WHY POP/ POS?
A point-of-sale display (POS display) is a specialized form of sales promotion near, on, or next to a checkout counter (the "point of sale"). They are intended to draw the customers' attraction to products, which may be new products, or on special offer, and are also used to promote special events, e.g. seasonal or holiday-time sales. Point Of Sale displays can include shelf edging, dummy packs, display packs,display stands, mobiles, led lamp, posters, and banners. POS can also refer to the point of sales display systems used to record transactions between the customer and the commerce.
Usually, in smaller retail outlets, POS displays are supplied by the manufacturer of the products, and also sited, restocked and maintained by one of their regular salespersons. However, this is less common in large supermarkets as they can control the activities of their suppliers due to their large purchasing power, and prefer to use their own material designed to be consistent with their corporate theme and store layout.
In the field of POS displays, a "lightbox" is a display fixture (or a modular component of a larger Point Of Sale machine) that contains a translucent graphic film with lamps that transmit light through the graphic, thus "backlighting" the graphic message for increased visibility, brightness and contrast relative to its surroundings. The artwork or backlit graphic film (aka "duratrans") in a POS lightbox is replaceable without discarding the lightbox or any of its other components.
Lightboxes have historically been lighted with fluorescent lamps due to their (a) cooler operating temperature than incandescent; (b) relatively efficient power consumption; and (c) inherent diffusive property. However, as in most commercial lighting applications, there has been a significant industry-wide shift in the late 20th and early 21st century toward LED lamps in POS lightboxes, for not just the universally-acknowledged benefit of economy but also of practicality, as LED lamps are more durable and impact-resistant in shipping, handling and public applications such as Point-of-Sale.
Note: the definition of "lightbox" as it relates to POS displays is similar to but distinct from that of a lightbox in the Photography and Graphic Arts industries. The similarity is that they both contain lamps whose light is diffused to uniformly backlight a translucent image; the distinction is that a Point Of Sale lightbox is a permanent or semi-permanent fixture used to display an advertising message in a retail space, while a photography lightbox is usually a portable or table-mounted appliance used for image quality analysis and/or tracing in a photography studio, graphic design studio, graphic/print production shop restaurant pos or similar environment near the POS system.