How the iPad is Changing Point of Sale Systems

If you’ve ever been to a commercial store before, and we’re going to have to take a guess that you have, at some point in your life, you’re familiar with the cash register. This handy dandy invention has been around in some form for well over a hundred years. Many times today, you hear cash registers referred to as points of sale or point of sale systems. This is because the register is the point in which the sale part of a transaction occurs. For instance, when the cashier swipes your package of bubble gum and accepts your money, this is the point of sale, done with the cash register. In recent years, however, you may have noticed a shift in point of sale systems.

It was only a few years ago that the first Square and other devices were introduced, but they’ve already begun to change the way sales are made all across the world. These point of sales systems are typically used by plugging a small plastic device into the audio jack of devices, such as the Apple iPad, for instance, which our article will focus on, and either manually entering the offline debit or credit card information for payment or swiping the magnetic strip through the plastic device. Apple products such as the iPad are probably by far the more common option to use these Point of Sale devices with because they are such reliable, easily accessible forms of technology. Businesses such as Square and online financial giant Paypal have developed these tiny, convenient plastic devices, and they’re becoming quite popular to use.

One of the reasons businesses opt to use point of sales devices and services linked to their iPads at such a growing rate is the cost factor. Point of Sale cash registers are not only expensive to buy, sometimes reaching amounts in the tens of thousands of dollars region, but they’re costly to maintain, as well. Every time a register goes down, it’s a mark against the store, maintenance has to be called in, parts need to be replaced, etc. A Square or Paypal POS device costs a tiny fraction of this price, usually below twenty dollars, and the cost to use is simply a percentage of the sale amount. Most businesses, especially small ones that cannot afford even one POS register, opt for the POS devices to cut down on cost. Of course, convenience is also a major factor. Through iPad POS transactions, the sale can take place virtually anywhere within a store. For instance, a waitress at a bistro can process a transaction right from her customer’s table with a simple swipe of their card. If you were to walk into an Apple store right now, chances are that your iPad purchase would be made through an iPad itself! This amazing new form of technology can save small businesses tons of cash and makes things more convenient for both workers and consumers.