Exclusive interview with Richard Barnett, VP Sales EMEA & APAC at Flooid

In this newsletter, I usually spotlight the most important developments in retail. Today, I’m focusing on the people driving that change. I’m thrilled to share an exclusive conversation with Richard Barnett, Vice President of Sales for EMEA and APAC at Flooid.

Richard is widely respected for his deep retail expertise and pragmatic view on what actually works at scale. We discuss how global retailers succeed across markets, why an API-first, cloud-native, microservices architecture matters, and how to turn fiscal compliance from a bottleneck into a true advantage. We also explore Flooid’s approach to unified commerce and what’s next in highly regulated markets.

I’ve known Richard and the Flooid team for years, and I’m proud of our collaboration. I think you’ll find his insights both practical and forward-looking. Let’s dive in.

One Platform, Every Market: Richard Barnett on Unified Commerce Done Right

Darko: Flooid is known for its innovative POS that anchors its Unified Commerce platform. Could you explain your vision for helping retailers succeed in multiple markets worldwide?

Richard: Flooid’s vision is to continually be the best provider of a composable, unified commerce platform, which is anchored by a portfolio of exciting endpoint experiences retailers use to delight and engage with customers in their stores. Many of our retail customers have a regional or global strategy, meeting the needs and demand of consumers worldwide, whether that be in a busy airport, on the high street, or a big box destination store.

Flooid is a key strategic partner for our retailers. To continue to add real value, drive efficiencies, and empower innovation in store, we need to ensure that the power of Flooid is available in all of their markets, old and new.

Our mission includes providing a suite of global solutions empowering our retail partners to open new stores and operate in existing locations, regardless of where in the world they want to operate. We do this by providing a single unified commerce platform, with an open API structure and a dedicated and resilient suite of endpoints. All of these are seamlessly connected to local markets, rules, and fiscalisation requirements through our fiscal engine enabled by a dedicated partnership with Fiscal Solution.

Richard Barnett, VP Sales EMEA & APAC at Flooid

Darko: What makes globalization of POS solutions such a challenge today?

Richard: It is not just the language of the product; in fact, that is the easy part. Through the global reach of Flooid as part of the Glory Global Solutions group, and our specialised partnerships, we provide the answers to many of the challenges of market entry around the world.

There is no one size fits all. The challenge to overcome is understanding what works in certain geographies, how consumers interact with technology, such as making payments by cash, card, contactless or digital, or how they expect to interact with a self-checkout or loyalty system. By answering the “how”, we then need to understand the “what”. What solutions are required to stitch together the engagement with technology in store, with the legal and fiscal requirements.

Only through expertise supplied by dedicated, experienced teams, do we break down the challenges and ensure the term “one-size fits all” truly means something to retailers.  We provide a toolkit to deploy, engage, thrive and innovate in the way the local markets need in an interconnected world.

Darko: How does your API-first, cloud-based, microservices approach support retailers in scaling globally?

Richard: I will go back to the “what” and the “how”. The “what” is the toolset we provide, removing the complexity from the point of sale by providing a fiscal engine, which is a gateway to specific market requirements that have minimal effect on the POS. This provider model approach means that fiscalisation and local legal requirements are not only met, but monitored and managed without the need for complex and costly changes to the point of sale.

APIs are only of real value to retail innovation if they are open and available for retailers and their ecosystem of specialised providers to use. We understand this at Flooid, which is why we have spent considerable time and effort perfecting an API-first strategy to enable complex shopping journeys in store, at home, and on the move.

The consumer must be the priority. This can only be achieved by breaking down barriers to interaction and providing a rich and rewarding experience to make them want to return. Customer loyalty does not always require a card; it is the service instore, online, and also after they leave the store or leave the webpage. Flooid’s open API platform enables this seamless transition of consumers’ expectations to browse, engage, pay and reward, regardless of where they shop or how they wish to engage.

Think of it as a bus journey. A consumer can hop on at any point, and at any time, hop off when they wish to take a break, as many times, on as many different buses until they reach their destination. Shopping is the same; let the consumer decide the route they wish to take, and it is up to the retailer to remove limitations, break down barriers, and above all, make it easy for them.

Now apply this globally. Retailers wish to make the same local journey, just as easy for consumers if they are in Europe, Asia, Africa or the Americas. They desire the same simplified and seamless journey, without the need to implement many different systems, many different platforms, and be left with the cost to manage and maintain this complex network of suppliers, providers, and integrators.

APIs, microservices, and a global approach to cloud enable all of this in modern retail.

Darko: Why is this architecture particularly important for retailers entering highly regulated markets?

Richard: The POS provider is not, and should not be, the single point of failure in new and complex markets. Ensuring the point of sale does not become a barrier to excellent service, and supporting the crucial engagement in store between colleague and customer is a key focus point of Flooid. With this in mind, we need to ensure that our open architecture is ready and available for key providers in the partnership to break down the complexity of highly regulated markets. This includes hardware partners such as fiscal printers, specific systems requirements, and of course, fiscal experts to monitor, deploy, manage and change as the markets and requirements change.

