Articles · Selling in person
What is Shopify Point of Sale?
Published
It is the till side of Shopify: an app that takes payments in person and shares one catalogue, one stock count and one customer list with your online store. This page covers what it does, what it costs to set up, and when it is not worth switching.
The short version
Shopify Point of Sale runs on an iPad or a phone and takes payments on a shop floor, at a market stall or in a pop-up. What makes it different from a standalone till is that it is not a separate system: it reads and writes the same product catalogue, the same inventory and the same customer records as your Shopify store. Sell the last of something in the shop and the website knows immediately.
What one system actually changes
Three things, mostly. Stock stops being two numbers that drift apart, so you are not overselling online what somebody just bought in person. Customers become one record rather than two, which means a shopper who buys in store can be emailed, segmented and served returns the same way an online customer is. And your reporting covers the whole business instead of needing two exports reconciled in a spreadsheet at the end of the month.
It also unlocks the in-between cases that are awkward on separate systems: buying online and collecting in store, returning a website order at the counter, or a staff member selling a size that is out back but showing in the catalogue.
What it costs to get going
Two separate costs, worth pricing separately. The software sits on top of your existing Shopify plan, with a more capable tier available for multi-location retail. The hardware is the part people underestimate: a card reader at minimum, and for a permanent counter usually a stand, a receipt printer and a cash drawer. Shopify publish current pricing for both, and it changes, so check it there rather than trusting a number in an article, including this one.
When it is not worth switching
If you trade from one counter, your current till works, and you have no plans to add a second location or sell online in a serious way, the honest answer is that switching buys you very little. The case gets stronger the more places you sell from and the more your online and offline stock have to agree. It gets much stronger the moment you are reconciling two systems by hand.
Moving from another till system
Migrations from Square, Lightspeed or Vend are routine, and the difficulty is almost never the hardware. It is the data: matching existing products and variants to Shopify’s catalogue structure, bringing customers across without creating duplicates, and making sure stock counts are accurate on the day you cut over. Plan the switch for a quiet trading week, not the run-up to Christmas.
A store doing this now
Cream Cornwall sell online and from three shops, in Falmouth, St Ives and Bath, on one catalogue with Shopify Point of Sale across all of them. We built that alongside their online store, and the case study covers what the rollout involved. If you want the service rather than the explainer, our retail setup service is the page for that.
Common questions
- What is Shopify Point of Sale?
- It is Shopify’s in-person selling system: a till app that runs on an iPad or phone and shares one product catalogue, one stock count and one customer record with your online store. A sale on the shop floor and a sale on the website hit the same inventory.
- Do I need Shopify Point of Sale if I only sell online?
- No. It exists to connect physical selling to an online store, so with no counter, no market stall and no pop-up there is nothing for it to connect. The standard Shopify setup covers you.
- What hardware do I need?
- At minimum an iPad or phone running the app and a card reader. A permanent shop usually adds a stand, a receipt printer and a cash drawer. It is worth pricing the hardware separately from the software when you compare it against your current till, because that is where the real difference in setup cost usually sits.
- Can I move from Square, Lightspeed or Vend?
- Yes, and it is a common reason people call us. The work is mostly in the data rather than the tills: matching your existing products and variants to Shopify’s catalogue, bringing customer records across without creating duplicates, and getting stock counts right on the day you switch.
- How does Shopify POS work in practice, day to day?
- Shopify Point of Sale explained simply: staff ring up sales on the app, and it deducts stock and logs the customer against the same records your website uses. What is Shopify POS beyond that description is really just this same catalogue and customer database, accessed from a till instead of a browser.
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