6 Best Grocery Store POS Systems For 2023

You’ll pay an extra $59/month for each additional device you install Lightspeed Retail on (each plan starts with one POS software license).

Add-ons such as Lightspeed Subscriptions, as well as any third-party software you add to Lightspeed, will cost extra.

Note: You can purchase Lightspeed Loyalty as a separate add-on if you don’t want to upgrade your plan just for the loyalty program.

Lightspeed is heavily focused on retail and offers these excellent retail inventory management features:

• Item bundling and automated breakdowns
• Inventory matrices
• Stock transfer across locations
• Pricing rules based on location and customer segment
• Purchase ordering from a vendor catalog
• Master purchase orders, so you can order for multiple locations from a single vendor
• Custom reorder points and low-stock alerts

Pricing rules allow you to create special prices for co-op members and give discounts for specialty store shoppers who sign up for a monthly membership account. Lightspeed’s vendor catalog manager, which Lightspeed has made available on all retail plans since our last update, makes it easy for other businesses to request space on your shelves and easy for you to feature certain vendors on an eCommerce site.

Lightspeed Subscriptions allows co-op owners to create fixed subscriptions so that customers can pay their membership fee incrementally.

Specialty stores can also use Lightspeed Subscriptions to create rolling monthly subscriptions for specialty items (e.g., “wine of the month”) or even allow people to buy fixed subscriptions for certain months or as a gift for someone else (such as a month-long weekly Valentines chocolate box delivery for a loved one).

Example subscription box setup of pet supplies from a co-op.

Lightspeed also has excellent customer management tools, including the ability to create a B2B customer experience on your grocery store’s website. You can create custom prices and minimum order requirements for different customer segments, then force customers to sign up before they can place a wholesale order. If you only want to work with certain businesses, you can mark all signups as “approval required” and approve accounts as you see fit.

Lightspeed Retail card reader, iPad POS device in case, eCommerce site on PC and smartphone device.

You can purchase a Lightspeed Payments-compatible WisePOS E-card reader for $299 and an iPad for $329.

Lightspeed offers accessories such as an iPad stand for $199, a cash drawer for $129, a barcode scanner for $199, a label printer for $124, and a receipt printer for $399.

Contact a Lightspeed representative and ask about a discount on a retail POS hardware bundle.

Lightspeed has its own in-house payment processor, Lightspeed Payments. Business owners in the US and Canada are required to use this payment processor.

With Lightspeed Payments, you’ll pay a processing fee of 2.6% plus $0.10 for tap, chip, and swipe payments. For online orders, you’ll pay a fee of 2.9% plus $0.30 per transaction. This is on par with other POS providers that include integrated payment processing, such as Square and Clover.

Lightspeed’s annual plans are more cost-effective than monthly ones. However, Lightspeed does charge early termination fees if you cancel your plan, so start with a monthly plan before committing to Lightspeed for the long run.

If you purchase POS hardware from Lightspeed, you must verify that you have received your items within five business days of receiving them. If you do not, the equipment is not covered under Lightspeed’s 30-day warranty (14 days for Apple products).

On the free plan, you are allowed to have an unlimited number of registers, which is not true for many other grocery POS providers.

On the paid plan, you get one register per location. You’ll have to pay an extra $40/register/month to add new registers to your locations.

Integrations such as the TotilPay app will cost an extra monthly fee.

Square is unique because all of its best features are free for all users. These free features include:

• Unlimited free POS system licenses and unlimited users
• Free online store builder that customers can use to order groceries for curbside pickup, local delivery, and/or shipping
• Free Square online checkout link generator that allows you to take payments over text, email, or QR code
• Free social media marketing channel integrations

Mobile sellers can use Square online checkout links as a way for customers to pre-order items when they’re running low. For example, if you sell your store’s baked goods at a community event and start running low, customers can pre-order items that they really like for pickup or delivery using a QR code (which you can easily print on paper for free).

