Loyverse Review

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Pros

• Free
• Strong customer service
• Simple to learn

Cons

• No integrations
• Limited functionality
• Limited card processing

Overview

Loyverse is a free, easy-to-use POS application designed for small businesses. It allows you to process transactions, keep a record of inventory and sales, and establish a customer loyalty program, all at the beautiful price of $0.00.

The name “Loyverse” is an amalgamation of the words “Loyalty” and “Universe.” “Loyalty,” of course, refers to the software’s built-in customer loyalty program. And, while Loyverse does not state their reason for including the word “Universe,” it is almost certainly a reference to the global focus of the company.

Loyverse can be used (and is used) in a wide variety of countries around the world. The software comes with multilingual capabilities and multilingual support. In fact, part of the reason Loyverse offers its software free of charge is to support small merchants in developing countries who cannot afford to pay monthly subscriptions for a POS system. How cool is that?

In many ways, Loyverse is excellent POS software. The UI is easy to use and easy to teach, and Loyverse’s customer support is generally well praised on review boards across the internet.

However, you should know that Loyverse comes with many limitations. The software has only basic functionality, and you won’t be able to integrate with any other software programs you may already be using.

Loyverse is designed for small businesses who are simply looking to upgrade from pen and paper or Excel spreadsheets. And, for those merchants, this software is wonderful.

If you own a small salon, cafe, boutique, or pay-at-the-counter restaurant, keep reading to see if Loyverse is the solution you’re looking for.

Don’t have time to read an entire review? Take a look at our top-rated Point of Sale solutions for a few quick recommendations. Every option we present here offers excellent customer support, detailed user interfaces, and easy-to-use software, all for a reasonable price.

Our Top Picks for Point of Sale Software 

Pricing

Free.

Loyverse’s basic features can be downloaded and implemented completely free of charge. These free products include Loyverse POS, Loyverse Dashboard, Loyverse KDS, and Loyverse CDS.

Out of curiosity, I asked one of Loyverse’s representatives how the company makes money. The answer was simple. Right now, they don’t. Loyverse is a part of the Give First Initiative. They are seeking to build good customer relations (and help other entrepreneurs) by providing their software completely free. Pretty awesome.

Loyverse also now offers for-purchase add-ons. These add-ons are completely optional and are available under a subscription model. Check out these two add-ons below:

Employee Management

• $5 Per Employee Per Month
• $50 Per Month For Unlimited Employees
• 2 Months Free With Annual Subscription
• Advanced Features
  • Add Employees
  • Restrict Access Rights
  • Clock-In & Clock-Out
  • Sales Reports By Employee

Advanced Inventory

• $25 Per Store Per Month
• 2 Months Free With Annual Subscription
• Special Offer Available For More Than Two Stores
• Advanced Inventory Features
  • Add Suppliers
  • Purchase Orders
  • Transfer Orders
  • Stock Adjustments
  • Inventory Count
  • Inventory Valuation Report
  • Inventory History

Cloud-Based Or Locally-Installed

Cloud-based. You’ll access your back office online.

Specific Industry

Loyverse is best for small businesses. They offer features to fit a wide range of industries, from bars to salons.

Specific Size Of Business

Most of the customer reviews I’ve seen come from businesses of ten or fewer employees. Loyverse works best as a baby step to business automation. If you’re already paying for a POS system, switching to Loyverse will be a step down in features as well as in price.

Ease Of Use

Usability is the focus here. Because Loyverse is a free app, it’s easy to sign up for an account to start trying out their product.

When I signed up, I immediately received access to my back office.

Here’s what I found:

I was then directed to the Google Play Store or the Apple App Store where I was given the option to download the app for my actual storefront POS software.

While I was in the back office, I took the opportunity to add a couple of products.

I was able to select symbols and colors that would identify those products in my POS application. I was also able to add product modifiers (say, an extra shot in an espresso drink) along with price variants for those modifiers.

The process of adding products, product modifiers, and discounts is all very straightforward. It’s just point and click. If you ever need any help, there are video tutorials to guide you along.

When you log into your app on your tablet or smartphone, you’ll see all of your information already loaded and ready to go. It’ll look something like this.

You can add products to a customer’s order by simply dragging items over to the right side of the screen. Use the same process to apply discounts.

