable insights into the latest technological advancements, regulatory impacts, and the evolving landscape of consumer behavior. With a focus on innovation, digital transformation, and staying ahead of industry trends, the Payments Forum provides a unique opportunity for professionals to exchange knowledge, explore new options, and drive their organizations toward success in the dynamic payments sector.
PAY360 Conference
March 19-20, 2024 | London (UK)
An essential event, the PAY360 Conference, is where professionals in the payments industry come together to navigate the ever-evolving landscape of the payments ecosystem. With speakers such as Kosta Du, Founder and CEO of Dapio; Charles Damen, Chief Product Officer at Token; and Denise Johansson. Co-CEO and Co-Founder of Enfuce, on the deck, the conference provides a unique platform for networking, collaboration, and knowledge-sharing. Recognizing the growing demand, this POS event has expanded to a larger venue, reflecting its status as the preferred meeting point for forging partnerships, acquiring new customers, and influencing policy. By pushing boundaries and going the extra mile, PAY360 is committed to serving and benefiting the payments community, enabling attendees to stay ahead of the curve and thrive in this dynamic and fast-paced sector.
MoneyLIVE Summit
March 6-7, 2024 | London (UK)
MoneyLIVE Summit, held in the world's FinTech capital, is the premier global event for payments and banking professionals. Bringing together industry leaders at the forefront of their fields, this POS summit serves as the epicenter of ground-breaking partnerships, amplifying innovation, and nurturing the brightest ideas. With five remarkable stages to choose from, attendees can delve into a wide range of topics, including open banking, new revenue models, payments innovation, digital identities, and more. MoneyLIVE Summit provides a unique platform to stay informed, inspired, and connected with the latest trends and advancements shaping the payments and banking landscape, making it an important event for industry professionals seeking to drive success and embrace the future of finance.
Smarter Faster Payments 2024
May 6-9, 2024 | Miami (USA)
Smarter Faster Payments 2024 is an exceptional industry event that recognizes the transformative power of technology and information in revolutionizing the world of payments. This POS event is dedicated to organizations that are at the forefront of driving innovation, delivering value through groundbreaking solutions and services, and utilizing these advancements to meet their business requirements and engage with customers. With a focus on enhancing the user experience, empowering decision-making processes, and ensuring robust security measures, Smarter Faster Payments offers a unique platform for diverse organizations to come together, share insights, and explore the latest trends and strategies in the payments landscape. Attendees can expect to gain valuable knowledge, establish meaningful connections, and stay ahead of the curve in this dynamic and rapidly evolving industry.
CMO in eCommerce Conference - 2023
September 27, 2023 | Online
A must-attend event, The CMO in eCommerce Conference - 2023, designed specifically for eCommerce Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) looking to optimize their online stores and drive business success. This POS conference brings together a panel of experienced eCommerce CMOs who understand the challenges of managing and developing thriving online businesses. With a wealth of knowledge and practical advice to share, these industry experts will provide valuable insights on optimizing store performance, enhancing customer engagement, and boosting sales. Attendees can gain critical insights into the latest trends, platforms, tools, and apps, gaining a competitive edge and making their marketing efforts more effective.
The Future of POS
The future of Point-of-Sale (POS) is poised for significant transformation through the integration of cloud-based technologies. Attending the top 10 POS conferences in 2023 presents a remarkable opportunity for industry professionals to gain invaluable insights and stay abreast of the latest advancements in this ever-evolving field. These conferences serve as vibrant platforms where retailers, technology providers, and industry enthusiasts can converge, share knowledge, and forge meaningful connections. Attendees can stay ahead of the curve by participating in these events, leveraging the power of cloud-based POS systems to enhance operational efficiency, improve customer experiences, and drive business growth.
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POS Solutions
Article | February 14, 2024
How much does it cost to install a point of sale (POS) system?
It’s a question that we get all the time and the answer might surprise you.
If you’re trying to grow a retail small business, you probably don’t have all the money and resources in the world to commit to an expensive retail POS system.
Moreover, finding the best retail POS system for your growing small business is easier said than done, especially if you don’t know what features to prioritize in your search.
So, what’s the good news? Finding the right POS system for your business is as easy as 1-2-3 and installing a POS system is actually quite affordable!
How Much Does it Cost to Install a POS System?
The short answer: it depends and varies by POS type and by vendor. We've seen POS installation costs range from $0-$700. Installation costs come on top of the upfront hardware costs (up to $1,600), monthly software fees (anywhere from $9-299 per month) and payment processing fees.
When it's all said and done, your total cost of ownership for year one can range from $1,200-$6,500. Controlling POS installation costs is key in minimizing first-year total ownership cost.
There are two types of costs to consider related to installing a POS system: time costs and financial costs. The most significant delays come when the POS system isn’t pre-configured for your unique business. In this scenario, you may spend a considerable amount of time aligning the system with your sales processes.
Additionally, if your inventory management, employee payroll, and other tools are built inside separate programs, you may need to spend time integrating and combing these systems, thus increasing POS installation costs.
