Regional Site Visits 2021

 A quick note that Q3 and Q4 of 2020 was amazing!  You folks kept me on the road for almost 6 weeks straight and we found some great solutions for your stores!

Here are the areas that I am headed to for 2021 - please let me know if we should schedule some time to meet in person at your store:

• Twin Falls, ID
• Pocatello, ID
• Twin Falls, ID
• Jackson, WY
• Evanston, WY
• Salt Lake City, UT
• Stateline, NV
• Battle Mountain, NV
• Winnemucca, NV
• Seattle, WA
• Portland, OR
• Salem, OR
• Eugene, OR
• Bend, OR
• Missoula, MT
• West Yellowstone, MT
• Dallas, TX
• Austin, TX
• San Antonio, TX
• Tulsa, OK
• Oklahoma City, OK
• Denver, CO
• Phoenix, AZ
• Minneapolis, MN
• St Paul, MN
  
• LaCrosse, WI
• St Cloud, MN
• Duluth, MN
• Chippewa Falls, WI 

You can reach me at kevinantosh@gmail.com or 208-340-5632 - no cost to meet in person if I am already traveling to your area!

Retail Point of Sale Idaho and Wyoming

A quick note that I'm headed to perform some sales and service work in the following areas and would be happy to swing by your retail business to offer some no cost retail point of sale advice (any service work would need to be scheduled ahead of time):

• Mountain Home, Idaho
• Twin Falls, Idaho
• Pocatello, Idaho
• Blackfoot, Idaho
• Rigby, Idaho
• Rexburg, Idaho
• Idaho Falls, Idaho
• Jackson, Wyoming
• West Yellowstone

Do call (208-340-5632) or email (kevinantosh@gmail.com) me if we should schedule a time to meet.

Places that I'm Headed To

I always like to share my travel schedule in case you happen to be in one of the areas that I am visiting and would like to meet for some no-cost retail point of sale advice.  Here are the areas that I'm headed to over the coming months (summer/fall 2016):

• Salt Lake City, UT
• Layton, UT
• Ogden, UT
• Twin Falls, ID
• Mountain Home, ID
• McCall, ID
• Cascade, ID
• Sun Valley, ID
• Ketchum, ID
• Hailey, ID
• Pocatello, ID
• Idaho Falls, ID
• Jackson, WY

Please get in touch with me at 208-340-5632 or kevinantosh@gmail.com if you are interested in meeting for some no-cost retail point of sale advice.

National Retail Point of Sale Solution Provider Expanding to Utah, Idaho, and Surrounding Areas

Update April 10th, 2016: this is still a work in progress but I am doing some ground work for the rest of April to see if this can be finalized by the end of May, 2016.  I've tallied around 600 businesses in the areas mentioned below that would benefit from having a local company for point of sale software, hardware, installation, training, and on-going support.

While Idaho and many of states surrounding Idaho contain multiple local companies that specialize in Restaurant point of sale systems, no one has stepped up to replace the local sales and service void left by the closure of DirectPOS and RVP Businesses Systems when it comes to a local company providing point of sale systems for retail stores and museums.  There are a few local companies in these areas that offer some retail point of sale solutions but it is not a primary part of their business.

To early to say for sure but it appears that a well respected  national retail point of sale solution provider is considering some level of expansion to offer sales and support to retail stores and museums located in Idaho, Utah, Montana, Wyoming, Northern Nevada, Eastern Oregon, and Eastern Washington State.

I will pass along further details as they become available as this would be welcomed news to retail stores and museums located in these areas!

Please visit my contact page for information on how to reach me.

EMV Advice and Discount Options for Former DirectPOS/RVP Business Systems Customers

Update July 2016: Since many Microsoft RMS point of sale software would like to keep using RMS for another couple of years but still need to deal with the EMV Liability Shift Date, visit this post for more information on the Card Defender EMV add-on for Microsoft RMS versions 1.3 and higher (and HQ as well): http://retailpospondering.blogspot.com/2016/06/card-defender-emv-add-on-for-microsoft.html

Update July 2016, Retail Management Hero demo and overview: http://retailpospondering.blogspot.com/2016/07/new-version-of-rmsretail-management.html

With the EMV (chip based credit and debit cards) Liability Shift Date coming up quickly (October 1st, 2015 in the United States), I wanted to pass along some important information for former customers of DirectPOS (RVP Business Systems) who formally sold and serviced cash registers and point of sale systems out of offices in Boise, Idaho, Salt Lake City, Utah and Spokane, Washington.