Square grocery store POS system QR code generator.

Square also supports CBD sales, gift card sales, sales by weight, and EBT/WIC transactions (through the Totilpay integration).

Farmers with a storefront or who sell a CSA/farm share can integrate Square with Local Food Marketplace, a farm production and logistics software. With these two, you can sell recurring produce subscriptions online and upsell customers when they come to pick up their orders.

Paid Square plans offer more inventory management features, such as automated purchase ordering, inventory counts, and multilocation stock management, at a highly competitive price point.

On a paid plan, you can schedule item updates, which is great for creating and advertising weekly specials. You can also create time-sensitive and recurring sales, such as a weekly discount on produce items.

Square Terminal handheld POS system, Square Register, Square contactless card reader, and Square iPad stand.

To accept chip/tap payment methods, you’ll need at least the Square contactless credit card reader, which costs $49 ($69 for the new second-generation Square card reader.) This is enough for strictly mobile businesses such as sellers at farmers’ markets.

For grocery stores with physical locations, we recommend at least the $579 Square Stand kit, which includes an iPad stand and integrated card reader, cash drawer, and receipt printer. If you’re looking for a proprietary register with a large screen, the Square Register kit, which does not require you to source your own iPad, costs $1,189.

The Square scale is $500, and if you buy a scanner new from Square, you’ll pay around $150, depending on the model.

Read our Square POS hardware guide to decide what equipment you’ll need and how to get the best deals.

Note: To accept EBT and WIC sales through the TotilPay app integration, you’ll need two card readers, one from Square and one from TotilPay. Square hopes to fully integrate TotilPay with Square card readers in the future.

Square does not integrate with any external payment processor. The company charges the following payment processing rates:

• In-Person Payments: 2.5%-2.6% plus $0.10 per card-present transaction (dependent on subscription plan)
• Online Payments: 2.9% plus $0.30 per transaction (online orders placed for pickup or local delivery)
• Card-On-File/Manual Keyed-In Cards: 3.5% plus $0.15 per transaction

You’ll pay different payment processing fees for EBT/WIC sales made through the TotilPay app.

Note: If you like the EBT/WIC sales integration and mobile POS option but want more flexibility on payment processing fees, Clover POS is a solid grocery store software alternative to Square.

Square is one of the most transparent POS system providers and payment processors out there. Contracts are month-to-month, and you may cancel at any time.

Hardware purchased through Square is under warranty. If you break your hardware within that warranty period, you may order a free replacement, but you must send your broken hardware back within 14 days of receiving your new equipment.

This warranty even extends to products that aren’t purchased through Square.

Clover offers several different software subscription plans, but grocery store owners should opt for the $44.95/month-$64.90/month Clover Register plan to get all the inventory and employee management functionalities they need.

Additional Clover software licenses cost $9.95/month/register if you have all your registers in one location. If, for example, you have two Clover Minis in two different stores, you’ll have to pay the full Register subscription cost for both Minis.

Note: The above prices are for Clover software you purchase on Clover.com when you pay for your hardware upfront. If you lease your Clover hardware, your monthly plan will be much higher. Your monthly pricing may also differ if you sign up with a third-party hardware provider.

Read our Clover POS pricing guide to understand more about how Clover software, hardware, and payment processing services affect your monthly billing.

Clover’s most unique feature is its large app market filled with retail and grocery-specific apps. Grocery store owners will want to get Clover apps for EBT payments, ID verification to sell regulated items, employee scheduling and time clocks, cash tracking, and more advanced inventory management.

You may also consider a self-checkout app, tobacco rebate program app, weight-based sale app, and variable barcode sales app.

Clover grocery store POS system free EBT payment app.

Clover offers a built-in loyalty program that essentially works as your custom-branded mobile app.

Within your Clover dashboard, you can decide how customers earn loyalty points. You can run a special sale where customers get extra points for specific items, which is great when you have too much stock or want to drum up more business. You can also choose whether customers redeem points as a percentage discount, dollar discount, or on specific items/item types.

