5 Best Retail POS Systems for 2023

• New retailers with growth plans: Its forever-free plan is practical for retailers just starting, while its advanced plans are perfect for scaling businesses.
• Businesses on a small budget: Square is our top pick for a free POS system.
• Businesses switching over from cash registers: Square’s user-friendly interface and overall simplicity make it a great option for those upgrading from a cash register.
• Mobile sellers: Square has the best POS app on the market and affordable mobile hardware options.

• New automated marketing campaigns: Order Online CTAs, Google Reviews campaigns, and new Vanity Coupon Codes that give business owners the ability to offer easy-to-share discounts outside of a campaign. You can also include images in your texts!
• New POS dashboard features: Product Store, Subscription Management, Square Banking integration, updated Transactions Reporting, and new Metrics and Performance Chart
• Improved inventory tools: Bundling (in beta, to launch soon), Inventory full counts, Sellable / Non-Sellable, Connected Terminal feature which lets retailers use their Square Terminal as a buyer-facing display, and the Retail Inventory Applet to manage stock and POs.
• Checkout tools: Barcode-based user interface comes with advanced product search, save carts for later, and return and exchange processing. Online orders automatically appear in the POS registers. There are options for mobile, contactless, QR codes, gift cards, and online payments.
• Inventory management: Perform variant tracking and control, set up low stock alerts, create and print barcodes, receive stock from the app in bulk, create and track purchase orders as they come in, manage vendors, and perform stock counts and COGS tracking.
• Sophisticated hardware: In addition to running on iPads, Square for Retail operates on Square Register, a countertop POS terminal with a detachable customer-facing display that includes built-in chip, swipe, and contactless payments.
• Omnichannel features: Every account comes with a free online store, features to sell on Instagram, an innovative website builder, automatic inventory sync, and omnichannel tools, like in-store pickup and local delivery.
• CRM tools: Automatically generate customer profiles based on the payment method, create and segment customer groups, add shopper details, and send digital receipts with feedback surveys.
• Square ecosystem: One of the most significant benefits of using Square is having seamless integration with all of its additional business tools, like payroll, team management, appointments, loyalty, invoicing, and an online store. You can add and remove software at any time to build a solution customized for your business.
• Employee management: Square for Retail Plus includes advanced team management features like shift scheduling and swapping, custom permission settings, activity logs, and advanced reporting.

What Square is missing:

Square has limited customer support hours, unlike Shopify and Vend, which offer customer service agents 24/7. The provider also lacks specialty/custom orders (something that Lightspeed Retail provides) and layaway payment methods—a feature that the Vend POS software provides.

• Retail businesses that primarily sell online: Shopify is our pick for best ecommerce platform, and Shopify POS comes free in any of its ecommerce subscription plans.
• Multichannel retailers: Shopify tops our list of leading multichannel POS systems. It lets you sync online and in-person sales, process curbside and pickup orders, and start sales in-store and finish them online.
• Businesses that already use a Shopify ecommerce store: Every Shopify ecom account comes with Shopify’s basic POS already integrated.

• Omnichannel sales: Customers can browse in-store and have items emailed to them, scan QR codes to open product pages on your website, and get real-time shipping updates. You can offer curbside pickup, accept returns and exchanges for online purchases in-store, and ship in-store purchases to customers’ homes. All data seamlessly syncs between ecommerce and in-store.
• Checkout: Customize the register screen, add shortcuts, sell on mobile, customize receipts, and save carts.
• Products and inventory management: Create collections and item variants, manage multiple locations, track stock levels, manage purchase orders, receive vendor shipments, set up low stock alerts, forecast product demands, and get suggestions for items to discount. These tools, along with the ability to integrate with consignment software, make it our top pick for consignment store POS systems.
• Reporting: View stats at a glance, see cash flows, review finance reports, and track cash and daily sales.
• Staff management: Assign individual PINs, set custom permissions, and attribute sales to award commissions.
• Customer management: Create customer profiles, segment customers, add notes to profiles and individual orders, set marketing preferences, and build loyalty programs.
• Marketing: Collect product reviews, create email marketing campaigns, integrate social media accounts, and create Google Ad campaigns.

• Businesses that need an advanced inventory management system: Lightspeed Retail is great for storefronts with high SKU counts with its product tracking and customizable matrix inventory.
• Specialty retailers—bike shops, repair businesses, and electronic shops: Lightspeed’s unique native features for processing custom and work orders make it especially great for specialty shops like bike stores or jewelers that need to process repairs or order individual parts.

