Imports of electronic cash registers (ECR) and point of sale (PoS) terminals has become a lucrative business, especially over the last year, thanks to the acceptance of retail automation, implementation of GST and the government’s thrust on making India a digital economy. An analysis of whether it makes sense to import these products in volumes. And from which supply markets.
Growing up, you may remem-ber walking to the local kira-na store, where along with the comforting smell of spices and soaps you would be welcomed by the sight of a calculator and a meticulously handwritten bill. Not any more.
Welcome to digitisation. Today, retail stores and even small neighbourhood stores are moving towards electronic cash registers to tally up bills. Hand-written receipts are being replaced by itemised printed bills. These machines are also a familiar feature at most restaurants and smaller eateries where they are used to print cash receipts or tokens to manage orders. Electronic cash registers (ECRs) are steadily becoming a standard feature across all retail formats, and across tiers.
While ECRs are used for cash payments, with the growth of credit and debit card payments, ECRs with PoS terminals, the hand-held debit and credit card machines have also become quite ubiquitous. And since domestic manufacturing in this sector is lacklustre, rather non-existent, it is no surprise that imports of these machines have been on the rise, with China, Vietnam and Malaysia being the sourcing destinations of choice for importers. Together they fulfilled 98% of India’s demand for imported ECRs and PoS terminals in FY2017.
A QUANTUM LEAP
Looking at the numbers, one can say without a doubt that last fiscal has proven to be quite the turning point for importers – in FY2017, India’s imports of ECRs registered a y-o-y growth of 288.20% .
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