Testing Retail POS Systems with Keysight Eggplant Test

Retail point-of-sale (POS) systems play a vital role in modern retail operations, managing a wide range of functionalities beyond transaction processing, including inventory management, customer loyalty programs, and payment integration. The complexity of these systems, compounded by the diverse hardware peripherals they interact with—such as barcode scanners, receipt printers, and card readers—necessitates rigorous testing to maintain performance and reliability. A malfunctioning POS system can lead to significant operational disruptions, affecting transaction times, customer satisfaction, and alignment with larger business management systems like CRM and ERP platforms.

This application note explores key testing challenges for POS systems in retail and introduces Keysight’s Eggplant Test as a solution for automated, end-to-end testing. We identify three essential testing areas: data accuracy across POS ecosystems, system consistency through software changes and upgrades, and high-performance availability during peak hours. Manual testing, which is still widely used, is increasingly insufficient due to its slow release cycles, limited coverage, and heightened operational risks. Automated testing offers a path forward, allowing retail businesses to achieve faster, broader, and more accurate test coverage while reducing reliance on human intervention.

Eggplant Test addresses the challenges associated with testing POS systems by using advanced computer vision and AI-driven techniques. This platform-agnostic solution can operate across various applications, from web and mobile interfaces to proprietary POS software, IoT peripherals, and payment gateways. With Eggplant Test, users can simulate real-world interactions with POS systems, visually verifying functions that are difficult to test manually. It enables automation even for graphical user interfaces (GUIs) and complex touch-based gestures, such as swiping or tapping, which are central to modern retail POS systems.

In addition, Eggplant Test’s low-code, natural language-like command system simplifies the creation of test scripts, making it accessible to users without extensive programming experience. The ability to connect multiple systems and perform comprehensive, end-to-end testing ensures data consistency between transaction totals, inventory adjustments, and back-end operations. By validating these integrations and performance metrics, Eggplant Test minimizes the risk of disruptions during software updates or hardware changes, which are common in retail environments.

This application note includes example scripts and visuals illustrating how Eggplant Test connects with retail POS systems, interacts with user interfaces, and performs complex end-to-end tests across systems in real time. These capabilities allow retail organizations to streamline the testing process, reduce testing time, and eliminate coverage gaps that can leave systems vulnerable to performance issues. As a result, Eggplant Test enhances system reliability and optimizes user experience, supporting a resilient and efficient retail POS infrastructure.