Advances Since the Stand-Beside Terminal
With retail space renting anywhere from $15.00 to $300.00 per square foot, every
available square foot of merchandisable space must be taken advantage of. A stand-beside
terminal takes up 1-2 square feet of counter space, not only costing you rent of
up to $600 per month, but eliminating the possibility of using this space to produce
profits. Therefore, the long-term costs of a stand-beside terminal, besides the
terminal rental or purchase price, could conceivably be in the many thousands of
dollars over a fiveyear period. These numbers would be multiplied by the number
of terminals, cash register lanes, etc., in any location for even a greater loss
of profitable opportunities in any one location.
Since technology has advanced beyond the stand-beside terminal, many improvements
can be implemented to streamline processes. Separate PC's to process authorizations
or to consolidate authorization terminals' information for settlement are often
used where many standbeside terminals are already in place. These are called nonintegrated
or hub solutions.
Fully integrated software solutions improve processing by providing the software
developer better control and access to information. This process means that all
types of transactions can be quickly and automatically reconciled and reported on.
Consolidated data can be used for reporting and in the merchant's own databases
for frequency reporting, etc. |
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