Many retailers see fiscal compliance as a burden. How does Flooid help turn compliance into a strategic advantage for its customers?

Richard: You’re right, compliance is often viewed as a “necessary evil” in retail — something that slows down projects and adds unexpected costs. At Flooid, we take a different view. The key is a clear separation between business logic and fiscalisation logic. Our architecture enables this in an ideal way: all features required by law, and everything that supports them, live in a separate layer that is managed by a global team dedicated exclusively to compliance.

This approach brings two powerful benefits. First, it gives retailers immediate access to a large pool of compliance specialists, eliminating the resource bottleneck that often blocks international expansion. Second, it changes the focus for POS developers. Instead of being tied up with compliance details, they can concentrate on building value-added features that matter for retailers and their customers. In this way, compliance stops being a burden and becomes an enabler of growth and innovation.

Darko: Flooid has chosen Fiscal Solutions’ middleware as part of its compliance strategy. What role does this partnership play in enabling flexibility and speed?

Richard: For us, it was essential to find a partner who not only understands fiscal law but also knows how to translate that into scalable technology. Fiscal Solutions is unique in that regard — they are offering both deep consulting services and middleware technology, and they’ve been doing it successfully for more than 22 years.

This combination means they can help us and our customers find the optimal fiscalisation solution for every market or retailing concept, and then actually implement it. Their middleware acts as the dedicated compliance layer in our architecture, so all fiscal requirements are managed consistently across countries. The result is faster updates, smoother market entry, and the confidence that even highly complex regulatory demands are covered.

Darko: Could you give an example of how Fiscal Solutions help you or your customers manage complex fiscal regulations in a new market?

Richard: A good example is when our retail clients expand into a highly regulated European market. Normally, this would require extensive local customisations, fiscal devices, and months of preparation. With Fiscal Solutions’ middleware integrated, most of the requirements are already handled in the compliance layer.

Another strength is their long history in the market. Because they’ve been active for more than two decades, they can cover not only modern compliance models but also older instances — like offline cases or specialised fiscal printers — without difficulty. That’s a huge advantage, because retailers often face mixed environments when expanding internationally.

Darko: Where do you see the next big opportunities for global retail expansion?

Richard: Flooid operates across many key retail verticals, including grocery, convenience, fuel, fashion, hospitality and FMCG. We are not looking to predict the future, but instead we are looking to help shape it, by providing an easier way to deploy a retail format in new and every changing territories. With AI taking much of the heavy lifting of loss prevention, consumer engagement, and personalised service, we can now help shape where retailers wish to expand.

Some of the growth areas will come into what has traditionally been seen as highly complex areas. The Asia-Pacific region is the fastest growing market for retail, and with that comes the need for providing fast and efficient service at the checkout.

Another growth market is Africa and the Middle East. We need to expect and react to some of these growth areas. Retailers need to open stores, and those stores need to service their consumers, so complexities such as where to store data, how to apply local laws, and of course fiscalisation requirements need to be tackled head on. As a unified commerce platform provider, we now not only have the tools, but also the focus to assist entry into some of the markets traditionally considered complex.

With all that said, it can be easy to overlook some of the more traditional markets, such as Europe, the US, and Latin America. These markets are also experiencing retail growth, and through AI and other tools we are seeing a surge in innovation to make the shopping journeys simpler, more rewarding, and incredibly exciting.

Darko: How will Flooid’s POS solution continue to evolve to support new retail concepts and compliance challenges?

Richard: By peeling away the layers of complexity, and engaging with automation tools and AI, we can focus on speed to value. The time it takes retailers to realise value out of technology changes and investments. Flooid’s unified commerce platform was one of the first to market; this has meant we have learnt, adapted, and innovated our own solutions to enable and empower retailers to do the same.

Complex challenges are no longer the sole focus of technology; it is technology that has become the enabler to innovate and expand service, offering new and exciting paths for consumers to take. This could be a retailer offering something new, such as an in-store café, a pop-up shop, or entry into a new market.

Together with our partners, we give retailers the power to transform the customer experience at every stage of the shopping journey. And we give retailers the power and flexibility to sell consistently and seamlessly any time, any place, any way.

Darko: If you could share one message with retailers considering international expansion, what would it be?

Richard: Don’t look for the easy option, look for the best option.

I once received great advice: ‘don’t force a square peg into a round hole’. In retail, that means choosing technology partners whose strengths naturally complement your goals. When expanding internationally, it can be challenging to expect a single, closed solution to do it all. Instead, seek out an experience platform built for openness…one that embraces collaboration with specialist partners to simplify complexity and deliver innovation across every touchpoint. That’s how you achieve ‘round pegs in round holes’.

Darko: Richard, thank you for your time and clear insights, it’s inspiring to hear how Flooid is shaping unified commerce globally. And thanks to our readers for joining us; if you have questions or thoughts, I’d love to continue the conversation.

For more information about Flooid, visit https://www.flooid.com/uk/