Lightspeed Retail Review

Lightspeed has been in the POS business since 2005 and its software has improved tremendously over the years. The company has refined its software offerings to solve common problems retailers face and address their changing needs in the digital age. Lightspeed Retail is a comprehensive POS, business management and eCommerce platform that covers all of the basics and more.

The consistency of quality across its software is impressive, too.

The main downsides with Lightspeed Retail is that some smaller businesses might find the monthly payments a little steep and the 12-month contract you have to sign.

Overview

While there are plenty of POS systems designed for retail brands, they often fail to deliver for brands that sell both in-store and online.

Lightspeed Retail is different. It provides dedicated systems for brick-and-mortar retailers and eCommerce, which integrate perfectly to create an all-in-one system. If you don’t need the eCommerce system, you simply don’t pay for it. Likewise, if you’re an online-only retailer, you have a dedicated eCommerce platform without any of the in-store POS features getting in your way.

By dividing its software offerings into two separate platforms, Lightspeed gives you the flexibility to create a system that meets your needs. Crucially, they integrate seamlessly, creating an all-in-one solution that feels and operates like a single piece of software that delivers the same level of quality for offline and online sales.

User Features

Lightspeed Retail is an extensive platform crammed full of features to help store owners sell products and manage their business. These are broken down into five separate product categories that you gain access to, depending on which pla you sign up for (more details in the pricing section later).

Here are the five categories we’ll be looking at in this section.

• Retail ePOS

• eCommerce

• Loyalty

• Analytics

• Accounting

Now, let’s take a look at the key features you can expect from each product category.

Retail ePOS

• Stock management: Keep track of stock levels and automatically order new stock.
• Product management: Create variants for size, colour, materials, etc. and bundle items to create packages.
• Inventory management: Track inventory levels, change prices in bulk and set up custom pricing rules.
• Fast imports: Directly import products from over 3,000 preloaded catalogues and upload up to 10,000 items with the self-serve item import tool.
• Easy discounts & promotions: Automate discounts, offer staff discounts, allow giveaways and donations, create coupons and promotions.
• Stock & sales insights: Track unit cost and margins, reduce inventory cost, identify shopping trends and automatically reorder your best selling products so you never run out.
• Multiple locations: Manage multiple retail locations from the same platform.

eCommerce

• Store builder: Build your online store using Lightspeeds optimised themes.
• Easy imports: Easily import stock from your physical store to your eCom shop in one click.

• Easy updates: Make quick and easy mass updates to your product data through spreadsheet imports and exports.

• Discount codes: Create discount codes for dusty inventory to drive traffic to your webstore.
• Deliveries: Keep customers up-to-date on the status of their order with shipment tracking codes.
• International shipping: Offer variable or flat international shipping rates.
• Social integration: Connect social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to your online shop.
• SEO tools: Boost your search ranking and bring more visitors to your store with Lightspeed’s built-in SEO tools.
• eCommerce insights: Track your online sales performance daily, weekly and monthly sales reports.
• Conversion reports: Identify areas of your online store that should be improved to boost sales.

Loyalty

• Points-based rewards: Encourage customers to keep buying with a point-based reward system that incentivises every sale.
• Coupons & discount codes: Create coupons and discount codes for impulse purchases.
• Custom deals: One-off discounts and offers for birthdays, anniversaries, VIP customers, etc.
• Automated loyalty programmes: Automatically reward customers based on their purchase habits so you don’t have to manually manage your loyalty programmes.
• Email marketing: Build emails with Lightspeed’s drag-and-drop builder and automate campaigns.
• Targeting: Segment and target customers with relevant messages and offers to maximise sales.

Analytics

• Stock optimisation: Identify your best-selling stock, discount older stock and spot new product opportunities.
• Smart rewards: Identify which customers will return the most value from your loyalty programmes.
• Customer insights: Learn the shopping habits of your customers to maximise sales and spot any issues getting in the way of potential sales.
• Staff performance: See how efficient your team is, ensure you have the right number of staff and spot opportunities to increase sales.

Accounting

• Synced POS & accounting: Link your POS and accounting software for automatic data exchange.
• Automatic accounting: Sales, payments, discounts or taxes, everything is transferred to the account of your choice in your accounting software.
• Extensive reports: Daily sales receipts, profit and losses reports, seasonal performance reports and more.
• Multi-location reports: Data for your stores is gathered across locations, allowing you to organize your stores by sales, average ticket size and customer amount.

You can find a full summary of features for each product on the Lightspeed website and additional information about which kind of businesses the platform is designed for. 

Technical Features

Lightspeed Retail is an advanced platform designed for modern businesses and there are some important technical features to understand. In this section, we look at which operating systems it’s available on, system requirements and the hardware you might need to run the software effectively.

Cloud Based or Locally Installed?

Lightspeed Retail is split into two systems, one of which provides the front-end POS capabilities and another that gives you back-end access for managing your store.

The POS system is an iOS app that can run on iPads and iPhones but functionality is restricted on iPhones. For example, you can sell products using your phone, which means you’re going to need an iPad for every point of sale you want to create in your store.

Just to clarify, there is no Android app for Lightspeed Retail.

Accessibility for the back-end system is much better, thanks to this part of the system being a cloud-based platform. This means you can access it using any major web browser, allowing you to manage your store on any Mac, PC or tablet connected to the web.

OS Requirements

You can access the back end of Lightspeed Retail using any major browser so you shouldn’t have any problems with this. For the Lightspeed Retail app, you’re going to need iOS 12.2 or later and the app also works on all versions of the newer iPadOS system designed specifically for Apple’s tablets.

It’s a shame that Lightspeed doesn’t provide support for Android devices, as this would make the entire system more accessible.

Hardware Integration

Lightspeed also provides a range of hardware for retail businesses to set up their points of sale in-store. There are two main kits available through Lightspeed: one for iPads and another for desktops.

The iPad hardware kit includes a LAN receipt printer, cash drawer, bluetooth scanner, iPad stand and receipt paper. While the desktop hardware it comes with a USB receipt printer, cash drawer and USB scanner.

Additional hardware can also be ordered individually and you can find a full list of items here. For pricing information on hardware items, you’ll have to contact Lightspeed directly.

Software Integrations & Add-Ons

You can find a full list of the integrations here and you’ll have to visit the relevant third-party sites for pricing information.

Which Businesses Are Best Suited To Lightspeed Retail?

Lightspeed Retail is designed for any small-to-medium sized retailer that sells in-store and/or online. If you fit into this category then you’ll definitely want to consider this as one of the best all-in-one POS and sales platforms on the market.

Lightspeed understands that every business is different, though, and its software products are fully customisable to meet your needs. The company has built in specialist features for niche types of retailers – for example, clothing stores can create their own returns policy and music store owners can arrange instrument repairs.

Don’t let vague statements about Lightspeed Retail being ideal for any store owner suggest this is a generic platform. It isn’t. This is a robust system built with comprehensive features for the most niche of retail specialists.

You can find a full list of retail types Lightspeed’s platform is designed for here.

Price Plans

Lightspeed Retail offers four flat-rate plans, as well as an enterprise plan for high-volume retailers, and you can find pricing on the company’s website. Here’s a breakdown of the different plans available and what you get for your money.