The POS machine is an electronic payment terminal, and the channel refers to the credit card network. Among merchants that accept credit card payments, POS machines are like a bridge connecting merchants and international credit card organizations. The merchant initiates a transaction request to the credit card organization through the POS machine. The credit card organization forwards the request to the bank for authorization, and the bank then feeds back the authorization result to the merchant. This is the basic working principle of the POS machine channel.

There are multiple POS machine channels, such as Visa, Mastercard, American Express and other international credit card organizations. The communication between different credit card organizations is not exactly the same, and merchants need to choose a POS channel that supports the types of credit cards they accept. In addition, the handling fees charged by different POS machine channels are also different. Merchants can choose the appropriate POS machine channel according to their own business needs.

With the popularity of mobile payments and electronic payments, POS machine channels are no longer the exclusive domain of traditional banks. Third-party payment institutions have also begun to provide POS machine services, and often can provide more flexible and convenient payment methods, such as QR code payment, facial recognition payment, etc. Therefore, when choosing POS machine channels, merchants can choose different service providers based on their own business characteristics and payment needs to obtain a better payment experience and higher profits.