10 Best POS Systems For Retail Compared

Written by

Darren DeMatas

Updated

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Written by

Darren DeMatas

Updated

Reviewed By Our team of writers and content creators are experts in ecommerce and we fact-check every claim in our work to ensure it’s accurate and up-to-date. (Learn about our editorial guidelines.).

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Want to make sure your company maximizes sales while saving time on bookkeeping? In today’s competitive marketplace, you can’t manage retail sales with a cash drawer alone. Even small retail businesses need quality point-of-sale or POS software.

Top POS Systems For Small Businesses

You’re in the right place if you’re a business owner looking to streamline operations with a point of sale (POS) app. Here we explore options for the best POS system for retail in our exclusive small business guide for stores. 

Best POS Systems for Retail

Square POS

Using Square for retail is affordable and easy to use. Square POS is so easy to use that it is a great choice for micro-businesses. With simple and reasonable flat pricing, you can easily organize your sale system around Square.

Square POS

There are simple POS hardware options, from basic card readers to more extensive customer displays like Square Register. One of the primary benefits is that non-tech users can use it immediately. It provides accurate insights to guide your company.

Square POS Hardware

Customer support is widely available, so you can get the help you need quickly if you run into any issues. It has affordable hardware options and is compatible with both Android and iOS systems.

You can freeze the account if there’s any evidence of fraudulent activity. Square also has inventory management capabilities for its free POS software that small businesses can utilize.

This is affordable for small and mid-sized retail business size, but other options may be cheaper if your company is getting large.

There is custom Square POS pricing for merchants with sales up to $250,000 per year, but it may not be as good an option for larger companies with multiple stores, as the transaction costs can quickly add up, meaning you spend thousands of dollars more than you need to.

Square does not have a monthly fee for its software. However, you will pay for the hardware and processing fees. Here’s a look at the retail POS system prices:

POS Systems Costs: Hardware

  • Square Reader: free
  • Square Stand: $149
  • Square Terminal: $299
  • Square Register: $799

Processing Fees (per transaction)

  • Card present (in-person): 2.6% + 10 cents
  • Card not present (online): 2.9% + 30 cents
  • Manually keyed in: 3.5% + 15 cents

Square Pros
  • An easy-to-use option for even the smallest of companies
  • Able to scale with you from very small to mid-sized retail
  • Great functionality for brick-and-mortar retail
Square Cons
  • Price does not scale well for larger businesses
  • Can be a little tricky to integrate with your online store
  • Some users report issues with swipe reader

Shopify POS

Shopify POS

Shopify POS is a powerful platform for ecommerce, so it makes perfect sense that their system would be a great option for ecommerce as well. If you want a powerful data collection and a transaction system for your ecommerce site, Shopify probably has you covered.

Shopify is one of the best options for any kind of retail that conducts most of its business online.

Because a Shopify app is also available, it is useful for businesses that are primarily ecommerce but have an occasional in-person presence at shows or fairs. You can use it with or without a mobile reader to process payments.

Shopify comes with reasonable pricing, making it a great option for sites just getting started. It works effortlessly with the Shopify platform. If you want to ensure that your retail POS system functionalities work perfectly and integrate with your website, the Shopify POS platform might be the way to go.

Shopify POS has advanced reporting features that make it easy to keep track of how well you’re performing across multiple sales channels and is best for omnichannel sellers.

Based on the Shopify ecommerce plan, you’ll pay 2.4%–2.7% in transaction fees. There’s a tech support team on standby to help you get set up if needed.

Shopify Pros
  • Superb integration between your ecommerce platform and website.
  • Retail POS app access is available to accept customer payments in-person for most retailers.
  • Accept partial payments, store credit, gift cards, and split tenders within Shopify and easily process refunds in the retail management platform.
  • Incredibly easy to use with excellent customer support.
  • 14-day free Shopify trial available
  • Affordable card processing costs make running costs more manageable
  • Easy hardware installation
Shopify Cons
  • The Shopify POS systems cost might be more to grow with Shopify since advanced features come on the most expensive advanced plans.
  • Reports and analytics may not be as thorough as other options, making it harder to obtain valuable insights from them.
  • Limited checkout and customer management options

Lightspeed HQ

Lightspeed HQ

Lightspeed HQ is a powerful option for ecommerce since it offers a distinct product specifically for small business owners. It also offers an option for retail, restaurants, and coffee shops.

