What are POS peripherals?

Point of Sale (POS) Glossary

Peripherals are the hardware that is part of a retail store’s point of sale system. Some of these devices include monitors, keyboards, mice, barcode scanners, printers, cash register drawers, and card readers. These devices work with a POS system to process transactions and perform input and output functions.

Peripherals for a POS system may be similar to those you might find on a work or home computer system, since modern point of sale systems are computer-based. However, peripherals made for retail point of sale applications are generally more rugged and designed for heavy commercial use. Tablets and smartphones are often used as remote POS terminals, and they may be equipped with a card reader as a peripheral or use Bluetooth devices such as a scanner or thermal printer.