Lower costs and more choice.

Amsterdam, 6 September 2011. For years now, retailers have been striving for a standard cash register link. This will offer them more freedom of choice between cash register systems and point-of-sale terminals, plus lower costs. For a long time, no agreement could be reached within the PIN chain about the standard to be introduced. Currence has brought the various suppliers of payment systems and point-of-sale terminals together and they have jointly looked for an international standard. This standard has been found in the so-called EPAS retailer protocol. Today, it has been demonstrated that this standard works in practice and the green light has been given for the rollout. Next year, it is expected that cash register systems and point-of-sale terminals will appear on the market that work with the new standard cash register link. Retailers will then be liberated from their limited freedom of choice.

From left to right: William van Obberghen en Louis Jenny (EPASorg), Henk Kok (Detailhandel Nederland) en Piet Mallekoote (Currence).

The number of shops using a cash register link is increasing
There is a link between the cash register system and the point-of-sale terminal in more than a third of the shops in the Netherlands. The advantage is that the amount to be paid that is calculated by the cash register does not have to be retyped in the point-of-sale terminal. This saves time and reduces errors. Such a system is already commonplace in the supermarket sector, chain stores and franchise companies. Also, an increasing range of different shops are working with a cash register link (total figures for the retail trade: in 2009 31% of shops had a cash register link, 35% in 2010 *).

All combinations between point-of-sale terminals and cash register systems possible
Unfortunately, up to now, there has not been any standardisation in this area. As a result, a customised installation had to be made for each cash register-terminal combination. This is unnecessarily expensive and awkward in the event that a retailer wants to opt for a different combination. It is gratifying that a breakthrough has now been reached. Retailers expect that the prices for cash registers will drop considerably as a result and that European market forces will really shift into gear. They also expect that the stability of the payment chain will increase because more shops will start to work with one protocol. Retailers have expressed their wish for the EPAS retailer protocol to become the worldwide standard, so that Dutch entrepreneurs will no longer be restricted to the European market in terms of purchasing.

* Source: Monitor Betalingsverkeer 2010 [payment traffic monitor 2010], Hoofdbedrijfschap Detailhandel