Shopify POS Review

Pros

• Mobile
• Numerous integrations, including payment gateways
• eCommerce integration
• Modern UI
• Accepts multiple payment options

Cons

• No offline mode

What Is Shopify POS?

Shopify POS is a cloud-based POS system created specifically for retail. Shopify POS is affordable, and it’s easy to set up your eCommerce operation, making it appealing to small to medium-sized retailers.

Don’t know quite what type of point of sale system you need? Check out our best pos systems to find out our recommendations.

Why We Recommend Shopify POS

Shopify POS Pricing

Shopify POS plans are month-to-month, although you can receive a discount for signing up for an annual plan. There are four Shopify plans that offer Shopify POS:

Basic Plan

The Basic plan costs $39/month ($29/month when paid annually) and includes the following:

• In-person payments
• Full online store builder
• Buy buttons
• Invoicing
• Order management
• Product management
• Customer profiles
• In-store inventory
• Gift cards
• Custom discounts
• Basic financial reports
• Two staff accounts
• Up to 1,000 inventory locations
• Omnichannel selling
• Customer segmentation
• Shipping discounts
• Currency conversion
• Built-in fraud analysis

Shopify

The Shopify Plan costs $105/month (or $79/month when paid annually) and includes everything from Shopify Basic, plus:

• Five staff accounts
• eCommerce automations
• Additional shipping discounts
• Standard reporting
• Discounted payment processing

Advanced

The Advanced plan is priced at $399/month (or $299/month when paid annually) and includes everything from the Shopify plan, plus:

• 15 staff accounts
• Advanced reporting
• Third-party calculated shipping rates
• Additional discounts on payment processing
• Duties & import taxes

Shopify Plus

Shopify Plus is an enterprise-level solution that starts at $2,000/month. Highlights of this plan include:

• Built-in AR, video, and 3D media for product pages
• Support for multiple stores, languages, and currencies
• Avalara tax automation
• Advanced discounts and shipping rates
• Automated workflows
• Data migration

Note that Shopify also offers a low-cost Starter plan for $5/month. However, Shopify Starter does not include Shopify POS — you can’t sell in person with a Shopify Starter account.

Extra Shopify POS Costs & Fees

All plans include Shopify POS Lite at no additional cost. However, you may want to upgrade to Shopify POS Pro for an extra $89/month per location. Shopify POS Pro includes features you won’t find with POS Lite, such as smart inventory management and advanced omnichannel selling features.

Unsure of which plan is right for you? Learn more about each Shopify plan’s fees, pricing, and features in our guide on Shopify’s fees and pricing. Then, sign up for your free three-day trial to give Shopify a try!

Shopify POS Features

Shopify recently released a new version of Shopify POS and the latest Shopify POS Pro add-on, which adds advanced inventory features and social-distancing selling features for brick-and-mortar retail stores. Shopify POS’s most noteworthy features are broken down into several key categories.

Payment Features

• Split Tenders: Accept more than one payment type in a single transaction.
• Gift Cards: Create gift cards for your small business that are redeemable in-store or online.
• Custom Payment Options: Generate custom payment options, accept partial payments, or accept deposits.
• Refunds & Store Credit: Process refunds or issue store credit for returns to your business.
• Multiple Sales Channels: Sell online through Shopify, your website, or other platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, eBay, and Amazon.

Checkout Features

• Custom Sales: Custom line items can be added at any time and priced however you wish.
• Discounts: Offer your customers discounts at checkout, either by percentage or dollar amount. Shopify has also recently introduced discount combinations, which allow customers to stack discounts during checkout.
• Portable Registers: Because Shopify POS lives on your iPad or smartphone, it’s easy to bring the device over to your customer and accept new orders anywhere.
• Custom Receipts (Shopify POS Pro Only): Customize both digital and printed receipts and include important details, such as store hours and policies.
• Automatic Tax Calculations: Shopify POS automatically calculates sales tax based on your store’s location.
• Shipping Addresses: Store customer addresses and contact details.
• Shipping & Delivery Options: Options include local delivery, curbside pickup, and a ship-to-customer option, with shipping rates calculated automatically at checkout.

Store Management Features

• Multichannel Sales Management: Manage offline and online sales in one central hub that includes an omnichannel search of all your products.
• Integration With Accounting Software: Shopify POS can integrate with accounting software, such as QuickBooks and Xero.
• Order histories
• Multiple staff accounts
• Staff Roles (Shopify POS Pro Only): Create different employee roles with unique permissions and choose from preset roles, such as the default “Associate,” “Full Permissions,” and “Limited Permissions.”
• Customer Profiles: Track customers’ shopping habits, buying patterns, and contact info.
• Reporting: Shopify POS provides several analytical tools, including dashboards that track sales, orders, and traffic patterns.
• Timeline: Shopify has a unique tool that allows employees to communicate and monitor store issues within the POS.

Product Management Features

• Product Organization: Supports unlimited products, and products can be organized in almost any way (by category, type, season, sale, etc.).
• Inventory Management: With revamped inventory management, Shopify allows you to group products in multiple ways, keep up with stock counts, and track your best-selling items.
• Real-Time Multichannel Management: View inventory performance across locations and transfer inventory online or to different locations as needed.
• Barcode Support: Each product can be assigned an existing barcode (or fitted with a new one).