It’s also possible to announce sales to subscribed loyalty customers, which is a great way to draw customers back into the store or your online store.

Customers who order groceries from your app can set up their order preferences, easily reorder items from previous purchases, and set up a linked payment method, so they can autopay at checkout. Customers get reminders about redeeming loyalty points on their app and at the register.

Clover grocery store POS loyalty points redemption at checkout.

Clover Mini countertop POS system, Clover Flex handheld POS system, barcode scanner, cash drawer, and card reader.

You may purchase your Clover system from Clover or one of several Clover resellers. These are the options you have, along with pricing if you purchase your hardware from Clover.com:

• Clover Go: $49 for mobile contactless card reader
• Clover Flex: $599 for the handheld POS system with a built-in receipt printer
• Clover Mini: $799 for compact countertop POS system with built-in card reader and receipt printer
• Clover Station: $1,699 for full register setup with cash drawer and receipt printer or $1,799 for register with connected Clover Mini

Clover POS software only works with Clover hardware.

Read our guide on the best Clover resellers to decide where (and how) to get a good deal on Clover hardware.

Clover hardware and merchant services are connected, which means that you also have to sign a merchant agreement with whatever Clover reseller you get your Clover hardware from. That merchant agreement will have unique payment processing fees.

If you opt to use Clover directly to purchase your hardware, you are stuck using Fiserv for payment processing and will pay the following fees:

• Card-Present Transactions: 2.3% + $0.10 per transaction
• Card-Not-Present Transactions: 3.5% + $0.10 per transaction

Card-not-present transactions include manually keyed-in card transactions, phone orders, online orders, invoice payments, and every form of payment except for cash, check, or swipe/tap/chip card payment.

Fiserv does not have the best reputation as a merchant service provider, and Clover seems to only offer 36-month and 48-month contracts with hefty early termination fees and poor customer service. This is why we recommend using a different Clover hardware and merchant services provider such as Dharma Merchant Services, National Processing, or Clearly Payments for most business owners.

In general, make sure to avoid Clover scams when purchasing your hardware, or your business could suffer financially (and your sanity may suffer as you switch to a new merchant services provider.)

This pricing above applies only if you sign up for a three-year contract and a minimum of two terminals. If you want to know about other pricing terms, you must contact a Revel Systems representative for a quote.

There is also a one-time $674 implementation fee, which includes software and hardware consultations, training, and payment setup for merchants.

Revel’s most unique function is its food service capabilities, which include the ability to:

• Create menus with forced and optional modifiers, plus timed special combos and meal deals to draw in customers
• Track raw ingredients, remove items when ingredients become unavailable, and generate food cost reports, which all help you control costs in the long run
• Add self-serve kiosks, which is excellent when you’re short-staffed at the register or customers only want to order food
• Use digital kitchen display systems to manage orders from different sources (in-store, online, third-party ordering platform, drive-through window, etc.)
• Integrate digital menu boards that show your current menu and will automatically update based on your Revel menu changes

Revel grocery store POS system branded self-serve kiosk.

Revel has just about every cashier function you could need, including EBT sales (via third-party integration), offline payments mode, age verification requirements so that you can legally sell tobacco and alcohol, plus sales by weight. You can set a till alert to know when it’s time for a safe drop, create manager refund approval requirements, and make employee performance reports to monitor your employees’ activity at the register.

Revel is also one of the best inventory management POS systems because of its fast purchase ordering, receiving, and stock monitoring capabilities, which helps larger grocery stores and supermarkets manage a lot of moving stock at once.

Managers can easily generate purchase orders with preferred vendor settings, while stockers can mark orders as partially or fully received. They can also use Revel’s barcode generator/scanner phone app to scan in items and perform manual stock takes.

