Helping Caribbean retailers bounce back from COVID with EPoS

This article is brought to you by Retail Technology Review: Helping Caribbean retailers bounce back from COVID with EPoS.

Lockdowns are easing around the world, and businesses are eager to open up – so Pangea has teamed up with Trinidad-based partner Starnet to help Caribbean retailers hit the ground running with EPoS solutions.

Supporting a £42 billion tourism industry with mobile EPoS

With its island paradise vistas and a £42 billion tourism industry, the Caribbean is the most tourism-reliant region in the world, and its retail and hospitality industries are a massive part of its economy. 

Until the pandemic, most Caribbean islands were cash-driven. Now shops, hotels, restaurants and bars across the region are pivoting and going cashless with EPoS solutions, to minimise contact and open up as soon as possible. 

But it’s difficult to deploy mobile EPoS there: some islands are full of rough terrain with mountains and dense forests. Others are home to remote towns and resorts that lack the infrastructure to support fixed-line connectivity. On top of that, hurricane season in the Caribbean can bring storms that threaten both telephone lines and cell towers. 

Making EPoS easy with Multi-network SIMs

What began as a 2000 SIM project quickly ramped up to 7700 SIMs, as EPoS became a staple for reopening businesses. Using Pangea’s Multi-network SIMs meant their partner Starnet didn’t have to check network coverage at each location, turning a tricky region-wide rollout into an easy task. 

It also future proofed the solution for any changes down the line, if networks start or stop covering certain spots. And the EPoS devices are protected against outages—if a network faces an outage from a storm or otherwise, the devices’ Multi-Network SIMs will connect to the next strongest available network; so retailers and restaurants can keep trading no matter what. 

Lastly, to fit the seasonal nature of the tourism industry, Pangea gave the devices a flexible shared data pool. They’ll be able to easily handle activity peaks during holiday seasons, and retailers won’t overpay during the quieter months. The solution also scales automatically, with every added Multi-network SIM contributing to the data pool, so Starnet doesn’t  need to worry about having sufficient data as the rollout increases. 

“With tourism and retail being so important to the Caribbean economy, we were happy to help retailers bounce back from the pandemic with EPoS,” said Pangea’s Sales Director, Bernie McPhillips. “Retailers all around the world need IoT and mobile connectivity support right now, so it’s the perfect time for tech providers to help with those services.”