IHL: POS shipments up in first half of 2014

Franklin, Tenn. - Worldwide POS hardware shipments showed a sharp increase in the first half of 2014. According to IHL Group's POS Vendor Data Service, which tracks POS shipments by vendors and retail segments worldwide, in the first six months of the year, Europe, Middle East and Asia (EMEA) and North America showed by far the greatest growth in POS shipments.



Europe in particular rebounded to high double-digit growth after years of stagnation. Growth in Asia and Latin America has slowed its pace in 2014, however, compared to previous years. Both regions showed growth, but at a rate 50% less than the same period a year ago.



"If you read all the news accounts you would have assumed that mobile POS would take away all the shipments for POS," said Greg Buzek, president of IHL Group. "This year we are seeing heavy growth at the enterprise level worldwide. Enterprise retailers are in a period of tremendous technology change. To get to their vision of having a common software and transaction platform for their applications across their e-commerce, mobile commerce, and store experiences, they realized that their current POS architecture has not been sufficient to meet that goal."