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Best Supermarket POS Systems
Not picking the right POS system for a supermarket results in backed up checkout lines, expensive maintenance service calls, incorrect weight scales for produce and overall a much more complicated operation than it should be.
That's why we tested the 31 most commonly used systems within the supermarket industry to narrow it down to just 7 winners.
Read on as we compare these 7 against each other to determine which one will be best for you to streamline and simplify your supermarket.
Comparison Chart
Best For | Price | Support | Top Features | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Shopkeep By LightSpeed | Overall supermarket use | $69 per month (quotes are based on individual stores) | Unlimited 24/7 support | Security deposit capabilities, integrated payment processing |
Powerful inventory control | $99 per month | 24/7 Customer Service | Warehouse management, complex price handling | |
Small supermarket operations | $89 per month + hardware | 24/7 Emergency Support Service | Scanner and scale support, full-store management, Wholesale and SUPERVALU import | |
Speedy transactions | $75 per month per store + hardware | 24/7 Support | Customer management, various device support | |
Grocers with online sales or delivery | $29 per month + hardware | 24/7 Customer Service | Inventory management, sales reporting and analytics, CRM | |
Grocery stores on a budget | $25 per month + hardware | 24/7 Support | Inventory and employee management, multiple types of scale integration, third-party integrations |
ShopKeep POS was designed with a one-size-fits-all mentality, making it the perfect choice for supermarkets of different shapes and sizes. It comes stocked with a powerful suite of features, utilizes both cloud-based capabilities and customizable hardware bundles and is now owned by Lightspeed.
ShopKeep by Lightspeed works to manage inventory, customers, and employees while providing you with analytics and reporting. Register capabilities on the ShopKeep point of sale system are smart and modern.
The register utilizes a wide variety of supermarket-specific features to streamline operations. It includes personalized layouts so that you can increase the speed of your transactions, as well as an offline mode, which allows you to continuously
process card payments, even when the Internet isn’t working. Customers have the ability to make security deposits or down payments with the ShopKeep system. Customers can receive return refunds with ease and get discounts on various items throughout the store depending on how you chose to customize it.
Of course, one of the main aspects to love about ShopKeep POS is the versatile payment processor, which offers negotiable rates based on the volume of your transactions. With an integrated payment processor, your customers will feel safe and secure. Overall, Shopkeep by Lightspeed is one of the best POS systems available, fitting for supermarket owners in search of a versatile and intuitive system.
#2 LS Retail POS
LS Retail has been one of the top POS systems for a few decades now. While they are very popular in the fast food and retail industries, the company offers scalable solutions fit for more complex operations, such as supermarkets. With LS Retail, you’ll be able to improve the speed of your transactions, simplify operations, and enjoy higher profit margins over time.
The LS Retail point of sale system offers powerful inventory control tools that provide detailed information on customer sales so that you can maximize your revenue and meet your goals. You’ll save time and resources using automatic stock replenishment and other advanced inventory features to provide more mobility for your staff. Knowing that your stock is always up to date gives you more confidence as a supermarket owner.
No matter how many LS Retail POS systems you are operating at once, you won’t lose out on speed or accuracy. This type of design is extremely helpful for supermarkets that experience heavy peak hours. Plus, you can give consumers the option of self-checkout to further increase speed.
LS Retail comes complete with a mobile app, which allows customers to create a list of items that they might want to purchase. The app uses customized promotions, offers, customer loyalty services, and coupons to entice customers into the store.
Sales associates will love the fact that they can access information through the POS interface. With the right tools in hand, your employees will be able to provide better customer service thanks to available product information. Overall, LS Retail is one of the most powerful supermarket POS systems out there for supermarkets that can afford to pay a bit more.
#3 IT Retail POS
If you are a small, independent grocer, we highly recommend looking into IT Retail point of sale system.
In fact, it is one of the few POS systems that is specifically designed for small supermarket operations.
It comes with plenty of powerful, supermarket-specific features as well, including bottle deposit, multiple-scale integration, rugged hardware, and robust marketing tools.
