5 Best Retail POS Systems 2020

A point-of-sale (POS) system serves as the central hub for retail businesses by processing all customer transactions, managing products, and customer relationships, and tracking sales.

The best retail POS systems in 2020 are:

• Square for Retail: Best free retail POS
• Lightspeed Retail: Best retail analytics and inventory management
• ShopKeep: Best budget iPad retail POS
• Shopify POS: Best omnichannel POS
• Vend: Best retail POS for choosing your own payment processor

How We Evaluated Retail POS

We prioritized POS systems that are affordable, reliable, and easy to use. We also considered inventory management tools, online store and multichannel selling features, customer and employee management, payment processing options, reporting and accounting tools, customer support hours and quality, and third-party integrations.

Each of the systems on our list have multiple hardware options including iPad apps, tools for selling online, and multiple plans so the software can grow with your business.

Top Retail POS Systems Compared

Square for Retail: Best Free Retail POS System

Overall, Square offers some of the best POS systems for small businesses of all types. Square for Retail is no exception. The starter plan is free to use, the Plus plan offers some more sophisticated features, and the Premium plan offers access to almost all products in the Square ecosystem. The system is cloud-based, runs on iPads or Square Register, and is incredibly easy to use.

Every plan comes with built-in payments, a free online store for ecommerce and curbside pickup, digital receipts and customer feedback collection, a bar code-based user interface, and customer profiles with marketing insights.

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Square for Retail POS Pricing Plans

Square offers several free POS products, including the standard Square POS, Square for Retail, Square for Restaurants, and Square Appointments. We added the traditional Square POS for comparison to Square for Retail.

Hardware bundles start at $169, with installment payment plan options available.

Square for Retail has a streamlined checkout screen that syncs with online orders for curbside pickup.

Square for Retail Features

• Square checkout: Scan bar codes with your iPad camera, connect a bar code scanner, or search products to ring up an item. Save carts for later, offer discounts and exchanges, attach customer profiles to each transaction, send invoices, and sell/redeem digital and physical gift cards.
• Square Dashboard: The web-based dashboard is where you can view reports, manage inventory, see orders, process payroll, adjust account settings and subscriptions, and more.
• Sophisticated hardware: In addition to running on iPads, Square for Retail also operates on Square Register, a countertop POS with a detachable customer-facing display with built-in chip, swipe, and contactless payments.
• Omnichannel features: Every account comes with a free online store, features to sell on Instagram, a smart website builder, automatic inventory sync, and omnichannel tools like in-store pickup and local delivery.
• CRM tools: Automatically generate customer profiles based on payment method, create and segment customer groups, add shopper details, and send digital receipts with feedback surveys.
• Square ecosystem: One of the biggest benefits of using Square is having a seamless integration with all of the additional business tools like payroll and team management, appointments, loyalty, invoicing, and online store. You can add and takeaway software at any time to build a solution customized for your business.

Lightspeed Retail: Best POS for Retail Analytics and Inventory Management

Lightspeed Retail is a moderately priced, robust retail POS system that includes more than 40 sales and inventory reports, analytics tools, and detailed inventory management. Lightspeed also has ecommerce and loyalty add-ons, making it the best retail POS system for specialty shops like bike stores that need detailed inventory tracking for parts, or any boutique shop like vape shops wanting to scale with analytics.

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Lightspeed Retail Pricing Plans

*For annual billing. Monthly billing available at a slightly higher rate.

• Additional registers are $29 each
• Every account includes POS and payment processing with a free payment terminal
• Card-present processing rate is 2.6% + 10 cents
• Startup hardware bundles start around $699

Lightspeed Retail is a robust POS system that can run on an iPad, desktop, or laptop with a back-office that’s accessible from anywhere.

Lightspeed Retail Features

• Inventory management: Create, manage, and submit purchase orders to vendors, 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 above the competition.
• Customer management: Create customer profiles, track transactions, assign VIP status, manage promo codes, and sell and redeem gift cards. Automated loyalty program available with Advanced and Pro 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 Lightspeed apart is that this system 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 ecommerce integrates seamlessly with the POS software. Choose from several mobile-responsive and customizable online store templates, manage inventory, product pages, shipping, returns and exchanges, marketing, and reports. Lightspeed ecommerce is available in multiple languages, currencies, with international shipping options. Boost traffic by connecting your social accounts, utilizing Lightspeed’s SEO tools, and sending newsletters and notification emails.