If you happen to be a former customer of DirectPOS or RVP Business Systems, you likely have questions related to making sure that your cash register or point of sale hardware and software is ready for the EMV Liability Shift Date.  I have made arrangements with multiple trustworthy companies to help you determine what, if anything, you need to do related to your current equipment and EMV.

Even better, these companies will offer you a special discount related to any costs you may incur. Because this involves multiple different types of hardware and software, as well as over 3000 different businesses and organizations, you need to contact me for more information.

Here are the systems that qualify for the discounts:

• MICROS e7
• MICROS 3700
• Sam4S Cash Registers
• QuickBooks Point of Sale
• NCR Silver
• NCR CounterPoint SQL
• Microsoft RMS
• Microsoft HQ
• Microsoft POS 2007 or 2009

If your business is using one of the above systems, and resides in the states listed below, do contact me for free advice and direction on what to do.  I will also be reaching out to all of you as time permits.

• Idaho - ID
• Utah - UT
• Washington State - WA
• Oregon - OR
• Wyoming - WY
• Montana - MT
• Ohio - OH
• Minnesota - MN
• Iowa - IA
• Wisconsin - WI
• Louisiana - LA
• Texas - TX
• Florida - FL
• California - CA

The goal here is to make sure that the upcoming EMV Liability Shift Date catches no one by surprise.

Are you  in the US and in need of no cost retail point of sale advice?  I'm happy to help and can be reached on my cell at 208-340-5632 (I am on Mountain Time) or via email at kevinantosh@gmail.com. There is also a contact form to the right that can be used to reach me.

Any POS Partners/Dealers/VAR's Interested in the Idaho, Utah, E Oregon, Montana, Wyoming, or E Washington State Retail Markets?

Update September 14th, 2016 - I have signed on with a retail point of sale company that can provide onsite service. In fact, I have already been contacted by over 50 businesses in the areas mentioned below!  For retail point of sale service and support, I can be reached at 208-340-5632 or kevinantosh@gmail.com.

As businesses and organizations continue to contact me about EMV, replacing older computer-based point of sale systems, or acquiring their first point of sale system, many have expressed that they want to work with a local company that specializes in retail point of sale systems.

I've noticed a continued trend with plenty of local companies offering point of sale systems for food service businesses, but there seems to be a lack of local retail point of sale providers. While there is no shortage of companies that sell solutions online, there are still business owners that want to support the local economy as well as receive some "hand holding" when it comes to installation, training, and on-going support.

If your business offers complete retail point of sale solutions, and would like to have a local presence in the following areas, please get in touch with me. If your business is already established in one of these locales, please let me know so we can chat more I can get the word out via email, phone, and social media. Each of these markets has folks with retail stores and museums actively searching for new or upgraded point of sale systems.

Here are the locales:

• All of Idaho
• All of Utah
• All of Montana
• Western Wyoming
• Eastern Oregon
• Eastern Washington State

Visit my contact page for information on how to reach me.

Point of Sale Trends - Who Wants to Sell to You & What Are Your Options?

I have taken some time to chat with different point of sale dealers/partners that have physical presences and sell point of sale systems both online and locally. There are some noteworthy trends taking place related to business plans, solutions, and target market segments that might be of interest to you. I will break it down by gross annual sales volume so you can skip to the section that applies to your business or organization. Note that this applies to everyone and is not just specific to retail stores, museums, restaurants, bars, concession stands, venues, or similar.

Under $100,000 in Gross Annual Sales:

• Cash Register
• Square

Basically businesses and organizations with this low of a sales volume really can't afford to spend much more than $200-$1500 on a cash register or point of sale system.  Most of these cash register and point of sale solutions are found online but some areas do have local dealers but plan on paying an additional hourly labor rate for any onsite training, setup, or support services. Most companies that I spoke with prefer that these systems be sold online and direct to the end user.