Developing three separate products seems to have kept Lightspeed from putting as much effort into its user interface as some other programs.

However, once you get used to the sometimes awkward dashboard, you may find that this program has everything your business needs.

Prices are reasonable and are charged monthly. Lightspeed aims to give you the tools you need to compete with much larger ecommerce businesses, so if you’re looking to support fast growth, this may be ideal.

Lightspeed Pros
  • Customized program for ecommerce so you can compete with much larger companies.
  • Detailed reporting and analytics tool, integration, and standard POS tools with in-person payments.
  • In-house payment processor LightSpeed Payments for card payment processing.
  • Reasonable monthly pricing.
Lightspeed Cons
  • Must integrate with a credit card processing service to accept payments and issue refunds.
  • The clunky interface can be difficult to use, especially if new people need to use it frequently.

If you’re trying to decide between Lightspeed and Shopify, check out this article .

Heartland

Heartland Retail

Heartland is another powerful option for retail POS systems and ecommerce, as well as for other retail businesses. Take contactless payment easily through your ecommerce platform using a secure integrated payment processing service through Heartland.

You can integrate with Shopify, WordPress, Woocommerce, and many more.

Heartland also supports mail and phone orders with keyed-in payments with a computer and virtual terminal. It offers additional services like gift cards and mobile payments, too.

Heartland is a feature-rich option for many retail stores but may be especially convenient for ecommerce. Heartland also makes micropayment processing a breeze.

Heartland Pros
  • Powerful system for ecommerce that enables credit card, gift card, and micro-payment processing.
  • Wide range of features with support for gift cards, payroll, and even business loans.
  • Industry-specific solutions for several different areas.
Heartland Cons
  • Far from one of the most affordable options on the market
  • Payment is not upfront or straightforward
  • Higher rates for monthly payment, otherwise you’re into a three-year contract, which may increase running costs

Eposnow

Eposnow

Eposnow is a very powerful system that is affordable for small business retailers. If you are small but want to grow big and need robust POS systems for retail, this might be the best choice for you. It is highly compatible with third-party hardware and integrates well across POS systems so it should be able to scale with you.

You can use this retail management software on multiple devices throughout your system, including Mac, PCS, and both Android and iPad tablets. All plans come with unlimited users and online transactions.

You’ll pay by the register, making this a great choice for smaller retailers who conduct most of their transactions through one register. You can upgrade your plan if you ever need to add an additional register.

Real-time sales data is available on the dashboard. It’s easy to see which products and selling well and which aren’t. Customer information is automatically collected as well.

Eposnow Pros
  • Very robust software with affordable scaled pricing by the register.
  • Works on a wide variety of devices with excellent integration so all your employees can use it without any trouble.
  • Superb data collection and reporting with real-time sales information
  • Excellent for complex inventories, able to support as many as 60,000 items and available management tools like wireless barcode scanners. Track things at the item level with real-time tracking.
Eposnow Cons
  • By-register payment gets expensive quickly for medium and large or size businesses.
  • Some POS features may be useless and confusing for small businesses that don’t need them.

Clover

Clover POS homepage

If you want to set up your point-of-sale and get back to business fast, Clover POS is one of the best retail POS systems around. This is one of the easiest and best POS systems to set up and learn, that’s for certain.

There are many options for integrating hardware and software so you can customize your business’s needs without a lot of confusion. It’s very simple on its own, which means you won’t be cluttered with many excess tools you don’t need. Just purchase additional apps as you need them.

This is one of the best compromises between a potentially feature-rich program that is also extremely simple.

Clover offers two pricing plans. Here’s the retail POS system cost:

  • Register Lite : $14/month
  • Register Plan: $29/month

Clover POS offers an array of hardware configurations, each providing the essential hardware you need to accept payments, so you can build a customer terminal based on what you need.

Clover Go POS includes a magstripe reader and a micro USB charging cable for basic needs, so you can email receipts to your customers.

Clover Flex POS includes a high-resolution 5-inch touch screen display, screwdriver, power brick, power cord, receipt paper, and charging cradle.

