The days of the server notepad is starting to become a thing of the past. Now with the technology of tablets and phones, not only can a waiter or waitress take your order with a mobile device. In some places you can place your order from the table without having to wait for anyone!
Companies like Aloha and MICROS are the major players in the restaurant point of sale (POS) market but now there are a lot of new players to game that could more cost effective than those big boys. Square is one of those players and they have a retail POS terminal and has strong foothold in the mobile POS market setting up deals with companies such as Starbucks, Whole Foods, Godiva and Uniqlo all from 2012-2014. Square isn?t the main POS but having the mobile part integrated into some major players says a lot.
Another player is an eCommerce site called Shopify which had a system launch in 2013. The new players are coming into the market and with good reason a study from Adil Consulting which is a POS consultancy, saw that 52% of small merchants now use a mobile POS for the majority of their payment processing which is a major change just a few years before.
Just to show you how powerful the mobile payment is becoming Starbucks reported that 14% of its US business was actually completed using its mobile app in 2014. Then you have Apple Pay, a payment industry guru Mike Dudas calculated close to 1% of the Wholes Foods transactions were happening on Apple Pay. Even at 1% it is amazing growth for a new technology that wasn?t even around six months ago.
So have you experienced this mobile revolution yet? Gone to Starbucks and used your phone or gone to a restaurant and ordered on an iPad or even seen your waiter or waitress put your order in? This new way to order food and pay is great and please don?t forget that Computer Geeks can help with any restaurant IT needs that may come up.