Many small and medium businesses waste valuable time juggling separate card readers, clunky tills, and handwritten stock lists at the end of each busy day. This disconnected approach costs time, creates avoidable errors, and eats into profit margins. A single, integrated EPOS system brings payments, stock, staff management, and reporting together in one place, eliminating the need to piece together separate tools.
In this post I’ll quickly explain what a POS is, show what an EPOS adds, expand on the real business benefits you’ll notice, and finish by introducing a complete all-in-one solution: Worldpay 360.
The Basics: What is a Point of Sale (POS) System?
At its simplest, a traditional Point of Sale (POS) system is the place where a customer completes a transaction. Think of a basic cash register or a simple card terminal. Its primary job is to process sales and take payments.
The main limitation of these traditional systems is that they often work in isolation. They handle the money, but they don't talk to your stockroom, your employee rota, or your sales reports, leaving you to connect the dots manually.
The Upgrade: What is an EPOS (Electronic Point of Sale) System?
An EPOS is the modern, intelligent evolution of the till. It’s a computerised system that does far more than just process payments. The key difference is integration. An EPOS system connects your payment processing with other vital business functions, acting as the "brain" of your operation. It's where your sales, inventory, staff, and customer data all come together.
Why an EPOS matters
Moving from a basic till to an EPOS is more than a technology refresh, it changes how you run day-to-day operations. Here are eight business benefits you’ll actually feel:
- Streamlined operations: One interface for checkout, receipts and basic reporting means fewer moving parts and fewer mistakes. Staff training is faster because they learn one system, not three.
- Smarter inventory control: Sales automatically adjust stock levels. That reduces stockouts and prevents over-ordering. Many EPOS platforms will also alert you when reorder points are reached.
- Better staff management: Build roles and permissions, track shift hours and connect till activity to individual staff for accurate payroll, tips and performance tracking.
- Faster service and higher throughput: Integrated payments and quicker checkout reduce queue times leading to happier customers and higher turnover per shift.
- Real-time analytics for smarter decisions: See what’s selling, when and where. Use live sales and margin data to optimise pricing, promotions and staffing.
- Improved customer experience: Accept multiple payment methods, issue digital receipts, run loyalty programmes or gift cards, and personalise promotions based on purchase history.
- Omnichannel readiness: Modern EPOS systems integrate with online ordering, click & collect or marketplaces, giving a single view of sales and stock across channels.
- Security, compliance and reduced admin: Many EPOS providers bundle PCI-compliant payment processing, firmware updates, and remote device management so you spend less time on compliance headaches.
- Cost-effective integration: Purchasing an all-in-one EPOS system is significantly cheaper than buying separate till systems, card readers, inventory software, and reporting tools individually. Beyond the upfront savings, you'll avoid multiple subscription fees, compatibility issues, and the hidden costs of making disconnected systems work together. When everything runs on one device with unified software, updates happen seamlessly, support comes from a single provider, and your data flows naturally between functions, creating operational synergy that standalone tools simply can't match.
The Solution in Action: Introducing Worldpay 360
Let's look at a solution that delivers all this and more. Worldpay 360 is a complete, all-in-one EPOS and payments solution built specifically for the demands of modern businesses. It takes the power of a sophisticated EPOS system and puts it into a simple, unified package designed to simplify complexity and help you grow.
Worldpay 360 is fully customisable to your needs. You can add additional hardware peripherals like barcode scanners, receipt printers, cash drawers, or even a Kitchen Display System to optimise your workflow. It's a solution designed to adapt to your business, not the other way around.
How Worldpay 360 is packaged
Worldpay 360 is offered in three bundles to suit different needs:
- Lite: a compact, handheld device (with built-in printer) that handles orders, payments and basic POS features.
- Standard: a countertop POS device plus integrated payment terminal for a fuller till setup.
- Pro: a versatile combination of countertop device and integrated terminal for the most flexible, multi-use checkout scenarios.
Key Worldpay 360 benefits:
- End-to-end integrated payments and POS: Payments are native to the device and integrated with the POS software (so transactions update stock, reports and customer records automatically, removing reconciliation work).
- Quick setup and tailored bundles: The Lite/Standard/Pro bundles let you choose a compact handheld till or a full countertop solution, plus common peripherals (printer, cash drawer, barcode scanner) so you’re not paying for features you don’t need.
- Inventory & product management: Built-in stock tracking across locations helps prevent stockouts and gives clearer visibility into product performance (so you can reorder timely and reduce waste).
- Hospitality-focused tools:Worldpay 360 supports restaurant workflows such as table management, bill splitting and kitchen communications and integrates with Kitchen Display Systems so orders go straight to the kitchen instead of paper tickets.
- Speed and reduced wait times: Because payments are native and integrated, transactions are faster and queues shorten being a direct win for customer satisfaction.
- Customer loyalty & gift cards: Built-in support for loyalty programmes and gift card handling means you can run promotions and retain customers from inside the same system.
- AI and time-saving features: Worldpay 360 includes productivity features such as a “Magic Menu” that can auto-create product catalogues from a photo of a menu. A useful shortcut for hospitality businesses onboarding their menu into the till.
- Back-office & multi-location management: Remote back-office tools let you update products, pricing and users centrally and then push changes to all devices, which is ideal for multi-site operations.
- Support & trade readiness: Worldpay actively promotes demos, support channels and product tours to help merchants choose the right bundle, and positions the solution as ready for retail and hospitality use
Final thoughts
Switching to an EPOS is more than swapping hardware. It’s about removing manual work, improving the customer experience, and giving you reliable data to grow. For many UK retailers and hospitality merchants, an integrated solution like Worldpay 360 is a practical way to get there quickly: it bundles hardware, payments and business tools into a ready-to-use package so you can spend time on customers, not admin.