Vendors Clash for Supremacy in Evolving Cloud-Based PoS Landscape
Newly released Vendor Evaluations by Yankee Group reveal 3 distinct leaders in a market where more than half of merchants that have been in business for less than three years are actively considering deploying mPoS in the next 12 months, opening the door for cloud enabled startups that make the PoS more merchant- and consumer-friendly.
BOSTON, Jan. 7, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Traditional PoS systems have long been a burden for SMB owners. As merchant demands have evolved over time, legacy PoS systems simply have failed to keep pace. The high total cost of ownership (TCO) and lack of flexibility, coupled with the rapid development of cloud-based PoS vendors, have increased merchant awareness that highly cost-effective solutions that expand far beyond payment acceptance are readily available. In a new report, "New Kids on the Block: Assessing the Top Solutions Driving the PoS Transformation," Yankee Group, a division of The 451 Group, examines the benefits SMBs can realize by upgrading their legacy PoS solutions and investigates eight cloud-based systems that are currently available on the market.
Yankee Group evaluated Revel Systems, ShopKeep, Leaf, NCR Silver, Shopify, Groupon Breadcrumb PRO, GoPago, and Square on flexibility, business management capabilities, user friendliness, customer engagement capabilities, and integration capabilities and found that while three emerge as leaders across multiple criteria, several vendors lack best-in-class functionalities and two perform poorly overall.
Our evaluation reveals that to differentiate and dominate, cloud-based vendors should provide 10 things, 3 of which include:
- Alternative payment (e.g., LevelUp, PayPal) acceptance
- Deep inventory integration
- EMV compatibility
"It's an unfortunate time for traditional PoS infrastructure providers. Many have become deeply entrenched in their existing business models—which are often centered on licensing and servicing fees—and face considerable difficulty keeping up with the pace of innovation," said Jordan McKee, Yankee Group Analyst and author of the report. "Distribution models are changing, and as with many tenured tech companies, past successes have constructed roadblocks in meeting evolving user demands. From our conversations with suppliers, resellers and end-users, it has become clear that SMBs are largely dissatisfied with their traditional PoS systems."
About Yankee Group
Yankee Group is the preeminent research and advisory firm equipping companies to profit in a mobile world. The core of our content is proprietary research and analytics on the attitudes, behaviors and usage patterns of mobile users. We provide a range of actionable data, insights and advice to marketing, strategy and product executives driving the mobility revolution in leading companies worldwide. Visit www.yankeegroup.com.
About The 451 Group
Headquartered in New York, with offices in key locations – including Boston, San Francisco, Washington DC, London, Seattle, Denver, Sao Paulo, Dubai, Singapore and Moscow – The 451 Group owns and operates 451 Research, a leading technology-industry syndicated research and data firm focused on the business of enterprise IT innovation. The 451 Group also owns and operates Uptime Institute, an independent provider of thought leadership, certification, education and professional services for the global datacenter and emerging Digital Infrastructure industry and Yankee Group, the preeminent research and advisory firm equipping companies to profit in a mobile world.
SOURCE Yankee Group
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