Best POS Systems For Small Business In 2024
Reviewed by Jazmin Castello - MBA
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Whether you’re setting up an online retail site or brick-and-mortar retailers, you will need a point-of-sale (POS) solution that ties back-office accounting to front-end payment. Buying the best POS system for your small business is important in the competitive global and regional market. It empowers a small business to make payments from consumers in-store and helps with inventory tracking. The POS system can improve customer experience and make it easy to track inventory, sales, and employee performance.
You need to choose a modern POS system designed for businesses that can handle several ways customers pay. The best POS system is simple, affordable, and reliable for customer and employee management. The good news is that there are many options to choose from when selecting the right restaurant POS solution. The right solution will depend on which POS features you need more. This article looks at the best POS systems for small businesses.
7 Best POS Systems For Small Business In 2024
- Square POS: Best overall POS system
- Revel: Best for CRM tools
- Clover: Best for handling online ordering needs
- eHopper: Best for restaurants and retailers
- Vend: Best for retail businesses
- TouchBistro: Best for foods and beverages
- Lightspeed: Best for inventory management
Features Of The Best LegalZoom Alternatives
- Remote menu management
- Inventory management
- Customer management
- Barcode scanning
- Invoice and electronic gift card options
- Sales and time tracking
Top 7 Best POS Systems For Small Business 2024
Square POS
Square POS is one of the most well-organized mobile POS systems for retail stores. It is the best choice for new businesses looking for powerful and simple accounting software to help them get a strong start. This POS system provides flexibility for small businesses with plenty of room to grow.
- No monthly cost for the basic plan
- The hardware and software are easy to set up
- Real-time reporting and analytics
- Has a transparent transaction cost
- The transaction cost is a bit expensive
- You pay higher payment processing fees
This flexible point-of-sale service allows you to turn your mobile devices, such as iOS or Android devices, into a restaurant POS system without investing anything. It has one of the lowest market barriers to entry, and the platform’s versatility and different pricing options make it the best POS system for all sorts of small businesses. You can get started for free because it doesn’t have any monthly payment processing fees. Square POS is an all-in-one system that can help make contactless payments regardless of your customers’ location. It’s free to start and use and can plug directly into a phone or tablet. The POS system can process customer payments and credit card transactions even when offline, allowing you to use it in remote locations or crowded conventions where the phone or internet service is poor.
Revel
Revel is a complete package of restaurant POS software and the best POS system for coffee shops and restaurant businesses. You can customize the point-of-sale software to support high-volume restaurants, brick-and-mortar retailers, and small grocery stores. Its centralized management system ensures that everything is standardized, even if your small business has multiple locations.
- It has a robust and customizable system
- An intuitive user interface
- Comes with granular reporting tools
- There’s an insights app dedicated to reporting
- Back office management systems
- There are no payment processing fees
- Setting the system up is complicated.
This small business POS system is the best POS system if you are looking for a point-of-sale solution for customer retention. It has handy CRM tools that make customer relationship management easy, with an intuitive user interface and a good range of relationship tools available for your use. It has all the key features you’d expect of a small business POS system, from menus to inventory management. It also boasts of its reporting and analytics suite that helps users keep a close eye on profits and losses. The CRM features of this software are its strongest selling point, while the sophisticated tools allow you to create customer loyalty programs and update customer data. Different POS systems specifically designed for restaurants, coffee shops, cafes, quick service businesses, and small retail businesses make this a valuable tool for those looking for industry-specific services.
Clover
Clover is a POS software that allows you to streamline your payment processing and inventory management. It’s one of the best POS systems, ideal for businesses that want to take orders online and it makes things convenient for payment processing because of its adaptability. There are no payment processing fees for using this point-of-sale solution.
- It has a good range of hardware options
- There’s a free trial
- Sleek, flexible hardware options
- It’s customizable to any industry
- You need a pre-existing website for it
- Additional features will cost extra
The POS system allows you to add online ordering because it has a mobile POS app and an intuitive user interface. It makes it easy to manage any business with features such as online sales reports, inventory, and customer loyalty tools. It’s also a tremendously customizable tool for small businesses to manage everything with credit card transaction tracking. You can track all customer information and keep a close eye on credit card contactless payments. The POS system can replace outdated processes involving a paper receipt printer, cash register, or barcode scanner. It also ensures that your transactions are safe and secure to prevent fraudulent activities. You can always reach customer support through either email or phone.
eHopper
This all-in-one touchscreen software allows you to take care of inventory, manage customer accounts, and create barcodes. It is one of the best POS systems for small businesses, with everything small business owners need to run their companies.
- It has built-in inventory management
- This is an affordable small business POS system
- It works with most tablets
- It charges credit card processing fees from customers.
This POS system runs on existing hardware and renders several hardware options, like bundles, receipt printers, credit card terminals, and scanners. With eHopper, you can use the existing hardware or Android tablet. It also offers a variety of hardware options for sale, including hardware bundles, thermal receipt printers, cash drawers, barcode scanners, credit card terminals, and tablets. The POS system has low-cost options that give users advanced inventory management tools. There’s also an opportunity to add a loyalty package to your plan. The POS system offers an online knowledge base and has excellent customer support through email or phone.