$100,000 to $300,000 in Gross Annual Sales:

• Cash Register
• Tablet/Mobile Point of Sale System
• Point of Sale System with a Monthly "pay as you use it" Fee

This segment of the market has become increasingly competitive with numerous iOS, Android, and even Windows systems on the market designed to run on mobile devices like tablets and smart phones. Nearly all of these systems use a "pay as you use it" pricing plan which is easy on your budget (think of it as another utility bill) and normally includes support and updates in the monthly fee.   Most companies that I spoke with prefer that these systems be sold online and direct to the end user.

Make sure that you watch out for hidden fees in the contracts and ensure that your EMV hardware needs will be taken care of since our EMV Liability shift date is coming up in October 2015.  Also make sure that you are working with something that does not lock you in to a long term merchant services contract as this will cost you dearly in the long run.

$300,000 to $800,000 in Gross Annual Sales:

• Tablet/Mobile Point of Sale System
• Bundled Computer Based Point of Sale System 

You folks are in a tough position. Your business may have feature/function needs that require more that what the tablet or mobile point of sale systems offer but you likely don't have $8,000 - $20,000 to spend on a full blown computer based point of sale system. You may also have noticed that your local point of sale dealer/partner is only interested in working with businesses with multiple locations and not single location businesses.  This is due to the simple reason that selling mobile point of sale solutions with monthly "pay as you use it" pricing plans or $8,000 computer based point of sale systems don't generate any profit while selling $20,000+ point of sale systems to large single location businesses or business with multiple locations does generate a profit.

You will likely be able to find online point of sale companies willing to sell you a 'bundled' system online and then you take care of setting up the system yourself or hire a local technician.

To be honest - many of the point of sale companies, partners, VAR's and dealerships that I spoke with are not planning on providing anything for this segment of the market. I understand the reasoning but it seems like this is leaving folks with these sizes of businesses and organizations with limited options - especially if any sort of onsite services are needed.

Hopefully someone will come up with the right type of solution that offers all the features/functions that businesses and organizations in this market segment need as well as any onsite support services. I was part of a company that launched $2995.00 bundled point of sale systems in the late 1990's so I'm sure that a $5995.00 bundled system would sell well today and you simply add on optional bundles for services like training, onsite setup, and ongoing support/

$800,000+ in Gross Annual Sales:

Basically - anyone and everyone with a point of sale system wants to work with you. Unless you have real basic technology needs, you will likely want to go through a local point of sale dealer/partner who can sit down with you to learn more about your business and what you need in a point of sale system.  Make sure that you take time to find a system that meets your present and future needs as well as a point of sale partner/dealer that can provide the support and service that you need.

Overall Summary:

So, obviously, there are some market segments that are likely going to be under-served for the time being while other segments will be receiving lots of cold calls from salespeople!

The good news is that I don't care what your volume is. I have worked with business and organizations with 1 location and annual gross sales as low as $18,000 to chains with several hundred locations and multi-million dollar per location annual gross sales.

Are you  in the US and in need of no cost retail point of sale advice?  I'm happy to help and can be reached on my cell at 208-340-5632 (I am on Mountain Time) or via email at kevinantosh@gmail.com. There is also a contact form to the right that can be used to reach me.

Big News at Bindo

Some very cool news related to the Bindo Point of Sale (POS) solution.  As I have mentioned before, Bindo POS is a true "Mobile 2.0" point of sale solution with additional features and functions not found in Clover or Silver.  Bindo POS still retains the affordable monthly payment structure that today's retailers prefer over an upfront cost of $4000-$10000+ for a traditional point of sale system.

Based on phone calls and emails that I receive several times per week via this (rather basic) blog site, retailers of all sizes are choosing Bindo as their POS solution with a nearly 5 to 1 margin over other solutions like NCR Silver, Clover, QuickBooks POS, NCR CounterPoint, Retail Pro, and Microsoft Dynamics RMS.

I also want to let folks know that Bindo will be expanding to service the geographical areas formally served by DirectPOS who stopped selling and supporting POS systems in late summer 2013.  This is great news for retail stores and museums in the states of Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, Oregon, Washington and Montana!

