KORONA POS Review

Pros

• Good for regulated industries & ticket sales
• Multilocation capability
• Reasonable monthly cost
• Numerous payment gateway integrations
• Excellent customer support

Cons

• Limited inventory management
• Limited integrations
• No built-in eCommerce

KORONA POS Overview

KORONA is an affordable and customizable POS that has specialized features for several niche business types, including liquor stores, vape retailers, cannabis dispensaries, and businesses that sell tickets to events. KORONA can accommodate nearly any major payment processor and supports a variety of hardware options as well.

That said, there are still some unfortunate holes in its offering that keep it from being one of the best POS systems for small businesses. KORONA’s inventory capabilities are limited, as are its software integrations, and its somewhat outdated interface is less than intuitive. Certain industries, including restaurants, service-based businesses, and businesses with complex retail needs, will find KORONA POS lacking.

KORONA POS Pricing

KORONA POS received a near-perfect score from us in terms of pricing, thanks to its affordable software plans, month-to-month billing, and free trial.

KORONA pricing is billed month-to-month, but you can receive one free month if you are billed annually.

KORONA POS has a generous free trial that lets you test the system for as long as you want before you make a purchasing decision. The trial version has limited functionality, however; for example, it limits you to 30 transactions per day.

KORONA offers the following features under each of its POS plans.

The Core plan offers:

• Works with any processor
• Unlimited Users
• Unlimited Sales
• Product Database
• Reporting
• Customizable Dashboard
• eCommerce Store
• Manager Functions
• Core Checkout Functionality
• Promotions & Gift Cards
• API Access

The Retail plan includes everything in Core, plus:

• Inventory Counts
• Stock Management
• Real-Time Tracking
• Barcode Automations
• Supplier Interface Integration
• Price & Shelf Labels
• Customer Management
• Real-Time Tracking
• Item Combination
• Order Automation

Extra Corona Costs & Fees

Optional add-on modules you can purchase in addition to your Core or Retail package include ticketing options, invoicing, and more.

KORONA Is Best Suited For…

• Businesses that sell event tickets
• Regulated industries such as vape stores and cannabis dispensaries
• Retailers that need a simple, inexpensive POS

KORONA POS Features

The KORONA POS feature set is pretty solid, though we had to deduct some points from its score in this area, as the software is missing certain retail features, such as multichannel selling.

As follows are some of the features that come with KORONA POS.

Storefront POS Features

• Customizable UI: You can change and rearrange your user interface to best fit your daily business operations. You can also include item images to reduce human error in entering products.
• Record All Money Movements: Create accounts to record transactions that don’t affect revenue, i.e., cash-back, tips, and making change.
• Hardware Peripherals: Connect to barcode scanners, keyboards and displays, ticket or receipt printers, card readers, and cash drawers.
• Finalizing Transactions: Cashiers can split payments across payment types, adjust payments, and calculate tips.
• Receipt Display: View a virtual receipt in real-time as you conduct a transaction. Choose to bind or split identical items on the receipt.
• Product Search: Search for items by name in your POS. You can find these items by entering partial keywords. For example, entering “Oran,” would pull up results like “Oranges” and “Orange Juice.”
• Pause Transactions: KORONA calls these “parking receipts.” Pause a transaction and move on to other new transactions. Come back to the parked receipt later.
• Offline Mode: When your system goes offline, you can keep selling. Cash transactions will be stored on your POS terminal until the internet connection returns. The data will then sync up to your back office records again. Unfortunately, KORONA will not be able to queue up credit card transactions during downtime. To process those transactions, you’ll need a phoneline-based internet backup.
• Multichannel Selling: With eCommerce integration, you can sell online and let customers buy online and pick up in-store.

Back Office Features

• Bulk Import/Export: Add customers and products in bulk using CSV files (like Excel spreadsheets).
• Inventory Management: The Core package only comes with a product database, but inventory management with the Advanced package includes features like bundling and automatic reorder alerts. However, the system is still somewhat basic and lacks the ability to track items by modifiers and variables.
• Coupons: Create coupons and apply them to specific stores.
• Gift Cards: KORONA features its own gift card and loyalty package that is completely customizable.
• Receipt Archive: View all transactions from the day.
• Employee Management: A few basic employee management features are included — employee permissions, time tracking, and shift reports.
• Reporting & Analysis: Generate nearly 100 customizable reports, including in-depth reports such as ABC product analysis. You can view daily, weekly, and monthly reports.

