PayPoint has revealed plans to offer retailers the option of a more advanced integrated epos provision with its newly launched PayPoint One terminal.

Dominic Taylor, chief executive, said PayPoint One, which went live in stores six weeks ago, was expected to be in about 4,000 sites by the end of its financial year in March.

PayPoint One, of which more than 1,100 terminals were operational at the end of September, currently incorporates two epos variants – the first was a till app and the second, Epos Core, the next level up, Taylor said.

Epos Core enabled retailers to better manage their product files, to track what they sold, run simple promotions which they could set up themselves, perform shelf-edge printing and provided “a degree” of business intelligence about what they sold, he said.

“It deals with the front of the store – how it’s transacted through to the consumer,” he added.

A new Advanced Epos would be launched early in the new calendar year, providing “enhanced reporting and analytics for the benefit of the retailer, including a mobile scanning app which helps the retailer scan all their new stock in”.

He said it was especially relevant for those aligned to symbol groups. “We haven’t yet decided how we are going to price it,” said Taylor.

The new developments recognised the fact that only 37% of independent and symbol group retailers had epos relative to 100% of multiples, Taylor told C-Store. “That is the gap we are trying to fill and to help retailers compete.”

Taylor said PayPoint One was so flexible that there were many new services it could develop in the future. “We could integrate potentially into the newspaper industry,” for example, he said.

The terminal was connected via WiFi and Bluetooth in-store and by the cloud outside of the store so retailers could remotely dial into their account and review trading performance.

“Because it’s connected in-store we can do some clever things like putting fridge temperatures on the screen. There will be more things we can do.

“For the first time we are beginning to get some data points that we’ve not previously had which I think if we can package that in the right way we should be able to help the retailers understand their business more and where they sit within the ecosystem vis a vis pricing etc.”

He admitted he did not have all the answers at this stage “but we’ve got a really good opportunity if we can catch it the right way which is what we intend to drive value back to the retailer”.

In its half year results, PayPoint announced a 1.1% decline in revenue from £102.8m to £101.7m “in line” with its expectations. Adjusted operating profit before impairment, climbed 15.6% from £12.3m to £24.7m

Transaction volumes fell from 399m to 337.2m and transaction values from £7.2bn to £4.9bn.