Vend
Vend POS is a user-friendly, cloud-based POS system with flexible configurations and an on-accountant. It is one of the best retail POS systems that comes with store credit, loyalty programs, easy product catalog management, layaway tools, and offline payment processing.
- It has a user-friendly platform
- Flexible check-out fixtures
- The POS provider offers 24/7 support
- Strong e-commerce integration
- Six businesses of all sizes
- Lower pricing tires have limited details.
The point-of-sale system represents a compelling choice for anyone looking for an easy-to-use software package with excellent functionality. It allows you to add third-party contactless payments through PayPal, Shopify POS, and Square POS, among others. It has fantastic e-commerce integration that makes it easy to sell online or across digital, mobile devices, and physical channels. You can request a custom solution with a dedicated account manager to run a large business. You can try Vend’s free POS software offer to determine whether it is right for you before paying. This POS system has a native loyalty program fitted with third-party tools for accounting, eCommerce, multi-channel inventory management, and employee scheduling.
TouchBistro
TouchBistro has everything small business owners would want from a restaurant POS software. It’s one of the top POS systems and an all-in-one solution that allows you to set up self-service kiosks, customer-facing displays, and a kitchen display system. You can integrate the POS system with online ordering and take reservations.
- Works both offline and online
- Easily integrates with payment providers, apps, and gateways
- It is a stable and flexible system
- Has a kitchen display system and customer-facing display
- Its interface can be hard to navigate.
This industry-specific point-of-sale software serves businesses like restaurants, food trucks, bars, and quick service foods. It was designed with the restaurants in mind and is one of the most commonly used tools in the industry. Its features include inventory management, menu management, payment processing, CRM, table ordering, and employee scheduling, including staff management. The POS system boasts robust server and kitchen-specific features, making it an ideal choice for businesses selling food. There’s also 24/7 customer support via phone or email. If you have a large business, they will give you training services to help you get started. You can either use your software or purchase one from them, though users must supply their POS hardware as it is a software-only POS provider.
Lightspeed POS software
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Lightspeed provides POS solutions for restaurants and retailers, making it easy for them to save time with a centralized purchasing catalog. It’s a comprehensive retail and restaurant POS system for businesses with complex inventory.
- Detailed inventory and analytics
- 24/7 support and onboarding
- Robust e-commerce platform
- Best POS system for inventory management
- It’s hard navigating the user interface
- Expensive POS system for small businesses
While it’s not as popular as other POS systems, Lightspeed is among the best POS systems on the market for inventory management. It’s a reliable and easy-to-use cloud-based POS system, offering a wide range of features for the retail space. Some of the features of this POS system include multi-channel selling, payment processing, and inventory management systems. Everything in the system is designed to be convenient and easy to use. There’s also a range of ways to improve your chances of sales, including local ads through Google. This point-of-sale solution is the most suitable accounting software to use whether your retail location requires work orders, custom items, or purchase orders. However, this POS system is not the ideal option for smaller or industry-specific retailers, as the system is ideal for large retail businesses.
What Is The Purpose of The POS System?
Point-of-sale (POS) software and POS hardware make it easy to process payments for different products or services. It is a crucial business system that handles everything from employee management, customer management, payment processing, payroll, inventory, and shipping services. In the past, these POS systems were such that they only accepted checks, cash, and credit cards. Today, the POS providers comprise cash drawers, a receipt printer, and barcode scanners. Modern systems and credit-card readers allow you to use mobile devices such as android and iOS devices, including the iPad POS system, to process payments. The mobile POS can also accept online payments using Apple pay or Google pay.
What Are The Kinds of Small Business POS Systems?
Before choosing the right software solution for your needs, there are different POS systems that can be considered. They include traditional POS systems, stand-alone POS systems popular with many retailers, and iPad solutions that allow you to place an iPad on a secure stand or carry it throughout the store. Today, most restaurant POS systems place some or all of the features in the Cloud, giving access to tools using different devices. If you get a combination of POS hardware and POS software, you can enhance the customer experience.
Final Thoughts
Choosing the right POS system is important for your business to succeed. You can use the POS system’s features to know the number of ongoing sales and track your inventory, letting you know when you should restock. The POS system can also help you analyze your stocks, sales, and refunds, to maximize profit and reduce losses. The best POS system combines inventory, payment processing, payroll, customer management, accounting, and other services into a powerful POS software and POS hardware package. This article has analyzed the best point-of-sale software solutions on the market; with all of the available options, you will be sure to find one that fits your needs.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
This is POS software and possibly POS hardware that allows you to process customer payments for products and services.
The features of POS systems include payment processing, account processing, employee management, inventory management, customer relationship management, and analytics and reporting.
The point-of-sale software can help you link your custom inventory, service accounting payroll, and other departments, which will help in time savings, and improve efficiency and customer experience.
The cost of a point-of-sale system depends on the quantity, complexity, and hardware and software uses; some are “free” but charge on a per-sale base, while others have more complex pricing plans.
You can easily transfer data into the new POS system if the current POS system can export inventory and customer details.
You can easily retrieve sales reports and customized details organized by the customers for analysis on POS systems.
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What Is a POS and Why Does Your Business Need One? What Is a POS and Why Does Your Business Need One? Published 2022. Accessed July 11, 2022. https://www.sba.gov/blog/what-pos-why-does-your-business-need-one
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