Retail POS and payments - Lightspeed (2024)

A retail point of sale system is an integrated platform that combines software and hardware to facilitate and manage sales transactions in retail environments. A complete retail point of sale system includes both back and front-end management tools. The benefits of a POS system in a retail shop include accurate inventory tracking, efficient checkout processes, detailed sales analysis and the ability to create personalized customer experiences through targeted promotions and loyalty programs.

Unlike a POS machine, which typically refers to the physical device used for transactions (like a cash register or card terminal), a POS system encompasses a broader scope, including inventory management, customer relationship management (CRM) and sales reporting functionalities. Your retail POS should also include multi-store inventory management, purchase orders, stock transfer between locations and special order and work order management. It should seamlessly connect with your ecommerce platform.

While not all retail POS software is cloud-based, the majority of retailers are switching to cloud solutions to modernize their business and keep up with the increasingly demanding reality of the industry. Opting for a system on the cloud frees you to manage your business from anywhere. The cloud will connect all your stores, giving you and your teams much more robust data to work from when making important financial decisions—you’ll have one seamless picture of all your operations in one place.

Cloud-based retail POS systems also benefit customers, as their profile (including sales history and loyalty program) more easily follows them from store to store and channel to channel.

To choose a retail point of sale, profile your business. What is your annual GTV? What is your store count? How many SKUs do you carry? What kind of services do you offer beyond physical products? POS systems built for small businesses might not have everything you need.

Next, define your must-haves and deal breakers. You’ll probably want built-in inventory management, the ability to connect to your ecommerce platform, access to your data—and built-in reporting around that data—and you’ll want it all to be easy to train staff on. Integrated payments should be on the list as well; there’s less chance for error, and checkout is faster. Make sure the API is open, so you can augment the platform as you see fit. Compromising on features will mean you’ll need to juggle multiple systems down the line, which is inefficient.

Finally, think about the future of your business. Your POS provider should offer 24/7 support in case you need them. They should make it easy to scale and add new locations. And they should be constantly innovating for you, with regular feature releases that address how retail is constantly evolving.

You should use Lightspeed because we can help you go further.

Lightspeed POS is a leading commerce platform trusted by businesses in over 100 countries. Business who use Lightspeed grow faster than the competition*, streamline their operations, delight customers and empower their staff.

Unlike our competitors, Lightspeed goes beyond just being a POS system for the front counter. For example, our comprehensive inventory management system is built-in, allowing you to oversee and optimize one of the most important parts of your business without juggling multiple systems at once.

We strive to be a partner in our customers’ success. In addition to our expert support agents, you’ll have a dedicated account manager to answer any questions about Lightspeed, your business or how the two intersect.

From powerful point of sale tools to 24/7 support, Lightspeed gives you one touchpoint for all your business needs—so you can focus on what matters.

*U.S.-based Lightspeed retail customers saw Same-Store GTV grow 35% in 2021 compared to 2020 versus the industry average sales growth of 18%. Concurrently, U.S.-based Lightspeed hospitality customers saw Same-Store GTV increase 52% versus the industry average sales growth of 31% for the same period.

Source: Year in Review 2021

Yes, Lightspeed’s enterprise POS system was designed to make managing multiple stores straightforward.

From the beginning, setting up new stores is simple—you can copy data from an existing store to speed up the process. Once a second (or third and beyond) store is set up, you can easily switch between their Lightspeed back offices from one platform, no matter where you are.

Once stores are set up, you can transfer inventory between locations, order stock for any location without juggling different tools and access data for your business as a whole or as individual stores. Customer profiles and sales histories will follow shoppers from location to location and channel to channel for a seamless sales experience.

Yes, we can help migrate your data. Lightspeed offers tailored onboarding packages to help retailers get set up with less stress. We can migrate your inventory and customer data, train your staff, transfer gift card balances, and more.

You can also migrate your current inventory data to your new Lightspeed Retail POS on your own through the Item Import tool that can support up to 10,000 items imports at a time. Simply export your data from your existing system in a .CSV file and upload it to the Lightspeed Retail POS system.