The IT Retail point of sale system works in conjunction with WordPay for integrated payment processing.
However, you can use just about any payment processor you want depending on the rates and contract terms that you are looking for.
This POS solution comes with scale and scanner support too, which is often difficult to find in POS solutions for this size.
The included inventory management system is extremely helpful. The majority of POS systems for grocery store operations come with sophisticated inventory management systems with alerts for low stock, though IT Retail takes it a step further. You can create custom product labels, manage bottle returns, and upload inventory in bulk.
The CRM features are perfect for supermarket operations too, as you can track the spending and visiting habits of customers. You can even issue membership cards that can be scanned by your employees. While they don’t have a built-in loyalty program, you can connect with third-party loyalty and rewards integrations.
The employee management features offer built-in time clocking for employees, as well as employee performance tracking. You can easily see the number of transactions and cancellations that one employee is making, as well as many other variables. This makes it incredibly easy to find employees that are performing best, as well as hunker down on security.
Lastly, you get the full back-office reports and analytics from IT Retail, which you can’t beat. The reports include analysis for end-of-day financials, profitability reports, alerts for suspicious transactions, and much more. Overall, if you have a small supermarket operation, the IT Retail point of sale system is one of the best around.
#4 Cashier Live POS
Accuracy and efficiency are two major considerations that you want to make when looking for the right Supermarket POS system.
Fortunately, Cashier Live POS is known for both of those things.
This grocery store POS system was specifically designed to reduce wait times while optimizing sales and inventory tracking.
Of course, we couldn’t talk about the Cashier Live POS system without discussing the reporting and customer management features.
Regardless of where you are, you can get access to all of the various aspects of your business on a single dashboard. These analytics can be used to gauge your business’ performance. The POS software integrates with CRM capabilities to collect relevant data and information. This data can then be used to generate customer reports to attain better information about stock demand or prolific customers.
The Cashier Live POS system works with just about any device, which is a nice change from most supermarket POS systems, which only integrate with iOS devices. You can access these features through the Cashier Live iPad application. If you’re away from the store, you can use the Cashier Live Dashboard online platform to get a look at your system from any Internet-enabled device.
Overall, the Cashier Live POS system is a wonderful choice for supermarkets of all sizes that are looking to truly optimize transaction speed. If you run a consistently busy store or a store with a few checkout lanes, Cashier Live POS can help maximize profits by cutting down on wait times.
Shopify started out as an eCommerce platform, though has slowly blossomed into one of the highest caliber POS companies for brick-and-mortar businesses, such as supermarkets.
This POS system is quite unique, as it offers plenty of in-store and online solutions, as well as social media sales, which allows you to manage all of your inventory from one spot. If your supermarket makes a lot of transactions online, Shopify is one of the best POS system choices around.
It is important to note that Shopify has tiers for their POS system platform, including Shopify Basic, standard Shopify, and Shopify Advanced, each of which includes POS apps, unlimited products, an online store, and Shopify payment processing.
All you need to get it set up is an iPad or Android device.
We love the Shopify POS system because it is incredibly sleek compared to many other bulky POS system solutions on the market. The sophisticated platform syncs online, offline, and social media data, all while keeping track of your inventory and customer interactions. Shopify does not have scale integration, though it does provide a ton of high-end supermarket management features on one, easy-to-use platform that your employees will love.
With the Shopify POS system, you can import and export products in bulk, assign new or existing bar codes, and list product variations, including flavor, size, and more. The customer relationship management features provide an easy way for you to track customer transactions both online and offline. This particular POS software solution even comes with a built-in email marketing feature, which you won’t find on many POS systems in this realm.
With the high-quality Shopify POS system, you get access to high-end employee management features, which provide you with the ability to create multiple staff PIN codes to track register activity. The Timeline feature is there to help your staff communicate with you better by leaving timestamps on transactions or notes to back up any discrepancies.
The Shopify POS system provides an analytics dashboard that provides information of online store traffic, sales, and orders. You can easily see your best and worst-selling products at a glance, as well as view employee sales, sales by time of day, or sales by category. These analytics provide valuable insights into your business so that you can work to optimize your store.
