As you tend cutting costs, its important to also see that there are places which you should not compromise. In retail its the POS hardware which cannot be compromised. Buying a low cost PC based system as it has a lower upfront cost looks tempting, but remember it’s the POS which differentiates your store service, it’s the POS which makes or breaks your brand.
Going for a PC based POS terminal means that the POS machine especially in a supermarket / hypermarket environment is not going to last more than 2-3 years (lucky if it lasts more than 2 years). Then your PC vendor cannot support the hardware beyond 2 years as every month there is a new version of the hardware which is released in this segment. The savings which you envisage when you buy a cheap PC based POS is nullified if you count that the POS has to be replaced every 3 years compared to a retail hardened POS terminal. Same goes for the peripherals. With the power prices going thru the roof you also need to ensure that the power consumption of your POS machine is minimal. Imagine if you have 100 stores and over 500 POS machines (assuming at least 5 per store), the cost saving if the POS terminal consumed 50% less power than a PC based machine.
A retail hardened POS also means better customer service as the probability of a till going down in peak billing time is reduced. Customers are frustrated when they see large checkout queues and POS machines not working in a retail store.
Point is … don’t compromise buying inferior POS machines!
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