By Joel Doherty, Global Strategy and Business Development, Epson Cloud
Retail transaction technology is in a state of rapid evolution. The POS as we know it is on the way out, omni-channel commerce is on the way in, and for many, the once-lowly receipt printer is an enabling force of omni-channel strategy.
At face value, that might seem like an over-the-top statement. As major ERP and POS providers race toward the development of sophisticated (and expensive) unified commerce platforms, what makes us think the receipt printer deserves a lead role in the action? In a few words, simple logic that’s been proven by the technological and empirical work of our growing OmniLink partner ecosystem. Allow me to share a bit of history with you.
At an Epson partner event a few years back, we were showing off a cool new product that allowed users to send a print job from a cloud based server to a receipt printer (WiFi or IP based connection). It was impressive at the time, but what came next laid the groundwork for something even more important. At that event, a few of our partners floated a theoretical question. What if we could send data the other way—from the receipt printer to various other applications? The technical answer to that question was a definitive yes. It wasn’t long before our partner community was developing several powerful use cases that leverage the receipt printer’s prowess as an omni-channel enabler. That was the first milestone in the development of OmniLink Merchant Services.
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