NEW REPORT: Gap’s ‘Swiss Army Knife’ Black Friday mPOS Plan

With Black Friday and the holiday season fast approaching, retailers are preparing for the expected deluge of customers. For these merchants, getting into the holiday spirit often means working to remove pain points that slow down checkout lines and getting customers hard-to-find or out-of-stock items – situations that may lead customers to move on to another merchant.

In the November mPOS Tracker, PYMNTS takes a close look at how retailers and other merchants are using mobile point of sale (mPOS) solutions to capture holiday sales and build customer relationships in the process, and the latest solutions that providers are rolling out to meet demand.

Around The mPOS World

Square, for one, is introducing a new portable mPOS device, Square Terminal, designed to help staff speed customers through the checkout process. The device is designed to accept all forms of payment and can print receipts.

Wirecard, meanwhile, is targeting customers in Brazil with a new mPOS offering. The device works to support credit card transactions and automatically divide payments between storeowners and agents on commission, based on the store’s policies. The company claims the solution can also help prevent double taxation.

Online payments company Stripe seems to be following suit as well, stepping into the brick-and-mortar retail world with an mPOS device of its own. The newly unveiled Stripe Terminal includes contactless and EMV payment acceptance, APIs and other features, and is aimed at industry-specific booking and commerce platforms, serving their own merchants.

How Gap Inc. Builds Relationships With Its “Swiss Army” mPOS

Some brick-and-mortar businesses, however, are choosing not to turn to mPOS providers, and are instead building their own solutions. Such was the case for Gap Inc., which required a single device that could satisfy the varying needs of its different brands.

Customers of Banana Republic, for instance, often turn to sales associates for help in selecting products, and it can benefit if the same associate who helped select a product is then able to help them pay on the spot, rather than send the customer elsewhere to check out. Meanwhile, Old Navy customers are more likely to want to get in and out fast, favoring an mPOS solution with strong line-busting capabilities.

In a recent conversation with PYMNTS, James Thordsen, Gap Inc.’s head of product management, explained what it took to design a robust mPOS solution that could be implemented across all of its brands.

For the full story, download the Tracker.

About The Tracker

The mPOS Tracker is the go-to resource for staying up-to-date on a month-by-month basis. The Tracker highlights the contributions of different stakeholders, including institutions and technology coming together to make this happen.