Increasingly, businesses are abandoning the traditional cash register in favor of point-of-sale (POS) systems. POS systems help companies process a broader range of payments, improve inventory management and simplify operations.
Shopify’s POS system, which pairs with the Shopify e-commerce platform, is a great choice for businesses that want to sell online and in person. In this article, we review Shopify POS to help you decide if it’s a good option for your business.
Best for multi-channel retail
Shopify is known for its e-commerce platform, but it also offers one of the best POS systems for a variety of businesses. Shopify POS is a cloud-based system and an excellent option for multi-channel retail selling, making it great for online and offline sales. You can also sell through apps, social media platforms and emails.
The Shopify POS system allows you to take orders from customers, accept various payments and sync your transactions across multiple channels from a single dashboard. Shopify POS is also great for tracking your inventory, processing orders and viewing your Shopify sales data across retail locations and online stores.
Pros
- Excellent user experience
- Customizable payment options
- Flexible plans
Cons
- Less-than-ideal analytic capabilities
- Extra fees
Pros explained
Shopify POS offers many beneficial features compared to other POS systems. Its main advantages are the excellent user experience, customizable payment options and flexible plans.
Excellent user experience
Whether you’re new to e-commerce or have extensive technical experience, you won’t need much training to put Shopify POS to use. It has a user-friendly interface that makes setup and navigation easy so you and your staff can focus on processing sales and managing relationships with customers.
Customizable payment options
Shopify POS allows for customizable payment options for customers, which is a step up from most of its competitors. You can decide which payment options you would like to include, such as credit and debit cards, gift cards and Apple Pay.
Shopify POS can also accept partial payments and deposits, allowing you to better serve both your offline and online customers.
Flexible plans
Shopify POS allows you to choose from four different compatible plans (which we explain in detail below) and switch between them as your business grows.
For instance, you can purchase the Basic Shopify plan to start. As you gain experience and scale your business, you can upgrade to a plan with more features and accounts to accommodate your business’s expansion.
Cons explained
While there are many benefits to the Shopify POS, there are areas where it could use some improvement. Some of the shortcomings include less-than-ideal analytic capabilities and extra fees.
Less-than-ideal analytic capabilities
Shopify POS includes analytic tools that give product reports and track sales, orders and customer patterns. Although access to these analytics is helpful, the reports are not as robust compared to competitor systems.
For best results, you can pair Shopify POS with an analytics system that specializes in tracking internet traffic, such as Google Analytics.
Extra fees
If you don’t use Shopify Payments as your exclusive payment processor, you will need to pay extra fees. All Shopify plans charge additional fees per transaction. The more you pay for the plan, the lower the transaction fee. Per transaction, the Basic Shopify plan charges a 2% fee, the Shopify plan charges a 1% fee and the Advanced Shopify plan charges 0.5%.
Shopify POS plans and offerings
You need to buy a Shopify e-commerce subscription plan to use the Shopify POS system. Shopify POS offers several different plans to meet the needs of its diverse range of merchants.