ShopKeep: Best Budget iPad POS for Retailers

ShopKeep is a cloud-based iPad POS system for retailers, cafes, and specialty shops. ShopKeep has detailed inventory and product tracking that is typically found in retail POS systems but also has recipe and ingredient tracking, making it a great POS for bakeries, small grocery shops, or any cafe or retailer that also needs to sell food or beverages.

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ShopKeep Pricing

*Based on annual billing. Monthly billing available for a slightly higher fee.

• Hardware bundles start at $809
• Payment processing fees are 2.5% + 10 cents for card-present transactions

ShopKeep POS can run on iPads or Clover hardware.

ShopKeep Features

• Register: Personalized checkout lets you add shortcuts, customize receipts, manage employees with clock-in and out features, set custom permissions, cash tracking, process exchanges and returns, sell and redeem gift cards, and manage loyalty programs.
• Age verification: ShopKeep is one of the only POS systems to have built-in sales restrictions for items like alcohol and tobacco that require age verification.
• Online store: Create a functional website with a template and synced BackOffice inventory management to offer ecommerce sales, online ordering, delivery, and curbside pickup. Sell on Instagram, Facebook, and Amazon, and advertise on social media.
• BackOffice: ShopKeep’s web-based dashboard offers at-a-glance reports, inventory tracking, accounting and tax reports with a QuickBooks integration, and marketing tools to create targeted campaigns.
• ShopKeep Pocket: The mobile reporting app lets you see real-time sales and transaction data, see employee time cards, and get custom push notifications for things like low-stock alerts and voided sales.
• Marketing tools: ShopKeep Spotlight is a unique feature of ShopKeep Advanced that updates your online directory listings like Google and Facebook with your current business hours and contact information. ShopKeep also offers cart abandonment emails and a Mailchimp email marketing integration.

Shopify: Best Omnichannel Retail POS

Shopify POS is an add-on to Shopify’s industry-leading ecommerce platform. It’s only available to Shopify ecommerce sellers, so it’s best for online stores looking to expand to in-person sales, or small businesses looking to sell online and upgrade their in-store software program.

However, Shopify offers powerful, comprehensive omnichannel selling features that make it the best option for retailers wanting to grow online sales or emphasize curbside pickup.

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Shopify POS Pricing

*In addition to Shopify ecommerce plan, which ranges from $9 – $299 per month.

• Card-present transaction rates range from 2.4-2.7% based on ecommerce plan
• Hardware bundles start at $229, not including the iPad.
• Installment plans available for hardware purchases

Shopify POS Pro has a dark mode and customizable checkout screen for adding shortcuts.

Shopify POS Features

• Omnichannel sales: Customers can browse in-store and have items emailed to them, scan QR codes to open product pages on your website, offer curbside pickup, accept returns and exchanges for online purchases in-store, ship in-store purchases to customers’ homes, and get real-time shipping updates. 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.
• Reporting: View stats at-a-glance, see cash flows, review finance reports, cash tracking, 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.

Vend: Best Retail POS for Third-party Integrations

Vend is a cloud-based POS system built specifically for retailers. It has a robust built-in loyalty program. Unlike other POS systems that try to offer solutions for nearly every business need, Vend focuses on in-store POS functions and integrates with a wide variety of third-party solutions for payment processing, ecommerce, accounting, payroll, marketing, and enterprise resource planning.

What Vend offers is an incredibly intuitive iPad POS with apps for mobile checkout, customer display, and bar code scanning to streamline in-store operations.

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Vend Pricing

Vend is a user-friendly iPad POS with a browser-based dashboard to monitor your business from anywhere.

Vend Features

• 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: Vend integrates with CardConnect (First Data), Chase, Elavon, Klarna, PayPal, Square, Worldpay, and others so you can shop around for the lowest rates.
• 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 bar codes. Vend has a unique Scanner mobile app to look up products by bar code, 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 SkuIQ, accounting tools like QuickBooks and Gusto, ecommerce platforms BigCommerce and Shopify, and more.
• Employee management: Create customized user logins and permissions for staff, option to require employee password for each sale to track performance, and get register and shift reports. One unique feature of Vend is that you can set 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 Vend’s mobile-friendly web-based dashboard.

Bottom Line

A retail POS system is a crucial software tool that serves as the central hub for your retail business. In addition to processing sales, POS systems collect and analyze data to help inform business decisions, manage employees and inventory, and help build your customer service and marketing efforts.

Square for Retail is our top pick because it has a free plan to help new businesses (or businesses new to using a point-of-sale) get started, with plans and add-ons to grow with your business. Square also makes it easy and free to set up a basic online store with in-store pickup options, manage customers, and track sales. Visit Square to create a free account.

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