A point-of-sale (POS) terminal allows you and your employees to carry out sales transactions, manage inventory, and generate valuable reports on the state of your business. Today’s POS systems are made to help you and your customers enjoy better security, higher efficiency, and an overall more pleasant experience.

The latest systems are far more than digital cash registers. They have a series of advanced features that offer added and fundamental value to your business. One of the main benefits of implementing an intelligent POS system is a lower risk of internal and external fraud at the point of sale.

Your customers will appreciate the effort, too. With a high-quality POS system, you can prevent unauthorized users from accessing your customers’ data and reduce the risk of credit card information theft.

These are only a few of the ways in which the combination of a feature-rich POS terminal machine and reliable POS software can boost the security of your business. Keep reading to find out more!

Boosting Loss Prevention

There is a reason why in 2020, 72.5% of US retail businesses have employed POS terminals as one of their preferred loss prevention and management strategies. According to the same report from the US National Retail Federation, POS analytics remains the most common system in use for threat prevention purposes. 56.5% of the companies who took part in this survey already deployed POS analytics to protect their business.

A POS terminal provides store managers and business owners with actionable data to make better, wiser business decisions instead of playing on guesswork.

The data mined from the POS terminals can be employed to:

●        Single out employees with consistent low cash sales;

●        Identify attendants with high promotion redemptions;

●        Crack down on high tip percentages, compared to the sales item value;

●        Act to solve and prevent other suspicious behaviours;

With 49.3% of fraudulent activities occurring during in-store purchases, it makes sense to clamp down on any form of fraudulent behaviours and misconduct.

Combating Fraud

The fact that more than 56% of US retailers rely on POS terminals to combat fraud tells us that there is something worth looking into here. Digging deeper into this uncovers some insights into staff-related fraud that can occur at retail outlets.

With a POS system, your staff no longer needs to handle credit or debit cards directly. The PIN to complete the transaction remains with the customer, who can type it directly on the screen or the POS terminal. This significantly reduces security risks and mitigates the danger of fraud for your customers and business. Not to mention that, from a customer’s point of view, a POS terminal also brings higher convenience and more trust in your business.

Transaction Mapping

The ubiquitous nature of POS terminals has brought down their overhead costs and made it possible for businesses to acquire multiple units at nominal charges.

With that in place, it is also possible for these retail businesses to hand out individual POS terminals to each staff member in a way that makes for easier customization and higher versatility.

The benefits of this approach are even more evident when a transaction needs to be traced for security purposes. Having mapped such a transaction to the attendant in charge, the time spent investigating this case is massively reduced.

Besides, the presence of such intelligent systems also discourages employees from committing any fraudulent behaviour. The likelihood of being caught is higher when you’re assigned a unique identification code or POS terminal for your daily use during any work shifts.

Eliminating Fraud Risk

Modern POS systems have evolved largely from what they used to be. As of 2013, Target became the target (no pun intended) of a POS data breach that claimed the credit card information of more than 70 million customers. In the following year, Home Depot would be the one to lose the details of more than 56 million customers in a similar POS data breach.

As recently as 2016, Wendy’s was dragged to court over a credit card data breach that claimed the details of about a thousand users or more. These events show the need for a more advanced, more secure POS terminal system than before.

At Urovo, our POS systems are deployed with total security measures to ensure advanced payment security and consumer data encryption on all ends. The customer data is largely disguised with unique encryption keys that allow authorized access to follow the paper trail and conduct necessary audits where needed.

Our POS systems are better than classic credit card acceptance models that could leave your customer details and your business’s reputation at risk.

Safer Access to Data

Most businesses need to collect data about their customers to personalize content for them. However, the fear of possible data breaches and their consequences prevents the collection of such data.

At the time of writing, no less than 78% of retailers cannot identify their customers. Within that number, 22% of respondents have no means of identifying any of their customers.

That is too much money left on the table in a digital world where retargeting and niche marketing can help to increase revenue from return purchases.

Accenture estimates that 91% of shoppers will buy from stores that provide relevant and personalized suggestions. Of these people, 83% won’t mind that you have their personal information as long as you give them the right shopping experience.

All you need is a means of collecting that user data. With cloud POS solutions, you can instantly get user data at the point of sale and secure them on an encrypted channel.

But There’s a Downside Too

A POS system goes a long way in protecting your business and your customers from any misuse of personal information and payment details. However, it’s essential to invest in the security of your POS terminal machine and POS software, too.

There are several steps you can take to reduce the risk of having your POS terminals compromised:

1. Use high-security encryption to ensure that your customers’ data is never exposed to hackers or stolen (check the Urovo’s POS Software solutions);
2. Secure your POS system with anti-virus software to prevent malware attacks that could result in the loss or theft of data;
3. Safeguard your POS equipment and the surrounding area to avoid the risk of exposing your customers’ data to unauthorized users;
4. Perform routine checks on your POS equipment to inspect terminals and PIN-entry devices and ensure there are no signs of tampering;
5. Train your staff on POS equipment tampering prevention so that your employees can recognize all the noticeable signs of equipment tampering;

Get Started Today

If you have not already considered using a POS terminal solution for your business, today is another day.

Right now, no less than 79% of SMEs and 21% of large companies employ POS terminals for their business. The projected number of users opting for POS terminal payments in retail stores is expected to grow by 10.1% every year.

That said, though, not all POS terminal solutions are right for you. Get in touch with us at Urovo today to discuss which of our personalized hardware and software solutions will deliver the best ROI – in terms of convenience, efficiency, and security, among others – to your business.