What you’ll learn:
Modernizing retail technology is reaching another inflection point, with many buying cycles still lumpy from the acceleration of cloud-based technologies. Buyers consider some of the new innovations available in the surrounding technology and hope to incorporate those into their new solution. With the advent of composable, enhanced connectivity and a renewed focus on stores post-pandemic, there are new opportunities to modernize and economize on technology while achieving your retail strategy.
A challenge is that too many retailers still approach the market with a channel-specific, narrow mindset. I often hear statements like: “I need a new POS. Let’s find one that checks all the boxes my current system does and maybe add a few extra requirements.”
As a result, many retailers replace their current system with marginally improved functionality — like better synchronization or scalability, modern development languages, a refreshed/modern UI, or elements of a decomposed product, AI tools or cloud-based — repackaged under “modern” POS.
Such a strategy, focused purely on technology refresh, is flawed. It reinforces system duplication, channel-specific silos and the continuity of POS functioning as a light-ERP for the store. Most importantly, it ignores the immense possibilities of unified commerce for retail.
Imagine this: Your customer buys from you anywhere — online, in-store, mobile — and they see the same price, the same tax calculations and all promotions work consistently across channels. If they have a one-time-use coupon, it works in any channel the shopper chooses to redeem it, because a unified engine can track it. Everything happens once, correctly, across the business. Wouldn’t that be a game-changer? That’s the holy grail we need to help retailers think about by running a single system that powers all aspects of their business, not just the in-store transactions through the POS.
Unfortunately, today’s buyer mindset often misses this. Many are looking for systems that replicate the functionality of their current solution rather than embracing a unified approach. They focus narrowly on functional replacement rather than considering the strategic potential of retail technology.
In short, the buyer is approaching the market with a legacy mindset, and that mindset creates several pitfalls. Let’s explore the five most common ones — and how you can avoid them.
Pitfall 1: Technology disconnected from strategy and vision
Many retailers still adopt new technology without anchoring it to their broader strategy and vision. Instead of letting retail strategy guide technology choices, decisions are too often driven by short-term functional needs or individual departments. When specific departments responsible for specific channels make those decisions, they miss the big picture.
This creates fragmentation between digital and physical channels, when in fact both should be complementary parts of one unified retail strategy. Technology should serve as an enabler of that strategy — not the driver.
From pitfall to opportunity
Retailers that are serious about taking steps toward unified commerce should broaden their scope of engagement. That means senior leadership must balance current store operations with future technology strategy, ensuring that new solutions are not only functionally sufficient but strategically aligned.
The ideal scenario is a top-down approach where leadership guides technology purchases in a cohesive direction. If your company has decided composability is the right path, that vision should inform every technology decision — POS, ERP, supply chain, digital commerce, everything.
The goal is an efficient IT organization built on shared platforms, one that simplifies operations and creates room for innovation instead of a patchwork of integrated systems.
Pitfall 2: Overlooking existing systems
Another common pitfall is ignoring what your current technology stack can already do for you. While I advocate “best-of-breed” solutions as part of composable systems, retailers often take this strategy too far by integrating services for just a small part of what they need.
It’s important to find a balance to avoid a fragmented technology stack. Ask yourself: Can existing systems be combined differently to achieve the same outcomes — or even enable entirely new use cases?
For example, if your eCommerce platform already supports certain functions, why not leverage that for in-store too? That way, in-store transactions become an integral part of the broader experience rather than isolated through a POS system.
From pitfall to opportunity
The best approach is to maximize the capabilities of your existing vendors while maintaining flexibility in customer and employee experiences. In many cases, what you need isn’t a new system to replicate old functionality — it’s a way to reassemble existing systems to unlock new use cases.
For example, inventory accuracy in the US retail industry averages just 66%. Yet with better system integration connecting eCommerce, CRM and in-store tools, accuracy can reach up to 97%. Often, the solution isn’t a new POS, but rethinking how existing systems work together.
Pitfall 3: Supporting every single transaction use case
Too often, when retailers look for a “drop-in replacement” for their current POS, they want every feature, every transaction type and every edge case. Is covering every use case really critical?
In most businesses, a small set of scenarios drives the majority of transactions. Designing for every obscure use case only bloats cost, complexity and implementation time.
From pitfall to opportunity
The focus should be on essential, frequently used scenarios and eliminating edge cases that no longer serve your business. This allows investment to go toward capabilities that truly differentiate the experience, both for customers and frontline workers.
