Is your attention pulled in multiple directions daily?
If you answered yes, you’re likely a grocery store owner wearing 17 hats. You have much to consider, from hiring and onboarding employees to store cleanliness and merchandising.
One crucial decision that can either bring relief or more headaches is choosing the right point of sale (POS) system for your grocery store. But with so many different options on the market, how do you know which one is right for you?
In this blog post, we’ll help you find the best point of sale system for your grocery store. We’ll discuss the key features of each POS system and provide tips for choosing the right one for your business.
The Best Point of Sale System for Grocery Stores
At a basic level, the point of sale is where you ring up customers. And a POS system is the hardware and software you need to complete transactions. It used to refer to a store’s physical cash register, but now, POS systems are almost entirely digital and they’re more than a cash drawer.
When a customer walks up to your checkout counter, your POS system is now where you make sales, accept payments, and collect data. Modern POS software helps store owners manage inventory and staff, collect customer information, track sales performance, and more.
For a grocery store, you’ll need hardware such as a register, a barcode scanner, a credit card reader, a cash drawer, a label printer, scales, and a receipt printer. You’ll have everything you need to ring up customers.
The standard POS workflow looks like this:
- A customer chooses to buy your product. They bring their cart to checkout, and you use a barcode scanner to add the product to the transaction.
- Your POS system calculates the total price. Your POS system figures out the total price of your customer’s cart, including sales tax, and cashiers can apply any discounts or promo codes. Your POS system also updates inventory in real-time to reflect items sold.
- Your customer pays. Your customer completes their purchase with their preferred payment choice. Depending on your POS system, they can use credit cards, debit cards, cash, or digital wallets.
- The point of sale transaction is finalized. You’ve officially made a sale! Your POS system will print a receipt or send a digital receipt to your customer’s email address.
Modern POS systems do far more than complete transactions. POS software allows you to find products in your inventory and ring up sales. But modern, robust POS solutions also will enable you to create sales reports, automate inventory management, engage customers, and more.
A modern POS system is an investment, but without one, you’ll remain stuck using outdated methods and processes like:
- Manual inventory tracking and management.
- Poor customer service and slow checkout lines.
- Lack of reporting to drive your bottom line.
To find the right POS system, you need to research and make an informed decision. To help you on your way, let’s look at the best POS solution providers for grocery stores — and the features they provide, their reviews, and a price breakdown.
The Top 5 POS Systems for Grocery Stores
1. Clover
Features: Clover’s combination of software is easy to use and highly adaptable. It features solid inventory management, including multi-location stock transfers. Their hardware is proprietary, and e-commerce and omnichannel features are a plus.
You can purchase hardware from Fiserv, Amazon, or over 3,000 resellers. Clover doesn’t dictate the prices for third-party vendors, so you might be caught out by merchant account fees and termination fees.
Clover POS is intuitive, and with various add-ons, you can streamline checkout and improve the customer experience. While inventory management is solid, Clover doesn’t have built-in vendor management tools, which seems to be the case with many other features. Basic functionality is good, but advanced features come at an additional monthly cost.
Reviews: 3.9/5 on Capterra (from 360 reviews)
“I like the ease of taking credit card payments and that I can see all my transactions from the handheld without an issue and that I can keep it all password protected.”
Pricing: Clover pricing isn’t transparent, but the Starter plan is free, the Standard plan is $14.95 per month, and the Advanced plan is $44.95 per month. You’ll need to schedule a call to find out what’s included in those plans.
2. IT Retail
Features: IT Retail puts its focus on grocery stores, and it shows. Features include open-source software that optimizes checkout flows and a selection of hardware built for speed and convenience. From pinpads to self-checkout kiosks and mobile payments to inventory management, IT Retail is a solid choice for grocery stores.
Using the IT Retail website, you can get a POS setup recommendation based on the number of stores you run and how many checkout lanes.
The sales dashboard offers real-time data and reports, and if you need to manage multiple checkout lanes and work with a large inventory, IT Retail provides the POS software you need. They offer 24/7 technical support and on-site training during the product rollout.