ABC analysis gives each product in your store its own specific grade and report.

Features For Regulated Industries

Korona has certain features that make it suitable for regulated industries such as liquor stores, vape stores, dispensaries, and smoke shops:

• Security & Theft Prevention: Grant different levels of permission to your cashiers and managers to prevent theft. View a log of all POS transactions by each user.
• ID Verification: This feature includes integrated ID scanning for age verification & security.
• Industry-Specific Integrations: Examples include cannabis-specific marketing programs and integrations with high-risk payment processors.

Prevent employees from performing unauthorized actions such as receipt voids.

Ticketing & Event Management Features

The Enterprise level plan has these and other ticketing features for event management and other businesses that sell tickets, such as museums and amusement parks:

• Multiple Ticketing Options: Customers can purchase tickets over the phone, onsite, on your website, via a link, on a mobile app, or through an invoice.
• Group Visits & Rates: Offer discounts for large groups, schools, etc.
• Membership Ticketing: Sell recurring memberships.
• Customizable Calendar: Create reservations and recurring events with the option to add size and time constraint options.
• Ticketing Hardware: Options include ticket printers, ticket scanners, and turnstiles.

Integrations

KORONA POS integrates with various business software including:

• Quickbooks Online: Accounting software
• WooCommerce: eCommerce software
• Bottlecapps: Liquor store software
• City Hive: Alcohol eCommerce software
• TimeForge: Labor management software
• bLoyal: Loyalty, membership, & eCommerce software
• Plastic Printers: Gift card partner

KORONA also integrates with many cannabis-related software systems, including dispensary software (Dauntless), various cannabis traceability systems: (Metrc, BioTrack, and Leak Data System), and online menu software for dispensaries (Dutchie, Leafly, Olla, and iheartjane).

As mentioned, KORONA offers various in-house add-on modules with extra features that can be added to any POS package.

Ease Of Use

Overall, KORONA is reasonably straightforward to use, once you set up the system and get used to it.

The KORONA POS interface is a little outdated but mostly self-explanatory and the company includes a convenient online manual that covers setup and other functions. The POS’s main screen is highly customizable. You can list different features (discounts, customer groups, etc.) in the sidebar, and you can rearrange and select the quick keys that appear front and center on your POS. All of those changes must be made in the back office.

Overall, I like KORONA’s simple, customizable interface and only noticed a few issues. For example, I was disappointed by the available inventory management features — specifically, there aren’t any features for including and tracking product variables.

All in all, the software earned an imperfect, but higher-than-average score from us for Ease of Use.

Customer Service & Support

For a “budget” POS, KORONA offers excellent customer support, earning them a perfect score from us in this area.

KORONA provides multiple channels of support, which are included in all subscriptions:

• In-House Phone Support: Regular phone support hours are Monday through Friday from 8:30AM to 6PM PT.
• 24/7 Emergency Phone Support: Phone support is always available for emergencies (though it’s unclear what constitutes an emergency).
• Email & Chat Support: Hours and response times are not listed.
• Live Training Demo: Personalized demo walks you through the POS features before going live.
• Online Manual: Searchable manual includes detailed instructions as well as instructional videos.
• Social Media: KORONA POS has a presence on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn.

Note that for payment processing support with KORONA, you will have to contact your chosen payment processor.

Payment Processing With KORONA POS

KORONA describes itself as “processor agnostic” as it supports a wide range of payment processors and gateways. Some of these include:

• TSYS
• First Data
• Heartland
• Cayan
• Clearant
• Elavon
• EVO
• Merchant Warehouse
• Merchant Payment Systems
• Global Payments
• Cost Plus Processing
• Eagle Processing

KORONA’s processing choices support a range of payment processing models, including flat-rate, interchange-plus, cash discount, and others. These options also include high-risk payment processors.

KORONA POS Contract & Commitment

KORONA POS does not require any contract, and you can stop using KORONA anytime without incurring early termination fees. KORONA billing is month-to-month unless you commit for a full year in exchange for a free month of service.

What To Watch Out For

KORONA offers the option to purchase your hardware outright, but it also has leasing options. Generally, we do not recommend leasing your POS hardware since the hardware lease itself enters you into an expensive, long-term contract.

