Best Point of Sale Systems for Small Businesses in 2019

Are you running a business that is dependent on the bulky cash register for managing the sales of your business? When compared to the newer systems, older systems are very difficult to use. And, also there are greater chances of making errors. Earlier as a small-business user, you had only a few methods for accepting payments from the customers. Times have changed, and now the market is dominated by smartphones as well as cloud computing.

Even if your business involves a small shop or a restaurant, you would definitely want automation to help you along when you would manage transactions. This is what POS software is all about.

POS stands for point-of-sale, and it lets small business owners accept payments as wells let them manage a business with multiple features. These features backed by POS include employee management, growing relationships with customers, analyzing data as well as tracking sales.

POS software is great for small businesses, particularly restaurants. Fast and efficient service is an important parameter for restaurants (and other food establishments). If you fail to take up and serve orders quickly, then this would result in loss of business, and hence bad reviews through word-of-mouth as well. This would not happen, if you use a POS system to address problems like lack of visibility across sale channels, inaccurate recordings of transactions and many more.

Best Point of Sale Systems for Small Businesses

Now that you have understood why you need a POS system, it is extremely necessary to carefully choose which POS system you use. By choosing the right POS system, you will be able to control as well as manage the expenses with better proficiency. In addition to that, you’ll also be able to have a better understanding of which types of your products sell better than the others, and hence you can refine the stock accordingly. Also, the right POS system will be able to track the product results, and performance.

You will be able to have more engagements with customers and potential customers with loyalty rewards.
There are different parameters and factors on the basis of which we could justify any POS system to be good enough for the users.

To choose the right POS, you must know the different parameters or standards by which you can measure the quality of your POS.

To find which is the best POS system for your business, you must consider the following standards as following:

Price: Cost is the biggest factor that could attract potential customers or take the potential customer away. This is an important factor, and it includes a monthly fee, cost of add-on features as well as payment processing fees (wherever applicable).
Ease of use: A customer would never want a difficult interface to work with. Thus, the best systems need to be intuitive as well as easy. They should be able to be used by even new users immediately.
Payment Processing: A POS system may have its own built-in payment processing or the one that would require a third-party merchant service provider.
Inventory Management: Most of the system include this to a certain extent, but there are some POS systems which have it to a higher extent (meant for niche industries).
Customer Relationship Management: For any business to be successful in the long run, this factory holds the most important when the business has started. The POS you choose should allow you many features like customer profiles, email marketing, gift cards as well as loyalty programs.
Employee Management: This factor includes scheduling, user permissions as well as time clocks.
Online Sales: Either built-in e-commerce support or integrated solutions should definitely be present for a POS system to be adjourned as the best.
Integrations: A good POS system should be able to offer integrations which can help you complete the ability to manage all sides of your business. The processes may vary from book-keeping to marketing.
Customer Support: The level of customer support (how quick and frequent the service is) provided to the customer defines how dedicated, and serious the business is about its clients.

Hence, there are a lot of factors that need to be thought about before selecting a POS for yourself. Keeping all that in mind, you need to choose one from a staggering pile of systems. And, this is as overwhelming as you can think of it right now. Let us now talk about the best Point of sale systems for your small business.

Square Point of Sale

This option is our best pick for business owners. There are three main features that this POS brings: free to begin with, comfortable for usage, numerous useful features. These are the reasons which make Square a good choice for the ones who have started out with their venture not a while ago. If you want simple yet powerful features from POS then this is the perfect option for you.

It is the most commonly preferred for most of the small and mobile businesses like boutique retails shops or food trucks. If you want to create a system for making payments from wherever your customers are, you can combine both Square POS as well as m-POS to give you the much-needed boost for your business.

Square’s credit card readers make it easy for taking payments from the customer while the point of sale mobile application is compatible with most of the Android as well as Apple devices. Also, you have the ability to create customized receipts, which may be sent through email or print from the printer. In addition, within Square’s point of sale software, you will able to keep tabs open, split checks as well as manage inventory in real time.

Also, Square gives you both reports and analyses in detail. Apart from that, you can send invoices, track employee shifts, and manage locations. Making customer loyalty plans or gift card programs from Square’s point of sale software is easy. The point of sale software is very easy to use. There’s no monthly cost for the basic plan as well as the transaction fees are transparent.
There are many features that make it Square unique than the other point of sales systems in the market for small businesses.

