A recent study by Juniper Research predicts that the value of global Point-of-Sale (POS) terminal transactions will reach $17 trillion by the end of 2024, with a growth of 25% projected through to 2028. This growth is anticipated despite recent POS outages in retail chains worldwide, which led to temporary store closures and exposed significant financial and security risks. These outages have increased the demand for smart POS terminals to replace outdated legacy systems.

The study found that many retailers are inadequately prepared to address issues with their legacy POS systems. Smart POS technologies, including IoT-powered systems and cloud storage for customer data, have been identified as key platforms to mitigate such issues. POS terminal providers are expanding their offerings to provide capabilities beyond payments, including staff management, loyalty card processing, inventory management, and shop synchronisation with other outlets in the same chain.

Despite the higher cost of implementation, embracing Smart POS is expected to secure a return on investment for retailers by preventing system failures and enhancing business integrations. "Despite the higher cost of implementation in comparison to traditional POS, embracing Smart POS will secure a return on investment for retailers; preventing system failures alongside enhanced business integrations," says Daniel Bedford, Research author at Juniper Research.