As with many other items, purchasing point of sale supplies online rather than through a vendor has many advantages. The majority of these advantages center on convenience and savings in both time and money. Buying and researching products online is one of the most popular applications of the World Wide Web. Almost 250 million individuals living in North America use the internet. Two out of every three internet users have purchased products online. Seventy eight percent of internet users agree that shopping online is convenient, and 68% of internet users feel that shopping online saves time.

These impressive numbers are an indication of the many advantages of purchasing point of sale supplies online; rather than purchasing these items from a "brick and mortar" store, a vendor or from a traditional catalog. Both business to consumer purchases and business to business purchases reflect these findings. More and more each year, consumers, along with business owners and managers, are logging on rather than buckling up before setting out to make a purchase. The main reasons for this purchasing behavior: convenience, and savings in both time and money.

Convenience

In terms of purchasing point of sale supplies online, convenience mostly deals with the effort required to find specific products. Convenience also involves the distance necessary to travel to the store. Clearly, the internet has the advantage in this regard. Point of sale supplies are often purchased by either a business owner or manager, with both limited time and limited funds. By purchasing point of sale supplies online rather than from a "brick and mortar" store or from a vendor, factors such as traffic and commuting to the store, parking, and dealing with bad weather can be eliminated. Also, an online store does not close, so a business owner or manager’s busy schedule does not have to be interrupted for long periods of time to buy their point of sale supplies, they can make these important purchases when it is convenient for them.

Besides purchasing point of sale supplies online or from a ‘brick and mortar store", business owners and managers can decide to work with a vendor in order to acquire these items. Purchasing point of sale supplies from a vendor usually involves working with salespeople and agreeing to detailed "order terms". These "order terms" often appear in the form of a long agreement written in legalese, including sections such as terms of acceptance, warranties of seller, setoffs and counter claims, indemnification and more.

Working with a vendor usually entails working with a salesperson as well. Adding a salesperson to the equation introduces several other aspects to the purchase process which are not included in an online transaction. For instance, despite the vendor’s reputation, the individual salesperson may not be able to meet the same standards of service and expertise the vendor is known for. Also, a salesperson’s advice on which products to purchase may not be trust-worthy, despite the reputation of the vendor. Pressure to re-order or, at least, constant emails and phone calls requesting correspondence from the salesperson can be expected, and are anything but convenient.

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