Not sure what an online point-of-sale is?
Do you want to know if an online POS fits your business?
POS systems have evolved from simple analog cash registers and invoice printers to a more complex but easy-to-use business solution.
After that, point-of-sale systems took a step forward in their evolution - they became part of the matrix and began planning for world domination.
How? Offering the same functions from an online platform!
Therefore, today I will talk to you about:
- Online points of sale.
- Their importance in today's world.
- Their advantages.
- Reviews of the best online point-of-sale systems for different types of businesses.
- And 5 great tips that you can use to choose the best one.
When you finish reading this article, you will have a deep understanding of online selling points, and you will know if you should start using one for your business.
The time of the cash register has passed. Let the era of online points of sale begin… and also this article!
What is an Online POS?
First of all, an online POS is not really an evil computer program that is part of the matrix.
It is simply the evolution of point-of-sale system software to offer more versatility taking full advantage of the increasing use and speed of the internet across the world.
With the internet, we are all connected, and we have access to all kinds of information and easy-to-use programs anywhere and on any device.
For this reason, many software companies have created new POS systems or adapted their old systems to work completely online.
This is a smart decision that reduces maintenance costs, increases user and customer satisfaction, and also lowers the initiation barriers to using these systems.
Next, I will tell you about the benefits of these online programs.
What Are the Benefits of an Online Point-of-Sale?
An online point-of-sale has many benefits, added to all the benefits of a traditional offline system.
With an online system you can:
- Increase the speed of payment processing.
- Calculate invoices easily.
- Reduce the cost of equipment maintenance.
- Reduce personnel costs.
- Offer new payment formats, such as payments through Stripe, Google Pay, Apple Pay, PayPal, physical and virtual credit or debit cards, and more.
- Integrate online stores with all kinds of products.
- Use whatever hardware you have available to make the sales.
- Improve your digital marketing strategy.
- Apply traditional marketing strategies and suggestive sales.
- And keep your operating costs much lower - this thanks to the fact that these services are, in general, less expensive than traditional software.
In addition, other benefits will depend on the system you decide to use, such as improvements in your business accounting, personalized sales reports, monitoring and optimization of the sales process, inventory and personnel management, and more.
These benefits have transformed the business models of many companies, which have decided to eliminate the physical factor (for example, physical stores) to adopt a totally virtual approach.
That brings a lot of benefits, since you won't have to deal with personnel, maintenance, and more - only with the maintenance of online platforms, which cuts operating costs in half.
The coolest benefit of these systems is that you can use them regardless of the type of business you have!
Best Online POS
One of the downsides of online outlets is that there are many - seriously many - available.
This makes the process of choosing an online point-of-sale for your business significantly complicated.
For this reason, I have decided to create a list and a small review of the best systems for different types of businesses.
Hopefully, you will find the ideal system to accept all these benefits in your business.
Let's get started!
Best Online POS for Ecommerce
The best online POS for e-commerce is Shopify.
In addition, with this system, you have the possibility of unifying your sales in physical stores, and your online sales in a single application thanks to its great sales kits for stores.
You can also use its application with compatible card readers to make sales in your store.
Shopify Features
This system gives you the possibility to:
- Manage your inventory.
- Reduce operating costs.
- Customize the online sales process.
- Manage user accounts for your clients, blogs, staff, and more online.
- Integrate your sales with a digital marketing and email marketing strategy with personalized offers for each client.
- Import data from your current e-commerce system.
Finally, this point-of-sale system has very good online support, competitive prices, and more unique benefits that make it the best option for online businesses, and physical businesses with online functions.
Shopify Pricing:
- Basic Shopify: $ 29 USD per month.
- Shopify: $ 79 USD per month.
- Shopify Advanced: $ 299 per month.
- If you want to use the service for your physical store, you can do it for free with Shopify POS Lite. which is available on all plans.
- You can also use the advanced tools in Shopify POS Pro for an additional $ 89 per store/location.
Shopify Reviews
- 4.5 on Capterra
- 4.2 on Play Store
Best Online POS for Restaurants
Waiterio is the best online POS software for restaurants.
Waiterio is a specialized point-of-sale software for restaurants, bars, cafes, food trucks, and more food businesses.
This POS has many advantages over its competition, thanks to the fact that it has very few limitations in its operation, and many benefits in comparison.
Waiterio Features
With the Waiterio online point-of-sale system, you will be able to:
- Keep detailed control of all the sales you make in your restaurant.
- Manage employees, give them access to different aspects of the sales process, and more.
- Accelerate the sales and food preparation process in your restaurant.
- Get daily, weekly, monthly sales reports, and with custom dates.
- Create a website with its free website builder.
- Offer online orders without incurring maintenance expenses for web platforms.
- Link and update your menu and your website automatically.
- Offer different payment methods and delivery services.
- Offer online menus with QR codes.
- Optimize the operation of your restaurant.
- Apply menu engineering with your digital menu and optimize your menu items using information from your sales.
- Offer discount coupons to your customers.
- Update the menu in real-time.
- And save operating costs, since you can use any hardware you want for your point-of-sale, including Android smartphones or iPhones.
This online restaurant POS system is packed with features that easily outperform the competition.