These features include:

You do not need to pay even a penny to use this wonderful platform. You simply need to download it for free from either Google Play for the Android users or App Store in iPhones.
This POS comprises of a Square magstripe reader. This tool enables the application for both receiving and handle payments either using debit or credit cards, straight from your mobile phone.
There are many more additional functionalities in this platform. Apart from real-time inventory as well as sales tracker, this one also works an item management application.
Analytics and reporting are both essential sets of the feature that this POS system provides. Because of analytics as well as reporting, business insights can be inferred which further results in helping the businesses arrive at good business decisions.
The team of Square makes it a point to come up with newer updates as soon as possible which are then automatically updated to the platform. This ensures continued and positively growing efficiency for your business.

Vend

This choice is among the best iPad Apple platforms in the business today, especially used by the retail stores so that their customers, sales as well as tasks for inventory management can be managed. The ability to customize this POS according to your preferences makes it very flexible. And, the price is reasonable as well. Data entry in this POS can be either done through a keyboard-mouse combination or touchscreen. You may also customize the POS screen to let it allow the most used items as well as features.

After its integration with a commonly used e-Commerce tool known as WooCommerce, it has ended up offering various online sellers multiple benefits. The integration has helped Vend provide its uses both online as well as in-store sales tailored according to the needs of users particularly. For retailers based on inventory, this one is a good option. This software will help you handle the sales centrally with platform sync, sales, products, and inventory. Also, it gives space to accommodate Instagram as well as Facebook users, as they are the potential customers making payment.

There are many features that make Vend different from its competitors. Let us talk about those features. These features include:
This POS is compatible across various devices. You can use it online either with your PC or Mac OS. And, you will be able to synchronize your data using any of the operating systems in the cloud.

Scalability is an important factor that this POS brings with it. Vend works with a number of business applications. And, you can integrate newer functionality with your already existing model as per the expansion of your requirements in the business.
It does not require you to be online 24/7. Even if at certain times you go offline, this POS platform will ensure that it synchronizes all the transactions as soon as the connection is restored.

Setting an online store can be done within a few clicks. It will not take more than a few seconds before you start putting your products or services online. Plus, no additional training is necessary.

This POS ensures multitask management as well. Users can utilize numerous features for handling information through dashboards or reports, promotions as well as pricing, and etc.

Shopify POS

This one gained a reputation in the retail market as one of the best POS platform, based on the web. This company is now bearing more than 600,000 business customers globally using its e-commerce, Amazon as well as point of sale services. Shopify’s big e-commerce integration explains why it holds as such an impressive point of scale solution for retail stores. Setting up Shopify is easy and customizable to fit small businesses.

Also, as your business grows to new heights, Shopify will scale up to match your needs as a business. Shopify gives three major plus one minor plan for doing business on Facebook only. There are different plans with different ranges but are affordable only if not fully featured. But the basic subscription and processing fees are affordable. The e-commerce tools are pretty robust, and Shopify gives you a free 14-day trial for letting you experiment with different features as per your convenience.

The basic Shopify plan for $29 is affordable enough for smaller businesses like bakeries, thrift stores or even flower shops – to get started with the business. You will only have to pay 2.7% for each credit card payment taken in the store. While the online transactions through Shopify payments will cost you 2.9% + 30 cents per transaction and no additional fees if you use the Shopify system only.

Shopify POS – known as the powerhouse for e-commerce – gives you all the streamlined tools so that you are able to manage your retail business easily and profitably as well. There are quite a lot of features available even on the basic plan like 2 employee accounts, domain, website, label printing, security, fraud tools. Apart from these features, it also provides moderate discounts on the shipping rates, and tools as well.

Lightspeed Retail

This system is a POS platform based on the web. It is also primarily developed and designed for retailers. It can be used from anywhere and anytime. This specific POS solution is ideal specifically for either single shop or multi-store businesses. It has multiple features that are appreciated by users worldwide. The features include invoicing, quoting, ordering tools, jobs and timesheet capabilities and many more. Lightspeed Retail gives accessibility to its users so that they can shift from sales to management easily.

