Revel, the point-of-sale system maker that builds its products around iPad hardware and software, today announced that it will now be offering a version of its tools specifically for grocery stores. Revel recently introduced a custom solution aimed at food trucks, and the San Francisco-based company looks to be following a pattern of tackling the entire POS space one vertical at a time.
The new grocery system includes custom support for flatbed scanner input, as well as integration with new Dwolla payments, something Revel CTO and co-founder Chris Ciabarra said in an interview was a highly requested feature among grocery store customers (and is also being added to Revel’s solutions for other verticals). That’s likely because of its payment structure, which charges no fees for any transaction that doesn’t exceed $10, and only a flat fee of 25 cents for every amount above that, with no contract or subscription requirement. Dwolla joins LevelUp as a supported payment plugin, which recently did away with payment fees entirely.
Other grocery-specific features of Revel’s latest POS offering include the ability print and scan price-embedded barcodes for deli counter meat and other fresh products that are served out in weighted portions. The system also supports coupon scanning, has plenty of back office management features, and can be configured with a customer-facing kiosk mode that will help smaller chains and independent grocers compete with the sophisticated self-checkout systems of larger market players. The customer kiosk mode feature is something that could end up having the greatest impact on how small grocers operate in the long run, but Revel is clearly trying to anticipate the curve with this latest offering.
“The reason we put this together is because there are a lot of changes in the world happening, with baby boomers on the way out and the new market being millennials,” Ciabarra said. “They’re targeting more of the specialty shops, fresher food, so there are a lot more grocery stores popping up everywhere and we saw that coming, so that’s why we built the grocery store version of the software for the iPad.”
Revel represents a better option than existing solutions out there because it’s easy for anyone to use with a minimum of training, according to Ciabarra, and because of lower setup costs (Geek Squad handles Revel installations). He also cites the third-party plugins and the Revel API as a motivating factor.
The new grocery system is the latest attempt by Revel to target specific verticals with tailor-fit solutions, but it won’t stop there. Ciabarra says that “as long as we see the benefits there, we’re definitely going to tackle each one,” adding that the hotel industry is likely their next big target, and where the see the largest opportunity aside from the places they’re already addressing.