Pitfall 4: Integrating non-customizable solutions
Some new POS solutions tout “modern” architecture, but under the hood, they’re little more than the same distributed architecture. In reality, it’s the same solution retailers have been stuck with for decades. At best, a modern solution provides a different approach to customization, but the core functionality is still channel-specific and doesn’t align with the other channels.
Other modern POS systems may provide powerful out-of-the-box solutions, but if the technology isn’t extensible or customizable, it will ultimately fall short over time. Customer expectations change regularly, so if your technology can’t keep up with them, you’re in another replatforming loop in just a couple of years.
From pitfall to opportunity
When evaluating technology, it’s important to consider how decoupled extensibility is from the core product. This allows retailers to tailor the system to their needs, integrate new workflows and experiment with new customer experiences without waiting for vendor releases or managing complex customizations in a monolithic system.
This agility matters: A 2025 Qualtrics study found 80% of customers said they switched brands because of poor customer service, which includes poor digital experiences among other factors.
Pitfall 5: Ignoring the feedback of frontline employees
This is perhaps the most overlooked area in technology decisions: The people who actually use the in-store system every day.
When I spent time on-site with a book retailer, talking to store managers and associates, a dozen opportunities were identified that would have been invisible to headquarters decision-makers.
One store manager said, “I want to look up a customer profile and help them find books. I want to order books for customers that aren’t in stock. I want to capture customer preferences so they feel a connection to the brand, not just a transactional purchase.”
None of these ideas would have surfaced in a typical POS selection process because frontline workers wouldn’t have been consulted. This just reinforces the view that frontline workers are not included in the process.
Frontline employees have the most immediate insight into customer behavior and operational inefficiencies. Yet, they are often given the least capable solutions. For instance, a recent survey revealed that 40% of retail workers feel their employers don’t adequately invest in their technology needs, with 20% actively seeing it as a non-priority. This reflects a significant gap in tech buy-in and may affect engagement and satisfaction for employees who use these systems daily.
Digital commerce has taught us that testing and iterating on customer behavior is crucial. The same principle applies in-store, but with an even more powerful advantage: Your employees are actively engaged in shaping the experience.
From pitfall to opportunity
While strategic technology decisions should remain in the hands of senior leadership, it doesn’t mean ignoring what frontline workers have to say. Listening to their invaluable feedback and designing technology that serves their needs when handling customer inquiries is an opportunity to create shopping experiences that are impactful for the business.
Finally, invest in platforms that allow customization of employee workflows, which will improve operational efficiency while strengthening customer loyalty and engagement.
Beyond POS replacement: Rethinking retail technology
Retail doesn’t have to operate the way it always has. Technology buyers don’t have to tolerate redundant systems, and consumers don’t have to accept friction or inconsistent experiences across channels. But fixing this means moving away from a POS replacement mindset.
What we need is to rethink retail technology entirely through a unified commerce lens.
Leading retailers like Jaycar and Screwfix are hard at work converging digital and in-store commerce to remove channel silos, align enterprise architecture, leverage existing systems and, ultimately, provide consumers with cohesive experiences no matter where they’re shopping. That’s only possible when shifting from tactical replacements to strategic unified commerce that drives growth and loyalty.
If you’re evaluating how to replace your POS, take a step back to:
Assess the most important use cases that can be made available if digital and in-store channels are seamlessly integrated.
Reimagine a strategic approach to your retail technology beyond pure POS replacement.
Create a holistic, enterprise-level view of your systems that provides an organization-wide direction for retail technology as the foundation for your business.
Choose adaptable, future-ready solutions that allow you to keep up with constant changes.
If you’re rethinking how POS fits into your stack, don’t stop at replacement. Explore how a unified commerce approach can simplify operations and unlock growth.
Matthew joined commercetools in 2019 to lead their Professional Services organization and as a key face to the customer. In that role, he led a team of Solution Architects and Developers in supporting our customers and partners to succeed when building their solutions on commercetools. Matthew transitioned to lead the Global Solution Consulting team in 2021. Prior to commercetools, he was in the role of Solution Principal for Omni-Channel at Aptos, as well as strategic roles at Oracle Retail and MICROS Retail. Matthew was also Head of IT and eCommerce at One Step Ahead, an online retailer specializing in baby and toddler products. Alberts attended Northern Illinois University with a focus on Operations Management and Information Systems and holds technical certifications from Microsoft, Cisco, and Red Hat.
