From Wikipedia we can find, that the Point of Sale (POS) or Point of Purchase (POP) is the time and place where a retail transaction is completed.

At the point of sale, the merchant calculates the amount owed by the customer, indicates that amount, may prepare an invoice for the customer (which may be a cash register printout), and indicates the options for the customer to make payment.

It is also the point at which a customer makes a payment to the merchant in exchange for goods or after provision of a service.

After receiving payment, the merchant may issue a receipt for the transaction, which is usually printed but can also be dispensed with or sent electronically.

To calculate the amount owed by a customer, the merchant may use various devices such as weighing scales, barcode scanners, and cash registers.

To make a payment, payment terminals, touch screens, and other hardware and software options are available.

For the simple, Point of Sale (POS) refers to the physical location at which goods or services are purchased and transaction data is captured through electronic cash registers or other electronic devices such as magnetic card readers, optical and bar code scanners or some combination of these.

Nowadays, POS software can run on many types of computers or devices as long as you have an Internet connection. Although retailers are the predominant users of POS terminals, restaurant businesses and corporate offices and hotel businesses employ many innovative customized POS terminals and peripherals as well.

Key requirements for modern POS software include ease of use, fast processing, remote supportability, reliability, low cost and rich functionality.

What is Cloud Based POS?

Cloud Based Point of Sale (cloud based POS) is a type of point of sale system where information for transaction processing comes from a remote cloud service.

In general, POS refers to the place where purchases happen, for instance, at a cashier’s kiosk or at a hostess desk (or side table) at a restaurant.

For many companies, the overall benefits of cloud based POS are evident security, data storage and many other aspects of the software operation can be outsourced to vendors.