Point of Sale (POS) systems are not new. However, with cloud computing, smarter ways to do business have emerged. At the National Retail Federation (NRF) Conference in New York last January, HP showcased its vision the new store environment, which maximizes the use of technologies to improve the customer touch points.
In an email interview with Christian Charlton, Director of Retail Solutions, HP Asia-Pacific & Japan, he shared with RetailTech Innovation HP’s offering for the retail sector for better business outcomes.
RetailTech Innovation: How secure is POS systems deployed as Software as a Service or in the cloud? What is the adoption rate for this type of service?
Christian Charlton (CC): Cloud technologies and Software-as-a-Service are inevitable components in the near future. The distribution of software and resulting functionality and business cases will apply to POS as much as anywhere else. Certain concerns and challenges still remain on connectivity and security but these issues are being addressed.
The HP portfolio is designed to be as flexible as possible, and to allow both types of architectures – fat client, thin client – to access the cloud.
RetailTech Innovation: What’s the biggest challenge for retailers now as far as technology is considered?
CC: Consumers today expect a seamless store experience. The days when consumers only went to brick-and-mortar stores are long gone. They are very tech savvy and more often than not, have more processing power on their smartphones than what many retailers have in store. It is therefore imperative that we equip sales associates in store with better technologies to enable them to offer the tech savvy consumers better service.
Today we have a mix of online shopping, mobile and in-store shopping. The resulting challenge for retailers is how to offer their products while preserving their brand identity over a wide variety of sales channels. This is the reason HP offers a broad offering of POS equipment to serve different touch points.
RetailTech Innovation: What are the innovations that HP is introducing to the POS system? What is this so-called ‘next-generation all-in-one POS system’? What makes it different from other solutions being offered by other vendors?
CC: While there have been numerous predictions of the demise of brick-and-mortar stores and traditional retail formats, most consumers still want a hands-on in-store shopping experience. In addition, they are demanding online and mobile shopping experiences. The key is to make these as seamless and engaging as possible.
Through our portfolio of retail solutions, HP is able to bring to life an integrated and seamless connected store experience for the customer, across multiple touch points of information and transactions. This allows the retailer to provide personalized service, maximize productivity and retain customers. With an HP mobile POS system, for example, sales associates can process loyalty cards, know what the customer has bought in the past and provide a more customized shopping experience for the customer. Through the POS system, sales associates can also more accurately recommend products to customers and offer more options for purchase, bringing a full buying experience for the customer and increasing their own revenue.
At the National Retail Federation Big Show this year, HP showcased the RP7 and RP3 retail systems. The HP RP7 is a family of versatile all-in-one POS systems that combine a sleek and stylish design with the capabilities of a traditional retail solution.
The RP7800 is highly configurable from the screen size and touch technology, to the processor and hard drive choices. Besides its sleek, flush-bezel exterior, this self-service kiosk packs in the latest Intel and DDR3 RAM technologies. The resistive touchscreen gives flexible navigation and interactivity with stylus, glove or finger. The retain-hardened form factor can be used in 40°C ambient environments. The RP7100 is fanless and its sealed chassis prevents dust, splashing water, other contaminants from entering the fan vents, making it perfect for F&B and hospitality environments.
Both models’ customizability allows retailers to deliver an intuitive and familiar user experience for their sales associates. This can help optimize the speed of service and enhance guests’ buying experiences.
The RP3 retail system offers retailers a compact design that maximizes space without compromising on key connectivity features for needed peripherals such as barcode scanners, receipt printers and magnetic stripe readers. Its compact size enables retailers to free counter spaces and its wide range of serial and USB ports enable staff to connect the POS to legacy and newer-generation peripherals.
This RP3 retail solution can also be deployed as a traditional client or a thin computing platform in distributed store environments, making it ideal for retailers of all sizes. With integrated wireless or WLAN network connectivity, sales associates can support online customer transactions, conduct on the spot inventory checks and update back office activities more efficiently.
RetailTech Innovation: How can small retailers adapt to this changing technology landscape so they can remain competitive, without necessarily having to shell out huge capital outlay?
CC: Small retailers are more nimble and possibly more open to change and adopting new technology since they are not constrained by legacy investments. To be competitive and grow their business, they need retail solutions with optimal performance, allow them to manage inventory, and offer more customized service by providing multiple customer touch points – but all in a small form factor and at an affordable price.
The HP RP3, for example, is a suitable system for small retailers. With its small footprint, it is a versatile retail system that packs in connectivity, performance and reliability features. This, together with our mobile POS and digital signage solutions, give smaller retailers a truly rounded retail technology offering that enables them to compete with the bigger players.
RetailTech Innovation: Can you share case studies of HP solutions’ actual use and deployment in Asian retail establishments?
CC: ONI Global, one of Asia’s largest nutritional products retailers, wanted a user-friendly and adaptable POS system, while ensuring minimal disruption to its store-front operations since it only has one to two retail associates throughout the day. They required a cutting-edge, almost self-correcting solution that would allow its IT personnel to focus on bottom line enhancing activities, such as developing software applications to drive business growth.
The company decided on the HP ap5000 all-in-one POS system. Designed to meet the space constraints of a compact retail store, the HP ap5000 comes with reliable software that ensures that store operations continue to run smoothly and revenues are not lost during the upgrading process.
The HP ap5000 is also engineered for tough retail environments, as it is equipped with a 40˚C ambient temperature support and a water-resistant touch-screen display, to ensure uninterrupted reliability, processing payments quickly even during extended business hours.
(Source: RetailTech Innovation)