KORONA POS Reviews

KORONA reviews are mostly positive across software review websites, earning KORONA a strong User Reviews score according to our rating rubric. However, there are not a very large number of KORONA POS reviews altogether. Here’s how KORONA fares across the web:

• 4.8/5 (based on 17 reviews) on G2
• 4.5/5 (based on 65 reviews) on Software Advice
• 4.7/5 (based on 65 reviews) on Capterra

Negative KORONA POS Reviews & Complaints

Here are some negative observations mentioned in user reviews of KORONA:

• Few Third-Party Integrations: Though it does integrate with various niche software for certain industries (cannabis, liquor stores, etc.), KORONA doesn’t offer built-in integrations with most commonly used small business software. If you want to sync any other applications, you’ll have to hire a developer to create a connection for you using KORONA’s API.
• High Learning Curve: A few reviews mentioned that it wasn’t the easiest system to use. I can see how this might be the case, especially compared with some of the incredibly intuitive systems out there. However, KORONA is customizable and gives you enough startup tools to make the process easier.
• Missing Features: Some KORONA POS reviews mention the lack of inventory features as well as a lack of features for certain business types such as rental companies. There is no payroll module and features for scheduling and food service are both limited. As mentioned, Korona also lacks an eCommerce platform (though it does integrate with third-party eComm services).

Positive KORONA POS Reviews & Testimonials

As follows are some positive things people have to say about KORONA:

• Good Value: Many customers remark that KORONA is an excellent value for all the features included in its price range.
• Particularly Good For Wineries: Wineries seem to be particularly happy with KORONA. They also tend to use the integrated bLoyal loyalty program for their wine-of-the-month clubs.
• Ease Of Use: Once you get the hang of the software, KORONA is reportedly easy to use. I never overcame the steep learning curve with the back office. However, I did find the storefront POS to be very easy to use. Cashiers shouldn’t have too much trouble mastering the basic operations.
• Good Customer Service: Customers report that KORONA offers friendly and responsive customer service. I can attest to this. I received responses to all my questions within the day, and I never had to wait on hold when I called in.
• Customization: Multiple reviews mentioned they liked how easy it was to make the software their own. Within hours, you can fine-tune the settings to your exact specifications.

Getting Started With KORONA POS

Since KORONA can work with a variety of processors, hardware vendors, and industry-specific integrations, your initial setup will naturally take longer than that for an all-in-one system like Square or Clover, and your learning curve will be steeper.

The exact setup steps vary depending on which processor and hardware you choose, but it’s easy to activate a new account on KORONA’s website. Simply click “Start Trial” and fill in basic information about your business to get started.

Alternatives To KORONA POS

Lightspeed Retail is a leading KORONA POS alternative for retailers that don’t mind paying a little more per month in exchange for a deeper feature set that includes built-in eCommerce and more extensive inventory management. Lightspeed doesn’t have built-in features for ticket-selling and regulated industries, however, so if your business belongs to one of those specific industries, KORONA might be a better fit.

Final Verdict of KORONA POS

KORONA is a good POS solution, though I still see room for growth. In the future, I’d like to see continued improvement in inventory management features and a native online ordering platform. It would also be nice to see a wider selection of pre-built integrations.

However, that doesn’t mean that KORONA is without its perks. The software comes with decent built-in functionality and the reporting options are excellent. There is certainly a solid foundation with its high level of customization and strong customer service. If you check out the software and find that you can work around the areas where KORONA lags, the software might very well be a bargain for you — especially if your business belongs to one of the specific industries that KORONA caters to, including sellers of alcohol, cannabis, and admission tickets.

If KORONA sounds like a good solution for your company, I recommend you try the software for yourself. There’s no commitment required, and your trial lasts as long as you please.

Retail POS Review Methodology

We evaluate and test each software system that we review at Merchant Maverick, placing special emphasis on certain key software characteristics in order to generate our granular product ratings.

For retail POS software in particular, we have a 62-point rubric we use to evaluate the system in terms of its pricing, ease of use, features, and user reviews. These points are based on attributes relevant to the retail POS niche—such as the availability of features like purchase ordering, customer-facing displays, BOPIS (buy online, pick up in-store), and others.

Our rating system also takes into account attributes that are desirable for POS systems and cloud-based software in general, such as the availability of monthly pricing plans, free trials, and transparent software contracts.

The Merchant Maverick Seal of Approval 🏆

KORONA POS	Visit Site

After hours of in-depth research and evaluation, we can confidently recommend this brand to our readers. Get started today and see KORONA POS for yourself.

The Merchant Maverick Seal of Approval 🏆

KORONA POS	Visit Site

After hours of in-depth research and evaluation, we can confidently recommend this brand to our readers. Get started today and see KORONA POS for yourself.