It includes a branded hand-held terminal you can carry with you to use anywhere.

The Clover Mini POS includes a high-resolution 7-inch touch screen display, everything with the Flex POS, with an ethernet cable, USB cable, two rolls of receipt paper, and an all-in-one table with a receipt printer and a credit card reader.

The Clover Station includes everything the Mini has, except it, has a 14-inch display, connected receipt printers, and a connectivity hub.

Clover Pros
  • Extremely simple to use and set up, with a bare and straightforward toolset.
  • Build tools as you need them for your varying range of retail requirements.
  • Highly customizable and powerful customer and employee management tools. Set up different employee permissions, use it as an employee time clock, and more.
  • Keeps track of your inventory, and offers in-depth detailed sales reports.
  • Easy hardware installation
  • Accept on-screen signatures
Clover Cons
  • One of the more expensive options on the market, especially if you’re just starting.
  • Doesn’t have the best reputation for customer service.

Quickbooks

Quickbooka POS

Quickbooks is well-known for all kinds of small business accounting, so it should be no surprise that it also has a powerful POS system. Integration with your bookkeeping is effortless when you use QuickBooks for POS. 

You can do all of your accounting, and credit card processing, create highly useful custom reports, keep track of your inventory, and track sales using this intuitive retail management system.

The price is considerable, but QuickBooks can do a lot for you. As you grow, QuickBooks can keep up. The one-time fee means you can make your investment and not worry about maintaining a monthly subscription afterward.

A free trial lets you consider your options for a month before committing. Payment plans are available to spread out the investment.

Added advantages like offering discounts, gift receipts, and managing cash make QuickBooks one of the most feature-rich POS solution systems available. Add products to a transaction through barcode scanning, to make the checkout process as fast and efficient as possible.

You can deploy the Quickbooks retail POS system as a web-based system, an on-premise software (QuickBooks Desktop), or with the mobile app. The bookkeeping software solution works with a vast range of equipment including a pole display, wireless barcode scanners, a complete cash register, and more. It also supports a range of card processors.

There are three plans to choose from – the Basic Plan, Pro Plan, or Multi-Store. The basic version handles basic reports, payment processing, customer discounts, basic customer management and customer data tracking, and inventory tracking.

The Pro and Multi-Store pricing plans add more features, such as granular display, commission management, employee management, sales management, and custom inventory controls.

Quickbooks Pros
  • An extremely powerful program that can handle all of your accounting, transactions, and POS integration in one beautifully integrated solution for a seamless experience.
  • The Pro Plan lets you track all kinds of vendors and employee hours, and customize it to your needs, so there is plenty of room to grow with Quickbooks POS. The Pro Plan supports mailing list creation for marketing emails, making handling essential business management capabilities easier.
  • A one-time fee may be easier to manage in your business finances than a monthly subscription since you can handle the upfront costs with an extended payment plan.
  • Licensing keeps it competitive for larger and smaller companies.
  • Dedicated support team
Quickbooks Cons
  • Does not have good mobile options or app integration.
  • Doesn’t offer customer-facing displays

Vend

Vend POS

Vend offers a very robust option for small to medium-sized businesses at a straightforward monthly pricing scale. It is an excellent option for retail POS systems because of its powerful inventory management capabilities.

Vend also offers a great mobile POS feature that will come in handy if you don’t want to conduct all of your business at a register. However, there may be some extra costs for some mobile device support options.

If you want to know what is going on with your sales activity monthly, weekly, and even daily, this might be the best choice. The cloud-based system gives you perfect coordination no matter what platform you use.

Vend Pros
  • In-depth metrics on customer behavior.
  • Excellent bulk inventory tracking.
  • Easy-to-use system for medium and small businesses
  • Two-week free trial period so you can determine whether it’ll work well.
  • Save money with annual billing
Vend Cons
  • No server-based option
  • Mobile sales are limited to the iPad – no other hardware is available for retail POS systems
  • Partners with third-party for credit card transactions

Revel Systems Retail POS System

Revel POS

If you want many retail pos features for your specific type of store, Revel might have what you need. The Revel systems POS is targeted toward small businesses with specific needs. It can handle a range of industries and comes with free automatic product updates..

If your particular business is in one of their target groups, you may not mind paying a slightly higher price tag for the awesome features available.