Finally, if the provider doesn’t offer online software guides or tutorials, you may spend your time figuring out features and functionality on your own. Without these helpful resources, you’ll spend a considerable amount of time fumbling through the system. No one has time for that!
These time costs tie directly into financial costs. Instead of spending time installing a POS system yourself, you could be spending that time ringing in sales!
Here are some of the other things that influence POS system installation costs.
Number of Stations
If your POS system isn’t pre-configured so that you can “plug and play,” you’re most likely going to require an on-site technician to install your POS. Often, the total number of stations influences total installation cost. The more stations you have, the more time the technician has to spend installing them, and the higher your installation costs will be.
Type of Software/Hardware
This is another downfall of not purchasing an all-in-one retail POS system that comes pre-configured. Some software and hardware come with additional installation costs because they require more time for your on-site technician to complete.
These costs can also be looked at from the type of POS system you purchase: on-site, cloud-based, or hybrid.
On-site POS systems typically take the most effort to install, meaning a higher financial cost. Cloud-based and hybrid POS systems are easier to install, but installation time is dictated by whether the software and hardware is pre-configured or not.
Advanced Features
Many advanced POS system features may require additional time and additional cost for a technician to install.
iPads or other mobile devices for staff to use when serving customers
Handheld scanners for inventory
Payment hardware and their corresponding security systems or software
Data or product migrations from your previous POS system
Number of Users
Certain POS providers price their system based on the number of users. This can also affect install costs. If you require an on-site technician and/or you don’t have access to a tutorial for adding users to the system, the technician will most likely have to do that for you. Again, this means more time spent installing your POS system, increasing the total installation cost.
Training
Some POS providers will wrap POS system training into installation costs. This will require an investment of time from key stakeholders, including management and employees.
Some POS providers will also charge you for additional training outside of the initial training session. If they don’t have online training resources, this means every new employee will either need to be trained by the provider (costing you money) or trained by you or another staff member (costing you time).
POS Nation Reduces the Cost of Installing a POS System
With a POS Nationall-in-one retail POS system, setting up your hardware is easier than you’d think. The benefit of purchasing a full point of sale system from us is that it’s a plug-and-play solution. Take it out of the box, plug everything in, and it’s ready to go! Our team of technicians pre-configures your hardware so you don't have to worry about any installations when it arrives. Most of our advanced features are baked right into the software. There are some that cost extra, but most are pre-installed, making us a more powerful and affordable solution.
Additionally, you are assigned a customer success manager. Their goal is to help you get up and running as quickly and smoothly as possible. They will schedule a hardware setup appointment with you. During this call, they will assist you with:
Remote hardware setup
Hardware testing
A test transaction on the pinpad
Any basic training they can cover during the appointment time
They will book as many training sessions as you need to solidify your understanding of the software and its many functionalities.
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POS Solutions
Article | April 4, 2024
In 2004, Tobias Lutke, Daniel Weinand, and Scott Luke established an online website to sell snowboards. They tried a bunch of online store builders but were not satisfied with the status quo. So, they decided to build a tool that could operate their website. Soon, they realized that the tool was more powerful than the website's business. And hence, Shopify was born.
Eventually, Shopify became one of the largest eCommerce store builders in the world. By 2009, the company had $100 million in sales and decided to launch its own API as well as an app store. More than a decade later, Shopify is now supporting over 800,000 stores globally and is a $125 billion company.
While the company has shown remarkable growth in its business, it would be ignorant to say the market's needs have been fulfilled by the Shopify platform. Shopify's eCommerce platform works for a lot of businesses, but that does not mean it will work for every business.
Here is why Shopify is Not the Right Fit for Every Business:
Shopify's growth over the years shows that the company has taken several steps to address the market's inherent needs. However, the presence of several other companies and the issues still faced by merchants show some significant gaps in Shopify's offerings:
1. Cost of Setting Up: Each price-point offers a fixed set of features and functionalities. If you want anything over and above that, you will have to buy the subsequent package. For instance – something as conventional as a Gift Card is not available in the $29 per month package; to get it activated, pay as much as $299 per month.
2. Cost of Operations: The additional functionalities and features cost extra in your package. Even basic features like transaction or credit card processing attract an additional fee. To add to that, you have to purchase the app to activate the feature from the Shopify app store. Even though some apps are free, the apps that offer maximum value tend to cost north of $39.99 per month.
3. Limited and Expensive Themes: The entire Shopify store has a total of 73 themes, with the prices going as high as $180 a theme. This means that as a merchant, even after paying the high price, you may end up with an eCommerce platform that hardly stands out from the crowd.
In short, while Shopify was started with great intentions, the cost of using it has started outweighing the probable value it has to offer. This issue gets further highlighted when one starts looking at the Shopify alternatives.