New features for iOS let you organize and rearrange the products on your screen so you can simplify your ordering process. Loyverse also lets you print receipts or send them via email. You can email customers to request a customer satisfaction review.

One of the best parts of Loyverse is their loyalty program. When customers download your loyalty app (Loyalty Ocean), they can receive points based on their purchases. These points translate into discounts on future services. You can also use this application to send messages out to your loyal customers.

All in all, Loyverse is an incredibly simple POS application. You and your team should be able to get the hang of it in no time at all.

Hardware & Operating System Requirements

In order to run Loyverse’s app, you’ll need an iPhone, iPad, Android smartphone, or tablet. Loyverse also supports select receipt printers, kitchen printers, barcode scanners, and cash drawers. Find out which hardware Loyverse supports more specifically on their website.

Features

Loyverse essentially provides you with the features you need to keep a record of transactions and maintain contact with your customers.

I’m calling Loyverse “a step up from pen and paper,” but I don’t mean that in a negative way. If you’ve literally been keeping track of transactions on paper or on an Excel spreadsheet, you’ll be amazed by what Loyverse can do.

However, if you’ve already installed subscription-based (paid) POS software, you may underwhelmed by the following list of Loyverse’s features:

In-Store Features

• Printed Or Electronic Receipts: Attach a receipt printer or send receipts via email.
• Return Management: Easily process customers’ returns and refunds.
• Cash Management: Make sure that the amount in your till lines up with your sales.
• Discounts: Set discounts to apply to one product or a full order.
• Open Tickets: Create and save orders. Edit and finish those orders later.
• Item Modifiers: List product add-ons as item modifiers. Include any additional costs.
• Work Offline: Store information while your connection is down. Information syncs to your server when the internet is back.
• Multiple Locations: Manage multiple store locations from one account.

Inventory Management

• Bulk Import/Export: Use CSV files (like Excel spreadsheets) to upload and download product information for faster bulk editing.
• Track inventory: Monitor your inventory based on products and product components (like ingredients). Receive low stock notifications.

Employee Management

• Sales By Employee: Keep track of employee performance.
• Workload Per Hour: Find out what times your business is at its busiest so you can minimize the times you’re over- or understaffed.
• Access Rights: Grant different employees different permissions to guarantee your information’s security.
• Time Clock: Let employees punch in and out to automatically calculate total hours.

Sales Analytics

• Reports: View reports of sales trends, popular items, and tax reports. Export those reports via CSV files.
• Receipts History: You can view all of your receipts in order to monitor individual transactions.
• Shifts: Track employees transactions to find any inaccuracies which may have resulted in an unbalanced till.

Loyalty Program

• Customers Database: Keep a record of your customers’ information like email addresses and preferences.
• Points Reward Program: Keep customers coming back with points that translate into discounts.
• Feedback: Email customers asking for customer feedback. Track that feedback in the back office.
• Message Marketing: Send messages to your customers (as long as those customers have downloaded your rewards app).

Restaurant Features

• Create Predefined Tickets: While Loyverse does not include table management features, you use predefined tickets to handle table management in a more general way. Set a list of tables in your Loyverse admin in order to apply tickets to each table.
• Print Bills Or Pre-Receipts: Print bills for your customers before the bill is charged. Great for sit down restaurants.
• Dining Options: New features for iOS let you specify if customers are dining in, taking out, or requesting delivery.
• Print Kitchen Orders: Send new orders to your kitchen printer.
• Display Kitchen Orders: Use the Loyverse KDS (Kitchen Display System) app to display new orders digitally on a screen in your kitchen.

Retail Features

• Barcode Support: Use the camera in your business’s tablet or smart phone to scan barcodes. Currently available for iOS only. If you subscribe to the Advanced Inventory Management plan, you can also create new barcodes and print them with a label printer.
• Product Variants: Add multiple product options like size, color, and materials.
• Customer Display System App: Display orders to your customers on a separate tablet. Allow customers to view pricing information and reward points as you ring them up. This app works online and lets customers enter their email addresses to receive an e-receipt.

Loyverse is continually working to add more functionality to their software. Since our last review in March of 2017, we have seen significant improvement in the number and depth of features offered.

