History of POS and How to choose POS for restaurant
History of POS
The first POS system was a kind of Cash register invented in
1879 by James Ritty who was a pub owner in Ohio, and it recorded transactions
without errors, allowing for better bookkeeping and capital management.
In 1884, James Ritty sold his invention to the National Cash Register Corporation (NCR), which in the early 20th century added cash drawers and paper rolls for receipts. Until the mid-1900s, cash registers were digital machines with LCD screens, credit card magnetic strips, and thermal transfer printing.
When IBM introduced the first computer-based point-of-sale
system for restaurants in 1973, the electronic cash register (ECR)
revolutionized the service industry. Staffs of restaurant can now deliver
orders directly to the kitchen via remote printing.
Meanwhile, diners could receive clean, error-free receipts
with taxes. This not only simplified the checkout process, but also helped the
operator calculate how much money to keep in the register and how much can be
deposit in the bank after service. However, unlike credit card processing as we
know it today, it took at least 30 seconds to process, causing delays at the
counter and many restaurant owners were hesitant to offer this service.
In 1986, Gene Mosher created the first graphical touchscreen interface for his deli in New York. Leveraging another recent invention of the Internet, Mosher's touchscreen POS system allows restaurants to place and customize orders with just a few taps of your finger. The speed and efficiency of the service has been greatly improved.
And then Microsoft leveraged Mosher's innovations in 1990 by
releasing the first commercial POS client for restaurants. The software has set
a new standard for restaurant operators, and is both a financial database and a
driving force for customer interactions.
In the Internet generation, restaurants can now process credit cards
at high speeds, and credit processing is also linked to POS systems. Now,
Restaurants can create comprehensive reports on all transactions, including
checks, cash, and credit.
•
Employee Scheduling
•
Inventory Management
•
Automatic food order transfer to the Kitchen
•
Sales reporting and forecasting
•
Expansion through integration with other 3rd
party systems
However, as the system becomes more complex, the number of
possible problems increases. Electricity/Internet may be interrupted, or
problems may occur in any part of various devices (modem, router, POS device,
portable reader…). If you do have the minimum basic IT sense that this is an
unavoidable fact in these days, you can be happy without complaining about the
inevitable cases that can happen once every few months.
How to choose POS for restaurant
As of 2022, the history of the POS for restaurants is 50
years old.
So many POS's have been released all over the world.
No matter which POS you choose, the following features
became standard.
•
Payment by credit or debit card
•
Menu management
•
Inventory Management
•
Employee Management
If these features are added, it is a better POS for
restaurant.
•
Multiple tip & tax management
•
Bill split function
•
mobile pay such as Apple pay, Google Wallet and
Samsung pay
•
Payment processing in case of Internet
interruption
•
Employee payroll management
•
Table management
• Coupon/Gift Card/Loyalty Management
By the way, you should know that Covid-19 made something big
changes that it is impossible for POS to handle everything.
A restaurant is no longer a Stand-alone service.
With the rapid growth of online ordering and delivery
culture, restaurants are competing in virtual marketplace services such as
Doordash and numerous online/mobile services. Since POS, which had only to deal
with tasks that occur within the restaurant, cannot control these external
services, there are cases where even the control of the restaurant's most
important food menu management and order management is transferred to an
external service.
In your restaurant, functions that had been relied on for a
single POS such as coupons/gift cards/royalties, which were only for visiting
guests, became meaningless. It's not the time to open a restaurant door and
wait patiently, but rather get used to the way orders are processed through
numerous Apps.
Now, it can be said that the era of restaurant management
with only POS is over.
Therefore, now the answer to the question of ‘what kind of POS a restaurant’ is also very different from 2-3 years ago.
Then, let's look at what additional factors are needed for
POS selection.
•
Online ordering support: If you want to receive
orders from your homepage, you must have the ability to connect with your POS
to send order data and communicate with customers. Most POS provide it with a
separate service fee or horrible function without fee. It should be understood
that technically structural costs are unavoidable. If so, you need to decide
which POS's online ordering feature is more suitable for you. For example,
Clover for simple food or beverages, bakery, Verona for complex Sushi or Korean
food, Adelo for more complex modifiers, etc. Regardless of the meaningless advertising
ranking of POS in the web, you need to find a solution that works well for you.
•
Integration with Delivery platform: It must be
able to be connected somehow with platforms that provide delivery apps, such as
Doordash and Ubeeats. It should be understood that this also incurs additional
costs.
•
Own Delivery method: If the restaurant itself
will hire a delivery man, delivery management is required, otherwise some
method must be provided, whether connecting Doordash's on-demand delivery or
with a professional delivery service such as Shipday.
•
QR order: Required if you plan to provide
contactless order for dine-in
• Kiosk/KDS : If necessary
You can also receive orders through Google. A website is a
must if you want to avoid even a little bit of the exorbitant fees of delivery
platforms like Doordash. If you need a website and don't know how to create a
domain, first contact your merchant service provider for help. This is because
POS has no way to provide a website. If your merchant service provider can't
help you, look elsewhere right now. (Or email me, I will recommend some perfect
merchant service provider I know)
Finally, let’s see some features you should not care about.
• Open
API for developers: It is just a technological trend that POS manufacturers
have no choice but to take in the ever-changing era.
•
Loyalty program support: Ignore traditional loyalty programs without knowing about
orders who sent and where from. It is correct to wait until a groundbreaking
service comes out one day, and then connect with it.
• Local Device only : This is only a kind of disadvantage.
Conclusion
There are numerous POS products for Restaurants.
The reason we can't say which one of them is the best is that there are so many variables to consider.
Cuisine type, restaurant management method, target audience, and even factors depending on location make the overall system structure of restaurants different.
For example, usually, Verona POS is the best POS for Asian food restaurants such as Japanese sushi restaurants, and Korean restaurants, and Clover POS is the best option for casual restaurants which serves sandwich and bakery. However, even if it is the same sandwich restaurant, if it is a college town, the whole structure can be based on Verona POS which is good for online ordering and kiosk integration.
Even in the US, where change is extremely slow, it is an era
of rapid change, so we wonder what other changes will shake this industry next
year. However, it is a sad reality that restaurants suffering from labor costs
in the era of inflation cannot avoid additional investment for connecting
various external services as well as the ruthless fees of delivery apps.
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