Best Alternatives of Shopify
While Shopify suits the needs of a certain set of merchants, here are the alternatives that can suit the merchants looking for more tailored, affordable, or customizable solutions:
1. Quick eSelling
Quick eSelling is one of the most affordable and easy to deploy ecommerce store builder among the Shopify alternatives. It can be deployed in under 10 minutes for the basic variant. Its free variant has some prolific features like a native Android app, responsive website, and a catalog that can support up to 1000 products.
The free package requires a 5% transaction fee, which gets eliminated the moment you upgrade to a paid plan. All the paid plans have a fixed monthly fee and no setup costs. The list of standard features includes a wide set of functionalities like customizable web-store themes, SMS & Email marketing, comprehensive payment gateway integrations, detailed analytics reports, inventory management systems, social media plugins, discount coupon codes, and even live chat.
The premium package which costs around 50% the price of the $299 Shopify package, comes with a dedicated account manager and enterprise-level integrations.
Ideal for: Merchants who are seeking an affordable, easily usable, and quickly deployable solution.
2. WooCommerce
WooCommerce is popularly considered one of the most preferred alternatives for Shopify. It is quite convenient for website owners as it is a plugin for WordPress.
Unlike other tools in the list, WooCommerce is designed to make WordPress sites work as functional eCommerce platforms. And in that particular aspect, it does a great job.
However, if you are not already using an established WordPress site with high traffic, running WooCommerce can become quite expensive. On average, a website owner has to spend as much as $1000 in setting up a WooCommerce store with a moderate degree of customization.
Even if you are not customizing a lot, running a WooCommerce store can cost you as much as $150 in a month. This would cover your hosting, themes, shipping plugins, security, and SEO. You will pay additional 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction.
Ideal for: Someone who has a successful WordPress website and now wants to convert it into an eCommerce store.
3. Yo!Kart:
Yo!Kart is a popular self-hosted multi-vendor platform for building online marketplaces. Unlike Shopify, it is a standalone platform that comes with a lifetime license and rich ecommerce features. The platform is fully customizable and scalable.
Yo!Kart packages start from $999 and every package comes with a 1-year free technical support, free installation, and full source code. There are no monthly or yearly recurring fees.
Considering it is a comprehensive platform, you may need some technical training to understand the system.
Ideal for: Business owners who want to start ecommerce websites like Amazon or ebay where multiple sellers are selling under the same roof.
4. PrestaShop
PrestaShop runs on the basic premise that creating an online eCommerce store should be an affordable exercise for any merchant. That is the reason why it is available for free and comes without any additional monthly fees.
Its features include eCommerce functionalities like CRM & Email Marketing, Inventory Management, Multi-Store Management, and SEO Management. You can get a basic eCommerce store running by paying the registration fee for the domain and the hosting fee dues.
While this may seem like a great alternative, given the fact that it is practically free, there is one major caveat – you cannot deploy or personalize your PrestaShop eCommerce store unless you know how to code. The entire platform has been designed, keeping in mind people who can code at professional levels of proficiency. The cost of hiring a developer who can add features to your store or modify the theme can be very costly.
In addition to this, some basic features like promotions & reviews management, data security, and mobile access are not available on the platform.
Ideal for: The merchants who have access to programming talent and don't mind a basic eCommerce store.
5. Wix
Wix became popular as an online website builder. It also offers interesting eCommerce functionalities. For as low as $35 a year, you can have the Business Basic package that comes with a free year of using the domain, analytics reports, and 20 GB of storage.
If you want greater control of your eCommerce platform but are not a professional programmer and are not interested in hiring one, Wix can be a great alternative. Its most expensive package costs about $80 a year. It comes with features like email marketing, SEO management, inventory management, data security, and promotions management.
The challenge is – most of the charges marketed by Wix are very affordable for the first year in operations. After a year, many of these features, like the domain, will become payable elements. This way as soon as the first year of your operations is over, your cost of running the eCommerce platform will dramatically go up.
Ideal for: Merchants who want to have greater control of their website's design without the need for coding skills and those who want the first year of operations to be largely affordable.
Conclusion:
Shopify can work for you if you are seeking a limited set of features. However, for lesser price-points, the alternatives for Shopify offer great functionalities. Quick eSelling is good for cost-effective and rapidly deployable eCommerce websites that come loaded with native features. WooCommerce is a viable option if you have a WordPress site and want to convert it into an eCommerce store. Yo!Kart specializes in building multi-vendor marketplaces.
PrestaShop can be handy and very budget-friendly if you have access to coding talent. And Wix is good if you want greater control over what your store looks like, without getting into the programming aspects.
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POS Solutions
Article | February 4, 2022
Think ‘omnichannel retail,’ and the first brands that spring to mind might be Target, Alibaba, or Best Buy. The term is usually associated with giant brands and mass merchants—but it doesn’t have to be.
Walmart, Amazon, Sephora, and their ilk may dominate the headlines as early adopters achieving great feats, such as one-hour store pickup, record sales after a viral TikTok, or loyalty-boosting mobile apps. But omnichannel retail is just as achievable for small-to mid-sized brands and just as critical to future success.
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