| |January 201919CIOReviewWhile H&M is a niche fashion brand targeting mid-high income groups with selective merchandise, Pantaloons is for masses with volume sales. Such variations from same vertical may demand different functionalities from a POS solution including the ability to handle complex promotions, larger/diverse basket size, integration with private wallet or loyalty programs etc. Hence, when a CTO/CIO is evaluating investing into critical technologies like store management platform, evaluation criteria should keep future growth plans in mind. Being retail solution veterans for more than 20 years, our recommendation for retailers is to review their 3-5 years growth plan and pick the right technology that suits their business needs. Hybrid technology framework can be an option for the next three years in order to build capability to deal with current vulnerabilities while allowing the cloud-only POS market to mature for upcoming trends.2. How do you see the adoption of mobile wallets in POS systems? To what extent will it affect the cards payment market?Demonetization in India has given a big boost to adoption of mobile wallets (PayTM, MobiKwik, PhonePe and more) ­ to the extent that has crossed the four critical components (Originally discussed in IPSOS Group report "Mobile POS: Moving the Needle in Mobile Payments") required for consumer adoption of Mobile Payments applications: · Habituation: Today we find majority of Indian consumers using this for something habitual, like buying grocery and food items or coffee/tea which is a daily affair for many. · Ubiquity: From utility bill payment to e-commerce checkout to Uber, the wallets have crossed this threshold too. · Incentives: Even though this is not going to last long, to gain market share, wallet providers give people plenty of reasons to load a mobile payments application and then use it repeatedly in a retail environment. · Retailer Support Training: Traditionally this could have been the biggest barrier for any technology adoption. Demonetization has addressed this quite easily too. Our internal survey of retailers indicates that both in India and Africa, wallet adoption is gaining a larger share of POS payment method in these geographies where the penetration of credit cards has traditionally been lower to start with. Global Data's survey also reflects that the share of cash payment in total e-commerce transaction value declined from 31% in 2013 to 16% in 2017, and cards dropped from 38% to 32% whereas the mobile wallet share jumped from just 7% to 29% during the same period. It is evident that the consumers are not only benefiting from convenient payment option but also the wallet provider promotions are helping the adoption. A retailer is also benefiting from this trend. As compared to credit card transaction costs, the wallet payment processing costs are lower too. Mobile Wallet as a payment option is definitely here to stay. In fact, in certain geographies, we might even find large retailers launching closed (private) wallet in addition to using 3rd party ones. 3. How can the data collected from POS systems be analyzed to increase sales and levels of customer service? Smart POS is capable of doing more than just the recording of sales transactions. The details about customers that could be collected include customer name, address and contact information and preferred payment method --whether it's through cash, credit card, debit card,
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