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Retail POS: 5 Best Point of Sale Systems for Your Business
Compare the best POS systems for retail and hospitality businesses.
Find the best EPOS system for your business by comparing leading suppliers
After rapid developments and growth in the POS industry, there are now a multitude of point of sale systems to choose from.
It can be tempting just to go with one of the high profile POS systems that cater for multiple business types. But for bricks and mortar retailers, it is advisable to select a specialist system designed with their specific requirements in mind.
We’ve done some research to find the best options for retailers of various sizes and hopefully get one or two on your shortlist.
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Lightspeed Retail POS R-Series | Epos Now Hospitality POS | Square Retail POS | |
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View Details | View Details | View Details | |
Price Plans (excl VAT) | Starter: £59/month Essential: £109/month Premium: £339/month Enterprise: Custom | £225 Upfront then from £54/month (bespoke for each business) | Free: £0 Plus: £49/month Premium: Custom fees* *When annual card sales exceed £200K |
Minimum Contract | 12 months | 12 months | None |
Payment processing Fees (% per UK card transaction) | Zettle: 1.75% Lightspeed Payments: 2.6%-2.9% + 10¢ | Bespoke | Free Plan: 1.75% Plus Plan: 1.6% Premium Plan: Bespoke |
Payment Processor Integrations (UK) | Zettle | Worldpay Paymentsense Take payments RMS | Square |
Accounting Software Integration | Xero QuickBooks Plus 6 others | Xero QuickBooks Sage | Xero Kashflow Quickfile Commerce Sync |
Support Available | Phone & Live Chat 24/7 | Phone & Live Chat Weekdays 9am – 6pm | Phone Weekdays 9am – 5pm |
Hardware | Proprietary & 3rd party | Proprietary | Proprietary |
Best For | Established small businesses with multiple locations | Single site small businesses | Single site businesses & start-ups |
Pros
- 100% free POS
- Excellent user interface
- Easy to use and set up
- Comprehensive, all-in-one solution
Cons
- Only works with Square hardware
- High transaction fees
Square Retail is one of the best POS systems for UK retailers. It’s easy to set-up, easy to use, and covers all bases. It’s a payment processor, inventory manager, customer loyalty program, and performance database all in one — and it’s free to use, too!
Pricing
Square’s retail POS system is completely free to use. There are no setup charges, no monthly costs, and absolutely no hidden fees down the line.
So what’s the catch?
Square makes money based on your transactions. You can only process card payments using the Square reader, which costs £19 and charges a 1.75% fee per transaction. Online payments are also charged at 1.9% for European cards, and 2.9% for non-European cards. This means very low upfront costs in exchange for higher than average transactions costs.
Best suited to
If your business doesn’t process a large volume of card payments, you won’t find a better retail POS than Square. But for bigger businesses, there are certainly better, more scalable, and more commercially viable options out there.
Pros
- Extensive functionality
- Highly customisable interface
- Specialist features for retail brands
- Omnichannel retail POS system
Cons
- Expensive for smaller retailers
- 12-month contracts
Lightspeed is one of the most feature-rich retail electronic POS systems on the market. With it, you can sell to customers both online and in-store, seamlessly manage your inventory, run a customer loyalty program, manage refunds, and so much more.
Read our full review of Lightspeed Retail!
Pricing
Lightspeed offers four plans for retail businesses, depending on their needs:
- Basic: £69 per month billed annually, or £79 billed monthly (retail POS system)
- Standard: £99 per month billed annually, or £109 billed monthly (+ Ecom system)
- Advanced: £129 per month billed annually, or £139 billed monthly (+ Loyalty system)
- Pro: £199 per month billed annually, or £219 billed monthly (+ Analytics)
This pricing is for just one register. For every additional register required, you’ll need to pay an extra £29 per month.
Check out Lightspeed’s pricing page for more information, and get in touch with them if you’d like a bespoke, enterprise quote.
Best suited to
Lightspeed’s Retail POS solution is designed for large retailers who are looking for an extensive range of both offline and in-store features. It’s a high-level retail POS, and needs some experience to get the most from it.