Many functionalities are part of this platform. The inventory ensures that you can see your inventory wherever they might be at the moment while accelerating the movement of your products. The purchases that are made are centralized, and thus this allows you to resupply to any of your locations simultaneously. They give you detailed reports in order to let you get clear visibility into every area that you operate in so that you can make all the decisions driven by data. With one click, you can transfer products across as many locations you want to. This results in better sales for you as well as satisfied customers.

There are some unique features that it holds to itself. These include:

This is not simply a cash register. The users will receive this complete POS system which will be able to not only deal with cash or payments but also with inventory, customer relationship, and sales functions.
This is specifically designed for retail as well as restaurant operation. This POS system would help them with store management, floor administration, and many more functionalities.
It has an omnichannel retailing. If you sell online, or in-store, then you can definitely make use of the comprehensive eCommerce solution which allows you to run the store for the entire year.
The best part about this one is the marketing capabilities. There are many built-in marketing techniques that you can use like A/B testing, social media integration, SEO tools, blogging, and client feedback.

ShopKeep

This is the best POS system available in the market for specialty shops. It is a cloud-based POS system, which works on iPads. And, it ensures that personal attention is being given to the customers. ShopKeep seems to be tailor-made for a boutique or a specialty shop due to the customizations available in the inventory, dashboard, and features.

Unlike Square POS, it does not publish the pricing anywhere – instead, you need to talk to the representative. Based on the third-party reports, you need to pay $69 to $78 per month for the POS system, which is almost an average for the industry. It also has a free version of its POS system software, but it has limited features.

ShopKeep has a lot of features in the POS system, which includes back-office tools and even features for sales staff. These features would work well for small businesses like bars, retail shops or restaurants. If you do not want to integrate third-party apps, then staff management, inventory control, customer management as well as reporting are included in the POS system software. And none of them require added costs.

Toast POS

This option is specially designed for restaurants in America. This POS helps the users to keep all their accounts updated very easily and also conveniently by offering helpful features and offers that can be used to further enhance customer satisfaction. This single software can be used to manage the bookings of the restaurant, stock, and online ordering as well. Its biggest advantage is that you can use this POS to make your business outshine others by making sure that your time is being saved, and also is improving the capability of your organization. You can provide quality services and cross-check them through order tracking as well as data reports.

The unique features about Toast POS that makes it different from its competitors are:

It has full management for the restaurant.
The pricing is based on subscriptions. Flexible options for pricing help you in making the additional module as the business grows. You have the option to avail the complete hardware together with a single purchase.
One good feature that this POS system brings is that it allows mobility for multiple tasks like taking the orders, marking stocks, adding or removing items and more.
The interface is extremely simple and easy to use. You can pay bills, sign the receipts or even offer tips in order to ensure cashless as well as paperless transactions.

Webnexs POS

This is supposed to make online selling easier for you. This POS system helps you boost the efficiency of online stores – both big and small. The major portion of the features includes accounting, invoicing, and most importantly inventory management. All of these aids in managing the online store. If you want to link your physical store with an online store, then this is the right option for you. No other software can do it better than this one. It can fulfill all your requirements like managing inventory, monitoring stocks and also allowing you to meet the demands of customers.

It also certainly has a lot of unique features that other competitors do not have. The features include:

This POS links the physical store with the online store. Being able to link both the physical and online store together gives you an upper hand in selling products at any place at any time. This ends up with better sales, and eventually improved profits as well.
Webnexs POS will give you an insight about your business the second you start with this system. It will give you a snapshot of the performance of your company. And, also, it will give you a forecast about things that are to come in the near future, and even an idea about how to increase your sales.
For online selling, the speed by which you are able to conduct transactions is extremely important. So, accelerated transactions are important. They ensure that you have faster sales as well as improve the customer’s experience with the lesser waiting time.

TouchBistro

This POS system is created with keeping food service and business in mind, and this is the main reason why it is among the most widely used POS system. It is used by various coffee shops, fine dining, restaurants, bars, food trucks and many more. It is a cloud-based platform, which runs in i-OS. The main aim of this platform is to be able to help the different food businesses provide efficient and quick service.

