Digital transformation has had a significant impact on businesses that manage their operations in the traditional manual way. As a result, no one wants to be left behind, so most businesses install POS systems to streamline daily operations and increase revenue. In this article, we’d like to refer to Lightspeed POS Review, one of the leading point-of-sale systems. The main content includes definitions, prices, features, and other information.
Overview
What is Lightspeed Retail POS?
First, you need to know the definition of a Lightspeed retail POS system. It represents the entire definition of a POS system as a store management system that facilitates efficient business operations. In other words, owners can handle all aspects of the business on their own, such as inventory management, data analysis, sales processing, and employee management. Lightspeed’s cloud-based point-of-sale software allows you to control your physical and online stores directly from one dashboard.
Lightspeed is a better option for managing the retail business because of its positive user experience interface as well as many specialized features supporting different business industries. Besides, Shopify POS is one of the biggest competitors of Lightspeed that you can refer to. Let’s have a deep look at Shopify POS and Lightspeed Retail POS Comparison to find out the details.
Lightspeed POS Review: Ease of Use
Pros
- Ease of use with a Friendly interface
- Effective inventory management
- Manage multiple stores in one system.
- Unlimited staff user PIN
- The ability to create and personalize an invoice format
- Simple and clear refund process by cash or wire transfer.
- Support is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
- Powerful integration ability.
Cons
- The expensive monthly cost for a new small business
- Features are limited in the Lean plan
Lightspeed Retail POS Hardware
Lightspeed proposes two kinds of hardware bundles for every industry: The first is the “IPad POS hardware kit.” This POS kit runs exclusively on iPad tablets and the Lightspeed iOS app.
- The second is desktop POS bundles
For those confused about the two versions of Lightspeed hardware bundles, the iPad kit serves the needs of those using wireless devices and mobile setups. Otherwise, the desktop kit is meant for mobile devices such as a Lightspeed scanner and a USB receipt printer, primarily associated with the Lightspeed restaurant POS app. Besides, Lightspeed POS also offers individual hardware if you don’t need a whole bundle.
Prices
Lightspeed Retail offers three main plans, such as Lean, Standard, and Advanced, proportional to their values. Hence, based on the size and needs of the business, choose an appropriate option, specifically as follows:
Lean
- Monthly cost: $79 with Lightspeed Payments or $129 without Lightspeed Payments.
- This option is suitable for businesses that only sell in-store at less than 4 locations with an annual GTV (gross transaction value) of less than $100k.
- The reporting and analytics needs are standard.
Standard
- Monthly cost: $139 with Lightspeed Payments or $189 without Lightspeed Payments.
- This option is suitable for businesses that only sell in-store and online at less than 4 locations with an annual GTV (gross transaction value) of less than $500k.
- The reporting and analytics needs are in-depth.
Advanced
- Monthly cost: $239 with Lightspeed Payments or $289 without Lightspeed Payments.
- This option is suitable for businesses that only sell in-store and online at more than 5 locations with an annual GTV (gross transaction value) of more than $500k.
- The reporting and analytics needs are in-depth.
Enterprise
This option is designed for high-volume merchants and large businesses. The store owners will directly contact Lightspeed to get a quote.
Lightspeed Payment
Lightspeed Payments is available in the system, which allows merchants to both run the store and manage the transactions in one place. It’s also the simplest way to connect the payment hardware with Lightspeed Retail for many small businesses.
Besides, Lightspeed Payments has a predictable, one-rate pricing model, which means you’ll pay a fee of 2.6% + $0.10 for card-present (CP) transactions and 2.6% + $0.30 for card-not-present (CNP) transactions every time someone uses their credit card to make a payment.
By installing Lightspeed Payment, users can get a lot of benefits, such as
- Accept payments easily online and in-store.
- A better experience for merchants and customers
- Built-in protection
- Mobile Tap allows you to make contactless payments on the go.
- Get a fully stocked payment terminal.
- Available support
- It’s an all-in-one solution for payment.
Highlight Features
Lightspeed Retail POS facilitates business work thanks to its benefits, which cover all necessary POS features. Please continue reading for more information.
Item & Inventory Management
Lightspeed Retail POS offers an import tool to transfer items from other platforms using a CSV or Excel file. The store owner can import data into Lightspeed easily because they can create a streamlined storefront while maintaining or adding more of their products’ variants, such as styles and colors. Moreover, the system will allocate the items or categorize them with serial numbers, for example, boxes or assemblies. In addition, the Lightspeed Retail POS user can track streamlined stock across multiple locations or whatever selling products they choose, such as selling unique, serialized, or bundled items.
Integrated Payments
Lightspeed POS allows for flexible online and in-store customer purchases, accepting all coins, notes, cards, and payment options. Moreover, customers will have greater peace of mind when entering their cards into the payment gateway thanks to EMV chip technology. This system also complies with PCI standards to decrease the chance of fraud and protect customer information. Furthermore, the storeowners can process the refund without asking the customers for their cards again or bothering them by email. In short, with the integrated payments feature, Lightspeed can provide nearly all the necessary payment services to shoppers while also supporting merchants with store administration.
Reporting and Analytics
The reporting and analytics will automatically update the data in real-time and also give store owners access to manage the entire business operation. They can receive an analysis of the best-selling items and the most popular gathering dust items, along with the customer’s buying frequency. The store owners also receive several tips or insights to help merchants make the right decisions in the future. In addition, it includes more than 40 sales reports over any period and profits as needed for growing business. Besides, the store owners will know the strengths and weaknesses of their employees to set up effective teams.
