When deciding on the best point-of-sale (POS) system for your small business, it’s important to think about which features match your current needs, not only in the short term, but also as your retail business grows.
Does the POS system have all of the features you’ll need at a price you can afford? Does it support payment processing? Does it offer compatible hardware like receipt printers, cash drawers, or barcode scanners? Is it easy enough to learn how the system works?
With so many things to consider, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed in your search for a new POS system—especially if you’re shopping for the first time. This guide is here to help. We’ll walk through the most important features to think about, with guidance on how to choose the right POS platform for your small business.
A point-of-sale (POS) system for a small business is a combination of hardware and software that enables the business to complete sales transactions efficiently. Beyond facilitating transactions, a POS system for a small retail business can help manage sales, inventory, and customer data. In other words, it’s the tool stack you’ll use to operate every aspect of a retail store.
The search for a small business POS system can be confusing and time-consuming. We’ve made the process easier by shortlisting vendors according to the following evaluation criteria:
| POS system | Best for | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Shopify POS | Online and in-person sales | From $5/month (free trial available) |
| Square POS | Free POS system | Free plan available |
| Lightspeed POS | Cloud-based POS | From $89/month |
| Toast POS | Food service businesses | Free plan available |
| Clover POS | Real-time sales tracking | From $15/month |
| Revel Systems | Small businesses in the hospitality industry | From $99/month |
With devices to fit small businesses of all kinds, Shopify POS is an all-in-one POS system that lets you sell everywhere your customers are. The system integrates seamlessly with Shopify’s ecommerce platform so retailers can manage online and in-person sales from one intuitive dashboard.
Shopify POS can look up inventory, check customer profiles, and create tailored shopping experiences while interacting with customers. And it’s incredibly easy to learn, so you can get up and running quickly.
“Shopify unlocked the ability for our team—who, at the time, had very little technical skills or development expertise—to self-manage our own operations,” says Curtis Ulrich, director of ecommerce at Aviator Nation.
Shopify is a scalable POS system perfect for growing omnichannel businesses. It supports both online sales and in-person transactions with an expandable ecosystem of apps to enhance functionality as your business evolves.
Consider this point-of-sale system if your small business prioritizes key features like:
Pepper Palace migrated to Shopify’s unified system for POS and ecommerce, scaling from 40 stores to more than 100 in just five years.
Marketing director Corey Hnat calls Shopify’s one-click POS setup a “game-changer,” crediting it with enabling the team to open 60 new locations in a single year. The switch also supercharged data capture, growing customer profiles from 50,000 to 600,000, and powered stronger omnichannel marketing.
Payment processing fees: 5% + 0¢ for in-person payments, or 5% + 30¢ for online transactions on the Starter plan.
Monthly fee: Shopify POS plan required, which starts from $5 per month. There’s a free trial available.
Square offers a user-friendly interface and a range of features for small businesses. As a free POS system, Square offers basic sales tracking and reporting, plus the ability to accept payments without Wi-Fi. Services like payroll also integrate with the POS system.
This basic standalone POS system works well for merchants just starting out. It’s best suited to very small retailers and pop-ups with a free starter option.
Key features of Square’s small business POS include:
Square’s small business POS lacks the comprehensive omnichannel capabilities and unified inventory management that Shopify POS provides. It also has higher fees at scale, meaning the total cost of ownership can significantly increase as your retail business grows.
Payment processing fee: 2.6% + 15¢ per transaction for in-store payments where the card is present.
Monthly fee: Free plan available.
Lightspeed’s POS system offers inventory management features geared toward specific vertical markets. It’s cloud-based and works both online and offline.
Lightspeed’s system is best for multi-location specialty retail brands with complex inventory.
Key features on offer with this small business POS system include:
While Lightspeed provides one-on-one onboarding, it doesn’t offer the same level of seamless integration between online and in-person sales that you’ll find with Shopify POS. It also carries a higher monthly cost in addition to its more complex setup.
Payment processing fee: 2.6% plus 10¢ per in-person transaction.
Monthly fee: From $89 per month.
Toast is a POS system designed specifically for the food service industry, with features like menu management, tableside ordering, and kitchen display systems. It’s primarily aimed at restaurants and cafés rather than retail businesses.
Toast offers sales management across multiple locations, allowing different menus and pricing at each location. Key features like online ordering and customer loyalty programs may require add-on fees depending on the plan.
This is a specialized POS system for food service businesses, including restaurants, cafés, food trucks.
Standout features of Toast’s small business POS system include:
Toast’s POS system is geared toward restaurants, so it may not be the best fit for retailers and boutiques. It also has variable fees and contracts that make it difficult to calculate total cost of ownership.
Payment processing fee: From 2.49% plus 15¢ per in-person transaction, if you pay for POS hardware upfront.
Monthly fee: From $0.
Clover POS provides solutions for inventory tracking, customer management, and payment processing. While it offers compatible hardware, it doesn’t provide the same unified commerce experience that integrates online and offline sales channels like Shopify POS.
