Pomeroy's Toshiba Certification: A Move to De-Risk Retail's AI Revolution

HEBRON, KY – July 15, 2026 – In a move that speaks volumes about the future of retail technology deployment, Pomeroy Technologies has secured a comprehensive certification for Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions' ELERA® Commerce Platform. While press releases announcing partner certifications are common, this one signals a deeper strategic alignment aimed at solving one of the most pressing challenges in the retail sector today: how to implement sophisticated AI technologies without disrupting operations or breaking the bank.

This certification, which empowers Pomeroy to sell, implement, support, and manage the AI-driven platform across the U.S. and Canada, deepens a partnership that already spans three decades. It transforms Pomeroy from a long-standing collaborator into a turnkey solutions provider for retailers grappling with the immense promise and parallel perils of digital transformation.

The High-Stakes Race for Retail AI

The retail industry is in an AI arms race. With the global retail AI market valued at over $11 billion in 2024 and projected to quadruple by 2030, the pressure to invest is immense. Retailers are pouring capital into AI to personalize customer experiences, optimize supply chains, and streamline operations. Yet, for every success story, there are countless tales of stalled projects and disappointing returns on investment.

The core challenge is not a lack of ambition but a surplus of complexity. A recent industry survey found that while 89% of retailers are piloting or using AI, they are simultaneously battling significant headwinds. Fragmented data silos, the difficulty of integrating new platforms with brittle legacy systems, and a persistent shortage of specialized talent create a perfect storm of implementation risk. Many firms find that AI solutions that perform brilliantly in a lab setting fail to scale across hundreds of stores with varying layouts, bandwidth, and hardware.

This is the reality Pomeroy and Toshiba are addressing head-on. "Retailers need technology partners that understand the realities of running stores in addition to the latest technology solutions," said Shawn Kitzmiller, President of U.S. Sales at Pomeroy. "As retailers continue investing in AI, automation, and connected store technologies, we recognized the importance of expanding our expertise with ELERA® certification." His statement underscores a crucial point: technology is only as good as its real-world application.

De-Risking the Rollout: The Value of a Unified Partner

Faced with these challenges, retailers are increasingly wary of multi-vendor projects that create coordination nightmares and accountability gaps. The concept of a single, trusted partner—one that can manage a technology's entire lifecycle from sale to ongoing management—has become the gold standard for de-risking major IT initiatives. This is precisely the role Pomeroy is now certified to fill for the ELERA® ecosystem.

By consolidating the roles of seller, integrator, and managed service provider, Pomeroy offers a single point of contact and a unified strategy. This model is designed to accelerate rollouts, reduce operational disruptions, and ensure that the technology performs as promised at scale. For an enterprise retailer, the ability to deploy a complex AI security suite or a new POS system across hundreds of locations without derailing daily business is a massive competitive advantage. With a portfolio that includes supporting 60,000 customer locations and 2 million devices, Pomeroy brings the enterprise-scale experience necessary to deliver on this promise.

The certification represents the next chapter in a long-standing relationship built on mutual trust. "Our partnership with Pomeroy has spanned more than 30 years because we share a commitment to helping retailers succeed through every stage of technology transformation," noted Eugene Shvartsman, CRO at Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions. He added that the certification gives retailers access to expertise needed to "deploy AI-powered solutions faster, scale with confidence, and build stores that are ready for the future."

Inside ELERA®: More Than Just a Point-of-Sale

At the heart of this partnership is Toshiba's ELERA® platform, a system designed specifically for the modern retail environment. Moving away from rigid, monolithic architectures of the past, ELERA® is built on a modular, cloud-enabled microservices framework. This allows retailers to add or upgrade capabilities—like AI-powered loss prevention or produce recognition—without having to rip and replace their entire infrastructure. It's a platform built for agility.

This certification is not merely theoretical; Pomeroy is already demonstrating its value in the field. The company recently completed a chain-wide deployment of the ELERA® Security Suite for a major grocery retailer, leveraging edge AI to mitigate shrink at self-checkout lanes—a critical pain point for the industry. It is also actively testing ELERA® Produce Recognition with another grocer, a computer vision technology that promises to speed up checkout and reduce errors by automatically identifying items.

These applications move AI from an abstract concept into a tangible tool for improving store-level P&L. By automating loss prevention and improving checkout accuracy, the ELERA® platform directly impacts the bottom line while also enhancing the customer experience. This focus on practical, measurable outcomes is what separates successful AI adoption from expensive experimentation.

A Strategic Alliance in a Competitive Field

This enhanced partnership is a calculated strategic maneuver in a fiercely competitive landscape. Toshiba faces competition not only from traditional POS providers like NCR Voyix and Oracle Retail but also from cloud giants like AWS and Google, which are aggressively pushing their own retail AI solutions. By certifying a proven, large-scale integrator like Pomeroy, Toshiba creates a powerful sales and implementation channel that can compete on service and execution, not just technology.

For Pomeroy, the certification solidifies its position as a high-value service provider in the lucrative retail technology sector. It moves the company further up the value chain, from a manager of devices to a strategic partner in business transformation. In an industry where nearly half of all tech spending is projected to go toward software and AI-enabled systems by 2026, this is exactly where a forward-looking services firm needs to be.

The 30-year history between the two firms provides a foundation of trust and shared knowledge that new alliances lack. This deep-seated collaboration ensures that Pomeroy's team understands the nuances of Toshiba's technology, enabling them to navigate complex deployments with an expertise that cannot be acquired overnight. For retailers, this translates into the confidence that their multi-million dollar technology investments are in capable hands, ready to meet the ever-changing demands of the modern consumer.