Online checkouts get a social dashboard

Technology integration is moving forward at a rapid pace. Some technology marketers are even feeling that technology advancement and user acceptance is moving so quickly that they are having difficulty in finding an angle to market to their prospects. But that’s not stopping Own, a Point of Sale software that has integrated its PoS with social media.

Simply put what it has done is integrated FourSquare, Twitter and Facebook with its PoS software. The Own PoS runs as an Android app which does away with the bulky cash registers of old and integrates with a cash drawer and a cash slip printer. Each “terminal” then aggregates the information into one cloud solution and allows the shop owner to make real time decisions about pricing (specials and discounts) as well as see how well or poorly their shop in performing.

With the data being real time, there is a tremendous benefit in terms of handling stock and ensuring that the correct levels are present when it comes to ordering new stock and never running out of what is popular.

The biggest leap forward in the Own PoS is the integration of social into the main dashboard of each terminal. Shop owners can now monitor what is happening in terms of chatter around their stores. Are patrons enjoying their meals? Are there any complaints about service or quality of the food? The shop owner is being empowered to take corrective action as and when the issue happens and not be left with a disgruntled customer who has already left the restaurant and no way of improving their experience. Taking it one step further, the shop owners can use their Own to send out social messages and coupons to attract patrons to their stores.

Granted, there are already couponing and monitoring features built in to each of these networks; but now it is 100% integrated into the PoS, empowering the store owner to take charge of their business and make the right decisions when it matters.

What Own has done is converged a lot of technology, namely:

• cloud computing,
• social media and
• a Point of Sale system

into a easy to use platform that delivers measureable business results.

Although Own is still a relatively new start-up (founded in 2009 and launched in September 2011), this is arguably the first of many business revolutions that are going to take place as technology becomes even more integrated, business objectives are highlighted even more and the user experience becomes of paramount importance.

The interesting thing to watch will be how well Own does with the few beta release clients it is testing this new functionality with; and then secondly how many other PoS service providers are going to follow suit once the proof of concept has been determined.