Is there such a thing as a Free Lunch? Or a Free POS as far as that goes

 

Well you probably can't really get a free lunch but you can get a free POS system, no really!

Years ago the model was very different from today. It used to be that you got your POS system from a POS dealer and you paid for it, you got your credit card services from your bank and maybe you tied the two together. POS dealers didn't care about offering credit card services and banks didn't care about offering POS. Well things are vastly different today because the companies selling credit card services figured out they could attract more customers by offering a POS system with their merchant services (credit card processing). The first I recall on the market was the Clover. It was a real disrupter the bank selling POS (Clover) and you had to use the banks processing service. the bank really didn't know the POS business nor really care about it but because new small businesses go to banks to open checking accounts the banks pounced on the unsuspecting store owner with an offer of POS too. 

POS Dealers now offer credit card processing and banks now offer POS.

So fast forward a decade and now all the credit card companies offer POS systems, however most are pretty bad, cloud based with limited features. As a POS dealer I could easily outsell most of the bank offered systems on everything but price. Well what happened next has changed the POS and Credit Card landscape forever going forward. Because the banks and credit card companies had so much money they started buying the big highly featured POS system companies that merchants used to spend 10K to 30K a system for. Nearly all the top systems are now owned by a bank/merchant processing company. Worst yet is they lock the system down to using their credit card services only. Then companies came into business offering new innovative POS system only with processing like Toast, and Shift4. In my humble opinion anyone that buys a system that is locked down to a specific processor is setting themselves up for a rude awakening, do you really think the processor doesn't know they can charge you more because you can't leave and you have five years worth of customer data you want to keep! But long story short the two industries have merged for the most part, we all over POS and we all over credit card services.

How does a free POS system work

So back to the original point of this post, Free POS systems right. Yes you can indeed get a free POS system. How you might be asking right. Well you business is going to take credit card right, if you sign up for credit card merchant processing with smaller companies they often will subsidize the POS or even make it free. This is a newer business model of getting more credit card business, and yes its a real deal. There are thing to be on the look out for sure, but before you shell out a bunch of dough for a system check out a site like this one for a free cash register express POS system when you use them for processing. After all you are going to take credit cards, you might as well gain from that too.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Cash Register Express version 15.1001 is now avialable

Image
  What's new in the newest release of the Cash Register Express POS system? Enhancements and updates were completed is the accounting export, Barcode Express, Inventory Maintenance , Gift Cards, and Reporting. If you have a shared support contract your upgrades should be included in your plan (Shared Support is support with both your dealer and CRE direct support). You should contact your dealer for this version upgrade. If you don't have an active dealer and require the update please contact us as we can supply you with the support contract and upgrade.  Upgrades to the Accounting interface include Quickbooks Desktop In order to keep you able to use the most recent version of Quickbooks the ability for CRE to integrate with the newly released QuickBooks 2022 Pro and Enterprise desktop versions were completed and added in this release.  The Inventory Maintenance Module was also upgraded to add Global Delete This release or Cash Register Express introduces the "Delete Items
Read more

pcAmerica Cash Register Express

Image
  What is this software called? Is it pcAmerica or Cash Register Express?  Yes, kind of a silly thing to blog about, however it is a real issue sometimes. We still have people contact us looking for pcAmerica and we say OH, sure you need Cash Register Express (CRE). They always reply no, we need pcAmerica! So to straighten this out, they are the same thing. The company that created CRE was called pcAmerica and the product was Cash Register Express. In some circles however the product became known as the company name instead of the product name or in some cases by both. I guess it is six one way and half a dozen the other way, so really does not mean anything as it is the same thing.  Regardless the name it is still the great POS system that is used everywhere Several years ago Heartland Payments bought this product and will be keeping the name. Although since they are going to market in Canada as well I think they plan on dropping the pcAmerica portion of the name which will reduce con
Read more

Cash Register Express - Is the Best Selling Retail POS

Image
  What is the best selling affordable retail POS system? It's Cash Register Express of course This is a system that has stood the test of time. Introduced quite some time ago it burst on the scene with great acceptance. Even after all these years Cash Register Express is still going strong. If you want a traditional PC based POS system than you should look no further than this product. This is an ideal system for the mom and pop retailer as well as the small regional chain. Here are just some of the retail operations that this system is perfect for,  Convenience Stores, Specialty Grocery, Gift and Museum Shops,  Liquor,  Tobacco Stores, Dollar and Discount Stores, Bakeries, Rentals, and General Retail.  Why is Cash Register Express so popular? This is a great questions, but when you dig into this system you will find out quickly. Here are some of the highlights of why it is used in so many businesses. First off it is a very affordable system and is a system that you can buy outrigh
Read more