Omnichannel Selling Features

• Email Carts: This feature lets customers browse online and buy in-store.
• Product Detail QR Codes: Use QR codes in your store that customers can scan with their phones to learn more about your products and buy them from your website.
• Buy Online, Pick Up In-Store: Manage and track all pickup orders placed online and notify customers when they’re ready.
• Omnichannel Returns & Exchanges: Customers can exchange purchases made online or at one of your retail stores at any of your business locations.

Overall, Shopify POS has a strong, thoughtful, and near-complete feature set. Perhaps the system’s only significant weakness (and the only reason it didn’t earn an “Excellent” rating in this category) is that it doesn’t have much in the way of an offline mode.

If your internet goes out and you’re already logged into the app, you can still perform a few functions (using the iPad or iPhone version only), such as accepting payments by cash and custom payment methods. However, you can’t accept credit card payments, sync orders with inventory, create new products, or import products offline. Unless you have a backup connection, this is far from ideal if your internet goes out.

Is Shopify POS User-Friendly?

Usability is Shopify’s hallmark, and for merchants who don’t have the time or the know-how to spend on training, this should be an appealing system. You can easily walk yourself through the system and get up and running to accept all forms of payment in a matter of minutes. From there, it’s a snap to add customers and import inventory.

Customization can also be done relatively quickly, and, probably within the first day of use, you can have a POS tailor-made to your specifications.

The Shopify mobile app, available for Apple and Android devices, is also extremely user-friendly. The app allows you to manage your store directly from your mobile device. It can handle everything from adding items and uploading photos to altering prices and contacting customers via phone or email.

Customer Service & Support

Shopify offers free 24/7 tech support and a number of other support resources to help you learn the system quickly and navigate any issues you may encounter. Shopify provides the following customer service and support options:

• Live chat
• Email
• Phone
• Shopify University
• Knowledgebase
• Podcasts
• Social media

Payment Processing With Shopify POS

Shopify’s POS system comes already integrated with Shopify Payments, the company’s in-house merchant services processor. Processing rates are based on your plan. Depending on the Shopify plan you choose, the advertised in-person rates with Shopify Payments are between 2.4% and 2.9%.

If you subscribe to the Shopify Basic plan or above, you can choose an external payment gateway for processing credit card payments. Shopify integrates with over 100 payment providers worldwide. In the US, these include:

• Worldpay
• 2Checkout
• Amazon Pay
• Authorize.Net
• Vantiv
• Braintree
• CyberSource
• Adyen
• PayPal Express Checkout

Contract Length & Early Termination Fees

All Shopify POS plans are available on a month-to-month basis, so there are no early termination fees, although you may opt to sign up for an annual or bi-annual plan to save money.

There are no early termination fees. However, as with any other POS provider, make sure that you read all terms of service before signing up.

Shopify POS Integrations & Add-Ons

Shopify has a great app store filled with thousands of apps, covering everything from accounting tools to apps for marketing, reporting, and so forth. For example, a search for a popular term such as “local delivery” returns over 400 results.

You can also create an app using Shopify’s API. Keep in mind that some of the apps cost extra (which can add up), but you won’t be lacking in options. You can also find a lot of free apps in the Shopify app store that let you do various things, such as adding a no-contact delivery option to your online store or integrating a free loyalty program with your POS system.

Shopify also has great in-house add-on services. The latest is Shopify Balance, a small business banking solution with good perks that connects directly with your Shopify account.

Shopify POS Reviews

Negative Shopify POS Reviews & Complaints

Reviews for Shopify POS are generally positive, but there are also a good number of negative reviews and complaints. Shopify Inc. is accredited by the Better Business Bureau and has an A+ rating. However, the company has had over 400 complaints closed over the last three years. Some of the most common complaints found in Shopify POS reviews include:

• Bugs and errors
• Limited offline functionality
• Lack of advanced reports
• Difficult to customize the POS system
• Extra costs

Positive Shopify POS Reviews & Testimonials

The most recent positive online reviews mention the same things: Shopify POS makes running businesses simpler and keeps people better organized. Shopify POS receives high marks across review sites, including a rating of 4.4/5 (based on 4,200+ reviews) on G2. Some of the most common praises include:

• Easy setup
• Easy to train users
• Overall usability
• Advanced inventory management
• Numerous integrations
• Good customer service

Final Verdict Of Shopify POS

If you love Shopify for its eCommerce platform, you should at least consider the POS as well. Shopify checks all the boxes in a POS system with capable inventory management and reporting and an extremely simple and clean interface. You do have to go hunting for some of its integrations, but you won’t be hurting for options. Once you figure out which tier and add-on(s) you need, you’ll likely find that Shopify POS provides good value for all the functionality it provides.

Shopify is also playing its part in addressing the massive changes taking place in the retail sector, including options such as curbside pickup and gift cards. Shopify’s offline mode still needs some work and is one of the few areas where the POS lags, but on the whole, there’s a lot to like.

If you own a small or medium-sized retail business and are looking for intuitive and inexpensive software, look no further. Shopify has created a POS system that can handle multiple sales channels, with a free chip card reader, competitive flat-rate payment processing, and many additional integrations.

Frankly, it would be difficult to go too wrong with this software. But if you want to continue your search, check out our other top retail POS systems to find the best option for your business. Good luck!

Shopify POS FAQs

The Merchant Maverick Seal of Approval 🏆

Shopify 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 Shopify POS for yourself.

The Merchant Maverick Seal of Approval 🏆

Shopify 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 Shopify POS for yourself.

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