Competition, both in terms of price and of widespread product and assortment overlap, is forcing retailers to differentiate by improving the customer experience. Both customers and retailers differ on what exactly constitutes an enhanced shopping experience, but high on everybody's list is convenience-making the shopping experience faster and simpler through speedy checkout, rapid processing of credit and gift cards, and (where appropriate) self-checkout. All of those, plus a whole host of CRM functions, require the presence of an up-to-date, high-performance POS system.

Retail operations are increasingly dependent on enterprise-wide tools such as ERP, performance management, forecasting, inventory control, supply chain management, loss prevention, etc. Rapid, timely, fine-grained sales data is essential to the proper functioning of any of these systems, as is a direct infrastructure linkage between the point of sale and the back office. If the POS system can't accommodate these requirements, it limits the speed and effectiveness of the entire operation.