It also includes a restaurant POS systems, which has built-in functionalities for kitchen management, making it a great choice for food trucks. You can use it to offer a variety of customers discounts, such as happy hour discounts, dollar-off discounts, group discounts, and your standard percentage discounts.

This program provides retailers with many tools right from the POS registers, so if managing your small retail store is a tough one-man job, Revel might make it much easier.

Convenience features like fast cash on hand can get you out of a tough spot. Revel handles its own credit card processing, but you can integrate it with several different processors if you would rather. It works with various equipment such as scales, cash drawers, printers, and even diagnostic devices.

You can view customer profiles, enter additional details such as card details, extra details, import lists from other sources, and store email addresses for future email marketing. You can use the customer display and additional screens to run advertising offers to shoppers.

Revel Pros
  • Highly customizable to your particular type of retail needs, with valuable insights.
  • Feature-packed with many tools available from the register.
  • In-house credit card processing is available but also integrates with other systems for retail, so you can choose your favorite payment processor.
  • Easy-to-use interface despite being highly specialized.
  • Excellent customer service offered.
Revel Cons
  • Prices are hard to figure out and tend to be quite expensive with some hidden monthly fees
  • No opportunity for a free trial.
  • Not useful if it doesn’t cover your particular area of retail.

Helcim

Helcim

Helcim offers an affordable payment processing solution that is ideal for companies that prefer a human touch in how their POS systems are handled.

Speaking of pricing, Helcim’s saves you money with a low interchange rate for each transaction. According to their website, the specific rates cited include 1.94% + 8¢ for In-Person (Average) and 2.51% + 25¢ for Keyed & Online (Average).

Plus, the pricing is incredibly transparent, with no hidden charges, monthly fees, or contracts, to be found.

This system is flexible as well and you can use it for in-person POS as well as online. And the service is bundled with numerous other features like a virtual terminal, online invoicing, and an online store builder, too. Other supported features include SMS payments, a subscription manager, and QR codes.

Helcim Pros
  • The company is committed to transparent pricing.
  • They offer a wide range of tools that help you with payment process both in-person and online.
  • Helcim prioritizes a human touch with regard to customer support.
Helcim Cons
  • All the tools and equipment you need to process POS purchases are available but you’ll need to buy them separately.
  • Payment plans and rentals aren’t currently offered.

Miva

Miva

Miva is another flexible ecommerce solution worth considering. IT caters to both B2B and B2C markets and aims to provide the full package, so to speak.

The service pricing here s tailored to different business needs with solutions available for B2B wholesalers, DTC manufacturers, as well as B2C retailers. This injects an adaptability into the service that makes it easier to change up strategy quickly, if need be.

You can manage all aspects of your online store with Miva. It includes features like unlimited SKUs, customer accounts and pricing, inventory management, and streamlined sales processes for POS.

Miva Pros
  • Miva’s agility allows businesses to adapt quickly.
  • From B2B to B2C, Miva offers complete ecommerce solutions for every way you sell.
  • Suitable for wholesalers, manufacturers, and retailers.
  • Supports a variety of integrations and automations.
Miva Cons
  • While Miva offers customization, the number of available templates and design options might be limited.
  • Mobile responsiveness is lacking and not always the most reliable.
  • There isn’t a large community of users and developers available to learn from like some of the more popular POS options on this list.

KORONA POS

korona pos

KORONA POS is highly adaptable and provides a focus on businesses with diverse needs. It doesn’t matter if you’re in retail, food service, or support, this solution can be customized to work for whatever kind of business you’re running.

This solution also offers flat rates, with no forced contracts and zero fees, making it a great option to try out. They also provide a 60-day money-back guarantee, so you’re at no risk to give it a shot. And the 24/7 support means your questions will be answered in a timely manner.

Other features on offer here include advanced inventory management, integration with ecommerce solutions, and ticketing turnstile integration.

KORONA POS also includes full reporting and analytics, scheduling, and payroll assistance so it quite literally covers everything you might need for managing your business.