Customer Management
Lightspeed not only assists store owners in managing their operations but also maintains relationships with their customers through the customer management feature. They can evaluate the customer’s sales history to make the right investment decisions for the future customer purchase process. Moreover, each customer has an individual account, so the staff can easily control and provide the service based on the levels, such as VIP, regular, first-time customers, or employees. Besides, gift cards can be bought and redeemed both online and in-store.
Multi-store management
Managing multiple locations is a key advantage of Lightspeed because it allows retailers to have an all-in-one solution for their daily tasks. This includes highlighting capabilities such as creating a singular point of purchase for all their locations or transferring items between stores with one simple click. In addition, they can track all inventory or receive all store reporting in one place. The store owners also purchase the new stock for every location in advance and redistribute it as they wish.
Omnichannel
Lightspeed Retail POS allows merchants to manage online and physical stores using the same user-friendly system. Therefore, they can overview all the sales across all channels and check the stock every time. Customers can also make payments online and in-store without worrying about hidden fees. On the other hand, shoppers can find the stores or research their products and make a purchase even if the store is offline, thanks to Lightspeed’s built-in SEO tools. As a result, all customers can shop at the store whenever they want and also suggest products on all channels.
Mobility and Cloud
A mobile POS allows retailers to sell their goods more flexibly in a digital world while also benefiting from an operation that works seamlessly on an iPad. Also, the staff can flexibly manage customer information and make payments on mobile devices. As a result, the customer in-store experiences will get better and better, which will increase revenues. In addition, Lightspeed Retail allows users to follow every SKU’s journey to track returns to vendors, transfer items across locations, and sell the product anywhere.
Onboarding and Support
New Lightspeed users can get free introductory sessions, such as live online training and a live Q&A with an expert. They will be shown how to install the software in a matter of minutes and will always receive one-on-one assistance.
Integration Ability
Lightspeed offers a range of integrations with third parties. The “add-on” list includes many popular services that you might need to customize your POS system.
- Accounting: Lightspeed Accounting is integrated with QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks for Windows, and Xero.
- Loyalty Rewards: To optimize this function, Lightspeed POS integrates with a couple of different CRM-related programs and services, such as AppCard, Chronogolf, Tap Mango, PetStoreMarketer, and Thirdshelf.
- Scheduling: Allowing employees to request time off, swap shifts, and clock in and out from any location. Lightspeed collaborated with NimbleSchedule, Agendrix, Booxi, Chronogolf, and Homebase.
- Social Platform: Lightspeed’s feature partner is CommentSold, which allows you to sell directly to customers over social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram.
- Email-Marketing: Lightspeed POS Retail has you covered with Mailsync to meet your demand for email marketing.
- Inventory Management: If you require your inventory feature to be more advanced, you can ask for integrations with Stitch Labs, merchandise, Nobal Technologies, and SkuVault.
- E-Commerce Website: Lightspeed has a customized website. This platform is an impressive addition to the Lightspeed POS system.
Technical Support Quality
Supporting adequate services for customers is always the biggest concern of merchants, especially in technology products. Although Lightspeed might be the best option for a POS system with a full package of functionality as well as the latest versions, store owners are also bound to face several unexpected technical problems. Fortunately, to understand these obstacles, Lightspeed provides technical support 24/7 via different channels to rid them of the issues.
What is different about Lightspeed Retail POS?
If you want to choose the right POS system, you need to know some vital criteria. Lightspeed satisfies all the conditions required for a perfect system.
You can customize your POS system with various features.
With the 18 competitive features that Lightspeed POS offers, whereas others do not, it is worthwhile for you to make a choice.
You can expand your business by reaching out to online customers.
After gaining success with Lightspeed retail POS, the company launched its eCommerce platform. It gives you a chance to create and sell products online. The function benefits sellers who do not have online sales channels, particularly websites. For instance, retailers can set up their stores through the Lightspeed website.
You can optimize your business management.
- Easily manage your multiple chains of restaurants.
Using the Lightspeed restaurant POS app can save more time and money by not hiring senior employees to manage different branches. Lightspeed Retail POS will bring you the benefits of an omnichannel point of sale. It controls multiple channels in the simplest way possible with the following functions:
- sell both online and offline
- increased store visibility online.
- A customer-focused retail experience
- Multiple order fulfillment options.
- Synchronized online and in-store inventory
- Control your business remotely with ease.
Lightspeed retail systems and Lightspeed restaurant POS apps are helpful for unexpected issues, such as if you have to go out of the store, the operation will continue. Because Lightspeed stores all the activities and processes on the POS cloud, you won’t need to close your store when you cannot show up. As a result, you can access the Lightspeed restaurant POS app on an iPad or mobile phone to check up on your business. It is also capable of operating during an internet outage.
- Easily use the POS system.
If you are afraid it will take a lot of time to study the POS system before installing it, you should not worry. Lightspeed offers sleek design and power with intuitive, modern tools and regular software updates.
You can customize your system with third-party integration.
You’ll find that third-party extensions and add-ons extend the functionality of your POS beyond its core features. All the expert tools Lightspeed allows you to customize your system, including inventory management, accounting, scheduling, payroll, warehouse management, order fulfillment, and marketing. Besides, you could find Lightspeed solutions such as LightSpeed Shopify Integration and Lightspeed Magento Integration,… Please check out this resource to see how you update data between Shopify and Lightspeed POS in real time.
Final Words
In conclusion, the Lightspeed Retail POS is one of the popular solutions that meet all of the critical factors of point-of-sale systems. Besides, the integration capability is one of the good things about Lightspeed. It allows store owners to maximize their business efficiency as well as optimize their profits. Therefore, for everyone who would like to look for an integrated solution, please feel free to contact Beehexa, the popular software solution provider in Asia. Finally, we hope you can find valuable information in this article.
