What is the difference between Epos and Pos?

Epos systems and Pos systems are much more different than one would think, although the difference in spelling is just one letter. Epos (Electronic Point of Sale) systems are not just Pos (Point of Sale) systems with the addition of electronic hardware and components: as connected systems, they allow far many useful business operations to be done automatically.

Traditional point of sale systems will require delayed reconciliation and manual operations, and will not allow immediate debit for transactions.

Epos systems are connected systems, relying on a central server to exchange data and on Epos software to operate and analyse transactions. Because an Epos is connected both with the inventory, through the server, and with the purchased items, through the scanning of barcodes, Electronic point of sale systems can immediately retrieve prices of millions of product references and adjust inventories immediately.

This is especially useful to save time, but also to generate accurate inventory reports and sales reports at any point in time, thus giving a better view of ongoing business operations, and help identify possible frauds.

Also, Epos systems are connected to the “outside world” and the internet, thereby allowing credit card payments and e-commerce operations. Electronic point of sale systems may therefore be plain software used on an e-commerce website, connected with warehouse operations software, allowing online sales.