Intelligent CIO Middle East Issue 103 | Page 69

INTELLIGENT BRANDS // Mobile Technology

How POS based payments systems can boost UAE baqalas ’ sales by $ 338 million

Retail technology firm 24SEVEN has unveiled data on the current UAE grocery retail market . The company , which provides hardware and software for retailers , conducted research across more than 5,000 grocery stores in the UAE . One of the key findings was an estimate on the size of the market , with UAE grocery retail anticipated to exceed US $ 40 billion this year .

With the current Spinneys IPO , there is an increased focus on grocery retail in the Emirates . 24SEVEN ’ s report also identified the importance of smaller grocery stores to the UAE economy . 81 % of grocery retailers
HPE Aruba Wi-Fi 7 access points with built-in IoT connectivity
Jarrar Shah , CEO and Co-Founder 24SEVEN
in the UAE are identified as baqalas – stores that are 50 square metres or smaller . Despite not being as vast as the UAE ’ s well-known supermarket and hypermarket chains , 60 % of UAE residents visit small grocery stores every week .
The research highlights that the introduction of embedded financial services could play a key role in boosting revenues across the grocery retail sector . Currently , under 1 % of small grocery outlets deploy advanced financial technology in their stores , and 70 % do not have a connected point-of-sale , POS and checkout system , making it harder to compete with larger players .
Jarrar Shah , CEO and Co-Founder of 24SEVEN said , “ Embedded financial technology can uplift revenues for stores through services like remittance and bill payments . However , currently around 70 % of stores do not have the right technology to compete .”
The report also discovered that if baqalas were able to offer buy now , pay later , BNPL services , it could account for up to US $ 338 million in transactions per year .
HPE Aruba launches Wi-Fi 7 APs with built-in IoT connectivity
Hewlett Packard Enterprise launched Wi-Fi 7 access points , APs that provide up to 30 % more capacity for wireless traffic than competitive products . The new APs also strengthen network security and improve location-based services to provide connectivity for demanding enterprise AI , Internet of things , IoT , location , and security applications .
The new HPE Aruba Networking APs , managed by HPE Aruba Networking Central , eliminate the need to deploy an IoT network overlay by providing built-in hardware support for a wide range of IoT protocols such as Zigbee and Bluetooth , or through dual USB interfaces . The APs also provide a secure connectivity platform for the increase in IoT devices organisations are deploying at the network edge , such as cameras , motor sensors , energy sensors and motion detectors .
As IoT devices offer a rich source of data for AI training and inferencing , an extensive ecosystem of business solutions from over 350 HPE technology partners can help organisations efficiently capture , secure , transport and leverage IoT-sourced data to deliver real-time business insights , along with helping build their AI data lakes .
With the huge growth in IoT devices , demand for ubiquitous security , and the need for backward compatibility to accommodate legacy devices , Wi-Fi 7 provides the processing power , flexibility , speed , reliability and capacity that today ’ s enterprises are looking for when making network upgrade decisions . p
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