In the recent years, the market for iPad and tablet POS solutions has exploded, and there is a multitude of apps available today. Each app caters for a different industry, sector, and business size, with features designed to serve the unique requirements of fashion retailers, food trucks, among others. Nonetheless, with a lot of apps to choose from, it's necessary to select the system that will suit your business needs best.
To get started, let's look at some of the most popular POS systems that you can find on the market today:
This app loves retail. Vend specializes in small to medium sized businesses, and provide a simple user interface and core functionality functions like reporting tools, inventory management, and a loyalty system. The app works with more than 10,000 retailers all around the world, with offices in San Francisco, Melbourne, Auckland, and Toronto.
Vend also comes with a monthly pricing model with several tiers, starting at $35 depending on the size of your business. Email support is included on default, with ongoing training and phone support as extra. You can choose the maximum amount of registers you need, and there's the flexibility to scale whenever necessary; but additional registers are charged extra with each plan.
IconKiller Feature: vend connects you to the latest hardware, including receipt printers, barcode scanners, and cash drawers, meaning you don't have to start from scratch.
Focused primarily on the hospitality market, Shopkeep is ideal for the Quick Serve Restaurant (QSR) industry. It incorporates the usual combination of data reporting, stock inventory management, basic CRM capabilities, and loyalty programs. The interface is simple, clean, and easy to use.
Shopkeep comes with a straightforward price tag of $49 a month per register fee, and when you sign up for a trial, it offers a free hardware setup for one register. Hardware packages are also available through their Shopkeep store, and these can be specifically tailored for your needs.
According to its founder and CEO, Jason Richelson, Shopkeep provides a holistic solution focused on merchants through the cloud on non-proprietary software. "I founded this company because as a retailer, the systems currently in the market hurt small businesses like mine… and I wanted to have a cloudbased POS solution that would allow me to run my business better. That's precisely what the Shopkeep platform provides."
Killer feature: ShopKeep can quic kly capture the info of your customers to see exactly what and when they buy. This allows you to make an order on different products based on their preferences, and helps your build a more effective marketing database.
Lightspeed is mainly focussed on supporting businesses of all kinds in the retail industry. It has two offerings: Lightpeed Pro and Lightspeed Cloud. Lightspeed Pro is exclusively designed for use in Apple devices, while the Lightspeed Cloud offers a web-based, HTML 5 system.
The Cloud offering starts at $79 a month, and appears to be the more flexible and convenient of the two solutions. It offers a more enhanced interface and platform. Nonetheless, both systems do offer reporting features, inventory management, and a loyalty program, which are typical for tablet POS systems and that includes those that have undergone EPOS refurbishment.
Killer Feature: you can connect your inventory and sell both online and in-store, all while you manage your business remotely via your favorite device regardless of where you are (provided you have an internet connection).
Originating from Australia, Kounta has quickly expanded into the UK and the US. The platform is mainly focused on the hospitality sectors, with their major clients being bars and restaurants, or coffee shops. Their cloud-based platforms can ideally run on any internet-connected device, via safari, chrome, or other web browsers. Kounta doesn't sell hardware, rather, it has a network of partners that can guide you in case you want to purchase a complete system.
Killer Feature: The add-on feature lets you plug in a variety of third party apps, which makes this a truly vendor agnostic system, which is fully customizable to meet your specific business needs.
Quite similar to Shopkeep, the Revel platform caters to the QSR and hospitality industries. The platform is categorized by store type, and provides specific solutions for different businesses, such as Pizza restaurant POS, Coffee shops POS, Food truck POS, etc. Their cloud-based system is one of the most customizable in the market today. Revel provides a variety of hardware accessories like credit card swipes, cash drawers, scales, and network equipment.
Killer Feature: Revels lets you continue processing payments even when the internet is down, since their cloud-based system is accessible offline.
