Business owners work hard to generate a  sale. They carefully plan and execute marketing campaigns, they spend a lot of money crafting an appealing storefront and showroom, they hire knowledgeable employees to answer questions and spend a significant time picking and choosing the items that correspond to their customers’ tastes. However, it can all come crashing down at the last second if retailers don’t have a flexible point-of-sale solution that can accept a variety of payment types, and the shopper remains just that, instead of taking the next step to become a buyer. Only accepting certain payment types may even cost businesses future sales simply for convenience reasons.

“Businesses must eliminate barriers to purchase.”

It all comes down to eliminating any barriers that would normally prevent people from making a purchase. Enterprises do this in many ways – they try to make their online stores easy to use or navigate, they have employees that can alleviate concerns and answer questions and they keep their shelves stocked with goods so people never have to leave empty handed. Yet many companies still have inflexible POS solutions that limit the ways people can actually pay for their goods. This results in awkward scenarios where customers have to dash to an ATM down the street, put the item on hold for next time or simply storm off, angry they couldn’t buy their products.

Catering to the needs of the people
People are paying for goods in a variety of ways these days, using everything from conventional payment tools such as cash and credit cards to newer offerings like mobile payments and loyalty. One recent study conducted by NextAdvisor and reported by the NY Post polled a variety of consumers over the age of 18 to find out how they pay. The study found 42 percent of shoppers use debit cards, 38 percent prefer credit cards, 17 go with cash and 3 percent still use checks. The poll did not touch on mobile apps or other forms of payment.

A POS can be a selling point
The takeaway here is that businesses have to give their customers flexibility in the way they pay for goods. Accepting only cash is a great way to lose sales, and it is something that can easily be addressed. There are a wide variety of POS solutions businesses can choose from at all different price points.