You’ll get reports on all inventory activity and item discrepancies, and you can tag the reason behind discrepancies (theft, returns, damages, etc.). This, in addition to perishable inventory management, will really help grocers cut down on lost profits.

Revel grocery POS system partial purchase order receiving.

Last, we have to say that Revel allows you to sell just about anything, from ready-to-cook meal subscriptions to bulk orders to regulated substances. However, if you want more regulated item sales management features, POS Nation or IT Retail may be a better choice.

Note: Revel can technically handle fuel sales and wet stock management, but if you want to focus primarily on selling gas, read our post on the best gas station POS systems.

Revel iPad POS register, iPad stand, iPad customer-facing display, cash drawer, receipt printer, and card reader.

Revel Systems sells iPads, iPad stands, and self-serve kiosks. Revel is compatible with several payment devices, barcode scanners, cash drawers, printers, and scales.

Revel proprietary hardware is quote-based. You may source compatible hardware on your own, but you must get permission from Revel in writing to do this. The company does this to ensure that you’re purchasing Revel-compatible hardware.

Revel offers its own in-house payment processing solution, Revel Advantage. Revel no longer advertises a definitive flat rate fee, meaning that you’ll get a custom quoted fee based on order volume, average transaction size, and mix of payment methods.

If you choose to work with a third-party payment processor (which you cannot do on the three-year plan) such as TSYS or Chase Paymentech, you will likely pay a higher monthly software subscription fee.

Our advice is to get quotes from several payment processors, bring those numbers to a Revel representative, and try to negotiate a better merchant agreement.

To get the best deal, you must sign up for a three-year contract, sign on for at least two terminals, and use Revel Advantage, the company’s in-house payment processor. You are billed annually.

If you terminate your Revel subscription early, you’ll pay double the amount remaining on the contract or $15,000, whichever is higher.

Really consider whether Revel is right for your business before committing. Make good use of your product demo, ask Revel representatives lots of questions, and shop around for the best hardware and payment processing deals before signing any contracts.

POS Nation offers the following plans as per the website’s “build and price” tool:

• Flex Monthly: $149/month/terminal; pay monthly for your POS hardware and software
• Freedom: $1,499/POS system; one-time fee for POS register kit bundle, then a monthly fee for POS software and technical support

On the “build and price” tool, POS Nation does not disclose the software fee for those on the Freedom plan. At this point, you must contact a representative for a more thorough quote.

POS Nation also charges an on-premise hardware installation fee and a monthly technical support fee.

Note: POS Nation advertises monthly and one-time fees but you must fill out an order form which will specify your contract length. Your contract length could be monthly, annual, or longer.

POS Nation offers these regulated sales-specific features:

• Forced ID scanning and manual age entry
• Tobacco inventory tracking (by cases, case breaks, individual packs)
• Alcohol inventory tracking (by cases, individual items, groupings, and case breaks)
• Lottery ticket purchases, payouts, and reports from registers with no need for a separate lottery sales machine
• Vape kitting

POS Nation cigarette item specifications in the admin dashboard.

Grocery stores that sell regulated items are often more susceptible to theft, which is why POS Nation includes loss prevention tools, such as forced cash drawer counts, blind till balancing, and item shrinkage monitoring to tell whether employees are just making mistakes or stealing from your business.

POS Nation also uniquely offers perishable inventory management, automated purchase order generation based on inventory thresholds, and inventory movement reports, so you’ll have an ideal number of items on the shelf. These features are often a paid add-on with other grocery store POS systems.

POS Nation register, card reader, receipt printer, barcode scanner, and customer-facing order display pole.

The Flex Monthly plan includes the hardware price in your monthly subscription. If you cancel your subscription, you return the hardware.

When you sign up, you’ll receive a convenience store POS bundle, which includes a touch PC, receipt printer, cash drawer, scanner, and a chip card reader.