Here is the official press release from Bindo:

FOR IMMEDIATE PRESS RELEASE 

PRESS CONTACT 

Benedict Wong 

VP Business Development at Bindo 

ben.wong@bindo.com 

+852 6202­5613 

+1 (212) 603­9715 

NYC RETAIL STARTUP BINDO RAISES USD1.8M SEED ROUND AND OPENS NEW 

OFFICE IN SINGAPORE 

Bindo Expands in Asia: An iPad POS That Helps Small Businesses Compete with Amazon 

MAY 29th, 2014 (New York, NY) ­ Bindo, a New York­based retail startup has just raised an 

oversubscribed $1.8mn seed round for international expansion. The round is co­led by Gary 

Vaynerchuk, a renowned social media and wine expert, and Singapore/Tokyo­based East 

Ventures. Other investors include NYC­based Metamorphic Ventures, and other private angels 

with decades of experience in brick and mortar retail, ecommerce and internet­related 

businesses. 

Bindo has developed a cloud­based iPad Point of Sale (POS) system that enables 24/7 online 

shopping for the end consumer. Not only does the POS offer a comprehensive array of features 

ranging from inventory management to customer relationship management (CRM), Bindo offers 

merchants the mobility to consult, sell, and close the deal simultaneously, providing a VIP 

experience to every customer. Its CRM creates customer profiles at the point of checkout 

enabling the merchant to later engage with the customer post­sale. 

More uniquely, merchants can launch their entire store online onto web and mobile with one click 

and efficiently operate omni­channel commerce with one unified inventory, saving hours of store 

management tasks each week. This turns the POS into a powerful retail platform capable of true 

online and offline commerce. Bindo Marketplace then aggregates all the stores on the Bindo 

network, onto one consumer platform, and allows consumers to shop from their favorite 

neighborhood store online, and have it delivered within hours 

 “Our mission at Bindo is really to strengthen local economies and support local businesses, 

whilst making shopping more convenient for consumers”, said Brad Lauster, cofounder of Bindo. 

“Having personally experienced the difficulties small business face selling online, we wanted to 

find a way to bring merchants online without diluting brand awareness. We are not interested in 

simply providing an online storefront for merchants to promote themselves; we are aggressively 

co­marketing our marketplace with our merchants so that together, we have the means to battle 

the Goliaths of e­commerce.” 

The Bindo Marketplace app also makes mobile commerce and e­commerce infinitely more 

convenient for the consumer, by bridging the gap between online and offline retail. In­store 

purchases are saved, viewable and reorderable on the mobile app, and loyalty points are tracked 

across multiple channels. It is a hyperlocal marketplace for consumers that want to find and 

purchase a particular product in their neighborhood stores online, which they can do so scanning 

the barcode with their app. 

Bindo will split the funding equally between development and sales. The development team will 

focus on delivering the Marketplace and providing a seamless experience for both merchant and 

consumer. Since Bindo’s private beta launch, inbound leads have been increasing exponentially 

each month; substantial resources will be allocated to scaling the sales team to support the 

rapidly growing number of merchant demo requests. 

ABOUT (BINDO) 

Bindo is a NYC startup with offices in Hong Kong. It was founded in 2011 by Jason Ngan and 

Brad Lauster. Bindo has developed a cloud­based iPad POS (Point­of­Sale) that enables online 

shopping for the end consumer. In a few months, it will be releasing Bindo Marketplace: a 

consumer app that aggregates all the stores using Bindo POS onto one platform, allowing 

consumers to purchase directly online from their favorite neighborhood store, and have it 

delivered. In doing so, Bindo aims to close the loop between the online and the offline. As the 

network grows, Bindo becomes a real­time product graph, connecting brands, consumers and 

merchants.  

Why This Blog Site Exists...

Many folks have asked me why this blog site even exists - especially since the site generates no ad revenue and as I am not currently employed full time within the point of sale industry.

When DirectPOS/RVP Business Systems closed back in September 2013, I initially intended to stop posting point of sale news and information on this site. However, with over 58K in views, a YouTube Channel and near daily calls or emails from folks having point of sale related questions, it became clear that this blog site still had a purpose.

That purpose is to provide free and unbiased point of sale advice, news and information. Please visit my contact page for information on how to reach me.