Integrations & Add-Ons

Loyverse does not offer any integrations or add-ons at this point, which is a bummer and one of the biggest reasons I recommend Loyverse exclusively to smaller businesses.

However, I have been told that Loyverse is planning on opening up their API in the future to allow for the development of integrations.

Payment Processing

Loyverse now connects to a few credit card processors. US merchants can choose between Vantiv and SumUp. European merchants can connect with SumUp or iZettle.

Take a look at these processing options and their rates on Loyverse’s website.

Customer Service & Support

Loyverse’s customer support is generally well-praised. I probed their live chat and had all of my questions answered promptly and fully. I even asked a few questions in Spanish (just for fun) and had no trouble getting in touch with a multilingual representative.

Here are the support tools available to Loyverse’s clients:

• Help Center: Dig through this knowledge base for “How To” guides and general information about the application.
• Videos: These short tutorial videos show you the basics of using Loyverse POS.
• Community Forum: Get help from other Loyverse users.
• Email (help@loyverse.com)
• Live Chat: You can access live chat in your back office.

It would be really wonderful to be able to call in with questions, but that option is not yet available. However, as long as Loyverse keeps providing such quality live chat support, I won’t complain too much.

Negatives Reviews & Complaints

As I checked Loyverse’s customer reviews and Facebook and Twitter pages, I saw that clients are generally pleased with Loyverse’s software. It appears that Loyverse is exactly the solution many merchants were looking for.

However, even these clients had a few suggestions for how Loyverse could improve their software. I’ve added my own insight about what I think Loyverse should incorporate with their next upgrades:

• Limited Functionality: There are lots of features missing from Loyverse.
• No Integrations: As of the date of this review, you cannot integrate Loyverse POS with any other software. Integrations make it easier to sync your information and automate your businesses. Without integrations, Loyverse can’t scale.
• Limited Card Processing: While I’m happy Loyverse now lets users accept card payments, I’d like a to see a few more options in terms of payment processors.
• Updates Released First On iOS: Android users are unhappy that new features are released first for Apple products. Android users have to wait to access those features.
• Cannot Track Inventory By Volume: You can only track inventory by item and weight, not by volume. Some merchants who sell drinks by the glass would like to see this feature added.

Positive Reviews & Testimonials

Online reviews of Loyverse are overwhelmingly positive. Keep in mind that most of these reviews come from businesses of one to ten employees. Here’s what they love about the software:

• Free: Free is the best price. Loyverse doesn’t have any additional expenses attached to it. You won’t need to pay a fee for customer service or to maintain your software. It’s just free.
• Easy To Use: Clients love how easy it is to learn Loyverse. It’s also easy to teach to less tech-savvy workers.
• Customer Support: Loyverse’s customer support is friendly, multilingual, and quick to respond. Every review I read only had positive things to say about the customer support team.
• Loyalty Program: Users love that Loyverse includes its own loyalty program.

Security

Loyverse is a cloud-based system; your information is guarded by Loyverse’s comprehensive security measures. Loyverse uses Amazon Web Services (AWS) for their hosting. They employ secure HTTPS protocol and encrypt information that travels between system components. AWS performs data backups daily and also data redundancies, and Loyverse subscribes to AWS’s DDoS attack protection. Loyverse’s system is protected by a firewall in a virtual private network, and all servers have at least one hot spare to prevent outages.

Essentially, Loyverse takes all of the security precautions necessary.

Final Verdict

In short, Loyverse POS is an excellent solution, but only for a limited number of merchants. The software provides resources to keep track of transactions, to analyze that data, and to interact with customers. Some merchants, especially if they’re just starting out, may find that’s all they need! If you’re in that boat, go ahead and download the software. It’s totally free (no strings attached), and you can test it for yourself to make sure it’s what you’re looking for.

However, many merchants will find that Loyverse’s features are not extensive enough to suit their current business model. In that case, we recommend you take a look at a few of our other top recommended POS solutions.

Regardless, I think Loyverse deserves a round of applause for their Give First model. What a cool way to do business! I’ve given Loyverse a solid three and a half stars, and I hope they will continue to improve the software until it is robust enough to appeal to a wider variety of merchants.

If you’ve decided that Loyverse may be the solution for you, click the link below to get started.

Our Top Picks for Point of Sale Software 

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