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Retail POS Printing FAQ

General Questions

What printing equipment does a retail store typically need?

Most retail businesses use some combination of: A receipt printer at the checkout for customer receipts, a label printer for product, price, or shelf-edge labelling, a cash drawer for handling cash payments, and a barcode scanner for ringing up items at checkout. Larger or multi-till stores may also use kiosk printers for self-checkout, and mobile printers for line-busting during busy periods. They are commonly used at checkout counters, kitchens, and mobile point-of-sale setups. Depending on the model, they can also support cloud printing, mobile printing, and kitchen order routing.

What is the difference between a receipt printer and a label printer in retail?

Star printers are compatible with a wide range of leading POS systems, including Shopify POS, Square POS, Lightspeed, and many other retail and hospitality platforms. Compatibility depends on the specific printer model and connection type, but Star devices are widely supported across modern POS ecosystems.

What is the difference between a receipt printer and a label printer in retail?

A receipt printer is designed to print transaction receipts, typically on continuous thermal paper, cut to length after each sale. A label printer is designed to print adhesive labels, such as product labels, price tags, or click & collect labels, often using pre-sized or linerless label media rather than continuous receipt paper. Some hybrid models, such as the TSP100IVSK, can handle both.

Checkout & Till Setup

How many printers do I need per till?

Most single-till setups need just one receipt printer, with a cash drawer connected to it. Stores that also print labels at checkout, such as for click & collect or returns, may use a second, dedicated label printer alongside the receipt printer to avoid switching media types mid-transaction.

Can I use one printer for both receipts and click & collect labels?

Star printers support multiple connection types depending on the model: USB: Direct connection to a single device. Ethernet (LAN): Stable network connection for multiple devices. Wi-Fi: Wireless printing across a network. Bluetooth: Short-range mobile printing, often used with tablets, phones or handheld POS terminals. The best option depends on your POS setup and business environment.

Product & Shelf Labelling

What type of printer is best for product and price labels?

Dedicated label printers, such as the mC-Label2 or mC-Label3, are best suited to ongoing product, price, and shelf-edge labelling, since they're designed around label media and printing workflows rather than receipt-length paper.

What is the benefit of linerless labels for retail labelling?

Linerless labels don't require a backing paper to be peeled away and discarded, which reduces waste and means more labels fit on a single roll, useful for stores doing frequent batch labelling or relabelling.

Click & Collect, Online Orders & Multi-Channel

How do online orders get printed in-store for click & collect?

Most click & collect and online order systems use cloud-based printing to send order and label details directly to an in-store printer. Star's CloudPRNT technology allows compatible printers to retrieve and print these jobs automatically from a web-based system, without needing a dedicated tablet to relay each order.

Can the same printer handle both in-store sales and online orders?

It depends on volume and setup. Some stores use a single CloudPRNT-enabled printer for both, while higher-volume or multi-channel retailers often use a dedicated printer for online order labels to avoid it competing with checkout printing during busy periods.

Self-Service & Self-Checkout

What's different about a self-checkout printer compared to a standard till printer?

Self-checkout and kiosk printers are generally built for higher duty cycles and more unattended operation, since they may be used continuously across multiple self-service stations without staff immediately on hand if paper runs low or a jam occurs. Star's SK4 and SK5 kiosk printer ranges are built specifically for this kind of use.

Mobile & Line-Busting

What equipment is used for line-busting in retail?

Line-busting typically uses a mobile POS app on a tablet or handheld device, paired with a battery-powered mobile printer, allowing staff to process transactions and print receipts away from a fixed till during busy periods. Star's SM-S230i is commonly used for this due to its compact size and all-shift battery life.

Setup & Troubleshooting

Why might a label printer print blank or faded labels?

Common causes include using the wrong type of media for the printer (such as using direct thermal labels in a configuration expecting a different type), the print head needing cleaning, or label sensors needing recalibration after a media change. Checking the media type against the manufacturer's specification usually resolves most quality issues.

Star Micronics EMEA provides POS printing solutions designed for retail, hospitality, and mobile business environments across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

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What our customers are saying

“Connectivity so simple to each device, each operating system, via cable, via cloud is indeed impressive”
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