Picture a busy Saturday. There is a queue at the counter, and the internet drops. With some POS systems the cashier can do nothing until it comes back. Customers leave, or sales get scribbled on paper and typed in later, if anyone remembers.
An offline-first POS is designed so that never happens.
What “offline-first” means
An offline-first POS saves every sale on the device first, then sends it to your central account when a connection is available. The internet becomes a way to share data, not a requirement for selling.
That is different from a system that is “online with an offline mode” bolted on. Ask the vendor which one they are.
How it works in practice
- Ring up a sale. The sale is saved on the till immediately.
- The internet drops. The system notices and tells the cashier in plain words.
- Keep selling. New sales wait safely in a queue on the device.
- The connection returns. Queued sales sync to your account in order, with nothing retyped.
What to ask any vendor
- Can I ring up sales, print receipts and take payments with no connection at all?
- How many sales or days can the device store offline?
- What happens if two tills sell the last item while both are offline?
- How do I see which sales have not synced yet?
- How are mobile money payments confirmed when the till itself is offline?
That last question is important. A customer's phone can still complete a mobile money payment when your till is offline. The system needs a sensible way to record and match it later.
Power cuts are a separate problem
Offline software protects you from connection drops. For power cuts you also need hardware with a battery, or a UPS for desktop tills, so the device stays on long enough to save and finish a sale.
The cost of not having it
Every lost sale during an outage is money you will not see again. Every handwritten sale typed in later is a chance for an error that throws off your stock and your daily totals.
DigiPOS, the POS system we are building, is offline-first by design. See how it works or join the waitlist. For a wider checklist, read how to choose a POS system in Tanzania.