I am part of a small single location brick and morter store with very little online sales currently we are currently using Clover POS. We are having issues with the hardware freezing as well as price hikes, the software is not user friendly and we are looking for other options. Could you give me some information about what POS system you are using as well as some pros and cons of your experience with it as well as any you would advise to avoid. Thanks for your advise!
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1.2y
This is the only answer. We need to start there.
On square at the moment. The POS seems to be fine, but I’m not a huge fan of their customer service
There is none. It’s all email/chat based unless you fall within a certain revenue
It's almost impossible to locate their phone number on their website without googling it.
They're all fucking trash as far as I can tell.
I’ve used square for 7 years and never had a problem. It works great for me.
We’re on Lightspeed and it’s fine. Kind of a love hate relationship lol they have good rates and their base system is good, but the card readers were a nightmare for a while. They kept selling us clover gos and they’d die in 5-9 months. We finally switched over to an ingenico card reader but it doesn’t always read tap payments. Which is fine as the chip reader works great. Customer service has declined in the last five years too. But like I said, rates are good so 🤷🏻♀️
Thanks! What kind of store do you have?
My dad runs a vape shop. I just do his technology stuff.
Agree with many on here with my recommendation of Square, the interaction of POS, online store and web site, payroll, employee schedule, customer appointments, etc. offers a robust, affordable solution. Good luck with the business! 👍 —Rocco
Checkout pcAmerica. One time license fee and then buy tech support if you want. You would want tech support if you plan on integrating anything into the POS. Setting up hardware not too complicated if you can basic configuration.
Edit: I think they now have tablet version too through an app. It’s been few years since I was in retail.
depends on how small. i recommend Square for very small (50k-300k a year in revenue) Shopify for medium (400k to 4mil) and a large professional solution for anything above that. Stay away from platforms like lightspeed and quickbooks, clover etc cause they are a mess. They focus on getting customers and not creating a working product.
Eh, we're on Lightspeed and it works fine. Them forcing us over to their payments might be a deal breaker. For our industry, Lightspeed is a big one, RICS is big and Heartland POS is. Shopify has a really strong ecom side, but their POS side has been lacking.
Not really just on the total revenue end, Depending on how many transactions you process squares fees can hurt you very quickly. They’re on the pricier end. Squares beauty is in the pos design and the convenience in starting services with them.
Shopify POS is only tablet based. Which is not great when you want to incorporate inventory management and have tons of items. I think this really is more dependent on what your inventory situation is, as well as the depth of reporting you want. Add in if you need Omni channel or cloud based. I agree with the person that lightspeed is fine, Heartland looks really good for reporting, but is much pricier. Source: Retailer that’s doing about a million in sales and has thousands of individual sku’s in two locations and an e-commerce website.
I totally agree here!
We've used merchant OS for several years and it's been pretty decent. The UI is very user friendly and there's many of our distributors that it pairs with.
I really love retail edge. you can download and play with a live data demo-
runs on standard pc hardware, can do- 98% of what I want- integrates with shopify if you go there someday- and you can pick your cc processor- some integrate, some you'd run alongside/manually. If you know SQL at all, it's database is similar, and I can pull any record I want into excel via an ODBC connector- or they will write custom reports for you for very little cost. I also use this to print my own barcode scanable labels although there are many built in already..
Love Square!
I just had client restaurant leave clover for Square.
We also use Clover, came with the bank that we signed with but haven't had an issue until about a week or two ago. Our little terminal keeps freezing at weird times and can take a few screen reboots until we can get it functioning again. The thing is only a year old, but I've been wondering if it's time I look at it a bit more and compare options.
Just know (as i posted), your terminal is owned by clover and cannot be used with a different bank. You can export the data kinda, but moving into a new terminal, even a Clover one, requires getting new HW and importing it all. IT is why Clover is often given our for free (depending on revenue), because your locked in, and most businesses do not want the trouble for switching.
That's really great info actually. We got it when we started because it was a quick solution as we had a short amount of time to get up and running. Other banks which have approached us are happy to help us switch. Thankfully we haven't had an issue yet, or integrated it too hard into our system. Our POS operates totally separate from them.
FYI it got announced this week the monthly clover price is going up for new and existing merchants.
Square
I do coaching and biz mentoring for New York State, I have a program I partner with for small business owners. It's Not affiliated with one specific company. You hop on a call discuss all your business needs and they provide you with several different options that match your needs. In some instances the POS system you decide on is completely free as well.
Here to help in anyway I can.
How much does it cost? I’m in CA , but am curious about how much a similar program would run me
The program cost nothing. The POS’s have different pricing but again based off of your business type you might be eligible to get the machines complimentary and your monthly processing depends on what program you decide to go with but will beat whatever rate you currently have.
I work with clients in all 50 states. But my mentoring service is through NYS only.