On the back end, Fiserv, which owns Clover, processes payments. But you can also choose your own service provider.
Clover POS is best suited to mixed retail and service businesses that need a basic POS system with sales tracking functionality and flexible hardware.
Standout features on offer from Clover’s small business POS include:
Clover’s small business POS has complex fees and vendor-dependent contracts. Consider the total cost of ownership before committing to this option.
Payment processing fee: From 2.3% plus 10¢ per transaction.
Monthly fee: From $14.95 per month for a virtual terminal.
Revel Systems is a cloud-based POS system that offers basic functionalities like CRM, loyalty programs, and online ordering. It’s most suitable for small businesses in the hospitality industry—including restaurants, bars, and cafés—rather than retail stores.
Revel POS offers a digital outdoor display for drive-thrus, plus delivery tools like driver tracking and text message updates.
Revel Systems’ POS software is designed for multilocation hospitality businesses. Consider this if you’re looking for a solution to manage advanced restaurant operations.
Standout features offered include:
Revel Systems has a higher minimum spend and requires contract commitment. Its monthly subscription cost is also more expensive than other shortlisted options.
Payment processing fee: 2.49% plus 15¢ per transaction.
Monthly fee: From $99 per month.
As you research modern POS systems for your small business, confirm each one on your shortlist offers these essential features.
Debit and credit cards are no longer the only way to take payments from customers in-store, with Statista reporting that digital or mobile wallets are customers’ preferred retail payment method. So before committing to a new setup, check that it can accept the following payment methods from customers in-store:
When deciding which POS solution to use for your small business, consider the number of stock keeping units (SKUs), product variants, and the complexity of your inventory. There’s not much use implementing a new POS system that only has the capacity to store one product variant if you’re selling several versions of the same product.
Good POS systems have robust inventory management features that automatically update your inventory levels as you sell, return, or exchange products in both physical and online settings. This can significantly reduce the time spent physically counting items and reconciling inventory, as well as lowering the likelihood of errors.
Also, check whether your shortlisted POS offers inventory reporting tools. Historical data can help you understand what sells, peak periods, and high-demand products to make smarter inventory decisions.
Shopify’s native inventory management system, for example, lets you:
The best POS system connects to your physical and online store to help you gather, track, and manage customer data more easily. For example, with Shopify POS, you can create unified customer profiles to view their entire purchase history, including customer behavior like:
All of this customer data updates in real time and is located in one platform, giving retail staff more context to better serve shoppers and build long-term customer relationships. You can also segment customer profiles to send personalized emails that keep shoppers engaged and increase repeat purchases.
“Having that kind of data capture available in stores allows us to build a unified customer profile,” says Kevin Clarke, head of ecommerce at Sculpted by Aimee—a retailer that’s seen a 275% increase in email capture across all retail stores with Shopify. “We can then send notifications to customers through our app and make offers that are much more personalized.”
💡 Pro tip: Encourage store staff to email carts to customers at the end of their shift. This is a great way to recover abandoned in-store sales and attribute more revenue to your store, even if the transaction eventually happens online.
POS reporting dashboards should not only provide an overview of your business performance at a glance, but also allow you to view detailed insights to make more informed decisions. Whether you need an inventory report, sales report, cash flow report, or discount report, your small business’s POS system should provide those for you.
Look for a POS system that allows you to compile data collected at both your physical locations and online. Shopify Analytics, for example, provides a unified view of your business’s performance, along with benchmarks to compare your store’s performance against competitors.
Also, check whether your small business’s POS system integrates with other apps that measure store performance. Dor, for example, is a Shopify app that can monitor foot traffic. You’ll see how your store’s conversion rate is impacted by things like foot traffic, targeted promotions, or the weather—insights you can use to make smarter decisions.
You don’t always need a separate workforce management system that sits adjacent to your POS system. The best platforms have this functionality built-in, including staff management features like user permissions, employee time tracking, and rota scheduling.
With Shopify POS, for example, you can assign different roles and permissions and set boundaries on what store staff can do in your POS system without manager approval—like changing a product’s price or applying a personalized promotion to a sale.
It’s also helpful to have visibility on staff’s performance, like their average transaction values, median units per transaction, and daily sales inside your small business POS. Sales assistants with the lowest performance metrics should be offered more in-depth retail training.
Reliable POS hardware is essential to your retail operations. It’s designed to help you sell anywhere, accept popular payment methods, and manage inventory more efficiently.
While you may not need every piece of POS hardware when you’re opening a retail store for the first time, a good starting setup includes:
💡 Pro tip: Looking to set up a new POS system on a tight budget? Tap to pay lets you turn your mobile device into a card reader, so you can start selling instantly—no extra hardware required.
The retail shopping experience is anything but linear. People are accustomed to switching between online and offline channels for any purchase they’re considering—and they’re willing to spend more for the luxury of doing so. One report found that omnichannel customers make purchases 70% more often than those who only shop in person.
