Grow your business with a POS system built for your needs

A point of sale (POS) system is a suite of software and hardware that gives businesses the ability to sell products and services, manage inventory, track sales performance, build customer relationships and much more. The simplest way to understand a POS system is to think of it as a more modern cash register that can do so much more than just ring up customers.

Let’s break it down into the two main components of a POS system, POS hardware and POS software.

POS hardware is a blanket term for the physical components of your POS system. There will be some differences in the types of hardware your business needs depending on whether you run a retail or a hospitality business. However, there will be some commonalities regardless of your industry.

Selecting the best POS system for your small business can be a difficult choice. There are many POS vendors, with each offering an overlapping feature set. So, how does a business owner go about identifying the best POS system for small business?

The simplest approach is to take stock of the challenges you face and the business needs you’d like your POS system to satisfy. You’ll also want to consider future needs. It’s a savvy move to pick a system that you can grow on for years to come.

Once you understand your current and future needs, it’s a matter of comparison shopping until you find the system that offers the best combination of functionality and price. This ensures you’re getting what you need at a price that will work for you long term. With that in mind, it’s our opinion that Lightspeed Retail and Lightspeed Restaurant offer a powerful combination of functionality and value that will meet the needs of any business, whether established or a new venture.

If you’re a retailer, Lightspeed’s retail POS system offers the following key features that can help you manage and grow your business.

A point of sale system is used to track and manage your inventory and ring up sales. A payment processor handles the actual transaction during sales.

Payment processors transmit payment information between relevant parties to complete transactions—information will be sent between your business' bank account and the paying customer’s bank, for example, or between your acquiring bank and the customer’s credit card issuer.

A point of sale system facilitates the transaction in question—if a payment processor connects to your bank, your POS system powers your till. POS systems like Lightspeed can integrate with payment processors to automatically transit information between your inventory system and card reader. In addition, Lightspeed includes tools for inventory management, CRM and data analysis, and we have even developed our own payment processing system: Lightspeed Payments.

Generally, yes, a cloud-based POS system needs the internet at least some of the time for various functions, such as processing credit card transactions, updating inventory in real time and syncing sales data to other systems for analytics and reporting.

An internet-connected POS system is generally a better choice than a server-based POS, because it offers more reliability in transaction handling, allows for seamless updates and integrations with other cloud-based services and provides access to real-time data from any location without extra costs of hosting your servers yourself.

When you sign up for Lightspeed POS & Payments, your business will receive one free payment terminal to use in your retail store or hospitality venue.

Lightspeed's POS system works with many platforms. While the apps are built exclusively for Apple iPads, the POS system can be run in a web browser on any device, including Mac, PC, Apple or Android. You may be able to use all or most of your existing hardware when you add Lightspeed to your business—speak to your sales rep for more information.

Lightspeed does not lease hardware. However, you can buy hardware directly from Lightspeed.

Lightspeed Restaurant users have access to 24/7 chat, email and phone support. For Lightspeed Retail users, we offer free 1:1 onboarding sessions for new merchants and some merchants will have the option for phone support, depending on their plan.

You can find more information on how to contact Lightspeed support here.

Lightspeed also maintains a database of Help Center articles to aid POS system users. Lightspeed users can also consult the Lightspeed Community to discuss their POS system with other retailers, restaurateurs and Lightspeed experts.

Lightspeed Payments is included in all POS system subscription options for Lightspeed Retail and Restaurant users. By embedding our payment processing, Lightspeed is able to provide highly competitive processing rates. This also allows us to continue developing and innovating payment features that will accelerate your business and delight your customers.

If you choose to use Lightspeed Retail or Lightspeed without Lightspeed Payments, a transaction fee will apply. This is to account for the additional operational demand involved in maintaining third-party payment integrations and, for non-integrated merchants, in providing comprehensive support in areas where our agents have limited visibility.