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5 tips for choosing a mobile POS

Shift4 systems architect Jeremy Fried outlines five key criteria for selecting the best mPOS system.

November 3, 2016

By Jeremy Fried

It seems like a new mobile point-of-sale is introduced every day, giving merchants one more choice in a sea of many. A solution might excel in a certain area with a flashy new feature, but usually at the cost of falling short in another. This leads to a lot of headaches caused by arduous comparison shopping, but it doesn't have to be this way.

Selecting the right mPOS can be made far less agonizing by focusing on a few specific criteria. These are the factors that you should never compromise.

1. Payment security: Payment security is the single most important factor you should consider in prospective mPOS solutions. You can have the most innovative, flashy payment processing solution, but none of that matters if it isn't secure. A competitive mPOS solution with security solutions like tokenization and point-to-point encryption will ensure you never store, process, or transmit sensitive payment card data — protecting your brand from the damaging effects of a data breach. This is especially important in a mobile payments solution, due to the security vulnerabilities inherent in phones and tablets. These devices are portable and don't reside in a hardened data center. For this reason, it is vital your mPOS does not allow any sensitive card data to reach the phone's memory.
    
2. Customer convenience: Consumers have quickly adopted a mobile-centric mentality, and they expect to be able to pay anywhere, any time. In addition to a standard brick-and-mortar store or restaurant, places like kiosks, concert venues and food trucks are becoming perfect locations for mobile revenue centers. Employing a mPOS solution that makes the payment process simpler, more convenient and flexible for customers will go a long way toward ensuring they spend their hard-earned dollars on your business — and come back again to spend more.
    
3. Infrastructure flexibility: Some mPOS systems pigeonhole merchants into using a specific bank, processor, or both. Your business will change and evolve over time, so being stuck with a specific bank or processor means you may be unable to negotiate for the best rates and services as your objectives shift. Having the freedom to set up each terminal with the hardware and bank/processor relationship that works best for each of your various revenue centers is critical. Also, being able to use your existing payment devices means you can save hundreds — if not thousands — of dollars. Your best bet is choosing an mPOS solution that is bank and processor neutral as well as device agnostic.
    
4. Make it your own: A boutique establishment may only need to account for one state tax, whereas a large restaurant chain requires different tax rates applied to items like alcohol, gift cards and food. A truly customizable solution will cater to businesses both large and small, allowing merchants to tweak settings and features as needed, or keep things simple and hassle-free. Merchants with complex menu items may also need to add modifiers, such as cooking instructions (rare, medium rare, burned to a crisp, etc.) and notes for things like food allergies. A flexible solution should also make it easy for you and your managers to quickly add or disable any employee's access and permissions. Remember, mobile payments should fit your business —not the other way around.
    
5. Growing with the business: Some mPOS solutions are great for businesses with just a few revenue centers, but they lack the ability to grow with your business. Medium- to large-scale businesses require a mobile solution that can handle the scale and volume of their current enterprise, as well as stay with them and grow with their business as they expand. Merchants should never adopt a solution that they can outgrow. You can save time, money, and headaches by picking an mPOS solution that helps push you up as you grow, not one that gives you limitations.

There are countless mPOS solutions to choose from, and it's a big decision that can have implications for for years to come. Doing a little research ahead of time is necessary, but sticking by these five criteria will help you narrow the field down to the good ones and can greatly speed up the decision-making process. Take the time to make the right decision the first time and it will pay dividends down the road.

Jeremy Fried is a systems architect at Shift4 Corporation.