KORONA POS Pros
  • Works with everything from retail to food service to ticketing services.
  • 24/7 support puts customers first.
  • The inclusion of inventory management and multi-store capabilities makes it easier to scale.
  • Straightforward setup with pre-installed and configured hardware.
KORONA POS Cons
  • This solution might be overwhelming for smaller businesses that don’t require all the advanced features.
  • The tiered pricing model is great for some ($49 per month, per terminal) but it might be a barrier for entry for startups that are budget-conscious.

Cegid Retail

cegid retail

Cegid Retail leverages a cloud-native POS to offer up a fresh way to handle retail and distribution.

It offers a real-time perspective on inventory, along with effective task management and KPI monitoring. Cegid Retail’s secure, worldwide SaaS platform is designed meet the needs of retailers, no matter how the industry changes.

Cegid allows you to monitor omnichannel BTOC systems and use its superior communication, visual merchandising, and auditing tools to great effect.

Cegid Retail Pros
  • The cloud-native POS allows for efficient business management.
  • Real-time view of inventory across allows for proper inventory management.
  • The Cegid Retail Store Excellence tools allow for improve product presentation, sales training, and task management.
  • Highly customizable.
Cegid Retail Cons
  • Not the most cost-effective option on our list.
  • It can take time to learn and fully maximize its potential.

Salesforce Commerce Cloud

salesforce commerce cloud

Salesforce Commerce Cloud is an increasingly AI-driven commerce solution, offering digital storefronts and apps to use for all aspects of running a business. It’s a growth-centric platform, with the aim of helping you achieve your goals faster, specifically through the use of smart automation.

You can manage most of your ecommerce business functions with Salesforce Commerce Cloud, from customer acquisition and loyalty to creating a seamless shopping and customer support experience.

These solutions are available across multiple areas as well, including online, mobile devices, social media, online marketplaces, in-store as well as through advertising.

Salesforce Commerce Cloud Pros
  • AI-driven commerce solution.
  • Designed to maximize growth through a well-trusted platform.
  • Useful for managing online payments, transactions, inventory, and customer data.
  • Can be used to create unique customer experiences that drive higher conversions, productivity, and brand loyalty.
Salesforce Commerce Cloud Cons
  • Pricing is on the higher side.
  • There are a ton of customization options available but they may require technical expertise.
  • Integration with other systems might be complex and require additional effort.

SumUp

sumup

SumUp is a global financial technology company that offers a straightforward POS system designed with small businesses and freelancers in mind.

Its simplicity is what makes it stand out as a platform, offering a minimalistic design and easy-to-use interface for accepting and processing payments quickly.

The mobile card reader is compatible with both iOS and Android devices and allows businesses to accept credit and debit card payments on-the-go. This flexibility makes it an attractive option for all sorts of business types from boutiques to pop-up shows to food trucks.

Other features include sales tracking, digital receipts, and basic inventory management. And it works well with many of the top accounting software options currently available, allowing for seamless financial management.

SumUp Pros
  • Simple and user-friendly design
  • Transparent and affordable pricing
  • Mobile compatibility for on-the-go payments
  • Supports multiple currencies.
SumUp Cons
  • Not suitable for larger businesses so not great for scaling.
  • Customer support availability might not be enough for some.

POS System – Buyer’s Retail Guide

There’s no one-size-fits-all for most POS systems since it’s nearly impossible to meet the needs of all businesses with the same type of software. The best POS options provide a range of benefits to support your business, such as:

  • Increasing customer base and income
  • Improving the checkout experience
  • Providing complete awareness of purchases and sales in real-time.
  • Retail Inventory tracking
  • Boosting customer loyalty (some platforms even include additional loyalty program functionalities so you can build your own customer loyalty app program.)
  • Making it easier to see best-selling products or services across customer groups.

When to Scale up Your POS System

If your retail POS software isn’t doing all this for you, it may be time to scale up.

If your retail POS software isn’t doing all this for you, it may be time to scale up.