Pros
- Very easy to use
- No limit on the number of store locations
- Extensive e-commerce integration options
- Real-time reporting
- Multi-channel features
- No transaction fees
Cons
- Priority support comes at a cost
- It isn’t the most advanced option
Vend is the easy-to-use retail POS system designed for retailers, big and small. As one of the first cloud-based solutions on the market, it makes inventory management, multi-outlet scalability, and processing on and offline sales easier than ever before.
You can read our full, in-depth Vend review on this page!
Pricing
Vend offers three plans for its all-in-one retail POS solution:
1. Lite: £49 per month billed annually, or £59 billed monthly
- 1 location
- 1 register (+ £39 per month for every additional register)
- Monthly turnover limit of £15,000 per month
- 0% transaction fees
- Real-time inventory management
- Award-winning customer support
- Small business reporting and analytics
- Secure cloud backup
- Integrated payments
- Unlimited products and users
2. Pro: £69 per month billed annually, or £89 billed monthly
- Everything in the Lite plan
- + Promotions and gift cards
- + E-commerce integrations
- + Multi-outlet retail management
- + API access
3. Enterprise: get in touch with Vend for a bespoke quote
- Everything in the Pro plan
- + Premium API access
- + Dedicated account manager
- + Customised onboarding
Best suited to
Vend is ideal for retailers with multiple locations, or those looking to scale in the future, as it can be used across as many locations as you need. It’s also perfect for small businesses just getting started, as Vend is intuitive and very easy to use.
Pros
- Easy to use
- Extensive features
- Fully flexible
- Widely compatible
- Has an built-in app store
Cons
- Can be expensive
Epos Now is the complete retail POS solution for multichannel retailers looking to manage their stock, staff, sales, data and payments all from one place. It’s fully flexible, works with every major payment provider, and can be integrated with over 100 apps.
Click here to read out full, in-depth review of Epos Now!
Pricing
The Retail EPOS System usually costs £25 or £399 per month, which includes:
- Epos Now Retail terminal
- Epos Now Retail software
- Epos Now GX Receipt Printer
- High quality all-metal cash-drawer
- Installation, configuration and training
If you don’t need the hardware, the EPOS Software solution can be loaded onto your existing devices from just £25 per month. You can upgrade to the premium software plan for £50 per month, which includes account management and a 24/7 customer support line.
Best suited to
Epos Now is ideal for businesses of all sizes that want an easy-to-use yet comprehensive, retail POS system. It’s especially suited to retailers that want a POS system that can be enhanced by integrating it with other apps.
Pros
- Very easy to use
- Specific features for retail businesses
- Excellent user-interface
- Free POS software
Cons
- Need to use an Zettle card reader
Zettle by Paypal has developed POS software focused on retailers. It is a simple and intuitive system that accepts all payment types and enables users to to check stock, sales and staff data. There are no subscription fees either.
Pricing
To start taking transactions, though, you’ll need to buy the Zettle card reader, which starts at £29.00. This is a one-time fee.
For each transaction, you’ll then be charged 1.75% or 1% if a customer pays via a PayPal QR code. Cash transactions are free of charge. Learn more about Zettle’s pricing, here.
Best suited to
Zettle is great for small businesses that don’t rely too much on card payments, and don’t want or need to invest in specific POS hardware. Because of the high transaction fees, however, this isn’t the best option for big retailers with a high volume of card payments.
Retail Point of Sale FAQs
In its simplest form, a retail POS is a Point of Sale system that lets retailers accept payment from customers. They’re also used as a management tool to monitor stock, staff and sales, as well as to run customer loyalty programs.
Aside from the obvious benefit of being able to easily process payment, retail POS systems give businesses a way to assess their performance based on real-time data. This provides valuable insights that help businesses keep on track and optimise profits.
Retail POS software will improve your customers’ experience, and give you the first-hand data you need to make important decisions about your business. Whether it’s reviewing your stock, pricing, or customer spending habits, you’ll be able to identify any problems and make the most of opportunities before it’s too late.
First and foremost, all retail POS systems include hardware components, such as card readers, product scanners, registers, and receipt printers. Then, there are the specific features of the retail POS software itself, which include:
- Billing and order processing
- Sales monitoring and reporting
- Inventory and stock management
- Returns management
- Customer insights
- Employee data
- Loyalty programs and gift card features
Payment Solutions
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