Try Setup Shop POS. It’s a mobile only solution (only iOS), but super flexible and easy to use. Not really suitable for larger companies but if you have a small shop with a few employees could be worth a try. Super affordable too
"0.7% application processing fee", that is a rough markup fee to pay. Even the 0.02% is rough when they have no responsibility for the card processing.
Piece Of Shit system? What's that?
POS=Point Of Sale
I wanted to make a joke comment saying something like "You can't just come here and call my system piece of shit". But I opted against it due to it probably being downvoted.
We use a more business friendly one without the crazy hikes. Happy to make an introduction if you’re looking for a new one. Very happy with our solution at the moment. It also has a bunch of integrations that saves some headache as well.
What a useless reply post. Why write a 4 sentence paragraph about what you're using and how great it is, without mentioning the name?
Pointless.
User deleted comment
1.2y
Lol, so they're using the same one OP is complaining about? This makes their reply even more confusing, unless it's an ad bot.
Whats it called? Looking to move away from square
Look into SumUp, that's who my sister uses.
I'd recommend Stax Payments, flat rate plus interchange.
I normally pair businesses with Paradise POS as my go to POS. IT is very inexpensive, flexible, and runs on iPad hardware. So if things are getting slow in a few years? No problem sounds like it is time for a new iPad.
I tend to dislike offering solutions like Clover because the eco system is locked in. That terminal that you sometimes buy (sometimes get free), is locked in with that payment provider only. If you decide you want tog et a better processing deal but like clover? You have to buy a whole new machine, and manually bring your data over. There is no migration, no keeping the old hardware or anything, all of that is owned by the payment processor.
The type of business you have affects the choice of POS system you should use. It's important to think about things like how easy the system is to use, how much it costs, and how well it works. Based on what people have said here, Square is a good choice for small businesses. But there are other options too, like Lightspeed, Shopify, and RetailEdge. You should look into each one and choose the one that works best for your business and your budget. Thanks to everyone who gave advice!
I use moneris go. $40 a month and cards are 0.2%
If really depends on what your business is and what you are doing for online vs in store, inventory, accounting etc….
Give some more information about what type of business it is. I would also advise against buying for now and think about what you want to do in the future to find a platform that offers those things.
A lot of banks and credit card processors are buying point of sales so depending on who you do business with you may be able to get better rates on processing as well as discounted equipment.
What you need for retail vs a fast casual restaurant, quick service or full service is very different
Square for the last 9+ years. Customers are familiar with it, the hardware and backend works just fine, you can link a website from Squarespace if you decide to go that route.
I love square. It handles tax payments automatically, gives excellent and detailed sales reports, and I also use it for staff clock ins and payroll.
Clover POS has been really helpful to my restaurant. It all depends on what you need and type of business.
I work in the business of POS systems and software, run into these issues with clover all the time, especially with businesses doing anything tobacco or cbd related. Square and Shopify both great options for the e-commerce side, can dm me if you want for more info or check out Capterra for reviews
Call your local chamber of commerce or the bank you do business with. They sometimes have connections or partner wirh certain companies and may be able to give you a good deal. I'm using a supplier partner for my pos and cc system
It doesn’t sound like you’re in the bar business, but I’m currently planning and sketching out a POS system for the bar industry. I have started to look at various card readers, cash registers, and printers.
If you have any specifics on what you’re looking for, that would be great feedback. Not to go into the deep technical details, but this will be developed in C# and MAUI on a tablet. However, I might need to have a web-based service for inventory as that can be a bit challenging to manage on a tablet.
Unlike Toast, I don’t believe I want to create a payroll module, but allow integration with 3rd party payroll systems such as ADP. The customer will be able to choose which 3rd party they want to integrate with.
Hard to say because I'm not sure exactly what you need but feel free to reach out to me directly. I work at Square
Square is awful! Literally deactivated my account and now holding what I made at the farmers market. Yeah so many suspicious transactions selling doormats. Good grief!
Look at Retail Plus Point Of Sale. It's easy to learn, has a ton of features, and is not expensive. It produces accounting export files that can be read into various accounting packages.
You can not reprogram any Clover device but you can purchase another terminal and use the Tender function. This will create an outside sale, put the amount into the terminal then it will process as normal. Which allows you to keep the menu/software with Clover while having a reliable payment processor. Highly recommend Dual Pricing or Cash discount. Saved us money every month.
I use Octopos.com for my POS Solution in my Small grocery store in Tempe. I have loved them ever since, they are a Local startup from Mesa, AZ so their support and ability to be present when needed is amazing. They take their customer service Very seriously. So till now if anything goes down, I have my agent's private cell and he is always there to answer. Try getting their Free Demo on their website. I have a feeling that you are gonna love their AI Marketing and Rewards and Loyalty Program.
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