Many owners invest in systems for their store that include retail features like accounting software when they’re small. Over time, it may be difficult to see that you’ve outgrown it. It is time to update your retail POS system if it:

  • Has outdated features: Technology is always on the move and change right under your feet. It makes sense then that your POS system should keep pace. Outdated features can make your business less efficient and limit your ability to compete.
  • Doesn’t offer all the integrations that you need: This includes essential integrations like accounting tools and customer relationship management. A lack of integration means, again, a lack of efficiency and can introduce workflow bottlenecks where they simply don’t need to exist.
  • Lacks support for advanced inventory management: If your system can’t track your entire inventory or lacks the inventory tools you need, you’re likely missing out on opportunities to optimize stock levels and reduce costs.
  • Doesn’t give you up-to-date reports: You need real-time reporting to make informed decisions about your business. If your system is slow to generate reports or provides inaccurate (or outdated) data, your strategy will never be as on-point as it could be.
  • Is missing other features you need to grow: Maybe your current system doesn’t provide support for mobile payments. Or maybe it doesn’t offer loyalty programs. Regardless, if it doesn’t have the features you need to meet your business goals, it’s time for a switch.
  • It’s unreliable or has performance issues: If your system doesn’t perform as promised, it can make it difficult to complete the tasks you need to.
  • Lacks timely and/or experienced customer support: With business growth comes a greater need for knowledgeable support and a lack of it can have disastrous consequences.
  • Isn’t up-to-date with the latest in security: One of your most important jobs when doing business online is to ensure the security of your customers’ data. If your system doesn’t meet the latest security standards, it’s time to move on.

What Should You Look for in a POS System

If you don’t know what’s available, you won’t know what to look for. Many POS systems offer more than you may realize . The best POS systems for retail not only improves sales but also improves many aspects of the customer experience. Key features include:

Track Sales

The most important feature of a retail POS system is sales tracking. Most modern POS systems are cloud-based, so you can see what’s happening with sales in real-time, whether from online purchase orders or in-person buyers.

A retail POS system helps you track your customers’ preferences in several ways, which helps manage customer loyalty programs.

If you don’t already have a great loyalty system, it is well worth considering one. Loyalty programs can build customer lifetime value to support growth for years.

The best retail POS systems integrate your customizable loyalty program with your sales platform. The integration allows for a more personalized shopping experience with customized messaging, special offers, and ads.

Manage Inventory

In retail, adequate inventory management is crucial. Integrating inventory with the best POS data ensures you know what’s available at any given time.

It should work with the type of items you sell in your product catalog and make it easy to manage products with item keywords.

Quality POS software alerts you to shortages, allowing fast restocking and preventing over-purchasing. Some POS systems allow you to automatically reorder when inventory hits a certain threshold, to prevent stockouts.

Many of the best POS systems also alert you when products are in high demand and when products fall out of favor, with item-level reporting.

Reduce the Need for Manpower

Business software aims to automate processes to devote manpower to more value-added tasks, and retail POS software is no different.

Using automation where possible ensures that you can run your retail business with less manpower and dedicates your available manpower to tasks only they can handle. The more that you can integrate, the better.

You can automate everything in your retail business, from supplier goods, to current discounts and coupons, and income per customer. Connecting software to barcode scanners for easy inventory management, too.

Some POS systems can even organize financial data for you, saving time on your taxes and annual bookkeeping tasks.

Customer Management and Customization

The best POS systems help to gather and use data to improve customer relationships. You can base discounts, rewards, and loyalty points on individual customer interactions, rather than mass offers.

If you’ve had trouble with customer loyalty program management before, automating it with your POS software removes the hassle of customer management.

The ideal retail platform not only has powerful tracking capabilities, but also offers a range of engagement tools to help you attract buyers through loyalty programs, and keep in touch with them.

Better yet, quality retail POS providers have excellent customer advertising options. Your POS system can offer targeted ads during checkout including individualized coupons from a receipt printer. This can increase impulse buying to boost profit from each purchase.

Usage Customization

If you’ve got a brick-and-mortar store in addition to your ecommerce website, or you’re growing quickly, you may want flexibility in your usage.

Stores that do almost all their checkouts at a counter may want big, easy-to-use, and clear displays to make transactions easier for cashiers and customers.

Stores that sell from multiple locations may want a handheld tablet system. Ecommerce businesses will have entirely different needs from their retail POS system. They may not need at all for cash payments but need highly tuned inventory management .

Regardless of the business model, businesses need to be able to accept multiple forms of payment – from debit cards and credit cards to digital wallets and other contactless payment options, and other custom payment types. That’s another key element the separates out the best POS systems.

