Introduction
Point-of-sale (POS) systems have changed how businesses receive payment, how customers pay, and significantly reduced the costs of these transactions for customers and small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
What is a POS System?
A POS (Point of Sale) system is a combination of hardware and software that businesses use to process sales, accept payments, and manage operations like inventory, sales data, and customer information, acting as a central hub for transactions from physical stores to online platforms, evolving from basic cash registers to comprehensive business management tools.
There are many POS systems available for SMEs; however, one of the best ones in the market is the Shopify POS.
What Does the Shopify POS Offer SMEs?
Shopify POS offers SMEs an integrated system to manage online and in-person sales, syncing inventory, orders, and customer data across channels from one dashboard, enabling omnichannel experiences like buy online, pick up in-store, alongside tools for payment processing, detailed analytics, marketing, and staff management.
Main Features
Unified commerce: Manage products, orders, and customers from one backend for both online and physical stores.
Omnichannel selling: Offer in-store pickup, local delivery, online/in-store returns/exchanges.
Flexible payments: Accept all major payment types, including contactless and mobile wallets, with integrated Shopify Payments.
Customer profiles: Build customer history with every purchase, online or offline, for personalised experiences.
Easy Checkout: Shopify allows for customisable checkout with digital receipts.
Reporting: Shopify provides reports on basic sales and enables performance tracking.
Staff Management: Shopify allows users to create roles and permissions and track staff performance.
Advanced Inventory: Purchase orders, stock counting, demand forecasting, low-stock alerts, and inventory transfers between locations.
Pricing
Shopify POS has various pricing plans under two different themes: Sell in Person and Sell Anywhere. Each pricing plan has a 3-day free trial, then users can get 3 months for $1 per month.
Sell in Person Plans
Starter Plan – $5 per month or $5 per month billed yearly. The Starter plan features:
- Card rates starting at 5% for third-party payment providers
- 1 POS login
- Limited online store
Retail Plan – $89 per month or $79 per month billed yearly. The Retail plan features everything on the starter plan plus:
- 1 POS Pro location
- Card rates starting at 2% for third-party payment providers
- Unlimited POS logins
- Limited online store
Sell Everywhere Plans
Basic Plan – $25 per month or $19 per month billed yearly. The Basic plan features:
- Earn 1% back on sales
- Up to $3500 in credits
- $79 per month for each POS Pro location
- Card rates starting at 2% for third-party payment providers
- Unlimited POS logins
- Full-featured online store
Grow Plan – $65 per month or $49 per month billed yearly. The Grow plan features everything on the basic plan plus:
- Earn 1% back on sales
- Up to $5000 in credits
- $79 per month for each POS Pro location
- Card rates starting at 1% for third-party payment providers
- 5 staff accounts
- Unlimited POS logins
- Full-featured online store
Advanced Plan – $399 per month or $299 per month billed yearly. The Advanced plan features everything on the Grow plan plus:
- Earn 1% back on sales
- Up to $7000 in credits
- $79 per month for each POS Pro location
- Card rates starting at 0.6% for third-party payment providers
- 15 staff accounts
- Unlimited POS logins
- Full-featured online store
All the above plans have the following features:
- Unlimited registers
- Cash tracking
- Split payments
- Free Shopify POS app
- Unified inventory, online and in-person
- Online sales
- Physical and digital gift cards
- Refund and returns
