Point-of-sale terminal

Point of Sale terminal is simply a computer terminal used in shops to input and output data at the point where a sale is transacted; for example, at a supermarket checkout. The POS terminal inputs information about the identity of each item sold, retrieves the price and other details from a central computer, and prints out a fully itemized receipt for the customer. It may also input sales data for the shop's computerized stock-control system.

A POS terminal typically has all the facilities of a normal till, including a cash drawer and a sales register, plus facilities for the direct capture of sales information – commonly, a laser scanner for reading bar codes. It may also be equipped with a device to read customers' bank cards, so that payment can be transferred electronically from the customers' bank accounts to the shops.

This article is sponsored by Jack Chevalier at PaynetSystems Credit Cards Processing and Merchant Sevices provider.