×
The whole world is gradually going cashless with each passing day owing to the increased hassles caused due to cash transactions. Gone are those days when the lives of the commoners were crippled without cash. Today the cash transactions are slowly being replaced by even more plastic money transactions through debit cards, credit cards, net banking and point of sale terminals. In order to simplify the lives of the common people by the use of improved technology, the point of sale or point of purchases came into existence that created ripples of changes over a very short span of time. These POS terminals found utility in various spheres of modern lives. Starting from the payment and exchange points in the retail outlets to making electronic funds transfer through EFTPOS, POS terminals today have invaded the genre of cashless transactions in the society today. With the evolution of the society, the science and technology related to the working of the POS terminals have also undergone radical changes in the hardware and software domain. In other words, an efficient working POS terminal is possible only with the smooth amalgamation of the POS software and POS hardware systems.
A Point of Sale terminal has various kinds of components attached to it that make up what is called the POS hardware, usually connected to a POS Till System. Although the POS terminals today vary in their characteristics to cater to the needs of the various types of operating systems to which they are connected such as Apple iPAD Bundle, Apple Mac Bundle, Personal Computers and the like, yet, the basic components remain the same for the working of all POS terminals, irrespective of the systems. Let us get a brief idea about the main hardware components of a POS terminal:
This is the base of the whole POS process and can come in various forms such as portable as well as attached to a system and sometimes even having Bluetooth connectivity. They are extremely user-friendly, perfectly light to handle and has the exclusive feature of inventory management system and asset tracking, which are very essential for the billing and payment purposes.
This feature is of vital importance in a POS, as this will form the main display of the POS terminals. Therefore, this will decide the visual characteristics and simultaneously, enable the user to read the instructions and proceed accordingly. Any hazy or blurred appearance may invariably cause inconvenience in the use of the same. Therefore, it is very necessary to have a clear digital display having an excellent response time too. Nowadays, even trendy digital boards are coming up having stylish and sleek designs where the menu can be displayed and sometimes any kind of promotion or advertising can be done through the display too.
Boon of barcode scanners: Almost every product found in the retail markets or supermarketsin will have the price mentioned against the body. Nowadays, the price tags are slowly waning out and increasingly, the price stickers are used instead. This is because these are easy to handle and scanned with the help of barcode scanners. Therefore, such a scanner is much coveted in a POS terminal to scrutinize the price, get it recorded on the inventory screen and finalise the bill. In other words, the main task of financial formalities can be completed with the barcode scanners only. Different varieties of barcode scanners are available in the market today to adapt to all kinds of systems and servers.
Coin dispensers, cash drawers and tills: Apart from the cashless process of completing the billing with the help of debit or credit cards, an extra precaution to take care of minimum cash and coin requirements is also taken here. This helps to give any change in return of cash payments by the purchasers. Multiple cash drawers’ setup for restaurants and bar outlets especially, is also available in the market.
Printers, Keyboards and payment devices: Some of the other vital components of POS hardware include the keyboards, monitors having an excellent graphical user interface, entry scales, the payment devices and obviously, the printers that work interactively to ensure smooth functioning of the POS terminals.
With the increase of plastic money use and corresponding diversion towards more application of POS, the need of the hour is state-of-the-art POS hardware technology to ensure durable and effective working, including our POS Solutions.