POS Nation Review: Is It Right for Your Business?
Meaghan has provided content and guidance for indie retailers as the editor for a number of retail publications and a speaker at trade shows. She is Fit Small Business’s authority on retail and ecommerce.
Anna’s experience in business and finance led her to work for a US risk mitigation company in Singapore. She has contributed to POS and payments topics in the Retail section across Fit Small Business.
This article is part of a larger series on POS Systems.
POS Nation is a customized point-of-sale software and hardware package that focuses on retailers that require specialized tools such as age-verification, case-break inventory tracking, and lottery ticket management. This makes the software an outstanding choice for liquor, grocery, and convenience stores. It works with multiple payment providers, offers excellent customer support and an intuitive system, making POS Nation a great choice for many niche retailers.
What We Recommend POS Nation For
We have researched dozens of POS software and can say that for specific industries, POS Nation leads the pack. While pricier, it offers excellent features that make it a good choice for many retailers. However, we found it is especially suited for:
- Liquor stores: POS Nation has built-in age-verification tools, making it a top POS system for liquor stores. It also offers all the tools these stores need, including mix-and-match bottle pricing, case-break inventory tracking, detailed vendor management, and reports for specific state regulations.
- Convenience stores: POS Nation is our pick for the best convenience store POS system because of its lottery ticket management, shrinkage detection, employee shift tracking, and robust inventory features.
- Grocery stores: Perishable inventory tracking, mix-and-match pricing, and built-in customer tracking—along with options for integrated self-checkout, scales, and scanners—earned POS Nation a spot in our guide to the best grocery store POS systems.
According to its website, POS Nation is also suited for niche retailers such as garden centers, clothing, and hardware stores.
When POS Nation Would Not Be a Good Fit
- Restaurant businesses: This software is designed for retail and is not the best fit for restaurants needing functions like reservations or bar tabs. Read our reviews of the best restaurant POS systems to find a suitable alternative.
- Retailers with heavy online sales component: Some users said the software lacks connectivity to their online stores and did not provide a way to take phone orders. This may require extra customization, so we suggest you chose one of our most recommended multichannel POS systems.
- Boutiques: Fashion, apparel, and boutique store owners simply won’t need features like age verification or perishable inventory tracking. Instead, opt for a lighter, user-friendly system designed for your store type, such as Vend or Square for Retail, which makes our list of the best retail POS systems.
Looking for something different? Read our guide to the best POS systems for small businesses to find software that’s right for you.
POS Nation Overview
| PROS | CONS |
|---|---|
| Includes hardware | Needs Worldpay processing agreement |
| Customizable user interface | No email marketing features |
| Monthly plan has 24/7 support and training | After the first three months, 24/7 tech support costs $39.99/month extra (for purchase vs monthly plan) |
| Built-in ID scans for age-verification | Expensive |
| Robust, highly customizable system | Steep learning curve |
POS Nation Pricing
POS Nation has two basic plans: one with a monthly subscription and another for a one-time fee. There’s also a custom build plan that offers more flexibility; you can choose your own processor and pick only the features you need without any long-term contracts.
One thing POS Nation does a little differently is that basic hardware is included in your POS plan.
Pricing Plans
On top of that, integrations can be purchased to upgrade your POS system.
- Ecommerce integration: $15/month
- QuickBooks integration: $15/month
- Remote back office: $20/month
- Cloud backup: $12/month
- Mobile reporting: $15/month
POS Nation Payments
- PCI-compliant
- Works with several payment processors
- Cash discount program
POS Nation can connect you to several payment processors, including First American, Heartland, EVO, Worldpay, and Swipely. Whichever you select, POS Nation Merchant Services offers integrated payment processing.
Payment processing includes gift card, debit, credit, and check processing. It also has a cash discounting program so that you can pass the cost of credit card processing to your customers or reward customers for using cash.
POS Nation Hardware
POS Nation’s plans include a touch PC, receipt printer, scanner, cash drawer, and chip card reader.
(Source: POS Nation)
Like Clover, POS Nation has its own hardware into which they build the software before delivery. POS Nation offers an interactive guide to help you build and price your own system and a general guide on the different types of hardware provided and their uses.
In addition to the basic package included with the plans, you can purchase extra items. POS Nation offers a variety of options in terms of pricing and features. For example, scales run from simple on-counter weighing devices to labeling scales to in-counter scanners scales.
- Tablets with charging docks: $1,350 (extra docks $179–$299)
- Receipt printers: $255–$599
- Barcode scanners: $23–$409
- Card readers: $79–$109
- Pin Pads: $299–$489
- Customer displays: $159–$249
- Scales: $499–$2,695
- Mobile inventory device: $589–$1,449
- One Touch PCs: $1,149
POS Nation Features
This software is feature-rich, and even better, POS Nation customizes the software before installing it on the hardware. This makes it very convenient and, if afterward you find you need something else, you can call POS Nation about adding it.
Learn more about what a POS system does and the features it could offer.