You can get a free online quote for your entire hardware setup on POS Nation’s website. All you have to do is choose your subscription plan, add any extras, such as a label printer scale (a great feature for delis) or customer display screens, and enter your email/phone number.

You must use POS Nation’s in-house payment processor. The company advertises a payment processing rate between 2% and 2.5% (dependent on your sales volumes). You must contact a representative for a quote and to open a merchant account.

POS Nation also offers a cash discount program which may be useful for companies looking to avoid payment processing fees altogether.

“Standard” product support ends 90 days after you receive your hardware and software. After that, you must pay for monthly support. If you no longer want or need monthly support, you must inform POS Nation within 30 days of your renewal date to cancel the service.

All merchants must fill out an order form that will specify software contract length and fees, POS hardware fees, payment processing fees, and any additional fees. If you decide to cancel your contract early, you must pay for the rest of your contract immediately after cancellation.

For example, if you pay for a year in advance and decide after one month you don’t like the software, you must pay for those 11 months at the time of cancellation.

If you want to cancel your subscription, you must inform POS Nation within 30 days of your renewal date or you will automatically be charged for another term.

Individuals who pay for their hardware and software upfront (i.e. the Freedom plan) are not able to return their purchases, so make sure POS Nation is what you really want

IT Retail has a “build and price” page on its website that allows you to get a free quote on a hardware/software plan (for one market) based on the number of lanes you want to put in your store, as well as self-checkout lanes you might want to add onto your basic IT Retail proprietary hardware setup.

The company also offers the following prebuilt packages (only available for businesses with one location):

• Flex Monthly: $149/month/terminal (pay monthly for your POS software and hardware)
• Freedom Standard: $1,499/terminal (one-time hardware fee) plus $99/month (software fees)
• Freedom Premium: $1,999/terminal (one-time hardware fee) plus monthly software fee

Like POS Nation, IT Retail does not specify your monthly software fee with the no-obligation “build and price” tool.

You must use the company’s in-house payment processor.

IT Retail is self-contained software designed specifically for larger grocery stores with lots of products, sections, and employees.

Larger grocery stores tend to have several departments and certain rules or inventory needs associated with those departments. IT Retail makes it easy to manage all your departments and the properties of products within those departments.

For example, any item from a beer and wine section will require ID verification at checkout. You can specify this requirement in the department editor in your IT Retail admin dashboard.

You can also create custom product templates for item types, which is great for employees receiving new products and cashiers entering new products at checkout.

IT Retail’s employee management and theft prevention features include:

• Transaction monitor automatically flags suspicious transactions, and you can see who completed those transactions
• Manager approval is required for price overrides
• Till status manager and rules such as a required cash drop over a certain amount of money
• Custom employee roles with permissions such as “require manager override for voids over a certain amount of money”
• Employee reports that tell you everything from how fast cashiers ring out orders to how many voids and returns they make
• Custom shrinkage reports with employees associated with that department or product receiving to monitor instances of mistakes or theft

IT Retail is an EBT and eWIC-certified POS system, so you don’t have to pay for an app or third-party integration to take these common grocery store payment types as you do with most other POS systems on this list. You can also accept checks and flag certain customers as “do not accept checks” if their checks bounce.

IT Retail register screen, built-in countertop scale, receipt printer, and customer-facing card reader.

IT Retail sells strong, “rugged” hardware that is made to last, especially in busy multilane supermarkets. You can contact the company for a quote on registers, card readers, self-checkout stations, scanners, customer display screens, and receipt printers.

Registers have a built-in scale to make checkout fast and easy.

IT Retail provides an in-house payment processing solution with fixed-rate and interchange-plus pricing models. The company advertises that it can offer lower rates than competitors, so get a few quotes before approaching IT Retail about payment processing.

IT Retail is one of POS Nation’s products. You will have similar terms and conditions with IT Retail POS software and hardware as you do with POS Nation.

You will get a custom quote on software and hardware pricing, contract length, and additional fees, as well as payment processing rates.