Point of Sale

Shopify is the king of Ecom. Unrivaled. Nothing more to say there.

The Point of Sale is another monster altogether. Really shocked by the limitations. We migrated from a rival POS system expecting Shopify to outshine them on all fronts. It has been precisely the opposite.

The UI is slick, but the features are barebones. Digital receipts don't scan. Can't run reports on inventory adjustments. Reporting altogether is very minimal. Can't reload gift cards. Label printing is worthless. I've been working the forums like crazy trying to find workarounds for this and workarounds for that. We've had to add more than a dozen apps on top of Shopify just to get close to the functionality that we had in our old POS system.

Here's the kicker - Shopify + all of the apps that we've piled on is now almost $3,000/month. We were paying $350/month with our old system for better brick and mortar functionality.

We were sold on Shopify Plus as the future - and for Ecom - it probably is. But if you have a brick and mortar store - they're not close yet.

Tech support has been kind and helpful, but their hands are tied by a platform that is simply lacking basic functionality for a growing physical store.

I'm writing this review in hopes that these problems get fixed. If they do - I'll be right over here to fix my review. But as it stands, we feel like we got sold.

I have been using Shopify on-line since 2013, and POS as soon as it came out. In the beginning, they had a free version, but it did not print receipts or have a "Save Cart" feature. So I opted for the paid version of POS. It wasn't much more at the time, but then Shopify combined the paid version as part of the ecommerce site for no extra fee, Yay! (Except Hey, I have been paying for it for a while and now it's free? hmmm) So then they raised the price of the ecommerce, which still included the previous paid POS version. Fine. I was okay with the arrangement.

Most of my sales are online, but once a week we are open, like a pop-up. I love the POS system on the ipad, that uses a barcode scanner, printer, and card reader. And for years I used the "Save Cart" feature as customers tend to pile up all the things they want to purchase to keep their hands free. This feature saved the day.

Except now they have a Pro Version - For $89 a month extra! As soon as they came out with it, they took away the "Save Cart" feature in the "lite" version, (which was what the version I had was now called). I cannot justify spending $89 more a month for 4 days of sales just so I can save carts while my customers shop. My work around is to have a second ipad so I can at least have 2 carts going at a time. My customers often travel far to be able to purchase in store, and they buy dozens of little items that take a long time to ring up. While they are shopping another customer often comes up to purchase one thing, but we have customer #1's cart going, ugg. So that is when we can use the backup ipad.

PLEASE Please Shopify, let me have "Save Cart" back. We only need it on one register, one day a week. I guess it is too much to ask. BTW, I have 3 Shopify sites, doesn't that buy me "Save Cart" for just 1 of them? Or, maybe a fix for my POS?

It’s good

I have used the new POS app and have to say it isn't as intuitive as the last version which I loved. The product images are really muted and the card payment choice is confusing at first

Not keeping inventory from POS to Shopify Online
Refund to gift card on Shopify Online. Only allows to refund to original payment.

This is really the best way to collect sales for your shop in person. Tip, if you use a qr code generator for the product sku and create labels with that, the pos app will read it just fine to pull your items for the sale. Honestly, it's faster than using a standard bar code to read it.

My only main complaint is that it always requires internet access. This is great 9/10 times. However, vendors like us who often sell at Ren Faires in the middle of some field somewhere where the cell phone tower was never meant to handle the types of volume that are suddenly thrust upon it, I am forced to use a backup payment terminal (square). I would give this 5 stars if true offline processing with cached store data was something that could be integrated.

Since the second to last update earlier this week, POS App no longer functions properly with PopM Till. Transaction is completed, the cash drawer won't open automatically (as it should for cash) and receipt won't print until I close the app and restart it, for both actions. Please fix this.

The app itself is ok as long as you stick to the recommended hardware, or it just won't work! (Basically stick to American based Apple products).
My issue is the features it allows in the free version are lacking, that, in retail certain abilities are considered standard. For example the ability to make an exchange on a sale and the use of existing discount codes from the website end (i can tick the box but unless I use pro it doesn't feed it through).
I don't want to pay an extra £80 just for this option, so I have to the calculations manually and adjust stock manually. I don't need multiple outlets or more than 5 staff I can barely afford myself!
I understand the software is different than the e-commerce software, so billing is separate, but someone really needs to look at the needs vs extras because what I need vs what I want are two very different options. Maybe allow a system of choose what you want and charge accordingly... better yet, just allow me to do exchanges and use discount codes on the POS.

Flexible, reliable. Not a fan of new card reader however.

7/21 update - Shopify team reached out and worked with me to resolve some of my issues. The new version is looking promising. Crashes have reduced and returns issue is resolved. Going from one star to three. There are still issues but step in right direction.

June 2020 - I moved my client to Shopify POS thinking it would work out. Finding major issues and challenges.. Challenges - same as lot of folks listed here.. very little control and not able to manage staff at all. Issues - Major bugs like for example 1. on new SHOPIFY app if agent returns/refunds, there is no tracking and it opens doors for major scams.. 2. Hangs very frequently. 3. Order showing completely different Totals and balance on Shopify main app vs. Shopify POS (happened once for now but happened for a customer who is attorney). NO WAY to get in touch with real support folks, the regular support people are promptly available but are kept to handle the client and calm them down and keep saying they would open the ticket but little moves after that.