POS Veteran Verifone Launches a Barrage of Cloud-Based Tech for C-Stores

Consumers have been returning to physical stores as the pandemic wanes, and that’s spurring point-of-sale technology providers to bring fresh products to market. The latest example is Verfone Inc., which said Tuesday it is rolling out a panoply of new devices and services for the highly competitive petroleum and convenience-store market.

Verifone BackOffice is the 42-year-old, Coral Springs, Fla.-based company’s latest offering in the arena for store-management technology. The cloud-based system, which taps into Verifone’s Commander site controller, offers a view of how the business is doing at any time and anywhere, according to the company.  The new technology, already installed in a pilot at Chattanooga, Tenn.-based Harry’s Food Marts, has brought “efficiencies” and “more control over our sites,”, according to owner Saurin Patel, in a statement.

A related technology in Verifone’s new bundle is Verifone Convenience, which is aimed at c-stores that don’t sell fuel. The system accesses the POS-technology company’s site controller and payment services, including loyalty, lotteries, age verification, and various tenders, according to the company. Both Convenience and BackOffice are being launched on routers from Mako Networks, which Verifone calls a “carrier-independent managed network service provider.”

For c-stores that sell food, Verifone is also launching FoodService, a cloud-based online-ordering utility available through self-service kiosks located inside stores. To let customers check themselves out, the company also introduced general availability of its C18 Self-Checkout, which lets stores turn POS stations toward customers for their use.

Across all markets, Verifone says it now has some 35 million devices installed at more than 600,000 merchant locations across more than 165 countries. It says its equipment is handling more than 12 billion transactions and more than $500 billion in volume annually, both online and in physical stores.