What to Look for in a POS Terminal for Small Business

May 7, 2025
4 minutes Read
The right POS terminal for small business does more than make it easy for your customers to pay — it helps you acquire more customers. Find out how.
What to Look for in a POS Terminal for Small Business

How to Choose the Best POS Terminal for Small Business Operations

The checkout process is the last chance a small business has to make a positive impression on a customer before they return. If your small business POS terminal matches the shopping experience your customer had with a smooth and quick processing of payments and returns, you’ll have a much better chance of converting them into a repeat customer. But, if your small business POS terminal takes away from the shopping experience, those chances will probably decrease rapidly.

The Two Main Components of a POS Terminal for Small Business

The elements of a POS terminal work together to facilitate an easy payment process that leaves your customer feeling positive about you and your store as they exit.

The Payment Method Reader

Many POS terminals for small business are equipped to read all the more popular North American payment methods like Visa, MasterCard and Interac. Some POS terminals can facilitate payments with less popular North American payment methods like AmEx and Discover Card.

The OTT Pay Smart POS Terminal can facilitate 12 payment methods:

  • Visa
  • Mastercard
  • Interac
  • Apple Pay
  • Google Pay
  • American Express
  • Discover Card
  • Diner’s Club Card
  • JCB
  • UnionPay
  • Alipay
  • WeChat Pay
Person paying for their coffee order on a POS terminal using their smartphone

The range of payment methods available to you as a retailer through the OTT Pay Smart POS Terminal is more than just convenient. It’s a big, shiny beacon to potential customers to shop with you because they’ll be able to use the payment method they want. This is important because the stats say that half your customers will abandon a purchase if they can’t use their preferred payment methods.

The Payment Processor

A Payment Processor facilitates electronic transactions between businesses and their customers. It’s a four-step process that happens almost instantaneously every time a customer buys from you using your POS terminal. Some payment POS terminals do not offer payment processing as an additional service, so you would have to secure and manage two vendor relationships.

This is not the case with the Pay Smart POS Terminal which, which is connected to the OTT Pay Payment Gateway and is a complete payment solution. You’ll only need to manage one relationship to facilitate payment for all the methods listed above, as well as gift cards.

Leaning into QR Codes is Easy with OTT Pay

Popular in China and gaining traction in North America, QR codes are rapidly changing the retail experience by letting customers pay for their purchases anywhere in the store. Your customer would simply use their phone camera to scan the QR code next to what they want to buy. No more waiting in line for them. And no more big lines snaking through the middle of your store.

Grocery is ripe for QR codes

Imagine walking up and down the aisles and paying for your items as you pick them from the shelves. Imagine not waiting in that massive grocery store lineup when you’re late making dinner. You can do that with the QR code functionality of the OTT Pay Smart POS Terminal.

What other retailers should consider QR codes?

  • Shops with a small footprint that would be disrupted by a massive line cutting through the middle of the store.
  • In-and-out shops, where expediency is crucial. Think of convenience stores, gas stations and Costco.
  • Shops that serve a lot of Chinese nationals or recent immigrants from China. These are people looking to establish their go-to retailer for whatever you sell. You have a much better chance of becoming that go-to if you offer QR code payment because that’s how they’ve become accustomed to paying.
Small Business Owner holding an OTT Pay Smart POS Terminal as a customer uses their smartphone to pay

Other Considerations when choosing a POS Terminal for your Small Business

Beyond prioritizing expanding the payment methods you accept, other considerations are worth considering when deciding on the best POS terminal for your small business.

Fees

Your options will most likely be either a small per-transaction fee or a small percentage of each transaction. Your choice will depend on the business you’re in, whether you sell a million things for a dollar or each one thing for a million dollars each.

White label capacity

Wouldn’t it be nice to reinforce your brand one last time before your customer leaves? You can do that if your POS terminal can come to you looking like your brand. You can do that with the OTT Pay Smart POS Terminal.

Security

The POS terminals you consider will almost all comply with the PCI DSS compliance standard. But this is a minimum requirement. If you’re concerned about cybercrime, the OTT Pay Smart POS Terminal is probably for you because of its heightened security.

Omnichannel capabilities

Ideally, the customer experience should be equally seamless in-store and online. OTT Pay can do that for you. From a management perspective, it’s far easier because it’s one point of contact for all things payment.

Is OTT Pay the Best Payment Terminal for your Small Business

If you want to attract and retain more customers while making your life as a retailer infinitely easier, then yes. OTT Pay and the OTT Pay Smart POS Terminal are for you.

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