POINT OF SALE MERCHANDISING
Digitization has come to stay. It is not a threat but the path to more ease for humanity. Decades back, the average retail store customer would visit the retail store; move around with a basket or rack, if any is provided, get needed items and move to the point of purchase or point of service as it may be called by different persons. The cashier takes the product one after the other, brings out a big calculator and punches in, digit by digit, the price of every product. After the whole calculating episode, the customer gives money and the search begins for change. Other customers would still be behind in the queue silently praying that their turn would come soon. The system was slow and it made the historic trade by barter system one to desire for. 
Point of sale merchandizing with just the scanning of barcodes made things easy. Shop goers can now shop with ease and within considerable time. Point of sale merchandizing basically deals with the time and place where the retail transaction is done. It has taken on the garb of shopping with ease as the checkout technology and the POS payment device gives the store goer service in a faster mode. In giving this modern outlook a definition, point of sale system is the computer mechanism that allows the processing and recording of transactions between a retail outlet and its customers.
Lots of businesses are fast going for point of sale merchandizing. This is because the traditional price tag system is no longer there – stores now utilize barcodes and the looking for change is a thing of the past; with the bank card several purchases can be made. Retailers find it easy to deduct taxes, gives promotional offers and discount rates because they don’t have to keep altering tags to keep up with prices.
The technological advancement in point of sales has given way for a two-screen, touch screen point of sale machine. This helps the customer to follow the computation of order in a transparent manner with the breakdown of different items and purchase taxes that culminates into the sum. When there is a discount on goods, it is easily removed.
Point of sale systems have been used beyond the four walls of a retail outlet. Apart from restaurants and retail centers, hospitals and those in wholesale have also adopted the method. In cinemas, the ticketing method is made easy by using the point of sale system. Many financial transactions now adopt the method. As the world is going cashless and paperless, the point of sale merchandizing method is a big step towards getting things done. With transactions done with ease and the discard of the use of price tags, retail outlets can join hands with the sustainable retail culture that would contribute greatly to the better state of the planet earth. As least, less paper would be used and less time would be consumed waiting on the queue to be attended to.