In addition, all these benefits come with each of the plans that you can buy, so even if you use the cheapest plan, you don't miss out on anything.
This system is perfect for small and medium food businesses, and it is very easy to implement and use. It’s also a free POS!
Its limitations are only two: it does not have inventory management (yet) and it cannot be used offline either. However, you can use it even with 3G / 4G mobile networks thanks to its app, which is very light and fast.
Waiterio Prices:
- Free plan for 100 orders per month.
- Small plan: $ 19 USD for 600 orders (tables) per month.
- Medium plan: $ 39 USD for 1200 orders per month.
- Large plan: $ 59 USD for infinite orders per month.
Waiterio Reviews
- 4.8 on Capterra
- 4.2 on Play Store
- 4.4 on Play Store (website builder)
Best Online POS for Retail Stores
The best online point-of-sale for physical stores is Lightspeed.
This system is great for physical stores, but like Shopify, it offers integrations with online stores.
With 15 years in the market, Lightspeed has positioned itself as the best online point-of-sale system for iPads. They can also provide you with equipment, such as stands for iPads, desktops, printers, card readers, and more.
Lightspeed Features:
These are its features:
- Manage inventories of your different products and physical stores.
- Optimize sales through online channels.
- Accelerate and facilitate the sales process for your customers.
- Accept different payment methods.
- Manage all functions from the same device.
- Synchronize your inventory in physical stores and online.
- Improve the design of your virtual store with predesigned templates.
- Use gift cards with your own design for branding.
- Attract customers from your online stores to physical stores.
- Improve your customer acquisition and loyalty with subscriptions.
- Obtain sales reports from your different stores.
- Maximize your sales with trend analysis, profitability, and more.
Lightspeed is an interesting and very efficient system that can optimize the operation of your business in just a few steps.
Also, despite being a general online point-of-sale system, you can use it for almost any type of business without any problem.
Pricing:
- Lightspeed Lean: $ 69 USD per month
- Lightspeed Standard: $ 119 USD per month
- Lightspeed Advanced: $ 199 USD per month
- You can add more paid features.
Reviews
- 4.2 in Capterra
5 Tips to Choose the Best Online Point-of-Sale for Your Business
Now, I will give you some tips that you can use to choose the best online point-of-sale for your business.
These tips are simple, but they will save you a lot of time when choosing.
1. Analyze your sales strategy
An online point-of-sale system should fit your current sales strategy.
If you want, for example, to capture the attention of local customers, a point-of-sale system with integrations of international payment methods is not necessary.
Therefore, you should think about your sales strategy, and analyze the following points:
- Different data about your target audience. The better you study your customers, the easier it will be to choose a point-of-sale that suits your needs.
- Study the sales channels you want to use. Whether they are sales in your physical store, through social networks, or e-commerce. The POS you choose should easily integrate with those needs.
- Study the sales experience of your customers. Do your customers prefer to buy online and receive at home? Or do they prefer to buy in person and see the products in a store?
All these aspects are very important, and the better you study them, the better the results of implementing a suitable online point-of-sale system will be.
2. Analyze your operating budget
Analyzing your operating budget will help you choose an online point-of-sale system that saves you more money than it makes you spend.
For example, if you have a small restaurant, it is unlikely that you will be able to implement a point-of-sale system with all of Apple's late-model specialty equipment profitably.
In that case, it would be better to opt for an online point-of-sale system like Waiterio, which helps you choose the hardware you want to use, and further adjust the operating costs of your business to save money.
3. Study the needs of your business
Studying the needs of your business is very important to know what functions an online point-of-sale system must have to satisfy them.
For example, if you have three department stores, and you want to apply the software in each one and optimize inventory management, you cannot choose an online POS that does not offer inventory and utilization management in different locations or devices.
For this example, you will also need to consider what are the limitations of implementing online POS in more than one location. Some limitations would be to buy all the equipment again or to pay more for each location.
4. Consider ease of implementation
To apply this tip, simply ask yourself:
What must you sacrifice to implement a particular online point-of-sale system?
Ease of implementation is very important to any business, as an online point-of-sale system that is more hassle when starting up or while in use is not efficient.
One way to check how easy it is to implement a POS system is by reading the reviews of real users.
Thus, you will be able to know what type of problems they have had at the beginning or during the use of certain systems.
5. Consider ease of use.
What do you prefer?
- Having a point-of-sale system with a thousand functions that are difficult to use.
- Or have a system that has ten very easy-to-use functions.
Some point-of-sale systems are complicated programs, requiring you to give your employees some kind of training and to repeat this process every time you hire new staff.
That's a waste of time that you don't want to have to handle.
Therefore, using a more modest system, with fewer functions that are effective and easy to use, is a very good idea.
Choose an Online Point-of-Sale that Fits the Needs of Your Business!
Web point-of-sale systems are among the most efficient, convenient, and secure systems you can use.
I hope this article is helpful for you to adopt some of these systems in your business.
Very soon, and with the expansion of fast internet services worldwide, online POS systems will be the rule.
Is your business up to date?
Are you offering the best shopping experience to your customers?
Start doing it as soon as possible so you can take advantage of all the benefits of an online POS!
