Point of Sale (POS)
A point-of-sale system, or POS, is the system used to process sales where the customer purchases directly from the business, commonly in a physical retail, restaurant, market, or event environment.
Modern POS systems can connect in-person sales with the same inventory, customer, and order systems used online.
What a POS Can Manage
A POS system may handle:
- Product lookup
- Payments
- Receipts
- Inventory
- Orders
- Discounts
- Returns
- Staff permissions
- Customer information
- Retail locations
Some systems operate independently.
Others form part of a broader E-commerce Platform.
POS and Online Commerce
When the POS and online store share the same system, an in-person purchase can update Inventory used by the website.
Shopify, for example, documents its POS as synchronizing orders and inventory across retail locations, the online store, and other active sales channels. Shopify's POS documentation
When separate systems are used, a CMS Integration or commerce integration may need to provide Inventory Sync.
Why It Matters
For businesses selling both online and offline, the POS can become one of the most important systems in the commerce architecture.
If the systems are disconnected:
Item sells in store ↓ Online inventory does not change ↓ Same item sells online ↓ Order cannot be fulfilled
That is not primarily a website-design problem.
It is a system synchronization problem.
Common Problems
Common problems include:
- POS and website maintaining separate inventory
- Different SKUs
- Discounts configured differently
- Returns not syncing
- Customer records duplicated
- Products existing in one system but not the other
- Several locations using inconsistent catalogue data
How to Improve
Decide whether the POS or E-commerce Platform owns:
- Catalogue
- SKU
- Inventory
- Pricing
- Customer records
- Orders
Then integrate around clear ownership.
Avoid building workflows where staff need to manually keep two systems accurate.