Reviews: 4.9/5 on Capterra (from 8 reviews)
“It’s easy to use and edit, and the staff goes above and beyond to keep me happy.”
Pricing: Software subscriptions start at $79 per month for markets. Build a custom quote for supermarkets and enterprises.
3. Revel
Features: Revel’s POS platform is packed with features to help run your grocery store. Best for small to mid-volume markets, Revel also integrates with Shopify for online ordering. Hardware options are plentiful, with self-checkout kiosks, scale and scanner integrations, and digital menu displays. You’ll need a custom quote for the various hardware add-ons, which can get a bit pricey.
Revel uses iPads to host its cloud retail POS system, similar to Square for Retail. It does, however, back everything up to a local server, so even if your internet connection is down, you can still process payments. Alongside iPad-based self-checkouts, Revel offers the ability to create your own loyalty program, manage employees and integrate with QuickBooks for your accounting needs.
Reviews: 3.7 on Capterra (from 298 reviews)
“Closing and opening are very simple. Saves a good amount of time from the previous system used.”
Pricing: Prices start at $99 per month per terminal, but this rate is only available to clients who pay annually and sign up for a 3-year Revel Advantage contract.
4. Square
Features: Square is a cloud-based POS that operates in the Apple ecosystem. It’s a good choice for small markets, and the free version comes with an integrated online store. There are some drawbacks like a lack of age-restricting tools, and if you need perishable and ingredient-level inventory tracking, you’ll need to look elsewhere.
While the free plan sounds enticing, and you can run the system on your own iPads, Square isn’t available on Android devices. You have to use Square’s payment processing, too. However, even if you upgrade to paid versions, it’s still a great value for small stores. The interface is easy to use, and it has built-in employee management tools and add-on integrations for EBT payments.
Reviews: 4.7 on Capterra (from 1830 reviews)
“Easily the best thing about this software is its adaptability. It works perfect on a counter, or on the run.”
Pricing: Start with the free plan, upgrade to the Plus plan for $29 per month, or get a custom quote for the premium plan. You’ll need to factor in processing fees.
5. POS Nation
Features: At POS Nation, we cater to grocers with our complete point of sale solution. We’ve considered the hardware and software features that best serve grocery stores.
Scales and scanners are a must for grocery stores, and our age verification tools make it easy for cashiers to manage age-restricted items.
Our software is feature-rich, and we customize it for your needs before installation. Our unlimited SKU database makes it easy to find items; cashiers can see price, availability, and more. With custom hotkeys, you can quickly navigate through photos and find the appropriate products at checkout.
Inventory management is robust. You can easily track case breaks, perishables, and damages. Set low-stock alerts, automatically reorder products as needed, and take advantage of our mix-and-match promotional tools. You can manage vendors and employees efficiently and create reports on every aspect of your business.
Finally, we have a built-in customer loyalty program that allows you to record contact information and provide personalized coupons and rewards. Our system is easy to use, and we provide 24/7 customer support.
Reviews: 4.6 on Capterra (from 116 reviews)
“I enjoyed the setup process. The instructor was great to work with and very informative. The features within the system fit just about any scenario we run into. The ease of learning the system was also a relief.”
Pricing: The Flex Monthly plan is $99 per month and includes 24/7 unlimited support and training. The Freedom plan is $999 (one-time fee), and you own the POS hardware instead of paying monthly. Alternatively, we can build a custom POS system, so you only pay for what you need.
The Best Point of Sale System for Grocery Stores Is Your Choice
Many of the best POS systems for grocery stores share similar features, but as your store is unique, so are point of sale systems. What features stand out to you the most? Which are most helpful?
Your best bet is to choose a POS system based on your needs. POS Nation provides features like coupon acceptance, robust inventory management, mix-and-match pricing, and so much more. We customize your package to meet your needs, and we built our POS system with you in mind.
Schedule a customized demo with our product team. They’ll show you the ins and outs of your POS system and how to set up your grocery store for success.