• Inventory management: Manage custom orders from shoppers, bundle items for gift baskets, and anticipate inventory needs. This forecasting tool and ability to predict shopping trends are part of what sets Lightspeed apart from the competition.
• Supplier market: Lightspeed POS comes with over 8 million products loaded in the supplier directory, so you can create, manage, and submit purchase orders from within the system and easily import accurate product information. View updates on orders in real time.
• Customer management: Create customer profiles, track transactions, assign VIP status, manage promo codes, and sell and redeem gift cards. Automated loyalty program available with Standard and Advanced plans.
• Reporting and analytics: Lightspeed includes more than 40 built-in reports that cover inventory, sales, employee performance, and more in one analytics dashboard. What sets it apart is it translates data into actionable business tips. For example, Lightspeed can take sales and traffic data and translate that into staffing and inventory reports to help you prepare for peak hours.
• Ecommerce and omnichannel tools: Lightspeed eCom integrates seamlessly with the POS software. Choose from several mobile-responsive and customizable online store templates and manage inventory, product pages, shipping, returns and exchanges, marketing, and reports. Lightspeed eCom is available in multiple languages and currencies, with international shipping options. Boost traffic by connecting your social accounts, utilizing its SEO tools, and sending newsletters and notification emails.

• Multilocation retailers: Gift shops, homeware stores, fashion boutiques, and health and supplement retailers will find Vend by Lightspeed a great fit as it offers sophisticated multilocation inventory tracking, including centralized warehouses management.
• High-volume retailers: Vend lets you choose your own payment processor for a small monthly fee, which lets you save if you process enough transactions.
• Retailers with existing merchant accounts: If you are already using a merchant account with favorable rates, Vend is a great option as you can continue using your current merchant and integrate them into your Vend POS.

• Checkout: Customize the POS app with shortcuts, add notes and line items to transactions and customer receipts, save transactions to complete later, manage gift cards, and set up layaway and on-account payments.
• Payment processing: While Vend by Lightspeed automatically comes integrated with Lightspeed Payments, it can also integrate with CardConnect (First Data), Chase, Elavon, Klarna, PayPal, Square, Worldpay, and others so you can shop around for the lowest rates. Vend also offers lots of flexibility with features like store credit and layaway payments. You should note, however, that your Vend monthly rate will go up if you don’t use Lightspeed Payments, so weigh that cost when you are comparing merchant account options.
• Inventory: Track inventory across multiple stores, create a centralized product catalog, edit products in bulk, automate purchase orders, create variants and composites, and print labels and barcodes. It has a unique scanner mobile app to look up products by barcode, perform inventory counts, update stock counts, and add new products to the catalog.
• Customer management: Create customer profiles, import existing customer lists, sell and redeem gift cards, segment customer groups, export customers to email marketing software, issue store credit, and create a custom loyalty program.
• Add-ons and integrations: MailSync syncs Vend POS data to Mailchimp, Constant Contact, and other email software. Connect with other marketing tools like Yotpo and Perkville, inventory tools like Orderhive and Sku IQ, accounting tools like QuickBooks and Gusto, ecommerce platforms BigCommerce and Shopify, and more.
• Employee management: Create customized user logins and permissions for staff, require employee passwords for each sale to track performance, and get register and shift reports. One unique feature of Vend is setting individual employee and team sales goals and average basket sizes.
• Reporting: Customize reports and adjust filters and variables to view data on customers, inventory, and employees. View real-time stock levels, gift card data, and team performance from anywhere with its mobile-friendly web-based dashboard.

• High-risk retailers: With tools for marking age-restricted products and ID scanning built into checkout, high-risk retailers like vape shops, liquor stores, and c-stores will be able to process transactions with confidence.
• Retailers that host events: If you run a gift shop, museum, winery, amusement park, or any other similar events-based small business, KORONA’s ticketing tools and events management features, along with basic retail POS tools, are a good fit for you.
• Retailers with perishable and non-perishable goods: While not enough to manage a grocery store, KORONA comes equipped with shelf life tools to help you manage perishable inventory. This is alongside normal inventory management tools, like low stock alerts and reporting insights, for your non-perishable goods.

• Integrated state compliance software: When you set up your KORONA account, you will designate your state so that the POS system can integrate state compliance features into your inventory management and checkout procedures for age-restricted products.
• Time-based promotions: Create time-based promotions so that you can host happy hours and other discounted events.
• Ticketing: Sell tickets to your event in-store and online, offer group discounts, membership pricing, and time-sensitive entry.
• Events management: In addition to ticketing tools, event management allows you to sell goods and services within your event, create recurring events, create event-specific inventory, and allow customers to pay on-site, at pick-up, by a link, or through an invoice.
• Payments: KORONA does not have an in-house payment processor, but it lets you integrate with any merchant account of your choice absolutely free.

What KORONA is missing: While KORONA has shelf-life management, it is not suitable for grocers or retailers handling large volumes of food products. Additionally, the inventory management tools do not support variant/modifier tools, so it is not ideal for retailers with large inventories and high turnover rates. For stronger inventory tools, we recommend Lightspeed POS.