Rising living costs are forcing consumers to look for savings. According to Salsify’s 2025 research, two out of three shoppers are buying non-essential products less frequently, while 52% opt for cheaper alternatives. These changes are intensifying margin pressure, prompting retail chains to search for ways to maintain profitability. Increasing marketing budgets, developing omnichannel strategies, or investing in advanced CRM platforms do not always deliver the expected results. One of the key reasons is the lack of standardization in core POS processes.
The Evolution of POS: From Simple Devices to Sales Platforms
Multifunctional sales platforms have opened up entirely new opportunities for retail chains. However, before they became an industry standard, retailers relied on much simpler solutions. The first mechanical cash registers appeared in stores as early as 1879. Their functionality was limited to supporting daily cashier operations and preventing employee fraud. For many years, more advanced POS systems were used primarily for printing receipts.
A major shift occurred in the 1980s and 1990s, when POS devices gained new capabilities (such as barcode scanners) and enabled integration with inventory systems and cashless payment solutions.
Today, POS systems are part of advanced sales platforms whose capabilities go far beyond basic sales processes. Their key functions include:
- centralized omnichannel sales management,
- real-time inventory control,
- handling payments, returns, and complaints across all sales channels,
- a 360° customer view, providing access to full customer history, including both in-store and online purchases,
- analytics and forecasting based on sales data,
- automated reporting and regulatory compliance monitoring,
- cashier fraud and anomaly detection (logs, permissions, alerts).
Key Sources of Financial Losses Related to POS Systems
The broad functionality of POS sales platforms presents a significant opportunity for retailers, but it does not always translate into tangible financial benefits. Why? The lack of standardized core processes and operations. Which issues have the greatest impact on lost revenue?
1 Returns and Fraud
Research conducted in the U.S. retail market shows the massive scale of returns: in 2025 alone, their total value is expected to reach PLN 849.9 billion. Under Polish law, consumers have the right to return online purchases within 14 days without providing a reason. For brick-and-mortar stores, return policies depend on the retailer’s decision, and many choose to offer them to attract and retain customers.
The main challenge lies in distinguishing legitimate returns from fraud attempts to deceive retailers in order to recover money. For example, some customers try to return counterfeit products or items they have previously damaged. Contrary to popular belief, this is not a marginal problem. In the United States, one in ten returns turns out to be fraudulent, and 45% of consumers see nothing wrong with bending the rules when returning products.
In such cases, a POS system proves invaluable by supporting return management. It allows retailers to control return conditions and classify returns by type, reason, or customer association. Standardizing these processes makes it easier to differentiate legitimate returns from fraud.
2. Lack of Accurate Inventory Information
Another significant source of financial loss is information chaos related to inventory levels. Outdated systems used by retail chains often struggle to keep inventory data up to date especially when sales take place across multiple channels, each storing sales data in separate databases. Without centralized inventory management, discrepancies arise between system data and actual stock levels.
When inventory levels are overstated, retailers may refrain from placing orders, leading to empty shelves. When understated, excess stock accumulates, creating storage and logistics challenges.
This issue is illustrated by research conducted by ECR Retail Loss among seven U.S. retailers. An analysis of approximately one million SKUs (unique product barcodes used for inventory management) revealed that 60% had incorrect inventory records. Correcting these inaccuracies resulted in an average sales increase of nearly 6% without any additional marketing activities.
3. Revenue Leakage Caused by Process Chaos
In large retail chains, losses are often driven by so called revenue leakage gradual revenue erosion caused by inefficient and unoptimized processes. Individual incidents may seem insignificant, but their cumulative impact is substantial. According to Chief Risk Officers (CROs) in the retail industry, revenue leakage can account for up to 16% of lost revenue. Meanwhile, leaders responsible for revenue growth strategies estimate this figure to be as high as 21% .
This problem stems from issues such as incorrectly applied discounts, billing errors, invoice mistakes, and a lack of control over contract timelines.
4. Operational Challenges
Chaos in sales platform and POS processes affects every aspect of retail operations. Marketing, finance, and logistics teams rely on incomplete or inaccurate data, leading to poor business decisions. As a result, retail companies face the challenge of implementing comprehensive, end-to-end changes.
Studies show that such transformations are more effective than optimizing individual processes. Improvements within specific functions typically reduce costs by 5 – 10%, while end-to-end transformation delivers savings of 10 – 15%.
The Solution: A Modern Sales Platform
The primary cause of revenue loss is the lack of process and operational optimization within POS systems and sales platforms. Modern technology helps mitigate these issues. System integration and real-time data exchange reduce the risk of making business decisions based on inaccurate information. At the same time, POS systems provide store staff with tools that relieve them of tedious, time-consuming tasks, improving both sales efficiency and customer service.
How does the iXpos sales platform help achieve these goals? Through advanced functionalities such as:
Logistics process automation – The sales management system for retail chains automatically monitors inventory levels and forecasts future shortages based on historical data, seasonality, and current market trends.
Comprehensive system integration – iXpos integrates with external business and logistics management systems, as well as e-commerce and m-commerce platforms. Data exchange is enabled by RabbitMQ technology, ensuring consistency across the entire IT ecosystem and reducing losses caused by inventory or sales process chaos.
Unified omnichannel customer service – Synchronization of customer data (including purchase history, loyalty programs, and returns) ensures a consistent customer experience while protecting against customer fraud.
Business Intelligence (BI) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) readiness – iXpos supports advanced, automated analytics covering key business indicators and anomaly alerts. This is achieved through built-in analytical modules as well as integration with external BI and AI solutions.
We discussed how to gradually implement such a transformation in another article on our blog: Omnichannel w retailu – okiem praktyka
POS as an Effective Tool for Cost Reduction
The percentage of technology leaders in the retail industry who report that modern solutions have improved their company’s profitability has increased by 36 percentage points year over year. These figures demonstrate that a modern POS system when integrated into a comprehensive sales platform is an effective way to reduce losses and increase revenue for retail chains. It is also one of the most effective methods for mitigating margin pressure, which has been a major challenge for the retail industry in recent years.
Sources:
[1] Salsify, 2025, Consumer Research. Meet Every Shopper, Every Channel, Every Moment
[2] National Retail Federation, 2025 Retail Returns Landscape
[3] ECR Retail Loss, Measuring the Sales Impact of Improving Inventory Records
[4] Clari, 2024, The 2024 State of Revenue Leak
[5] McKinsey, Deconstructing silos to discover savings: the end-to-end excellence playbook for retailers
[6] KPMG global tech report: consumer and retail insights, 2025