This POS system is generated with the guidance of restaurant experts, and thus it is more than what an average POS can do for you. The main features that this one has are: manage various segments of the restaurant, design an efficient floor, take orders by the table, and also transfer the events from one function room to another.

Improvements are constantly being made to the system. The layout of the ‘Order’ screen has also been updated so as to manage the orders in a better way like bar tabs, delivery as well as takeouts – which can actually turn out to be a pain during the peak hours.

New functionality is added which is known as quick search, to find your specific query faster. A preview window for bills can also be accessed such that you can look at the history of which products have been ordered as well as information about the customers. The bill sum, as well as customer information, may also be able to search different orders in the search field. TouchBistro offers a trial for almost a month for you to first understand if this solution is the correct POS solution for you, according to your criteria.

This one also has its unique distinguishing features from the others. These features are as follows:

This POS is specially designed for restaurants. It is primarily created to be used by fast food and restaurants. The best part is that it is flexible as well as scalable. It provides you the same level of efficiency and timeliness for each of the different sizes of the restaurants – from a small coffee shop to a medium-sized café, and eventually to giant restaurant chains. It is both user-friendly as well as reasonably priced.
This is such a smart solution that now those days are gone when there was a delay. It allows you to enter any order into your iPad, which is further than sent wirelessly to other locations as well.
TouchBistro empowers your team to perform every task efficiently because of it’s easy to use interface and the comprehensive features. Within a few taps on the POS, your staff will be able to do many chores, taking orders and then managing tables.
The menu management remains mobile. Restaurant owners a well as managers can keep an eye on their business even if they are not at the same place. And, the credit goes to the TouchBistro’s connection a well as cloud-based menu management and reporting functionality.
POS works using a local connection, thus your business will never stop working for even once.

Clover

Clover is an integrated POS solution, which is designed to cater to small and medium-sized restaurants. This helps them in managing the inventories, staff, and menus as well. The system has its own customized hardware and thus can be deployed either through a premise or through a browser.

This one is a user-friendly solution supporting a sleek as well as a fully-featured interface that can be accessed from any device. Reports can also be generated that offer them insights that would help them in coming up with good decisions.

The best thing about Clover is that it is capable of processing both debits as well as credit card payments and also the ones made through Apply Pay. Ease of use is an important feature while it makes it easy to manage inventory using many tools. You may also track product performance because of the system’s ability to be able to edit product info.

You can then identify the best-selling items by recording the values of credit, payment as well as promotion data. This application makes use of different technologies that can help in printing, promoting, and creating the loyalty program from a single console.

Clover also comprises of various features that will help you distinguish Clover from its various competitors. These features include:

This eradicates the need for additional hardware. You can process credit as well as debit card payments. Clover is made up of such technologies that help you do that. It completely removes the need for any sort of equipment like cash registers, labels, terminals, and receipt printers.
You can manage your employees. This is a good advantage for people who want to monitor employees, manage their shifts as well as tips while only giving the important people access to their system.
It is utterly a POS-based platform. You can use the software to let users edit information about products, manage the inventory, print orders and hence also create loyalty programs. All of this comes from a single solution.

Lavu

It is among the most popular POS software which is designed for bars as well as restaurants. This helps them know the complications that arise from confusions in order, slow service as well as unclear sales data. Thus, the managers can take control of their operations with their employees, adhering to its standards. This is all possible because of the simple, yet powerful interface.

There are many more features about the platform, which not only improve the sales but give a huge boost to restaurant processes like staff training, order taking and menu layout customization. Technology plays a crucial role in the benefits of the software as it makes use of the best hardware.

The unique features of Lavu are:

It helps you manage the inventory as well as labor. If you want to reduce your overhead, then this is the best option. Revenues might even increase, while the payments can save costs.
It has a focus on the customer experience. Since it has the capability to fasten your processes and cut their waiting time, they can have a better experience as well as improved satisfaction.
Lavu makes sure to payment processing easier. It can accept and process payments made through different channels like magnetic stripe cards, chip cards.

Hence, this is all about the best point of sale systems that are meant for small businesses. If one had to be recommended out of the above-listed ones, Square is the best one as it is free, provides comfortable use and gives the best features.