Point of Sale

The app is a bad, forced update after forced update, and all that seems to change is making our ipads unsupported. even worse if you pay shopify more money for their tap and chip reader. They may as well go back to a wired connection to the ipad because they don't seem to know how to use bluetooth technology. Having to restart the app every time the devices sleep isn't an acceptable solution. They've opened up their business to third party apps for everything else they may as well just let third party hardware/software handle this part as well.

We've been using the Shopify POS system since early days of the pandemic. We have a POS Pro subscription at one location and use the free Lite version at a second location. Both versions work wonderfully, although we really appreciate having local pickups and inventory features in the PRO version at our busier location. In combination with the Shopify tap & chip reader, we have full functionality to accept any payment type. The fact that it syncs inventory with our online store just makes everything magical. Every once in a while there are bugs with connecting the tap & chip to the POS app, but restarting the app usually fixes everything.

Super easy so far. I am a physical store and purchased the iPad stand, barcode reader, receipt printer and chip reader. I purchased a cheaper cash drawer off Amazon. Everything was able to set up smoothly, including the cash drawer. I am not tech savvy, but I was able to set it up myself with no issues. With the barcode scanner, checkout is a breeze. The app makes it possible to personalize options. Add discounts in a click. Very user friendly. Once I am financially able to justify it, I would like to upgrade to the pro, but it's not feasible at this time. I would really like to be able to print a survey but haven't found one yet. I don't know if it exists?

I have been a vendor at 4 festivals so far for a total of 6 full days and used their chip reader and this POS app. No problems other than disconnecting from the hot spot a couple times due to my phone or IPad. Although I could not print the report offered on days totals from the POS the print button was not clickable. Very easy to use and set up. Just have to make sure products are set to POS in Shopify admin. and disable tax setting when done if you're collecting taxes in another state temporarily. Other wise taxes will be collected on online orders if someone from that state orders online. Setting up inventory for the POS in the Shopify admin is confusing for me, for others probably not so. When I have more time I will call support to help me figure out. The POS app and reader has worked well for me.

We’ve been with Shopify for several years now for our website & POS. Prior to Shopify we used 2 very popular and highly noted POS platforms both with pros & cons & both costing more than Shopify’s upgraded version. We switched our 13 yr old Brick & Mortar over to Shopify’s POS platform approx. 4yrs ago and have been relatively pleased with our decision. In our experience, anytime a new upgrade is rolled out with any platform there has always been growing pains and it never seems to be at the right time. What I do know is that in our 4 yrs of using Shopify’s POS many of the upgrades they have implemented is a direct result of listening to the customer. Can they do more, absolutely. Let us all remind ourselves with this pandemic how we’ve had to change direction in the blink of an eye including Shopify. Trying to keep up with an influx of demand can be daunting even for the big guys.

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.

Do not use this app if:
You deal with a lot of customers a day, this will add minutes to every transaction just adding barcoded items to the cart because it doesn't do it automatically once a product is scanned.

You have lots of products with variants that you have to rely on checking the SKU a lot because they don't have barcodes, or the differences are not obvious in the title or photo. The SKU and barcode is not visible on the first screen when searching for a product. You have to click on each product variant to see the SKU number. Bummer if you don't pick the right one on the first or second try.

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Sadly, I really enjoy stocky so now I'm stuck with POSpro because they don't do them separately and now, I have to pay for another POS app on top of it. Sigh..

Note to the Shopify retail team: I suggest you pop into a couple of stores that use this app and process transactions for half a day at each, you will soon realise how frustrating it is.

Also, why is POS not available on a web browser? We all have computers already, why are you forcing people to have to buy another piece of hardware?!

The app definitely needs some layout and user interface work. The cart is not accessible from every screen which makes adding and removing items more difficult and require more steps than necessary. When you add an item to the cart, you can only add one item. If you need to change the quantity of any item you have to go back to the menu, go back to the cart then change the quantity. You should just be able to change the quantity before you add the item to the cart. The "Ship to customer" option is only available at the beginning of the sale which is incredibly inconvenient. When my customer decides half way through the sale they'd rather ship instead of carry the items with them. If anything the "Ship to customer" option should be a separate page or section before you check out the customer with a simple toggle switch that enables shipping or pick up. My last complaint is that the bluetooth does not reconnect to the card readers if you walk away from your paired reader. In order to get the readers to reconnect I had to either make the my phone or iPad to forget the device or completely restart my phone or iPad. I gave the app 2 stars because it did perform enough for me to make sales but the overall inconvenience of how the app is laid out made my sales in a fast paced environment more stressful as opposed to helpful. I really hope Shopify updates the app to be more user friendly and streamlined. I'm going to try and use it one more time before the end of the year, and if it's still PITA, I'll defiantly be switching to a different option.

Very intuitive, and where I can't find something, the search and help functions get me to it quickly.

Very easy to use. Just a phone and a card reader to get started. No problems so far! Excellent tool.