POS Features
Unlike most POS systems, POS Nation has multiple interface options. Clerks and cashiers can easily find an item to see its SKU, price, availability, and more. You can set discounts, bulk pricing, and time-based rates. Scales and scanners make it a great option for delis and grocery stores. Customers can also check themselves out or you can check them out with a mobile option. If you have age-restricted items, the ID scanning makes it easy for cashiers to verify ages.
POS Nation runs on a touch-screen PC and includes configurable hotkeys for speedy checkout.
(Source: POS Nation)
Inventory Management
You can track inventory—including perishables, case breaks, and carton-packs—set low-stock alerts, and reorder quickly from the software. The program can generate purchase orders (POs), manage vendors, and record inventory receipts. Additional features include a mix-and-match pricing tool.
POS Nation’s case-break wizard is a time-saver for liquor, convenience, and grocery stores.
(Source: POS Nation)
Employee Management
Employees can clock in and out, with the system tracking not only work hours but also breaks. The system does not manage payroll but does have a payroll report that lets in-house employee charges be deducted from payroll.
POS Nation also has tools specifically to help increase employee security. Permissions restrict what an employee can access on the system. Cash drawer counts force employees to check the drawer at the start and end of each shift. You can also set blind counts so that the employee doesn’t know how much cash should be in the drawer at a given time.
Employees can clock in easily at the start of a shift by logging in manually with a passcode or by scanning an employee key card with the bar code scanner.
(Source: POS Nation)
Specialty Store Features
POS Nation is a versatile system, and its team can customize tools for specific industries. Here are a few that can benefit from its more unique features:
- Liquor stores and those that sell alcohol will benefit from the ID scanning, case-break inventory, mix-and-match bottle pricing, and Rev-1014 Reporting for Pennsylvania Beer Distributors.
- Tobacco stores can take advantage of special cigar label printing and kit building for vape.
- Grocery stores can include scales and EBT payment processing.
- Lawn and garden stores can benefit from POS Nation’s special features—like custom tree tags, equipment rental functions, and weather-resistant barcodes, plus mobile tablet systems for taking payments in the garden center and at the counter.
- Hardware store customizations include shelf tag printing, bulk pricing, A/R tracking, and layaway.
POS Nation’s age verification prompt is particularly important for retailers that sell alcohol, tobacco, lottery tickets, and other age-restricted items.
(Source: POS Nation)
Customer Management
POS Nation has a built-in customer management program. It lets you record contact data, billing information, and loyalty plans. It also holds the purchase history so that you can look up items a customer has previously bought. In addition to the loyalty program, you can customize receipts, such as with a discount on the next order or transaction.
POS Nation offers a strong customer management program.
(Source: POS Nation)
POS Nation Ease of Use
- 24/7 customer support and training with the monthly plan
- Arrives with software customized and installed
- Large, bright buttons and good workflow
POS Nation customizes your software to your industry and your particular business before sending it to you so that you can hit the ground running. This software has a clean interface, and you can customize workflows with hot buttons to make ringing up a customer faster. The 24/7 support and training make it easy to master the system—just remember that if you purchase the software, this level of support is only for 90 days.
In addition to how-to guides and demo videos, POS Nation offers blogs, guides, and videos on industry topics, from Black Friday sales to how to choose and use POS systems (even its competitors).
POS Nation’s clean user interface and hotkey functions make it easy for cashiers to process sales.
POS Nation Alternatives
 |  |  |  |
Best for: Security-minded retailers in grocery or convenience stores wanting a lower-cost system | Best for: Businesses needing mobile and in-store POS | Best for: Small retailers, restaurants, and service providers requiring an all-in-one system | Best for: Convenience stores without gas sales |
Monthly fee from: $79 | Base monthly fee: $0 | Monthly fee from: $9.95 | Monthly fee from: $49 per terminal |
Hardware from: Quote | Hardware from: $49 | Hardware from: $99 | Hardware from: $120 |
If you’re unsure POS Nation is right for you, check out our evaluation of other popular retail POS systems.
What Users Think of POS Nation
Overall, users say POS Nation is intuitive, fast, and easy to maintain. Managers praise the reporting, inventory, and customer management functions. Users also give the POS Nation support staff high marks, calling them professional, knowledgeable, kind, and genius.
Complaints were few and diverse. Most involved the desire for specific features and complaints about customer support—these were well outnumbered by praises, however. The one consistent complaint, which was on G2 primarily, was about the system lagging and crashing.
Overall POS Nation User Ratings:
- Capterra: 4.6 out of 5 stars, 99 reviews
- Trust Pilot: 4.8 out of 5 stars, 723 reviews
The mixed reviews are also reflected in Finances Online’s customer satisfaction algorithm, with the software garnering a 77% user satisfaction rating based on reviews, comments, and opinions from POS Nation users.
Users Like | Users Don’t Like |
|---|---|
Intuitive interface | Sometimes lags and crashes |
Specialized reporting | Lacked specific features they needed: online store connectivity, mass email capability |
Easy to learn, train others | Learning curve on some features |
Great customer service |
Bottom Line
If you are looking for POS software that is customized to your needs, POS Nation is well worth considering. It offers software/hardware combinations that are especially suited for businesses in the grocery and liquor store industries and also those in retail. The software comes installed into the hardware, and you get 24/7 support and training. Call POS Nation to get started.
