How Cellular Connectivity is Transforming the Retail Landscape, from POS Systems to Real-Time Inventory Management and Beyond
by Tiffany Wolf
Like other industries, retail is going through a major shift caused by digitalization. As more shoppers turn to digital platforms, online shopping reshapes the retail landscape, challenging traditional brick-and-mortar stores. Colliers reported that by the end of 2023, e-commerce sales were 15.6% of all retail.
With the advancement in technologies and Covid-19 impact, e-commerce demonstrated impressive growth in the last decade – from 1.3 billion USD in 2014 to projected 4 billion USD in 2024. It is growing faster than regular shopping: according to a Mastercard report on 2023 Black Friday in the US, e-commerce sales grew 8.5% year-over-year, while in-store sales increased only by 1.1%.
In that context, retailers that want to encourage consumers back into physical shopping need to evolve and change the in-store shopping experience to meet customers’ expectations. On the other hand, enterprises that focus on online shopping must build reliable and effective supply and delivery chains. For both of these purposes, they need wireless connectivity – to connect the plethora of devices used at retail stores and warehouses, process payments, manage inventory, track goods and analyze customers’ behavior.
Cellular connectivity is clearly the best option for delivery services and tracking goods on the move, but it’s also beneficial for in-store retail for a number of reasons – from enhanced scalability to optimizing costs of infrastructure projects.
While there are many use cases that are similar to other industries, such as video surveillance, cellular connectivity enables some usage scenarios that are typical and essential to retail.
POS Systems
The most specific use case for retail businesses would be connecting POS (or payment) terminals. Used by retail stores, as well as for courier deliveries, mobile setups such as food trucks, and in vending machines, POS systems need ultra-reliable connectivity that allows to perform payment processing and transactions without disrupting the flow of services.
Cellular connectivity has become a very popular option for POS terminals: in 2023, it was incorporated in 52 percent of all devices shipped. Berg Insight forecasts that by 2027, the total number of cellular POS terminals will reach 188.9 million.
Inventory Management
Another type of connected devices that is widely used in retail stores are barcode scanners. They are a perfect example of devices that connect to stock management platforms and help retail enterprises get real-time insights into their supply chain and inventory to avoid stockouts and overstocking. Various IoT applications and devices are also used to track products and optimize supply chains. The data gathered on stocks may include location, inventory levels, movement and condition as well. It is important for specific use cases such as cold chain logistics, the safe storage and transport of temperature-sensitive goods and products along the supply chain. Constant monitoring can help to adjust the temperature according to specifications or perform quality control in case there has been a violation of temperature requirements.
For this kind of devices, it is crucial to have stable connectivity with sufficient bandwidth and latency, and cellular networks are the best way to provide it. They help ensure a strong, high-speed and secure internet connection that can keep devices running even if the power goes out. They can also provide a steadier connection than Wi-Fi for large buildings.
Surveillance and Customer Analytics
Retail theft is one of the main problems in the industry. According to the National Retail Federation’s latest report, it has experienced an increase over the past year. In some sectors, theft can account for over 70% of retailers’ annual losses. It is a pressing issue both for big chains and small stores: in the US in 2023, most small business retailers (79%) said their monthly losses from theft were between $500 and $2,500, and 10% said theft losses accounted for more than $2,500. One of the most popular measures to reduce it was installing security cameras – 50% of small business retailers reported implementing surveillance systems.
However, theft prevention and security is not the only use case that requires connected cameras – recently, customer analytics also became important. Leveraging artificial intelligence, retailers can perform video analytics to cut costs and build a better customer journey. It helps get customers insights and demographics, measure foot traffic, occupancy levels and queue times, optimize store layout utilizing the heatmap analysis, make decisions on staffing numbers and priority areas.
All cameras need connection, and the main advantage of cellular-connected cameras is that they operate independently from any existing internet infrastructure. That means they can be placed anywhere, and they continue working regardless of problems with fixed communication lines. If there’s a blackout and wired communications are down or your premises are broken into and the intruder cuts your Internet connection, the cameras that use mobile networks will still work.
