What will ShopKeep focus on now that it has a new round of funding under its belt?
Chief Executive Officer Jason Richelson gave a simple answer: “Product, product, product.”
ShopKeep POS, the company that aims to “move small businesses into Cloud,” has received $10 million in a Series B funding. PYMNTS.com spoke with Richelson to discuss the iPad as a POS device, the changing POS industry, and where his company will allocate its new backing.
“We plan to use this money to help million of retail shops make smarter business decisions,” Richelson said. “That means using the vast amount of data each store collects in our cloud platform and turning that around into actionable information.”
ShopKeep’s funding comes at an advantageous time. Richelson cited an RIS News Custom Research study that claims 62 percent of businesses plan to upgrade their POS systems within the next two years. Sixty percent of that population wants a mobile POS solution.
That helps to explain why Richelson praises tablets – and more specifically, the iPad – as such a strong POS platform.
“[An iPad] is a $500 touchscreen supercomputer that you can purchase at any local store. That price point cannot be beat,” Richelson said. As to why iPads are superior to existing stationary POS equipment or mobilephones, Richelson gave four main reasons.
First, Richelson pointed out that iPads are versatile. They “can be held in your hand for 10 hours” in order to combat long lines, or they can be used securely for counter sales. Second, they’re well made and hard to break. (“MICROS does not want to hear that,” Richelson joked.) Third, their operating system is “very well suited to retailers’ needs,” and can run only apps applicable to POS services should companies choose to have them do so. And finally, “everyone and their mother” can understand how to use an iPad with little training. Richelson cited the last reason as an especially key feature of the iPad’s POS utility.
“That’s one of the things about the iPad that makes it perfect for retail and hospitality.”
Click here for the full press release on ShopKeep’s funding.
Jason Richelson
Co-Founder and CEO, ShopKeep
ShopKeep POS, an iPad point of sale system in the cloud, helps retailers make smarter business decisions.He is also a co-founder of a grocery store and a wine store that he opened with his partner, Amy Bennett about eight years ago in Brooklyn, New York. They had a point of sale system from a competitor, a large software company, and eventually they started having technology problems.It dawned on Jason that after fixing these things and fire fighting all these problems, the solution was to switch to a cloud based point of sale.He did a little searching in 2008 for a cloud point of sale, and He didn’t find any. He said to Amy, I think we should start this company. She’s like, “Let’s do it.”, and we did.
“When I look at other POS systems out there it’s clear to me that these folks have never stood behind a cash register. They don’t really understand what retailers want to see, the numbers they want to see, where they want to see them and how they want to see them.I do understand. So when a retailer tries ShopKeep POS they get it and they know that this is what they have been looking for.”
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