When Point of Sale Becomes a Hub for Customer Experience
Advocates of customer experience (CX) have long recognized the important role it plays in forging strong emotional connections and driving the outcomes that matter: referrals, retention, loyalty, and increased revenue.
But the challenge today is not just identifying strategic areas like CX; it’s ensuring they work effectively. With many basic retail interactions now moving to digital or self-service channels, the remaining frontline employee interactions become even more important, helping retail brands to form connections with their customers in more authentic ways.
While courtesy and kindness create a break from transactional interactions, sparking moments of delight, these aspects mean little if the retail-facing and back-end supply chain systems and networks are not unified to deliver the seamless, personalized experience every shopper now expects.
This was a theme we saw in our 2025 Unified Commerce Benchmark (UCB) report: retailers who integrate all their retail systems provide customers with a more seamless and consistent journey, whether in-store, mobile, or online.
We also found that the gap between average and advanced performers is widening, and customer expectations are outpacing what most retailers can hope to deliver. However, there are clear benefits to prioritizing this shift, with retailers who reached Leading status in the UCB seeing three times the revenue growth.
Combining Human and Digital Inspiration
Today’s consumers expect shopping to simply blend human and digital inspiration. They don’t think in terms of channels. They are increasingly thinking in terms of connection.
Modern point-of-sale (POS) systems blur the lines between digital and physical channels, providing consistent and personalized brand experiences no matter where the customer shops, connecting digital journeys with real-time store inventory, and personalized brand storytelling to instinctively deliver relevance, timing and trust at every touchpoint.
We’ve come a long way since the days of the traditional till. POS has evolved from being a monolith cash register at the very end of the customer’s buying journey, to the epicenter of modern customer experience, enabling frictionless checkout, personalized service, and real-time engagement.
Today’s POS systems provide a single view of inventory, orders, and customer history. They represent the connective tissue between online and offline; empowering true omnichannel experiences like Buy Online Pickup in Store (BOPIS), Buy Online Return in Store (BORIS), endless aisle options and far more.
The Tangible Power of Real-Time Data
By capturing rich customer and transactional data in real time, store associates are able to upsell intelligently, recommend next best products, and tailor individual customer shopping experiences on the spot. This transforms the checkout experience into an area of strategic advantage and competitive differentiation.
The UCB also reveals that retailers that mastered modern POS achieved higher average order values, lower cart abandonment, and longer customer lifetime value through empowered associates.
From one-click checkout to predictive payments and mobile POS, this final moment is not just an opportunity to build trust, but an opportunity to delight and upsell customers too.
Mastering the Next Frontier
External technology and consumer factors continue to shape the retail narrative. Reducing friction and meeting shoppers’ demand for speed and flexibility has meant a rise in the use of mobile wallets, tap-to-pay, and mobile checkout options.
This dynamic technology landscape makes it essential for retailers to operate on truly cloud-native POS platforms, capable of adapting quickly, pushing updates, promotions, or new capabilities at scale, without disrupting store operations.
Agentic workflows are the next frontier for retailers and while 77 percent of retailers are using chatbots, only 5 percent are using agentic AI to improve the overall customer experience.
But let’s be clear here, AI is not a silver bullet, and it should always elevate the human role, rather than erase it; the retail environment is no exception.
From predictive resolution and voice-driven commerce to dynamic personalization, agentic workflows can take actions independently, such as re-routing inventory or resolving service issues before a person even needs to step in.
And herein lies one of the game changing benefits of AI agents to retailers. By managing and resolving these types of customer queries, store associates are free to deliver the “white glove” experiences (underpinned by a modern POS system) that customers will remember and return time and again for.
Robby Dewling is a director of product management for Manhattan Associates’ point-of-sale solution. Dewling is responsible for in-store selling and engagement tools including Omni Cart, Endless Aisle, Buy Online Return in Store, and cross channel customer data visibility. Dewling has over 13 years of experience in order management and customer engagement software development and implementation working with Manhattan Associates’ services and product teams.