Overall, Shopify is one of the most intuitive POS systems around, perfect for grocers who want to utilize online sales or delivery.
#6 Polar POS
Polar POS is a POS system you don’t hear about often, though they offer all of the top features you would expect from modern supermarket POS software, including customer loyalty programs, scale integration, signage design, and more.
One thing they offer, which is hard to find for small businesses, is compatibility with multiple types of POS scales.
The best part is that it all comes at an insanely affordable price.
The budget-friendly Polar POS system includes plenty of standard grocery POS software features, such as employee management, customer loyalty programs, and much more.
You can easily create product labels, shelf talkers, product tags, shelf tags, and other types of signage, which you’d be hard-pressed to find in other POS solutions. The system integrates with the Amazon seller platform and WooCommerce for online sales as well.
The standard inventory management system provides users with tools for inventory tracking and analytics so that you can keep track of all of your products with ease. The one unique thing about the Polar POS system is that it supports product expiration data as well. You can easily keep track of the shelf life for your various products. The system has a free customer rewards program built into it, which is pretty cool considering the fact that most POS providers make you pay extra for that. The included Promotion Manager feature is robust as well, as you can easily track custom promotions.
The employee management features found on Polar POS are fairly standard. You get a free, built-in payroll management system, as well as software that tracks employee logins, accounts, timestamps, and more. Their standard sales and reporting analytics are also very helpful for optimizing business operations.
Overall, Polar POS is one of the best POS systems on the market for grocers who are looking for the best price.
What to Look For in a Supermarket POS System
Price
Start off by looking at monthly fees for software and then see what hardware options you have available. If you are running a traditional supermarket, hardware fees should include the cost of POS scales. You’ll also want to check out the set up and installation fees, as well as pricing for any additional terminals. Head over to POS System Cost
to learn more.Inventory Management
If you run a regular-sized supermarket, you likely have tens of thousands of products to watch out for. Long gone are the days of trying to manage items manually with clunky software. To competitively manage all of these products, you want a robust inventory system specifically-designed for grocers, as these include adequate management tools for the back office.
You're not going to get these types of tools with a free POS system either. If the management tools for your supermarket inventory account for variables such as expiration, flavor, category, etc., then that is even better. Make sure that these inventory features are at the top of your priority list when searching for the ideal POS system for your business.
Customer Relationship Management
Customer relationship management (CRM) allows you to create customer loyalty services, utilize marketing tools to increase sales, design custom coupons or gift cards, and much more, to create better relationships with the customers that shop at your supermarket.
When you have top-notch customer relationship management tools, you can develop a better rapport with your customers to keep them coming back, which means increasing the reach and scale of your business in the long run.
Reporting and Analytics
Having reporting and analytics tools with your system is incredibly helpful when identifying profitability and losses from your business. These business tools should come with customization capabilities, data export features, integrated or third-party integrated accounting tools, and more.
Employee Management System
To make sure your supermarket employees are working at optimum levels, you want to have an employee management system. A POS solution with employee management features should include shift schedules, various permission levels, productivity reports, and much, much more.
Final Verdict - Which POS System Is Best Supermarket POS System?
Finding the right supermarket POS system means finding a POS system that has unique, supermarket-specific features. To find the best POS for your business needs, you should start by looking for time-sensitive inventory tracking features, scale integrations, rugged hardware, and customer loyalty and promotions tools. Of course, there are plenty of POS solutions available on the market, though not all of them are fit for grocers.
Supermarket operations have notoriously low margins. There is no question about it. This is why you want a POS system that can provide you with all of the best features for a low cost. All of these considerations combined are why we put Shopkeep at the top of our list. This versatile system is one of the best around, even with a mid-range price. There are plenty of features that are helpful for back office business operations, as well as an intuitive interface that employees will love. You can't beat the supreme customer service that Shopkeep supplies either.
Of course, there is no "best POS system for grocery store operations" out there, though finding the right POS system that can enhance the checkout experience, provide you with necessary customer service, and optimize business, is the goal.
Tyler Connaghan
Contributing Author