Being able to unify your small business in an omnichannel POS system allows customers to shop how they want, where they want. That might mean:
Shopify is the only platform to natively unify POS and ecommerce on the same platform. A leading independent research firm found Shopify POS retailers using this functionality benefit from a 22% lower total cost of ownership, an 8.9% uplift in their gross merchandise value, and 25% lower annual software subscription and maintenance costs on average.
Just a few minutes of downtime for your POS system can result in lost sales. Evaluate POS reliability by checking your shortlisted vendor’s uptime reports, consulting reviews, and checking customer support options to get back up and running after an outage.
This is especially important if you’re relying on cloud-based POS systems. If the internet goes down, a system without offline mode could halt sales entirely. Offline mode allows transactions—including payments—to continue even without a connection, syncing to the system automatically when the internet is restored.
A POS system is the hub of your entire retail business. It houses sensitive information such as payment details, customer contact information, and supplier data—all of which you’re required to safeguard.
Check that your small business POS system has strong security features such as:
If you’re a small business owner who’s in the market for a new solution, here’s how to shortlist POS vendors and choose the right POS system for your store.
The first step in choosing the best POS system is to compare different providers. There are many small business POS systems, and each has its unique strengths and weaknesses. But you need to find the one that suits your retail business model the best.
Here are some comparison pages to get you started:
These comparisons will help you understand the differences in features, pricing, and usability among the most popular POS systems for smaller stores.
The kind of business you manage and the types of sales you make will help you determine which features your POS system needs to have. For example, a small business POS system that works well for a brick-and-mortar florist may not be as effective for an online beauty retailer running its first pop-up shop.
Consider the type of business you operate and the hardware you’ll need. Popular options include:
Also, consider the user interface that your shortlisted vendors offer. Is it easy to create customer carts and customize the POS dashboard so that you can complete basic tasks quickly?
“The Shopify interface on desktop and POS is very straightforward and user-friendly,” says Kate Knecht, owner and operator of Tomlinson’s. “You don’t have to be super technically savvy to quickly ensure the right discounts are being applied.”
For any business, the cost of a POS system will be a determining factor. It’s essential to find a system that offers the features you need within your budget.
When reviewing costs (including any hidden fees), consider the following:
💡 Pro tip: Shopify unifies customer, order, and inventory data into one business “brain”—no extra middleware or custom integrations required to sell online and in-person. It’s why retailers using Shopify POS report 16% lower ongoing costs and 89% lower annual third-party support costs, on average.
Although your POS system is the command center of your small business, there are some additional features you might need that the vendor doesn’t offer out of the box.
Comb through your existing retail tech stack and shortlist the POS integrations your new system needs to have. The Shopify App Store, for example, has the following app integrations—many of which are compatible with the small business POS system:
As your small business grows, so do the tools you rely on to manage it. Checking that your shortlisted system offers these connections can save a lot of money in the long term since you won’t need to custom-code patchy middleware to fix gaps in their integration capabilities—or worse, switching POS systems further down the line.
Different retailers have different requirements for their small business POS system. A fashion store with a popular loyalty program, for example, would need quick access to apply rewards on an in-store purchase. A home furnishing brand, on the other hand, might email carts for retail shoppers to complete larger orders at home.
Small businesses using Shopify’s POS system can speed up the checkout process with a customizable Smart Grid. Each tile represents a different function, which you can customize to get quick access to your most-used features, whether that’s:
“Thanks to the integration between Inveterate and Shopify, our retail teams can help customers redeem and earn their loyalty points with the simple click of a button on the POS tile, creating a frictionless checkout experience,” says Ryan Groh, head of ecommerce at BYLT Basics.
Selecting the best POS system for a small business can be a daunting task—but it’s a crucial one. A well-chosen POS solution will streamline your customer experience, make inventory management much easier, and ultimately increase sales.
With Shopify POS, you get essential POS features you need to sell in person, accept payments, and manage your store’s day-to-day operations—backed by the most powerful ecommerce platform available.
Some of the top POS systems for small businesses include:
1. Shopify POS: Best for online and in-person sales
2. Square: Good free POS system
3. Lightspeed: Cloud-based POS software
4. Toast: Best for food service businesses
5. Clover POS: Offers real-time sales tracking
6. Revel Systems: Best for small businesses in the hospitality industry
The cost of a POS system for small businesses typically ranges from $0 to $99 per month. Most providers also charge payment processing fees, which vary depending on the card network used. There may also be one-time hardware purchase costs, depending on what system you choose.
While Shopify doesn’t offer a free plan, it’s considered one of the best POS systems for small businesses with plans starting at just $5 per month. A free trial is also available.
Yes. If your small business sells physical products, a POS system is essential. It helps process payments, track inventory, collect customer data, ring up sales, and generate business reports.
Shopify POS, Toast, and Revel Systems are amongst the best POS systems for restaurants and cafés.
Before committing to a POS contract, look at these details:
