Should I switch from Lightspeed POS to Square Retail ?

[gotrisports]

Hi Community - I know this is a loaded question - just looking for feedback and insight to your experiences. I am a single retail store selling mainly footwear and I am using Lightspeed POS for in-store purchases. I process credit cards with Square and I have a Square Online e-commerce store for online sales. I would like to bring my Retail POS to Square to have all retail functions in one ecosystem - but I am reading discouraging posts about the experience. Especially with regards to the Square POS -> Square Online integration.

Can y'all provide insights / encouragement to make the switch to Square Retail POS ? Any thoughts are appreciated.

Thank you, Alfred (hiltonheadrunningcompany.com)

[londontea]

Hi @gotrisports! I'm a big fan of Square for Retail. A number of new features have been released over the past year that removed any hesitation I had in recommending it. My favorite recent feature is the ability to do cycle counts in the app, allowing me to walk around the store with my phone and enter the stock count directly. The only big thing I'm still waiting on is a way to bundle inventory (eg, a gift basket that pulls inventory quantities from several other items). 

We also use loyalty and gift cards with Square, and our customers love being able to get rewards and use their gift cards both online and in-store. 

I've found that the integration between Square for Retail and Square Online is excellent. I love that the inventory syncs so that I never have to worry about overselling. We do a lot of in-store pickup orders that would be a nightmare to deal with if our online and POS weren't integrated. 

I haven't delved too deeply into any negative feedback on Square POS and Square Online's integration. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the problems stem from people who use standard Square POS (not Retail POS) with Online and have issues with inventory, as the standard inventory experience is very basic. 

This is all to say that I definitely recommend it. 

[gotrisports]

Hi LONDONTEA - thank you for your thoughts.

[DinaLRosenberg]

For us the benefits greatly outweigh the annoyance...

If you're selling items that are mostly barcoded from manufacturer it will be great for you as for me- one of the greater issues is label making..

there also seems to be glitches with inventory numbers reflecting correctly.. but you'd likely have to be checking your inventory now anyway since you have different in-store and online inventory?

[gotrisports]

Hi DLROSENBERG - thank you for your thoughts.

[ndixon]

Using Square is really great but my main issue is the inventory management. It might be a good fit for your kind of business. It's not great for liquor/wine stores. If you receive things in bigger units and break them down into smaller units at different prices it becomes a huge hassle. I've found work arounds to make it work for our business but it isn't ideal. We didn't know it would be like this until we started using it. I can provide specific examples that we run into if you want.