There are also other use cases where retail businesses can benefit from using cellular connectivity, from real-time monitoring and predictive maintenance of store equipment – such as Walmart utilizing IoT sensors for remote control of its refrigerators and HVAC systems – to supply chain optimization. It is also important to remember that due to its reliability it oftentimes serves as a backup to other types of connectivity retail enterprises may use.
Connectivity Requirements
In retail, connectivity requirements may be very diverse due to vast variety of devices and usage scenarios. For example, for video surveillance latency and bandwidth are critical, whereas other types of devices may be not that demanding in that regard. There are, however, some common requirements that
Coverage
Coverage is particularly critical for payment terminals: for example, in the case of courier deliveries it may become a real hurdle. As devices can lose connectivity when out of the network’s reach, and certain operators may have problems with coverage within buildings, it is important that they are able to use multiple networks. However, using multiple networks means contracting with multiple mobile operators, which is complex and can be costly both in terms of time and expenses.
Reliability
The ability to switch between mobile networks is also crucial for reasons of reliability. With devices like security cameras and POS systems, a lot depends on their ability to stay up, online, and properly functioning 24/7. Cellular networks are virtually everywhere, and usually there are several mobile operators in any region, which means that IoT devices can stay online even when one of the networks is down or connection to it is unstable. Basically, this is the reason why cellular connectivity is oftentimes used as a backup even by devices connected to the fixed infrastructure.
Scalability
If a company can quickly scale at no extra costs, it can be a huge advantage in the retail industry. There are many benefits that cellular connectivity can bring to retail enterprises in terms of scaling their business. Opening new stores with strict deadlines, temporary retail like farmers markets or seasonal storefronts, small third-party stores on big stores’ premises – all these scenarios can be implemented with instant, easy-to-deploy connectivity that mobile networks provide.
Compliance with Regulations
Since retail enterprises process payments, they must comply not only with data protection regulations, but also with very strict cybersecurity rules. Although mobile networks are secure by design, it’s not an easy task: starting with strictly technical aspects, there are also general regulations on data transfer, privacy and sovereignty, as well as local regulations that need to be complied with. To make it worse, legislation is always subject to change. That means that retail enterprises deploying cellular-connected devices may have problems down the line if their connectivity solution is not adaptive enough to comply with regulations.
Webbing’s Solution
Webbing offers a connectivity solution that ensures global access to reliable and high-quality internet, with low latency and the best of class coverage. It provides secure and continuous internet connection, delivering a streamlined, centralized, and scalable means of deploying, controlling and monitoring POS terminals and other devices that retail enterprises may use.
As a global MVNO, Webbing’s network of 600+ mobile operators guarantees world-wide coverage. It allows IoT devices to roam on several carriers’ network in every region, solving the problem of weak spots that any mobile network may have and ensuring full coverage and continuous connectivity for all connected devices, even at remote locations.
Webbing is a global connectivity provider, with a distributed full-core network with local breakouts, multiple network solution, and data server redundancy that can provide connectivity stability and low latency. As such, Webbing’s network is well suited to support mission-critical, high-data consumption type of use cases, including payment transfers and video surveillance. It also allows for all types of localization – from IP traffic that remains in the country to designated profiles for emergency calls, so it’s easy to comply with local and regional connectivity regulation requirements. Webbing can also seamlessly localize deployments utilizing Remote SIM Provisioning even in heavily regulated markets.
A flexible approach to data packages allows us to tailor our connectivity offering for every customer based on the type of connected devices and their data consumption needs as well as the locations where the devices are used, aiming at overall optimization of the total cost of operations for the client.
Our solutions help enterprises overcome their connectivity problems and reduce time to market for global deployments, providing the benefits of roaming with multiple carrier options in every country, and seamless transition between carriers, while maintaining low rates and low latency on a global scale with a single SIM.
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