Shopify Point of Sale (POS) is one of the most popular point-of-sale apps. With Shopify POS you can sell almost anywhere, online and in person, including brick-and-mortar stores, markets, and pop-up shops with a variety of payment methods. Launched in 2013, the app has since had many iterations to integrate offline and online sales, orders, products and payments. Shopify POS powers more than a million businesses worldwide including Gymshark, Polaroid, Sony and Heinz.
What is Shopify POS?
Shopify POS software lets you turn any mobile device into a point-of-sale to power your retail business in person and online. Shopify POS boasts a customizable POS terminal and a suite of Shopify hardware options so you can set up your POS exactly as you’d like it.
Shopify POS is easy to use for new and established businesses. The software is cloud-based, with an intuitive interface and is designed to be an all-in-one system with features including inventory tracking, staff management and omnichannel selling. 24/7 customer support is available by chat, email and phone, and merchants have access to a library of onboarding resources including video tutorials, blogs and a community forum.
Shopify Point of Sale has two plans: Shopify POS Lite and Shopify POS Pro. You need a Shopify e-commerce plan to use Shopify POS. Your Shopify e-commerce store is where you will view and manage your business dashboard regardless of whether you are selling in-person or online. The Shopify POS app powers customer-facing activities and in-store settings.
What payments does Shopify POS accept?
Shopify POS accepts popular payment methods including Visa, Mastercard and American Express as well as debit cards with a swipe card reader. Shopify POS also accepts contactless payments through Apple Pay and Google Pay as well as Interac with the Shopify Tap & Chip Card Reader. You can also accept gift cards and set your account up for custom payment options such as cheques, IOUs, cryptocurrency or gold coins. Cash transactions are also possible if you’re offline or don’t have the required hardware.
Shopify POS Lite Feature Overview:
Here are the features available with Shopify POS Lite:
- Product QR codes so customers can learn more about products and purchase online via smartphone
- Send cart to buy online for items customers are interested in but didn’t purchase in store
- Inventory tracking across different sales channels and locations
- Unique pins for staff members to log into the POS
- Customizable smart grid to speed up checkout
- Discount and promo codes for online and retail transactions
- Automatic sales tax calculations based on your store’s location
- Ability to send custom email and SMS receipts to build customer engagement
- Customer dollar or percentage discounts for an entire cart or individual items
- Unlimited product inventory with collections, variants and multi-location inventory
- Track special requests by adding notes to orders
- Ability to accept cash payments if you are offline
- Accept returns from any online or in-person location and see inventory updated automatically
- Multi-location inventory, unlimited products and the ability to add product variants
- Track and share the status of inventory across the sales lifecycle
- Robust customer profiles with order history, lifetime spend and contact information
- Loyalty program to reward customers
- Assign customer tags which you can filter and search
- Custom receipts by email and SMS
- Advanced reporting and analytics including dashboard overview, retail sales reports, cash tracking, cash flow and product reports, and finance and inventory reports
- Compatibility with Shopify POS hardware
- Free hardware shipping and returns
- Shopify Payments integration including auto-reconciliation, chargebacks and cash-flow management
- Intuitive and fast checkout with a variety of payment options including credit card, Interac, Apple Pay and Google Pay
- Ability to accept and email gift cards, create custom payment types, split payments and accept partial payments
- Powerful marketing tools including social media integration, email marketing, access to Google Merchant Center and the ability for customers to leave product reviews
Shopify POS Pro Feature Overview
Shopify POS Pro has all the features of Shopify Lite plus:
- Omnichannel selling for local pickup and local delivery, as well as the option to buy in-store and ship directly to customers from locations with available inventory
- Ability to accept exchanges and returns in-store for products purchased online
- Smart inventory management including purchase orders, demand forecasting, transfers and low-stock reports
- Advanced staff management including specifying when staff needs manager approval, assigning custom roles to staff and attributing sales to staff for commissions
- Add an unlimited number of staff members to your POS
- Save, manage and retrieve carts to keep checkout moving smoothly
- Automatic inventory updating for online and in-person exchanges
- Custom printed receipts Daily sales reports
Pros of Shopify POS: A closer look at some of the standout features
1. Inventory Management Shopify Point of Sale has sophisticated inventory management tools to help you manage your business. You can set up and track inventory across multiple locations, import and export, transfer between locations, and change prices in bulk.
Shopify’s standout inventory management feature is its powerful inventory location tool. You can assign inventory to multiple locations like retail stores, warehouses and pop-up shops. You can prioritize which location you want to fulfill online orders first or fulfill an order based on whichever location is closest. You can also view your inventory history for both products and variants. This flexibility lets you maximize sales while keeping inventory in check.
2. Omnichannel Selling Shopify POS is designed for omnichannel selling and offers a seamless, integrated experience for customers buying in-store and online. Multichannel features include the ability to attach QR codes to products so in-store customers can learn more about the product on their smartphone and purchase online if they choose. You can also accept exchanges for purchases bought at another location, or online, and your inventory will automatically update.