Ecommerce Platform Integration

Your POS provider needs to integrate smoothly with your ecommerce platform. The best ecommerce platforms offer features and data that can be extremely useful for making data-driven business decisions.

Integration with your Fulfillment Provider

However your order is fulfilled, The POS systems you consider must be able to automatically communicate with the provider when an order is received and dispatched to the customer. If your fulfillment provider doesn’t support your POS integration, learn what a great ecommerce fulfillment center should offer and make a change.

Your fulfillment provider should work smoothly with your POS system to reduce the manpower you need to manage your retail business.

Security and Compliance

Any of the best POS systems you select as a part of your POS software testing process should adhere to the latest security standards. Period. This is an absolute must to protect your customer’s personal information, including their financial details.

This can be implemented by means of encryption, user authentication, and compliance with industry regulations such as PCI DSS.

Since online security threats continue to be rampant, having a secure POS system should be a requirement for all. For the good of retail businesses but also for the good of your customers and your reputation. You’re not exactly going to achieve customer loyalty if your customers’ data is breached.

That’s why any retail business that wishes to boost customer loyalty and growth needs to consider security just as much — if not more so — than any other retail features.

Analytics and Reporting

The right POS system for you should also offer advanced analytics and reporting features as well. These features allow you to gain insights into sales trends, customer behavior, and overall business performance.

And best of all, you can use this information to guide future decisions you make about your marketing strategies and the inventory you buy.

With the right analytics, you can identify all sorts of things like your best-performing products, the best-performing retail point, whether or not a particular strategy is effective, and more.

Along with analytics come robust reporting tools. Regular reports can provide a clear and concise view of your sales, profits, and expenses incurred in your retail business.

Be sure to look for reporting customization features as well. Narrowing down your reports to specific areas of interest can provide even more helpful insights for your business.

User-Friendly Interface

You definitely shouldn’t discount the importance of a user-friendly interface when weighing the best POS system for your business. Beyond hardware bundles and efficiency, you also need to find a platform that ensures that your staff can quickly learn and actually put the POS provider to work — without extensive training.

Retailers and businesses can then enjoy the overall boosted efficiency in workflow and general operations.

What makes a well-designed interface? It should be visually appealing, logically organized, and free of complexity when possible.

It should provide clear navigation and easy access to the most commonly used functions within the POS system. While complicated features might require walkthroughs, the basic interface shouldn’t require a training session for most businesses.

Support and Training

Now, we just talked about the importance of an easy-to-use interface without the need for training. However, as your business becomes more complex, your needs are likely to expand as well.

You’ll need ongoing support and training to maximize the value of any investment you make into a POS system. Training and support are necessary as well for staying ahead of (and anticipating) your customers’ needs. To find the best POS system, look for one that offers comprehensive support, including online resources for retailers, live chat, and phone support.

But training options should be on the table here as well to keep your team up to date. This includes initial training for new users and ongoing training to introduce new features or refresh existing knowledge.

Wrapping Up

There is no shortage of options for retail POS systems, but making the decision about which one to use hard for many retailers. You’re not alone if you’re struggling to get the ball rolling. This POS system list is designed to help you find the best pos tool is for you.

We’ve found that Square point of sale (POS) is the simplest platform for micro-businesses since it is affordable and easy to set up. For Shopify users, the Shopify POS system is an ideal solution, since it integrates seamlessly.

For medium-to-large ecommerce stores that also have multiple physical store locations, we recommend either ShopKeep POS system or Esposnow POS system. Shopkeep allows for up to 20 retail locations, while Esposnow allows for by-the-register billing making them both the most popular pos systems for larger businesses.

No matter what products you sell, or the size of your catalog, conducting thorough retail POS research is a must. Only then can you land on the right retail POS system that makes all the difference in how smoothly you can operate your retail business.

Spend time evaluating features like inventory management tools, customer relationship management tools, and costs such as the monthly fee and payment processing fees before making your final choice.

And remember that no one POS system is going to work for all retailers. Retail solutions vary from business to business, so take stock of what your business needs, examine what other retailers use, and then you can land on your final decision.

About the author

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Darren DeMatas
Darren has an MBA in Internet Marketing and 10+ years of experience marketing retail, manufacturing and Internet marketing corporations, 7-figure brands and startups online. Follow him on TwitterLinkedIn

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