Shopify Point of Sale offers a flexible buying experience. You can start a cart in-store and email it to your customer so they can complete the purchase online. This is perfect for indecisive shoppers or big-ticket purchases that customers may need more time to research and plan before buying.
3. Sales Tools The sales tools on Shopify Point of Sale are structured to keep you organized and minimize the amount of time you need to spend on admin. One of the standout features of Shopify POS is that it unifies in-store and online sales with a single dashboard to manage customers, payments, orders and inventory across the different places you sell. This puts you in the driver’s seat to manage the entirety of your business in one view, rather than having to pull and sync sales reports from multiple places.
Other notable sales tools include the ability to add unlimited products to your POS and Shopify e-commerce site, product collections to categorize products, and product variants that let you add multiple variations such as size, colour and material. Shopify POS also offers global payment processing for international B2B and B2C sales.
4. Shopify Payments All Shopify plans include access to Shopify Payments and are compatible with the Shopify POS system. You won’t be charged third-party transaction fees for orders that are processed using Shopify Payments. Shopify POS accepts a wide range of payment options with transparent pricing. There are no hidden fees or set-up charges, you only pay flat-rate transaction fees to process credit card payments. Transaction fees are automatically deducted from each sale so you know exactly how much profit you will make.
Auto-reconciliation lets you track orders and their payouts, and chargebacks are easy to manage because all required information is linked to the original order in your admin. Reporting is easy and succinct, providing data on revenue and when payments will arrive from in-store and online sales.
How much does Shopify POS charge for credit card usage? Processing rates are standard regardless of what credit card is used and are based on your Shopify plan: Advanced 2.4% + 0¢ , Shopify 2.6% + 0¢ , Basic 2.7%. + 0¢.
5. Shopify Hardware Shopify has a large selection of mobile POS hardware. If you live in a supported country you can purchase hardware online at the Shopify Hardware Store. Shopify is transparent with hardware pricing, listing the prices of each item, and offers the flexibility to purchase individual items as well as bundles. In addition, Shopify offers unlimited registers at each location. Simply download the Shopify POS app onto as many devices as you need.
Shopify POS retail kit has the following products. Hardware has a 1-year warranty for Shopify POS Lite plans and a 2-year warranty for POS Pro plans.
- Tap & Chip card reader – $49
- Shopify Dock for Tap & Chip reader – $39
- Shopify Retail Stand for iPad 10.2”/ Air 10.5” – $149
- Shopify Retail Stand for iPad 9.7” – $149
- Shopify Retail Kit 10.2”/ Air 10.5” – $299
- Shopify Casual Kit – $99
- Shopify Mini Dock Cable – $9
- Shopify Mounting Kit – $9
- Barcode scanners - $299-$329
- Label printers $199 - $499 (for wireless until)
- Receipt printers $289-$359
- Cash drawer $139
- 10 lbs shipping scale - $49
- 100 lbs shipping scale - $89
How much does Shopify POS cost?
Shopify has 2 POS plans to choose from, Shopify POS Lite, and Shopify POS Pro. Both plans are feature rich and include e-commerce capabilities, payments, and the ability to integrate with accounting and loyalty programs.
Shopify Lite: Included at no additional charge with all Shopify Plans, POS Lite offers in-person credit card rates starting at 2.4% + 0 cents, mobile POS, order and product management, customer profiles, as well as additional features like customizable checkouts, automatic tax calculation, unlimited products and variants, multi-location inventory, customer loyalty, and analytics.
Shopify POS Pro: Shopify POS Pro contains all of the features available with Shopify POS Lite plus unlimited store staff, smart inventory management, omnichannel selling features, unlimited registers, staff roles and permissions and in-store analytics. Shopify POS Pro also lets you set up automatic discounts both in-person or online, buy online and pick up in store, and the option to buy in-store and have merchandise shipped to your home.
Shopify POS Pro is free for all Shopify Plus merchants. If you are not a Plus merchant, the cost of Shopify POS Pro is your Shopify plan + $89.00 a month per location.
You need a Shopify plan to access Shopify POS. Shopify offers 4 store plans “Basic” at $38.00 a month, “Shopify” at $99.00 a month, “Advanced” for $389.00 a month, and Shopify Plus. Shopify Plus is Shopify’s enterprise commerce platform. Pricing starts at $2000 a month with the total cost based on overall sales volume. Contact DigiFist for more information about Plus pricing.
How to set up Shopify POS
Shopify POS is designed to be user-friendly and simple to install. Follow these 4 steps for a quick and easy setup:
- Download the Shopify POS app. You will need an iPad, iPhone or Android phone. You can use Shopify POS on a computer. Desktop PC POS software is available in the Shopify App Store for Windows and MacOS platforms.
- Select a Shopify Plan if you are not already a Shopify merchant
- Create your Shopify store and decide on the products you want to sell
- Visit the Shopify Hardware Store and buy the items you need to take payments
For help setting up your Shopify store or Shopify POS, contact the expert team at Digifist. We are a Shopify Plus agency and can help you with your Shopify needs.